Meddling Midstakes

It's been forever since I wrote in this thing.  I almost feel like I should start out with dear diary or something lame like that.  Anyways, here's a recap on somethings that I left out.
I now quit the microstakes and got some coaching.  Afterwards, I had a meteoric rise to midstakes and I am now doing pretty well at 2/5nl.  Now, I'm currently evaluating whether to go hardcore grinding and hit 5/10 next month, or grind a little and take 1st place at the Chicago Open for chess.  The thing is I'm starting to lose interest in chess, but that might be cause of how winning at midstakes changed my life.
I know this post is kind of written poorly, but I'll get better at it after I decide to keep on doing it.  To ever read this post, thanks for letting me steal 3 mins of your life that you'll never get back :D

I wanted to type in this blog since yesterday night, but I always ideas right before I fall asleep.  Anyways, it's been about a week since I've played any poker.  It feels like a strange vacation where I have way too much free time.  Lucky, I secured all my funds and already planned to where I want to play next.  During this mini-vacation filled with pokerlessness and upcoming finals for school, I have been thinking about poker.  Mainly, on how to study for it, and how to play it better.  

On my studies for finals, I sometimes get burnt and wanted to figure out a way on how to study longer.  Upon that desire, I used yahoo answers for a solution.  Most of the people said that I should just take 10-15 min breaks per session.  Hey, that's kind of like poker!  Which made me think of the book "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin.  That book basically states that everything you do and it's applications can be applied to another topic.  Josh uses Chess and Taichi.  He was an international chess master and Taichi champion.  I thought, "Hey, I used to be a high rated chess player.  Why can't I use the stuff that made me successful in chess and transmute it into poker?"  

So with my epic amount of pokerless time, I decided to do some research.  I decided to restructure my poker study to a similar program that I used in chess.  Since it's been a long time I have played chess, I decided to steal a program from a famous chess school that consistently makes elite players.  Their program from a google search shows this:

First of all, the Main Module is divided in 2 parts: 
Months 1-9 = positional understanding; without this, calculation is fruitless 
Month 10-13 = calculation and analysis; without which real progress is impossible.  
Month Subject 
1  Think Like a Strong Player 
2  Watch the 2 Centers 
3 - 4  Master Piece Play 
5 – 6  Master Pawn Play 
7 – 8  Pawn Structures Explained 
9  Advanced Fighting Strategies 
10 – 13  The Art of a Master: Analysis

 Then I thought, "How can I turn this stuff into poker stuff?"  Well, this is what I came up with.  Months 1-9 seems to mainly be composed of mental game and strategy.  I am almost tempted to say fundamentals, but it's a little more complex than that.  Months 10-13 appear to be review and creating a deeper application of theoretical knowledge.  So in poker terms, I made this list (months is synonymous to the quoted list):

1. Think Like a Winning Player
2. Watch the 4 Cards
3. Master Preflop Play
4. Master Postflop Play
5. Ranges explained
6. Adjustment Strategies
7. The Art of a Pro: Leak Busting

Here's what month 1 looks like...Month 1 = "Think Like a Winning Player"

Emulate the correct way of thinking in poker.  Learn about the to do list, consequence of actions, recognizing threats, and what has to be done after villain acts.  Study explanations given in poker vids.  I'll probably use ghost type vids to accommodate this issue.

Of course, any strategy would fail without solid tactics.  I'll use Ed Miller's book of "Small Stakes Holdem" to protect my plans.  His book is pretty much the only book that I've seen thus far that actually talks about lines and different actions a poker player could take. 

I'll continue to elaborate in future blogs on how I plan to structure these "study months".  With all this free time, I hope to successfully implement this and make profits!

-AH

This is what happened to me on what the sages are calling "Black Friday."

This title made me think of Improva's book which I'll probably buy in a few weeks.  Anyways, I reached an epiphany last night.  I got really tilted when I was playing a 80% vpip in 6-max who was making a ton of made hands.  Then, I thought of what Terp said in the SSNL Disease, "Every time an opponent beats you; he giving you an expensive lesson."  I took that to heart after I gave up 3 BIs :D.

So, I thought about it.  I realized I can't really force results on my opponents if they are incapable of those certain actions.  I should just take in all the information an let the situations dictate my actions.  I should never go against the flow of the game but, instead, with it.

With this idea of trying to make the best move in every situation, I came upon the question of ranges.  More specifically, my range against a wide vpip.  I wanted to know how to manipulate my range vs villians and how to figure out the optimal way to play.  Hopefully, I'll discover this answer and solve the puzzle.

