Poker Goals
1) Begin the transition to Pot Limit Omaha [Pass]
I feel like I'm beginning to understand the game of PLO now. I finished reading PLO Poker by Jeff Hwang and also finished most of the Donkr strategy guide. I also watched a ton of videos on RIO including everything by Phil Galfond and touching on some theory/math by Tom Coldwell.
Early on I had a tough time adjusting to what a good hand in PLO was. And I was constantly getting my money in WAY behind in big pots. For example, having the 2nd nut straight with a weak flush re-draw vs. the nut straight with a higher flush re-draw (dominated). Or overplaying AAxx and being crushed by a two pair combo draw. I've learned that it's really important to have all 4 cards working together, rather than having 2 separately good looking Holdem hands. Big hands for a big pot!
I paid a "learners fee" of around 14 buy-ins this month but this is totally expected when trying to learn a new game. Most of my losses occurred at the beginning of the month and I'm running below EV so I'm not overly concerned (yet). PLO variance can be high, so I need to focus my efforts on improving my game and making quality decisions rather than direct results.
April Goal: Learn how to use Odds Oracle
The next steps for me are to learn Odds Oracle syntax so I can begin doing my own equity calculations, and to start reading Jeff Hwang's other books if I have time.
2) Earn 5,000 VPP's on PokerStars [Pass]
I exceeded this goal quite easily, earning 7,700+ VPP's. I'm definitely on pace to hit Supernova status this year so I just need to keep up the pace.
April Goal: Earn 3,500 VPP's on PokerStars
April will be a busy month as my wedding is May 10th. I don't want to spend this month stressing about poker much, so I'll set an easy target of 3,500 VPP's to make it a clean 10k VPP's over March-April.
Badminton Goals
1) Continue to fix/strengthen my wrist [Conditional Pass]
I didn't do a lot of wrist strengthening but I did do a lot of stretching and self-adjustments each day. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.
2) Badminton or Insanity workout 5 days/week [Fail]
Ok I totally failed this one. 5 days a week was pretty hard last month for me because I felt really burnt out from work, and badminton was starting to feel like a bit of a chore. Also, Titanfall came out, which is now my new favourite game. I splurged a bit on a PC upgrade so that I could enjoy the game to its fullest...
March was an interesting month. Third month of 2014, and already starting to feel the effects of burn out. Winter season is the busiest and most stressful season for me at work. So having a lot of additional goals outside of work can make life downright miserable. I ended up "dropping the ball" on my badminton related goals. But I used video games and building a new PC to stay de-stressed instead. Having goals that are set in stone can lead to a guilty feeling of failure when they aren't met. So in the future I'm going to try using a system of "staying fit" rather than setting hard goals and beating myself up when I don't meet them.
April Goal: Stay fit
