Seasoning Micro Steaks

Hi, my name is Mike and I have FPS.  I did a coaching session with Threads13 today, it was epic.  We went into my HEM and looked at this years hands, which because of my other addiction, procrastination, was only like 21k hands. We filtered for "Went to SD=True" and "Won at SD=False", and we saw some of the most horribly ridiculous poker play ever.  I think we reviewed maybe 30 hands, and 20 of them were stone retarded 3b/4b bluffs or calling down in horrible spots and the like.

We just talked a lot about my stubbornness and how that is the main leak in my game right now and now that I am aware of it, I really need to work on plugging up my FPS and then we can focus on making little adjustments to my overall strategy.

I have always known tilt was an issue in my life, especially in my poker game, but for the first time someone else saw it and called me on it. It made everything so much more obvious when he was reviewing the hands rather than when I had.  It really set off a light bulb in my head about how much money I was just donating into the micro stakes games playing like this.

Unfortunately for me, I had to go to work after this really productive coaching session.  I worked till about 1:15am est and sped home because I am super excited to put my new knowledge to work.  I just played pretty solid, probably a bit too tight, but I found all those spots where I wanted to get FPSy and just folded or called or whatever I logically came to think was the best play.  I won like 1/2 a buy-in, played one big pot poorly, but overall was very pleased with keeping my FPS in check.  Lets see if I can keep up with it this month and beyond.

Gl at the tables guys...

It's Tuesday February 22 at 5:33 am and I am on my laptop listening to my favorite non-poker podcast: Blueshirt Banter Radio.  It is a New York Rangers podcast done by these two Rangers fanatics, it's good to get away from poker for a little while.  I just got done with my first poker session since deciding I am going to try and really work on my game.  I spent a couple days lurking the forums here and on 2p2, while watching a few videos in the +Evolution of a Poker Player.  I plan on taking it slow (even though I played a 4 tabling session on 25NL Rush on FTP just now), just a few tables, take good notes, and good lines.  

I think most of my play will be on stars, I am going to play maybe like 20k+ hands at 25NL before I move to my normal stakes of 50-100NL. I am going to try and watch one strategy type vid per day and one from either Travis Steffen or Tommy Angelo.  My fundamentals are weak, but I am weaker.  I think a majority of my issues come from lack of focus/tilt.  

Live poker has been going very well this year so far.  I still tip too good (it sucks being a dealer and all the dealers you are dealing to know it!), it is killing my hourly.  Over like only 40+ hours of play at 2/5NL I am up about $2,200.  The games are really good, and I plan on playing 2x a week live as I work on my game online.  

GL at the tables guys

I am still lazy, but I am certainly getting less lazy as the days go by.  I am having a hard time using the to-do-list from the Shuffle and Flow series, but I am starting to figure out how to apply it to my life.  Things are going to be a little more hectic this week because my family is visiting for the holiday, which I can't wait for.  It has not been easy moving 2000 miles away from home in search of the riches that you can make as a FL poker dealer. Playing poker is going to need to be a big part of my life now as I would love to supplement some of that lost income playing both online and live.  To do so I am going to need to get all I can out of DC, 2+2, my coach (threads13), and anyone/anything else I can get my hands on.

I have been watching videos, but not as often or as many as I would like.  For the most part, I have been exclusively watching the Shuffle and Flow series, which is a bit of a leak in my opinion.   Part of watching the series is to apply what you are learning and watching game film and study is part of this series, a big part.  Typically, I have applied the life changing elements from the series, but so much of the poker study changes I need to make.  Working on my game will be the main thing I will be putting effort into for this week.

I might as well start with goals for the remainder of the year, essentially my December goals:

I want to supplement my income playing poker by working hard on improving my overall game.  To do so I will improve my overall lifestyle with help from the Shuffle and Flow series as well as reading Peak Performance Poker.  I will also study my game, my oppositions game, watch videos, get coaching, and post on the forums regularly.  I will provide myself with monthly goals, ones that I can break down into weekly and even daily segments.

