The Grinding Dragon

I got a very pleasant suprise last night whilst looking through my HEM stats. I have not looked at them for a while and was quite pleased with what I found.

Before anyone gives me the lecture of “Can’t win without looking at your stats blah blah blah” let me just explain myself. Since November last year I have been taking the game and the prospects it can offer a whole lot more seriously. This also was about the time that things really started to click with me in terms of understanding the game etc, understanding exactly how to apply what I had been learning in the DC forums and videos and all the concepts that I had discussed in coaching sessions with PygmyHero. I finally felt confident at the table and felt like I had a shot at beating the game. Up until that point I had been a break even player that understood slightly more than the fish, atleast enough to be slightly profitable after my rakeback. Certainly no where near what I would class as a winning player.

I really buckled down and spent a lot of time drilling through my stats trying to find leaks etc. But I found as time went on, I was tending to more and more be concerned over the $ value of the hand rather than taking a neutral look and studying the play of the hand regardless of the outcome. This started to impact on my game and I found myself chasing losses and playing my C- game more often. I decided to take some time away from my stats, play with no HUD, and just concentrate on each session in isolation (I still used my notes on players at FTP) regardless of what BB/100 was and regardless of what cashier window looked like.

I found by doing this I was thinking so much more about the game at hand, so much more about each hand at the moment of playing it and not just thinking that I can review it later. And well I finally looked at my stats last night, mainly out of curiosity over everyones stats after the Small Stakes LHE homegame the other day, and to my delight over the last 10k hands with no stats for the first time ever in my poker career I AM A WINNING PLAYER. I am beating .25/.50 LHE at approx 1.5BB/100, now I know 10k isnt a big sample and I know 1.5BB/100 isnt a huge winrate but this is the first time in my 8-9 year poker career that I am actually showing a profit before rakeback over such a large sample size.

So after 9 years of being the fish, within less then 12 months DC and PygmyHero have transformed me into a winning player. To the team at DC I say thankyou for putting together a fantastic site with such great coaches. I hope that you guys are going to be around for many years to come, cause without you I would not have been able to find PygmyHero and would never have turned my game around. And to PygmyHero, mate, I don’t have any words to describe the gratetude I have for you. If it was not for your guidance I know I would still be squandering around in the .05/.10 LHE FR fishtanks. If anyone wants proof that coaching works, well if PygmyHero can turn me into a winning player, than he can do it to anyone.

Keep up the good work guys, I know that in time I will be getting to where I want. Phase 1 complete, onto phase 2 ;p