Feb Review and time for some goal setting

Feb was a break even month for me. Tracking well until a down swing over the past week.  The poker gods seem to have a good way of  bringing you back to earth just when you think you are started to travel well poker wise

Some good things happened during Feb.

• AirBnB. I'm in my fourth AirBnB since landing in Melbourne. If I stay in AirBnBs all year it will be more expensive than if I found a small apartment to rent. However, in the short to medium term it is a great way to check out different parts of the city. And it is definitely cheaper and more cheerful than staying in backpackers or motels. Yet to have a dud experience
• Meditation. I have meditated every day. And over the past week have extended the time for meditation to 45 minutes daily. With the help of the information in the TED talk on Tiny Habits, I have chosen to set my cue for meditation to be that of waking up in the morning. The pattern that seems to be a reasonable one is a) Wake up b) void bladder c) mediate d) stretch hamstrings e) push ups
• Exercise. Each AirBnB, bar the first,  has been a reasonable distance from public transport. Say between 1 to 1.8 km. And depending on where I end my destination in the CBD, the distance from the end point and the Casino is often over 1km. Which has resulted in my walking over 5km every day for one AirBnB and up to 3km at other AirBnBs. In addition to the walking, push ups have been added to my daily ritual. Over the course of my time in Melbourne, the number of push ups performed each day has risen from 30 to 45.  Increasing in small increments of 3 to 4 extra push ups every now and again. A side benefit of adding the push ups to my daily regime seems to be much less tension and discomfort in my neck and shoulders.
• Weight. A goal I have set myself for this year is to have my weight down from 95kg  at the start of the year to 85 kg by October. Up until this AirBnB I have not had access to a set of scales to weigh myself. The walking, in combination with a change in diet, seems to have led to a loss of about 7kg. At least on these scales. 
• Diet. The vast bulk of my diet has consisted of meals from the food hall near the Casino. Mainly Indian curries or Asian dishes, with some sushi thrown in now and again. All are small portions. And I only eat twice a day.  Every now and again I will venture into a supermarket to purchase some fruit and I will admit to buying some licorice or chocolate on some of those visits. Missing from my diet, compared to my New Zealand diet, is breakfast, snacks from the pantry or fridge, and a steep decrease in the amount of bread and cheese consumed.
• Poker study. Another pattern that has emerged is one associated with my ipad. A much under-utilized resource while living in New Zealand. Now the ipad is shining during my commute, with poker (and other) podcasts being consumed. Poker books have been dipped into on the commute, and I've even watched a couple of training videos on my commute. The ipad has become, for me, an essential educational tool 
• Discovering Alex Fitzgerald's (theAssassinato) podcasts at oneouter.com. It took a while, but over time I have grown to love listening to this podcast. Mainly for the enthusiasm in his rants. But also for his repetition of the importance of hard work, persistence, discipline and looking after yourself physically and mentally. Added to that there is some pretty good poker content thrown in there as well

Aims for March

• Coaching. There are some hours left in my coaching package with Andrew Brokos which need to be utulized. to make that happen I need to stick in some time playing cash online.  Both to get a decent volume of hands to be able to give meaningful statistics regarding my play, and to  get a smattering of hands for hand history review for spots which have been difficult for me in the moment.  Aim: to play online and build up 50,000 hands over the month then instigate a session with Andrew.
• Play cash on 888 poker as well as pokerstars
• Play between four to eight hours at the Casino for 5 to 6 days per week
• have one day off live poker per week
• Exercise. Continue with the walking and push ups.
• Diet. Vary the diet a little away from food courts. Time to investigate some more of Melbourne with respect to eateries. Aim to stay away from bread and cheese as much as possible. Continue to stay with eating two meals a day. Allowed to have snacks / treats on two days per week
• Poker study. Read one book per week. Watch two training videos per week. Book currently being consumed is The Math of Hold'em by Colin Moshman and Douglas Zare. Frankly I struggle with the mathematical aspect of poker. But after all the rants by Alex Fitzgerald that I've consumed over the past month I've realized this is an area that requires more work. And regular meaningful work so that I can get the concepts imbedded. This means that when I have a tricky hand which required a decision, I will need to ensure that I look at the maths involved in the hand history. The reason I am reading "The Math of Hold'em" rather than "The Mathematics of Poker" by William Chen is that "The Math of Hold'em" is available on kindle where as the other book is not.  Both Alex Fitzgerald and the hosts of the Thinking Poker podcast speak highly of Chen's book. But as I currently have no fixed address and am living out of a suitcase, any reading material has to be electronic in nature.  And I found Moshman's book to be reasonable the first time I read through. If anyone from Amazon would care to get Chen's book into electronic format I would be a willing buyer.
• Meditation. Continue with the 45 minutes per day. Feb to be a consolidation month with respect to meditating for 45 minutes per day.