Road Bump

So I started off the new year w/ a major goal in mind...achieving sne. Well that didn't last long. After 2 weeks and being ahead of pace I decided to give up that goal for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that I didn't think being tied to one poker site for the entire year is beneficial for my long term earnings. I enjoy playing different games and stakes across Stars and FTP. Also I keep hearing about how soft the games are on different sites so I want to check those sites out. Also living in Vegas, I have been playing more live and have really been enjoying it (not to mention the games are softer). Another reason I gave up sne is that I can't stand Stars software!! It really started bothering me multitabling 15-18 tables after a couple of weeks. I know everybody has a preference and I prefer FTP software...it is what it is I guess.

I started the year grinding $2/$4 nl on stars w/ the intent of building my roll on there and moving up stakes. I started adding in some plo along the way w/ a little bit of success. Everything was going ok until I had a nightmare session. Well here is a snapshot of my HEM for the past 3 weeks...I'll let you figure out where that nightmarish session is...












I seem to have 2-3 of these sessions annually and hopefully this will be my lone one this year. I know I ran incredibly bad during this session but I contributed to the destruction by playing past my bedtime and playing while my focus was wavering. I've talked to a couple of guys and have mentioned my results suck when I play past 2am. This isn't because the games are tougher after that time, but because I'm usually tired and not in a 100% state of mind to play my A game. I preach playing one's A game all the time and I'm susceptible to falling off that path because I'm human like everybody else but damn it I should know better!! I do a better job than most when it comes to consistency but I still need to work on some things, notably quitting at 2am or quitting when tired (this should apply to just about everybody, except for maybe the times a game is so good that even playing tired is +ev).

Here is the graph of my night...Doh!!























Even w/ that bad session the month wasn't all that bad and I'll be doing a January wrap up next time (thanks live poker, rakeback, and staking!).

2010 Recap

Before I get to my 2010 recap let me do a quick recap of December. I started the month off playing a $10k WPT event and cashing in it for $13,725. Unfortunately that capped off a weak month in mtts where I played a bunch of online mtts for once and only cash a couple of times. In cash games it was just as bad, if not worse...























I played 41hrs and ran pretty bad as evidenced by the graph. My all in ev lies at $6141 while my actual $ won was -$314. Overall after rakeback I made $1905...not exactly the way I wanted to finish 2010.

Now on to recap my 2010. I guess the best way to describe my year is underwhelming. It wasn't a disappointment because I did set a lofty monetary goal of $1million and got about 1/4th the way there. I thought I made more and recently said I made 1/3rd of my goal on my recent CashPlays podcast but I was estimating and I was off . For the year I made $264,500 in poker. The breakdown is on the right of the blog. Sure it wasn't close but hey let's not kid ourselves, that's a lot of money.

2010 Graph 1st...



2010 snapshot of my online NL cash game results for 2010...

A detailed breakdown on # of players...


I am ok w/ my overall winrate (in PTBB) at around 2.65 BB/100 for a few reasons. One being that the games are supposedly the toughest they've ever been. Also the fact that I play 15-16 tables at once and can maintain a 2.65BB/100 doing so is pretty good. Finally I was not very selective when it came to game selection and pretty much played on whatever tables were going. Sure I might have chosen a softer table when I had 2 options but for the most part really didn't seek out softer games. Also I played everybody when it came to hu and am proud of holding my own considering this was the 1st year I really started playing hu.

A couple of observations regarding my HEM...I went through all my hands at $5/$10 and felt like I ran bad and actually had my worst run of the year (in April) while playing $5/$10 only. Yes the games are tougher but I feel like I can win at 2+ BB/100 at $5/$10 w/ normal variance. I do think I will need to cut down on tables if I want to maximize my earning power at $5/$10+ since the games are tougher. I did not show my PLO HEM because I had minimal hands at the game. I played 2772 hands at PLO stakes ranging from $1/$2 to $3/$6 and won $2204 for a winrate of 24.5BB/100 which is obviously unsustainable. I will be looking forward to studying the game and getting better at it in 2011. I will talk about my 2011 goals and outlook next time.