Alright, so I read this pretty cool article that one of our own posted in the forums and it basically told how you should think you suck etc.  Here's the link to it if you wanted to read it: http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/internetpokers.  Anyways, it got me thinking.  The times when I made the most money was when I forced myself to go into the zone.

I know this sounds crazy, but I think you can train your body to enter the zone, flow or whatever.  I remember the times when I did was when I felt that every single cent that I had on the table mattered.  And, I focused on how the villain played his hand and got a shit load of reads.  Getting those reads weren't easy.  It required reducing the amount of tables, but that is sometimes the price one has to pay.  Also, constantly reviewed all the hands where I lost more than just a cbet.  Even though I know there is luck, I treated every situation as if my actions could have improved the outcome by paying a little more attention.  And finally, I take frequent breaks at every hour or so.  

I think I need to switch back to this routine in order to refine my thought process. When I auto pilot on "simple" decisions, they really are simple so I can spend more time on thinking at rougher spots and tame that wild line that is my win rate.

I finally hit the mythical royal but didn't go to SD.  I thought my luck was going to be good today but it started 2BI down, lol.  Weird!  I hope I can win a stack with the next royal that I get :D

Oh well, I started winning some BIs but I gotta head to class.  I'll end the day in the positive later.

Grabbed by[url=http://www.holdemmanager.net] Holdem Manager[/url]

NL Holdem $0.25(BB) Replayer 

SB ($63.14)

BB ($25)

UTG ($48.96)

[color=red]Hero ($28.84)

[/color]BTN ($38.54)

Dealt to Hero A:spade: J:spade: 

fold, [color=red]Hero raises to $0.75, [/color]BTN calls $0.75, fold, BB calls $0.50

FLOP ($2.35) 6:spade: K:heart: K:spade: 

BB checks, [color=red]Hero bets $1.25, [/color]BTN calls $1.25, BB folds

TURN ($4.85) 6:spade: K:heart: K:spade: T:spade: 

[color=red]Hero bets $2.75, [/color]BTN calls $2.75

RIVER ($10.35) 6:spade: K:heart: K:spade: T:spade: Q:spade: 

[color=red]Hero bets $5.50, [/color]BTN folds

Hero shows A:spade: J:spade: 

Hero wins $9.84

Alright, I had one of those days where I just wanted to try something new and get out of the normal grind.  So, I decided to play some deep stacked poker.  I'm not really well versed in deep stacked play so I decided to play at a lower limit.  Since I knew I was going to be at a huge disadvantage, I decided to be the crazy donk at the table.
Here's the result of my enhanced technique:  

DURRRRR!

Well, I'm in the middle of making major changes to my game.  I decided to tone down on the number of tables to 4, like what grindcore said somewhere.  It really helped in getting better reads.  Also, thanks to sthief for the advice to get leak buster.  It really helped me improve my game.  I'm still winning a BI/hr even when I'm running like crap, lol.  As for right now, I'm trying to work on my floating and c/r range....it drives me nuts because it's so expensive.

On a side note, I'm starting to think 4 tabling is really profitable if you encounter a lot of multi-tabling regs.  They really don't adjust well.  Once you find their leaks, it's like printing money :D

Well, I found the main reason to my losing session.  I was mega tilting along with getting a few suckouts.  But, thanks to Angel and the other guys that sweated me.  Along with the subtle tilt, I was also using the wrong general strategy and it just slowly crept in from every bad beat.  Now, I'm done with losing a ton of BIs and back to picking them up.

Alright, I decided to turn this blog into my chalk board and see what -EV thoughts crept into my head.

Things that i did when I was winning:

• played for a set amount of time
• take breaks every 1 hr of play
• 4-6 tabling max
• less involved in preflop wars
• kept playing a single type of game
• make detailed reads
• acted upon instincts
• ate well before a session

Things that I did recently:

• Not keeping up with eating schedule
• overloaded with exterior factors
• playing with small amount of rest
• overplaying set amount of time
• have less control in folding strong hands vs strong reads
• played many more different games
• adjusting less accurately
• having that everyone is playback at me mentality
• not quitting fast enough after sensing tilt

Now looking at everything as a whole.  I think the main difference from my game is that I'm being over aggressive and not following up with my reads.  I think I'll move back to lower variance style and actually start using my hand reading skills instead of saying "well, i got the odds to..."  Anyways, calling sucks.  At least I cut a huge amount of work that had been effecting my poker growth.  I hope that will indirectly improve my mental aspect.Well, I'm getting some peer review so maybe that can help me recover from the damage that has been done...I just realized that maybe the fact that I'm not thinking enough during a hand lately.  Perhaps, I should tone it down for now and get more time to think.