Looking forward to working on everything over the next few weeks, wish me luck!

Besthand17  

Man I am lazy, and I am sick and tired of it.  I work hard, and when I come home the last thing I want to think about is working on my poker game.  I just want to take off my uniform, put on some basketball shorts and a t-shirt and just watch TV or play NHL 11 until the sun comes up.  Then here and there I actually feel like grinding a session of Rush or a session on Stars or something, and what happends? I play a hand poorly, then it tilts me a little because I played the hand sub-optimally, then that little bit of tilt turns into me ultra-tilting off bi's.  I have realized that this is a result of being rusty, I can't just brush off a bad beat or a poor play because I am not used to doing so anymore.

This new series from Travis Steffen is really blowing my mind, he takes the exact approach to the game that I have been looking for since I started thinking of taking is seriously.  I was a 2 sport athlete in college, while it was D3, I would still consider myself and above average athlete compared to most people I have been around, and I am proud of my accomplishments in sports.  Although, in poker I am not proud of the accomplishments (or lack there of) that I have over the last say, two years.

Travis takes his experiences with sports and applies them to poker, all the things he talks about in his first four episodes (thats as far as I have gotten so far) I have done or have some experience with throughout my sports career and it was why I was a success in that field.  Why can't I look at poker as a sport and apply the work ethic I had just a few years ago to it?  I don't see why I can't, I know now the reason I fail at poker is because of the approach I took towards the game.

I will have some setbacks I am sure, most of you have full time jobs and wives or girlfriends like myself.  How do you find enough time in the day to work 8 hours, study poker, play poker, and spend time with your significant other so as she doesn't start hating poker and you too?! That is going to be the toughest part of this journey, I should be posting here a lot more now looking forward to your comments.

Good luck at the tables

Besthand17

It is 1pm on Wednesday, May 19, and I just woke up getting ready to start my daily routine. I have not blogged in over a month, I have not played poker, watched videos, read the forums in over 2 weeks. I just had enough of poker. I was working on the new and improved video guide here for the forum, I was getting MTR videos tagged, all while having a full time job, a girlfriend and trying to win money. Needless the say, the last one on the list didn’t happen very often.

I started to read a little of this thread. A few people posted about being unmotivated and lazy. There was a great post that hit me, I need to just have a little more structure. I play these times on these days, take these days off, watch these vids on these days and post on the forums. Seems pretty simple, hopefully I can keep up with it. The next thing to work into that structure is working out.

Basically here is my schedule for this week: Play days Weds Thurs (Maybe Fri/Sat nights) Sun Mon Tues

Wake up 1:30
Breakfast
Pre-Game Routine (Stretching/Breathing/Writing down goals for session)
1 hour of play
10 minute break
1 hour of play
4:00 Relax and get ready for work
work from 6:30-3:30
3:30-5:00am Watch Vids/Video Guide/MTR work

I have 2 video series queued up in my playlist right now, Math on NLHE and the +Evolution of a Poker player, they are alternating and I am really looking forward to watching some more sthief09. Also, my MTR group is watching Twee Bets this week.

Hopefully this new routine is something I can stick to and add to, but I have a FT job and a gf so I am assuming some things are going to need to take a back seat, she sleeps during most of the day so that’s why I have to play when the games aren’t as good (mornings) so I can spend time with her at night.

GL at the tables guys

What’s up guys it’s 10pm on Tuesday March, 30th and I am just hanging out preparing for my first session on FTP tonight. I have had a pretty eventful week (for me at least). I played a ton of hands, although most of them were rush poker on FTP I am happy with actually sitting down and dealing with the swings and playing through them instead of just quitting. I also did a ton of stuff with my Mt. Robusto Platoon, managed to get FTP to finally give me rake back, finally turned my month around on PokerStars, and on top of that worked a full 40hr week at work.

So over the last maybe 6 months I have not played much over 30k hands per month. This month was totally different. Given, 27k hands were played at Rush because I am bonus clearing, I have played almost 45k hands total and finally made a decent amount of money. I am not happy with my video watching and thread posting though. I will talk about my goals later, but they will only be forum and video based goals plus a hands played goal.