Also I played 760 hrs and won at a rate of $253/hr, or $295/hr if I include rakeback. For sake of simplicity I will say my hrly for 2010 was $300 which I'm happy w/. Now let's talk about what I am disappointed w/ and most of that is the volume I put in. Sure I played 720k hands online and that is a lot but I really can and should be playing more than 15hrs/wk in cash games. Now I did play a bunch of tournaments and I'm not exactly sure how much time I invested in them but I really should be able to double my hrs/wk in cash games (maybe even triple them if I scale down on mtts and push myself). Again next time I'll go into how I'm going to approach 2011 and find a way to at least double my volume from last year.

W/ my results out of the way, I'm gonna mention some things that happened to me in 2010, mostly all positive. I did start my own blog and thank everybody that spent time reading it and followed my life/career in 2010. I also expanded my network in poker after having spent most of the past few years sitting behind my monitor grinding away w/o really trying to get to know others. I never felt alone though because I did have friends outside of online poker and I have my family that is always here w/ me. I do think it's important to have a good network of friends that understand poker and play it to the degree you play it.

I met a few guys over the summer that I play vs. online and it was cool to put faces on players I play vs. on a daily basis. Granted almost all of them were 10-15 years younger than me but that is the sign of the times I guess. Also I met Jeremiah Smith during the summer, at church of all places, and I duped him into thinking I can make a good cohost on his CashPlays podcast...actually he asked me but still a great dupe job on my part (probably had a lot to do w/ the extravagant lobster/crab/steak dinner we hosted for him, his wife, and a few of his friends).

A little bit later I pulled an even bigger dupe job by convincing Cardrunners management I knew how to teach poker and make nl videos. Seriously it was a big decision I made and I feel good about it. I had been holding back on joining an instructional site for a couple of years and finally decided to take the plunge. Why not w/ the biggest site and w/ guys that know what they're doing and do a great job putting out a great product (man I hope they're read this and I get brownie points for all the kiss ass here).

As a professional poker player I'm going to experience the ups and downs that come w/ this job and there are a lot more ups and downs in poker than in just about any other job. One of the early high points was being the biggest winner at $2/$4nl across all sites in January. I made about 100 buyins in January and PTR had an article of who the biggest winners were across all sites and they had me topping the $2/$4 games. Next I started grinding $3/$6 and $5/$10 and continued to do well, capped by a +$17k day (more like a sick 3 hour session) in March. Sidenote (and brag) I won $100k at $5/$10 back in March 2008 so that was another month I won 100 buyins in a month, but the games were a little softer back then. I guess March is annually a good month for me!

Well along w/ good runs comes bad runs and boy did I run bad in April. I went from $12k winner to $27k loser in 2 weeks but managed to lose only $12k for the month, which turned out to be my worst month of the year. I had a decent May and was ready for the WSOP.

I ended up going in w/ high aspirations, mostly because I felt like I was one of the favorites in every event I entered. Like every poker player I dreamed of winning a bracelet. Well I played 17 events and cashed in 5 including the main event, which isn't shabby but none of my cashes were very significant. My largest cash was in the main event for about $24k. I did show a profit at the WSOP which most poker players won't do. Actually this was the 4th of the past 6 years that I showed a profit just off WSOP events so I have a fairly good track record in the WSOP although the bracelet still eludes.

During this time I didn't play much online, but played some live, which is a great time for it. Anyway I resumed online poker in August and had a good month clearing $62k, helped by my best mtt score of the year when I won $25k (3rd place finish) in a $540 tournament at the Hard Rock of all places.

Well, as it happened the last 2 to 3 years, complacency took over the final 4 months of the year and I jogged, well more like walked, to the finish line. Part of that had to due w/ football season and the holidays but mostly it was my fault. I'm hoping to not get into that state of mind again...the scientific term for this condition is laziness. I did win about $25k the final 4 months but the volume was just not there.

In terms of life outside of poker it was mixed. The family was great and I really do have a great wife and kid and love the fact that they support me to the fullest (I guess it helps that I do well at poker so they can spend the money). I have a great core of friends that I hang out w/ and some of them did well in poker. For somebody that lives in Vegas, and "gambles" for a living, I'm blessed to have a good group of friends that are genuine.

