Poker - Prioritize your Health

Poker and the importance of being healthy,

Something that I have not practiced until recently and it shows in your results.  Ive seen it from both ends, the mindless unhealthy grind, party lifestyle to my present day poker, diet and working out.  One graph goes up and the other looks like you threw a rock down a cliff.  You should never sacrifice your health for anything.  Im not trying to preach this, but its something that everyone should be doing.  Taking care of your body will help you grind better, be more alert and just overall feel much better.   As opposed to having redbulls, pizza, and sitting on your chair grinding for 16 hrs a day.  That shit will put you to your grave early.  My schedule is getting 8 hours of sleep.  Before I would get between 0-4 hrs a day for my 3 year elite run.  I also cook most of my meals and if I do go out i try to stay healthy as well.  I do crossfit and have always tried to work out but right now I have to say im in the best shape of my life.  When I was working out when I was mass grinding it would not be as effective in that I didnt get enough sleep or didnt eat right.  I mean dont get me wrong an occasional splurge of some burgers and fries with some beer can be a reward for a good week.  No need to go crazy on this but just have a good balance and incorporate a good diet and exercise.  And everyone pleeeeeeeease drop the soda and substitute it with something else. In my posts ill try to give out health tips to help you guys grind. 

Health tip of the week-

On my desk I have a hand gripper machine.  I wish I practiced this earlier but it helps.  I mean who wants carpal tunnel?

Introduction

INTRODUCTION, reflecting on the life grind

Here is the link to my other blog that I haven't really updated.  But now I kind of regret not doing it because I wish I could go back and figure out, what the hell was i thinking????

Anyways an introduction to myself and what im doing in the present day.  For those that remember who I was before Black Friday.  I was a mindless "supernova elite" grinder.  I played over 5 million hands in one year and looking back on it now I wonder how the heck did I do it.  I still play a lot as of today on pretty much 80% of the sites spreading out my action.  I dont play 15-20k hands a day anymore but definitely more then the average joe.  I just apply my obsession to other parts of life so I do not go completely insane. 

Pokerstars - ariolis30

Fulltilt Poker - senditariolis30

present day:

BlackChip Poker - HolaAriolis

Intertops - DJAis30

Back in the day you can just grind, collect rakeback, break even and pull in 10-12k a month just off sheer volume.  With all the coaching out there, the tools, the knowledge you cant really do that anymore because the game has evolved. For those that have played thousands and thousands of hands with me trust me when i tell you my game has evolved as well not just in poker but in life.  I will split this post into 3 sections, one being Pre black friday, the second being after black friday and present day. 

Pre Black Friday-

As mentioned before I was a mindless grinder and its hard to believe that I had any kind of life but I did.  I would take random trips to Vegas (with my laptop of course because to maintain elite you had to grind tons of hands) play live but also got caught up with the other vices and Vegas brought that out of me.  Even if at times I would put in 16 hrs-24+hr sets.  I somehow had time to party with everyone.  Bottle service everywhere, fine-dining and basically just throwing my hard work away everywhere I went which was totally unnecessary.  I would stay awake doing things that I probably shouldn't of been doing but hey it was only a phase... right?? I attribute it to being young and before poker was mortgages and real estate so I just took that and grinded with it.  Never really knew the value of a dollar nor did I really give a shit.   Im not regretful of those days because without them I wouldn't have anything to compare these days to.

I think this was from the second year i hit elite.

Post-black Friday

Then you just take it allllllllllllllll away without warning.  I didnt realize how bad it was until I was hitting the red every month and living the same lifestyle.  I still didn't really care about anything, still had money but when your negative every month and that pre black friday 80k downswing didnt help either makes you think.  I was grinding on US sites like merge and just playing more live.  I didnt have the pleasures of waking up in my underwear and just grind my black stars anymore.  Other poker players that I knew were struggling quite badly.  They were stuck here and werent making the same amount of money anymore.  They had to go out and get jobs and just flipping the switch and doing that is difficult.  I keep in touch with a lot of them and to this day they are still feeling the effects of that dreadful day.  For me I needed to make a move,after awhile when I didnt see much profit I decided to move to Rosarito Mexico.  I pretty much got up and just left to go play on stars.  I left with another grinder "tulegit21" on fulltilt poker and were one of the originals to make it out there.  It was fun, got to do different things and ate the best mexican food of my life.  I mean people told me it wasnt very safe but tbh it wasnt too bad at all.  Cops pulled us over 2 times in one day (my neighbor adam) one time but that was pretty much our fault.  Drinking and driving, going the wrong way on a street will get you pulled over in any country haha.  After living on the beach (always wanted to do that) and living like a king in Mexico me and my roommate decided to just bounce and come back to america and continue with our lives.  We just got up and left a lot behind... family, friends, girlfriends.  Gave it a shot but it was time to go home.

Present Day

This whole story im telling you was done with a girlfriend.  Granted it has been rocky probably because of all this but she stuck through it and for someone to stick through what I was doing was impressive.  I realize that and have doing things in my life accordingly.  Im sitting here blogging and looking at her and thinking she deserves more hahaha.  With that being said I still grind but not as insane as how I used to.  I use my time now trying to help other people get what they need.  Me and another grinder partnered up and started www.digitalmerchantsolutions.com and we provide the best deals with skrill/neteller.  We also do rakeback deals for pretty much every site.  So we offer customer support ON TOP of the customer support thats already out there.  Ive been ripped off, gotten the shittiest deals at times in the poker game because a lot of the people trying to help you are just trying to make max value off of you.  It fcking sux but what ive learned the more you help the customer the more business youll get.  Theres a few good ones out there but not all of them are great.  We model our service to being one of the good guys.  I would have to say the majority are completely fckin terrible POS's.  Its good karma anyways to treat people how you want to be treated.  Its like wtf just ship over the best deal possible and everyone wins.  Anyways being honest to others has translated to treating myself better irl.  I work out again (crossfit, gym, p90) and finally in the best shape of my life.  I eat right now, went paleo, shed weight and feel much better.  I got a few other gigs that im working on as well but will save some content for future posts for those who care.  

Conclusion:

me and the gf

Ive met some great people and have gained a lot of knowledge along the way.  You meet people from everywhere.  My roommates in Vegas when we would get a house for the WSOP were Canadians.  Good people, good times.  The people I met in Mexico were from all different background and locations.  The people ive met up online through poker has great as well.  Ive built good relationships, its always good to know people from everywhere brings on new experiences, new ideas.  Anyways I can probably write a book on this but that is the last 8-10 years of my life in a nutshell.  Thanks to all my friends and family that supported me.