As far as Mount Robusto is going, its going. I have a group with some awesome guys and I had to drop 3 already, one of them moved 1/2 way across the world and had to withdraw his roll and drop his DC subscription which is cool. He will stay an honorary member. The other two just never contacted me, and apparently there is a long waiting list so I hope to get some guys that really wanna be part of the Platoon in the near future.

So if FTP accounts were given numbers, mine would be very low. I don’t think they offered rake back at the time, but if they did it was so long ago that I signed up for the account that I def didn’t know about it. I asked them for a while after I dropped my roll from the site and they never responded. So I found $120 in Affiliate cash in my account this month and was like sweet and played 27k hands of 25NL Rush after depositing a little more, and then asked…now I got it after 6 years of having an account there.

As for goals for next month:

Post a hand 3x a week on either 2p2 or DC (preferably DC)
Reply to a HH thread on DC and 2p2 everyday (at least 1)
30 Vids in April (Keep tabs in this blog)

25K hands on Stars
20K on FTP

Last, but not least, the Eastern Conference Playoff race is rough. I am a New York Rangers fan and I am pretty bummed right now. We are doing ok, but we need to pick it up big time. Of course we have a ton of injuries and King Henrik is starting to struggle a little bit as well as our D. If I got to watch Rangers playoff hockey this year I would be surprised.

Its 11:06 pm on Tuesday March 16, 2010 and I am sitting here with my girlfriend as she fills out the U.S. Census for us. She is insisting that I am of Hispanic origin because my father is Portuguese and my mother is Italian, it took a few times but she finally marked me as white. I was born in America, I don’t speak Portuguese, I am not tan, I’m white damnit!

This month has been interesting so far, I have had great sessions, I have had BAD sessions, and I have had a number of break even sessions. The last week I have won 1 of my sessions I think. I have been grinding too much and not learning. I purchased “The Poker Blueprint” from Dailyvariance.com. I have only read a little bit of it, but it has been pretty solid so far. What I have read talks about moving up, being a learner not a grinder, stuff like that.

So that’s going to be theme for the rest of this month, “be a learner, not a grinder.” I have a ton to do with Mt. Robusto this month as I am part of a group as well as heading a micro full ring no limit group. I am going to watch a lot of videos, review some leaks, and play more hours with less tables for the rest of the month.

Speaking of that, this afternoon I played in an upcoming “DC Home Game” video with all 6 max No Limit guys headed up by Sugar Nut. I was the only guy who doesn’t play 6 max regularly and I held my own. For most of the session the player to my left was calling all my raises and trying to outplay me (I think, but we get to see hole cards when the video comes out) and we played a hand at the end of the session which I consider a semi cooler. He was super active, although not 3 betting much at all preflop:

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $125.65
SB: $57.00
BB: $170.35
UTG: $77.45
MP: $62.85
Hero (CO): $50.75

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Q Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, BTN raises to $4, 2 folds, Hero raises to $12.50, BTN raises to $125.65 all in, Hero calls $38.25 all in

Flop: ($102.25) 6 6 3 (2 players – 2 are all in)

Turn: ($102.25) 5 (2 players – 2 are all in)

River: ($102.25) 5 (2 players – 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $102.25
BTN shows A A (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
Hero shows Q Q (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
BTN wins $99.25
(Rake: $3.00)

The only thing that stuck in the back of my mind was that he wasn’t really 3 betting, but I am getting it in there with the way he and everyone else was playing during the video.

For the blogs in the future, I plan on linking cool blogs that I am reading, as well as articles and a list of videos that I watched and plan on watching. Here is the video lineup that I would like to watch next week:

What Would Joe Tall Do?
The Coaching Tree
Math of NLHE (never watched it the last time I said I would)

Gl at the tables

Besthand17

It is 5pm on March 5, 2010. I have just finished my 4th session of the month and I feel semi satisfied with my work ethic and play. I still have a ton of vids to watch, but now that I am in a Platoon in Mt. Robusto as well as a sergeant of one I will be watching a ton.