The downer part outside of poker is that I was pretty bad when it came to my health, notably improving it. I started off the year w/ a bang, going to the gym 2-3x/week for 3-4 months then the WSOP came around and I fell off the wagon. I'm sure lots of you guys can relate w/ me, but it's hard keeping a routine every week when it comes to exercising. I'm hoping to get back into a regular exercise routine and also looking to eat healthier (more organic, drink lots of water, no sodas..well maybe diet only, more fish, vegetables, less shellfish...damn the Vegas buffets!).

Also I had a profitable year when it came to ventures outside of poker. I won in sportsbetting overall and did well in fantasy football. I lost in pit games, mostly craps, but it was minimal compared to what I made overall. I think I lost a little bit backing people in tournaments though, which is unusual because I tend to run really good when I buy pieces of people (I've won $50k, $25k, and $20k in the past taking pieces of people in single tournaments so all my poker playing friends think I'm good luck and ask me to buy pieces).

Finally I just want to say I write about poker in general and offer some advice from time to time, just so people know it's not all about how I am doing in poker. However poker does not encompass my entire life and it probably shouldn't encompass anybody's entire life. Also I like to think I lead a well balanced life where poker is a means of providing for my family and living a comfortable life and I really do believe that's the best way. Anyway I thank everybody that reads my blog and continue to do so and hope you guys learn from my mistakes, conquests, and experiences to possibly enhance your poker ventures or even your lives.

Nov Results, Dec Start

November was a whatever month in poker. I really never got anything going meaning I never got in a flow of playing daily because so many things kept me busy. I had family spending days at our house at various points of the month, especially during the Thanksgiving week, and when you live in Vegas it's almost obligatory to show them around Las Vegas. Anyway here is my HEM and graph...




































Yeah I ran a little bad but I'm not going to complain because everything evens out in the long run and that's what it's all about. I avg'ed a nice $500/hr in online cash games though so I'll definitely take that (20hrs total). Also I lost $2k in live games, chronicled in earlier posts in the month and another $3250 in tournaments (live and online). Overall after rakeback I made $7760.

Now w/ 1 month to go I'm planning on trying to get in 100 hrs of cash game play, just to try to make up for the last couple of months. I am in the midst of the WPT $10k main event at the Bellagio right now though. I finished day 1 today w/ 41k after starting w/ 40k. I had a really tough table w/ Randallin (kid won Festa al Lago few months ago for $1mil+), ADZ124 (high stakes cash game player and well known online kid...who surprisingly wasn't too active...maybe he was card dead, idk), some online kid named Chances Cards, Eric "BaseBaldy" Baldwin, Freddie Deeb and a couple of other competent guys.

I had a few good starting hands but never got any action on them. Also the players on my table were not giving it away so there were very few big pots. I guess I was the only one w/ a 3bet light mentality because I probably 3bet 3-4x more than the next guy all day and I didn't have a hand all the time. This probably kept me afloat above starting chips as I never won a medium+ pot. Even ADZ asked me late in the day if any of my 3bets were light because I was 3betting so much (esp. vs rest of table) and I asked him what constituted a light 3bet, and he said AQ or worse. I gave him the usual answer of I don't remember but I'm sure I could've thought of a more clever answer like I'm asian and I love to gamble, or aces and fours look the same to me so I get more aces than anybody else.

Anyway I'm gonna keep this short because it's midnight and I'm resuming day 2 at noon tomorrow. Hopefully I get a better table draw (because that really does matter in tournaments). The tournament has over 400 entrants and the neat thing about it is that registration is open til 5pm tomorrow, which is around level 8 of the tournament. You get starting chips of 40k and blinds are probably 500-1k by then. I know of guys that have registered on day 2 of a major event, and most do not end up doing well for obvious reasons.

Finally another video comes out on Cardrunners on Friday where I play 5/10 6max and hu. I end up getting pwned in hu...lol...but not because I was outmatched. You'll have to watch to see.

Hopefully my next blog post will be about me winning $1mil+ and this WPT main event!

**For those of you that want a good sweat of me winning this thing, you can follow me on twitter at

https://twitter.com/#!/NicolakPoker

or id NicolakPoker if you already have a twitter account***

October Results

I'm not sure what to think about last month's results. On one hand I ran above ev, but I won at a lower rate than I am accustomed to. On the other hand I'm finding less and less time to grind as the year wraps up. I played 39hrs online and another 10 hrs live. 1st my online results...


































