The Ramen Challenge

[Thundercat32]

Tues night I went to play a cardroom. It easily was the worst session I've ever had. I bought in for $150 and left with $144, but the players were terrible and I easily left $500-$800 on the table. Right now I need that $500 so bad it drove me crazy not to get it because of my poor play. Against a table of donkeys I got on tilt so bad I had to stand up and leave.

I thought about it the whole way home and was not able to get any sleep, one thought kept haunting me. I've made poker not just my hobby my life, yet I haven't put in the work required for me to be where I should be after 1 1/2 years. I mean the whole reason I've put so much time into poker is so I can beat these guys and start building a bankroll to move up, but I haven't done the work to make it happen. I felt like the guy who drives to the grocery store fills up a basket full of groceries reaches into his pocket for his wallet and realizes it's at home on the dresser.

I like to come on 2+2 and to be frank try and sound better than I am. Often I'll make posts with merit, but too often I'll make posts where I'm guessing or I honestly think it's the right advice but if I'd done more studying I'd know better. It's a kin to spewing chips, only I'm spewing posts, you start typing it out and than in the middle you realize that your advice is sketchy at best and really you don't know enough to make a suggestion one way or another. Hell I haven't even read the anthology of wisdom stuck at the very top of this forum.

We'll I'm sick of all of that. It stops today. I just went to the store last night and I have 23 ramen noodles, all the classics Chicken, Beef, Pork, Shrimp, Oriental. I'm putting myself to the test for the next month I will eat Ramen noodles for all meals. Note: this cannot be healthy so I'm going to take a multi vitamin in the morning, also I'm in the midst of weight training so I will allow myself 8oz of chicken breast a day, other than that it's all ramen all the time. Up until 2 months ago I was a losing player, I casually lost close to $5k. Now it's not the money I lose it's the money I don't win that's pissing me off. All the while I've conned myself into thinking I was doing enough telling myself I've read 5 or 6 poker books when the truth is I've read about 1/2 of HOH1, 1/3 of TPFAP, half the chapter on NL Hold'em in Super System, and about 2/3 of Little Green book somehow my inflated ego added that up to 5 or 6 books.

The part that really made me mad, I came home and started to post my hands in the B&M forum, than I realized if I had bothered to do any "work" in the last year and a half to make myself a better player I wouldn't have to ask anyone on here what I did wrong I'd already know. Plus many of the mistakes I make I knew I was making them at the time, yet because I haven't reinforced my thinking with poker wisdom I often question my instincts in key pots and situations. Tues night just highlighted for the first time to me how COSTLY this is.

I can't be the only player with these poor study habits. That's why I wanted to come on here and throw out a challenge to anyone else who hears themselves listening to what I've described. For the next month it's ramen noodles all the time. Ok so here is the deal, for breakfast you can have milk and cereal and a multi-vitamin (you have to take one of these daily to do this) Lunch is ramen noodles and so is dinner (for dinner you can add a 3oz portion of chicken, salmon, or any other kind of meat). During the day you can have one healthy snack item, for instance a small ziplock bag of carrot sticks, a bag of cranraisans, or a portion of steamed vegetables. You can only have 1 snack item during the day (you can't have carrot sticks and peanuts it's one or the other) and it can be no bigger than a single size portion. If you're still hungry during the day, fire up another ramen noodle.

The only way out of this is reading (until you understand) 5 poker books of your choosing during the next month. Or if you cash in a tournament for over $5k you can go back to eating what you want the same day.

This is what I'll be doing for the entire month of October. I love to eat so taking away food is a major punishment for me, but somehow I just don't think I understand how much work is involved to really be good at this game, going without food I want and eating ramen noodles all the time will undoubtedly drive me to become better. If at the end of the month I've read all 5 books on my list (TPFAP, HOH1&2, Theory of Poker, Mike Caro's book of poker tells) I'll allow myself a few concessions. If I still haven't cashed in a tournament for over $5k, I'll still be eating ramen twice a day in November until I do. I expect to be kicking @ss by the end of the year with this approach, but I welcome any challengers to try and win the $5k or more before I do.

[Pat Southern]

This is a really bad idea on multiple levels.

1. It is going to be hard to digest the information in these books if you're filling your body with [censored]. Many players, myself included, find that their diet effects their play.
2. You are letting a hobby completely take over aspects of your daily life.
3. Setting a monetary goal in poker, and especially MTTs, is stupid considering how much variance there is. A good player can go months without a good score and a terrible player can easily win a tournament.
4. You wont truly understand the material in 5 books in a month, it takes time reading the concepts, digesting them, (mis)applying them and seeing if/how they work.

[Bakes]

*

[0evg0]

not sure which reply I should qft

[Thundercat32]

Pat,

Everything you say is true, but trying is better than being lazy. I'm not giving up that much in my daily life, I'd rather be playing poker and if I'm going to be doing that I want to be doing it to the best of my ability. I've always been a procrasinator, but it's killing my game I gotta do something about it. I've been in at least 3 tournaments I can think of recently that I should of won $5k or more in but I failed because of my lack of preparation. I know that if I add to my game and buckledown the $5k will take care of itself.