I have been working a lot lately which is great, since I moved to FL I was really down in a whole with the job starting off slow I finally have more in my bank account than I did before I moved down here 5 months ago.

Not much else going on, my assignment is Unconventional Wisdom ep 5-6 so they are on my ipod ready to watch at work.

Besthand17

It’s Saturday February 27, 2010 and I am watching and episode over High Stakes Poker Season 6 online. I have not blogged in about a month and haven’t played poker in almost as long. Work has picked up a TON, the girlfriends mom was visiting from NJ, and now I am in NJ away from my poker computer. Not to mention that bosoxx34 has got me hooked on “The Wire”.

I am happy about my job picking up because I am actually making some money now. For those of you that don’t know, I was a poker dealer in Atlantic City for about 3 years. I saw that I was about to get screwed over, so I started looking for new jobs. They were building a new room in the Miami area in FL and I took an audition for the job. I ended up getting a FT dealing job, which is super baller because FT dealers get 5 days and benefits. This is rare in poker rooms these days, most employees are part time. So to make it short FL poker dealers make a ton, in a lot of rooms there are dealers that make 100k/yr.

To make a long story short, they opened the room and forgot to advertise for it. Fucked up left and right no matter what they tried. I was making close to minimum wage, and was counting down the time I had left down there before I had to move in with my parents and figure out what the fuck I was going to do with my life.

Now, we opened a casino next door and we have this moneybags fish that plays in the room every night and brings like 30 guys that are looking to take him down. I am doing pretty well, no 100k, but I am almost in the black after my move down. I am working like 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week, and am having trouble finding time when I am fresh to play. When I do play I play like SHIT!

I did a coaching session with Threads13 and I am sure he said a ton of valuable stuff, but I was out of it and just didn’t retain any information. I played one more session after that dropped more that I should have and basically took the rest of Feb off and have basically been playing Mass Effect 2 or watching the Wire.

Now, I am in NJ celebrating my birthday with my family and friends. I haven’t thought about poker in a while, and am looking to start playing a ton when I get back the first few days of March. For one, Mount Robusto is starting which is going to get me working on video watching. I also am sick of my shitty ass 22" monitors that have shit resolution, so I am grinding for 2 24’s with that 1920×1600 or whatever you need for pokering.

I briefly looked over the DC forums and I am lost in like every hand that was posted, so I am going to do as much work on my days away from the tables as I can to prepare for my grinding when I get back.

Sorry TLDR but I was gone for a while…

-Besthand17

It’s Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:15am. I am sitting here watching Never Tell Me the Odds: Ep5 just for some entertainment and some motivational speaking from Krantz. I am having a ton of trouble getting into a routine of working on my game and actually importing that work on the tables. I am also having trouble putting in more volume. I have had a ton of success 8 tabling early in the month. I added 2 more and was fine, added two more and then I started to spew a little. Went back to 8 and it’s more of the same spew.

I think it is time to start setting a goal for each session. For example, work on opening up in LP a bit more this session, stuff like that. I also need to review my sessions longer. Get out the stove and go to work. I think I have spent a total of an hour this month stoving hands. I wanted to spend 5x that a week!

I have not focused on video watching as much as I would have liked either. I have not finished any of the series from my previous blog post. So here is the new list:

Math of NLHE by WoT
Road to Robusto NL by TubaSteve

It is time to work on my fundamentals. I want to apply something from each video to each session weather it is a review session with the Math series or a live play session with the Road to Robusto series.

Along with getting back to fundamentals I want to set goals for each session and stick to them to the best of my ability (given that I avoid tilt). I would like to achieve Supernova this year, so hand and hour goals are going to be on the menu.

Lastly, I cannot wait to start the Mount Robusto thing going on in the forums. I have had a hard time watching videos and truly listening to them and understanding what these guys are saying, and I think this will really motivate me to work hard. As well as be a more active member in the DC forum as well as 2p2.