Even though I only got in about 40k hands online, I experienced the swings of playing poker. I started the month off hot winning about $9k right off the bat, but right when I started thinking poker was easy it decided to teach me that it really isn't.

I made another $1680 in rakeback but lost $215 in mtts. I've been playing very few online mtts because of the NFL. I won another $3k playing live. I broke about even over 2 sessions in mix games at the Bellagio but won $500 playing $1-$2nl on my Arkansas trip (will post about my trip next time) and another $2500 playing $10-$20nl at the Bellagio. For the month I came out ahead $8,420.

W/ 2 months left I'm reflecting back on the year. I'm kind of in the middle on how I feel about my poker results. I'm way behind my pace of 7 figures but I've been saying I'm using that as more of a motivator to get me to play more (while working on my game) than anything else. I'm content w/ my hrly which stands around $300/hr. I'm disappointed in the hrs I put in though. I may need to get some coaching w/ Doublefly (who's excellent blog can be found on my blog roll) who excels at playing a good amount while balancing family life (heck I can't figure out where he finds the time to update his blog on a daily basis as well!!). I'm going to leave my $1mil goal as is because I'm planning on playing a couple of big live tournaments in the next 2 months that may get me over (obviously will need to run good but who knows).

I'm not complaining about what I've made though. Even though some make more than me (most by luckboxing a tournament and a few at cash games) I know that I'm fortunate to make as much as I do playing a simple game of cards. I'm not comparing poker to major sports but you see top notch athletes excelling and making lots of money but also knowing they're lucky to be in the position they're in. I feel the same way, even though I'm not implying I'm the best or anything (just good at what I do)...more about feeling lucky to be able to make the money I make doing what I enjoy doing, even if it feels tedious at times. I'm sure a lot of people would love to be in the position I am and I'm not taking that for granted. I hope some of the young guys that excel in poker feel the same way. It would definitely help prolong their careers if they thought the same way.

In other news I've been away for a couple of weeks visiting a friend in Arkansas but am now getting back into the grind of things. I've been playing a little more live which is kind of refreshing since I play mostly online. That's probably something I'll write about in the future, live vs online since I have plenty of hours in both. I live in Las Vegas so it's very convenient to go play live whenever I choose. Besides Los Angeles, Vegas is probably the best place to live for live poker.

I'm also fortunate in that my wife and kid love living in Vegas. Most don't realize that it's one of the fastest growing cities in America, and once you're away from the strip, it really is a normal city. As a poker player w/ a family I have the best of both worlds... a nice family oriented community where we live, and a quick 15 minute drive to the Vegas strip if I want to play some poker.

Yesterday probably exemplifies what I'm saying. My kid had the day off from school so she spent the day and night at a family friends' house. My wife and I decided to head to the Venetian to play some poker. I entered the $350 deepstack tournament (and promptly busted out in an hr) and my wife played some $2-$5 nl. I jumped into a $5-$10 nl game (and won $2600...live poker, gotta love it). I get a $10 food voucher for the tournament I played in and we eat at a nice chinese restaurant in the Venetian then decide to watch a late showing of "Jersey Boys" at the Palazzo which is right next door to the Venetian. "Jersey Boys" is a critically acclaimed Broadway like musical that centers around Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons of "Sherry" and "Walk like a Man" fame. Anyway the show was good even though the demographic of the crowd were people in their 50s and 60s which is understandable. So for the day I ended up winning $2250 in poker and got in a nice dinner and show w/ my wife at the end of it. Yeah, Vegas is cool.

Sept. Results

Last month can be described as a month off than anything else. Some of that had to due w/ the start of football season but mostly it was due to sheer laziness. I'm always fighting my bouts of laziness and sometimes I lose those fights. As a poker player, this is probably my biggest leak (and only flaw?). One of the reasons I put off playing poker is because I feel like I can just play it anytime and win money anytime...maybe it's kind of arrogant but that's the mentality I have, and tbh is not a really good mentality. It might've developed over the years grinding millions of poker hands. At 1st poker was exciting and a fun way to make money, now it seems more like a job, and most of us play poker to avoid the dullness of most jobs. Don't get me wrong though, I know I'm in a very enviable position today and I'm thankful for everything poker was able to provide for my family and myself. Anyway I put in a tad under 40 hrs grinding cash games and ended up around $7500 + $1189 rb. Also I lost $865 in tournaments.