Baking Ace and others,

I'm sorry if my post bores you or bothers you in some way. It's deeply personal to me. I wanted to have something in writing preferably on here to hold myself accountable, and I'd like to have something to look back at the end of the year and remember what got me going

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
This is a really bad idea on multiple levels.

1. It is going to be hard to digest the information in these books if you're filling your body with [censored]. Many players, myself included, find that their diet effects their play.
2. You are letting a hobby completely take over aspects of your daily life.
3. Setting a monetary goal in poker, and especially MTTs, is stupid considering how much variance there is. A good player can go months without a good score and a terrible player can easily win a tournament.
4. You wont truly understand the material in 5 books in a month, it takes time reading the concepts, digesting them, (mis)applying them and seeing if/how they work.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just figured out what your avatar is. Nice.

[footnbaseball]

I like where your heads at, but I'm not sure I like what you're doing about it. Like Pat said, this may take quite a toll on you, which may effect the way you think. Ramen really isn't very good for you, its pretty high in calories and carbs. And, completely aside from poker, you say you're lifting, but you're going to have a hard time building a good body when thats all you're going to eat. You will probably gain a fair amount of weight.

Wanting to improve your game is certainly an admirable goal however. I can say I'm right there with you, I've certainly been pretty lax about it lately, but I find myself looking at posts quite a bit and just saying to myself "I have no clue what move is best here." But I would like to buckle down and really be able to figure out these tough spots.

If you ever want someone to look at a hand history of yours while you're trying to improve, or talk to about a hand, I'm certainly willing and can be reached over AIM at footnbaseball, or by PM here. Actually, that goes for anybody who is trying to improve and would like some feedback on their play. Im by no means a top level player, but it never hurts to have someone look over your play.

[FortunaMaximus]

Make TOP your Bible. HOH series. Couple other 2p2 titles too.

Eat properly, sleep when tired. Exercise.

Been there, am doing that, have learned a lot along the way. No art is painless, and on some levels, poker does become an art. But there's so much that is fundamental that you need behind the art that you simply have to let it catch up.

Variance is a bitch. But it ain't your bitch to handle. Learn to surf it, in life and in poker. Just prepare for it and acknowledge it.

FWIW, I run into you on a frequent basis 'round these forums. You do have what it takes. But to get there, you have to do the right things in your life first.

Make long-term goals. Look at one of 2p2's '06 golden boys, namely Rizen. I've learnt a lot from him, but that has little to do with poker as a game. It has more to do about why he committed himself to becoming a world-class player. Ditto many I've watched over '06. Yes, even Nath.

These forums produce some of the best poker players on the planet, and for damn good reason. It's as close to an optimal poker school as you can get, and I'm not talking about just the poker-related forums.

I've gotten there, at least to the point where I now know with a certainity all I'll ever need for the rest of my life is a few bills, 8 other fish who like to play cards, and I'll never go hungry.

The rest's just a gravy train. Ditto what some have echoed on here, if you want critical analysis of your own play, I'll be around. Even if I do play the contrarian LAGtard these days, that's for a reason. I'm incorporating a wider strategy and investing very little money to learn it.

GL. You'll need your share of it. All of us do.

[0evg0]

I've read half of TPFAP and most of ToP. Oh, and I read Hellmuth's book when I was 16.

That's the extent of my reading. Just read this forum and play dude.

[madbeetz]

[ QUOTE ]
Make TOP your Bible. HOH series. Couple other 2p2 titles too.

Eat properly, sleep when tired. Exercise.

Been there, am doing that, have learned a lot along the way. No art is painless, and on some levels, poker does become an art. But there's so much that is fundamental that you need behind the art that you simply have to let it catch up.

Variance is a bitch. But it ain't your bitch to handle. Learn to surf it, in life and in poker. Just prepare for it and acknowledge it.

FWIW, I run into you on a frequent basis 'round these forums. You do have what it takes. But to get there, you have to do the right things in your life first.

Make long-term goals. Look at one of 2p2's '06 golden boys, namely Rizen. I've learnt a lot from him, but that has little to do with poker as a game. It has more to do about why he committed himself to becoming a world-class player. Ditto many I've watched over '06. Yes, even Nath.

These forums produce some of the best poker players on the planet, and for damn good reason. It's as close to an optimal poker school as you can get, and I'm not talking about just the poker-related forums.

I've gotten there, at least to the point where I now know with a certainity all I'll ever need for the rest of my life is a few bills, 8 other fish who like to play cards, and I'll never go hungry.

The rest's just a gravy train. Ditto what some have echoed on here, if you want critical analysis of your own play, I'll be around. Even if I do play the contrarian LAGtard these days, that's for a reason. I'm incorporating a wider strategy and investing very little money to learn it.

GL. You'll need your share of it. All of us do.

[/ QUOTE ]

great post. I am sort of in the same boat as OP. Although I do play 2/4-3/6 and am fairly well bankrolled, I do not feel I am at the level I should be at. I own just about every poker book imaginable. Havnt read a damn one yet. I have only been playing since january of this year, but I really dont think I have put in "enough". Over the next month, I set some goals for myself, but this post inspired me to do a little more. I.E eat healthier, exercise more, read the books I havnt touched, etc. thanks, this is why 2p2 rocks, holla.

goodluck op.