I elected to leave out my limit results because they skew the nl results. Limit winrates are typically lower than nl and pl winrates. Also nearly all my limit action was in omaha hilo so my nonsd winnings looks bad in that game but that's by design of the game. Players end up chasing draws one way or another (or both ways) and don't get there and have to fold for 1 more bet at the river. It happens more often in that game than any other game. Therefore I elected to filter out my om8 results out of my graph as well. Anyway I lost about $700 in the limit games.




















Also I ran slightly above ev but notice that I ran pretty bad in plo, thanks to these 2 hands....

Full Tilt, $3/$6 PL Omaha Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $748

CO: $558

BTN: $1,200

SB: $835.75

Hero (BB): $1,200

UTG: $1,942.30

Pre-Flop: 5 A 3 A dealt to Hero (BB)

3 folds, BTN raises to $21, SB folds, Hero raises to $66, BTN calls $45

Flop: ($135) Q 4 2 (2 Players)

Hero bets $110, BTN raises to $465, Hero raises to $1,134 and is All-In, BTN calls $669 and is All-In

Turn: ($2,403) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($2,403) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,403 Pot ($3 Rake)

BTN showed 3 7 4 5 and WON $2,400 (+$1,200 NET)

Hero showed 5 A 3 A and LOST (-$1,194 NET)

That hand occurred during a mix game session. We were both 200bbs deep and when we got it in on the flop I was a 55-27 fav (w/ 18% chance of splitting). Now the next hand needs no description...

Full Tilt, $2/$4 PL Omaha Cash Game, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $865.40

UTG: $1,185.15

MP: $2,106.65

CO: $766

Hero (BTN): $400

SB: $672.80

Pre-Flop: 6 Q J J dealt to Hero (BTN)

UTG calls $4, MP folds, CO calls $4, Hero calls $4, SB calls $2, BB checks

Flop: ($24.50) J 2 T (5 Players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero bets $23, SB raises to $78, 2 folds, CO calls $78, Hero raises to $336.50, SB raises to $668.05 and is All-In, CO folds, Hero calls $58.75 and is All-In

Turn: ($893) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($893) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $893 Pot

Hero showed 6 Q J J and LOST (-$400 NET)

SB showed T 4 K T and WON $1,162.80 (+$764.80 NET)


Those beats are about as bad as they get in plo but I really can't complain because I ran above ev for the month. Speaking of running good, I'm off to a decent start this month...




















I'm leaving for a trip on the 20th of this month to visit a friend in Arkansas for a week so I'm trying to get in some time playing poker before then.

Also I went to play live for a change the other night w/ my wife. We went to Aria and all I had besides a few hundred dollars were Bellagio flags ($5,000 chips). Now knowing that Aria and Bellagio are both part of MGM Mirage, I assumed they would cash the chips for me. Well since I'm not a regular at any of those poker rooms, they would not cash the chips. One of the managers would have to know me in either room to let me cash the chips at Aria. I guess it's for security reasons, protecting against money laundering or whatever.

Anyway I wasn't too happy because I wanted to play in a $5-$10 game w/ a $3000 cap which I heard was juicy when it ran. $3000 seems like the perfect buyin cap because it's plenty of money to play deep w/ while encouraging some action. Believe it or not but when a game is uncapped (buyin any amount you want) sometimes the game plays tight w/ the deep stacks just waiting for the nuts before they commit their stacks. W/ 300bbs, some guys will get in their whole stacks w/ less than the nuts which opens up the game a lot more, which in turn makes it more fun, for me anyways.

So we had to go to Bellagio, which is a short drive from Aria, and I ended up playing some $10-$20 nl (uncapped) and won $800. The game was average w/ a bunch of Vegas regs in the game. I brought my ipad to kill time between hands because I am, after all, used to seeing 30x # hands/hr (advice: do not do like I do...it's best to pay attention to everything when you're not in a hand because that's the best time to see everything that's going on and to get reads on other players). The only interesting hand of note is epr opens to $80 (w/ $1k behind), sb calls, I call (w $6k behind) w A7s from bb, flop Q93 w 2 to my suit, chk, chk, preflop raiser bets $200, sb folds, I shove ($800 more to my opponent), he snapcalls, turn A, riv 7. Now unlike online our hands are still face down so I'm just hoping he doesn't have AQ or a set. He says "set", I think damn that sucks, he opens and shows KT of same suit for a whiffed flush and straight draw. Now he was on the other end of the table and I guess I misheard and he must've said "sh*t" which sounded like "set" to me, maybe because that was the only word I didn't want to hear coming out of his mouth.

I played a little bit longer, talked w/ Jimmy "GobboBoy" Fricke who sat on my right for a little bit, and took my win and spent a nice night on the town w/ my wife. We ended up watching "A Social Network", which is about the founder of Facebook, and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

August Wrap Up

I'm happy w/ how the month went although there was a lot of dead time I could've spent grinding.

































As mentioned in my previous post I started adding in some low stakes plo into my grind. I'll probably learn to play the game and play some more the rest of the year. It really is a fun game to play and I enjoy playing it more than nl. Most of my play will still be at nl because that's my strongest game.

Also I elected to leave out my limit results because there are some nuances that are so different than nl and pl that it skews the #s and graph. Looking at my HEM I lost $970 playing limit hold'em and limit omaha 8 after 2100 hands. Guess it's a good thing I just primarily play nl and pl. Actually I know I'm pretty good at limit games and my loss is mostly attributed to the variance over the small sample.

As for tournaments I had that nice live score for $25,400. I also had a cash of $2k in the FTOPs horse. I actually counted how many mtts I played this month and it was a lot. I played in 93 mtts w/ 91 of them online vs 2 live. The total cost of buyins was $8704 so almost $100/mtt. It's kinda skewed by the fact the 2 live mtts cost $900 total. If we just look at online, it's $7804/91 = $85 for the avg. buy in. Nearly all the mtts I played were on sundays w/ the exception of the FTOPs which ran during the week + weekends. Based on HEM I played 66 hrs but some of that was at the same time I was grinding cash games so it's hard to assess how much total time I put in last month playing poker. HEM shows I spent 77 hrs playing cash games. Also I spent 3 days playing live tournaments which I don't mind to get away from the monotony of playing in front of my computer. It's nice to actually see real people when playing poker!

What can we take from this? That grinding mtts online is a waste of time! No, seriously it's always been considered that winning in cash games is a more stable and profitable way than winning in mtts, especially for guys that can win at both. There will be exceptions but for the most part it's true and that's why I would suggest for most aspiring poker players to focus on cash games 1st, even though the learning curve is longer than mtts. A side benefit is that if you win in cash games you should be +ev in most mtts, while that's not true for winning tournament players wanting to play cash games. Heck most good cash game players welcome and want tournament players, inc. the winners, to join their games.

So for the month of August, looks like I won $38,549 in cash games + $2540 in rake back + $21,747 in mtts (after all buyins) for a total of $62,836. Again I'm happy w/ the month but looking to focus more on cash games and less on mtts going forward.

Also I know a lot of guys use PTR to check to see if a guy is a winning or losing player (esp. bumhunters) but it does seem to miss hands from time to time. I checked it to see how I stood among $2-$4 and $3-$6 winners for the month and it had me winning $7000 in August at $3-$6 which is only half of what I really won. Just to show how off it is (in my case anyway) it has me listed up $381k since March 18 '08 when in reality I'm up nearly double that (posted snapshots of my HEM since Feb '08 few months ago). It goes both ways though. My friend is listed as being up $350k or so when in reality he's only up half of that. It does a decent job of showing who's winning and losing but you can't really rely on the site for true winrates nor total $ won/lost in most cases (maybe winrates might be more accurate than actual $ won/lost though).

Finally even though I'm behind my goal of 7 figures, I am at about $250k for the year which seems to be a magic # for poker players, according to this thread anyway.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/56/medium-stakes-pl-nl/making-250-year-844863/

I did offer some insight in the thread starting at page 10 for those interested. I talked mostly about how hard it was to retire from poker after 10 years (assuming you never have to work another day in your life).