A Plan

Felt like blogging some today, been well over 3 months since my last update so time for it!

I've been trucking along with a downswing all along august/september and had a crazy good oktober really my play picked up alot as my luck also went up alot. I'm kinda worried about this cause I fear that my play might turn for the worse again if I start running bad eventually. In the mean time I'm finally a solid winner, tho my graph isn't looking good its more like a long downswong and now a sudden upswong leading me to a solid 4bb/100. I've logged a total of 150K hands and feel very comfortable at the 25Nl and am taking solid shots at 50NL now. My play in november has been 50/50 and i've also been looking at different sites which should be refreshing. I'm going back to betfair this week trying to test the waters there. The tables are 5max there so thats gonna take a small adaption but I'm not gonna overreact to that. Overadjusting is a real danger here cause I need to remember that i only have to adjust if my opponent is adjusting with me.

ok that was it.

If you don't wanna read about another random bad run by another random guy, then stop reading here. Ofcourse for me this isn't  about another random guy, this is about myself.

So my July was on getting back in the poker shape, I logged 14K in the 2nd half of july, and now in the first week of august i logged another 15K. Picking up the pace we call that. however not the best of 15K hands.

My main problem definitly consists of 2nd geussing myself and my plays constantly, as would any other human being in this situation. All my winnings from july have vaporated, leaving me with just the rakeback. This is a bit of a setback, its always annoying if you hit a downswing after 15K hands, cause you can't look back on a 400K graph where those swings seem minor. The insecurity that comes from a new database, or from someone who has never really logged crazy amounts of hands while approaching the game serious.

I know I've gotta keep going now, I feel like I'm on track with my 'to-watch' list, A change to my rhytms geared towards poker is still lacking tho. Gotta try to make a dayly schedule everyday about the next day. To keep me guidelined and on track. I gotta keep focusing on finding leaks in my game and reviewing the top losing hands every day. Also keep trying to post a hand everyday on deucescracked.

So I dont know if anyone noticed this yet but when I write something here on this blog its mostly in a way that I wright down what springs into my mind at this moment. It can appear kinda rambly, but in the end the topics should corelate atleast a little bit since my own mind is making these steps.

Last week I've been trying to make more time for poker as in my last blog post I already said. Its been harder for me then originally expected, I think its because I try to do so much at the same time it becomes overwhelming. So I took a step back and started to increment my goal of trying to create a lifestyle that suits a professional online poker player. Or atleast what I think such a life should look like.

This week is all about sleeping patterns, I feel it isn't benificial to sleep till noon and go to bed at 3 AM or later, coincidentally I'm writing this blog post at 4:20 AM. How we can write about something and do the completly opposite at the same time! However this is interesting cause it allows me to reflect on how I manage to stay in this rhytm and what I should be doing to get out of it.

The easiest way to break out of a sleeping pattern is to stay awake, for as long as you can. This is what i'm doing right now and its pretty tough so far. I can however look forward to eating a early breakfast in 3-4 hours. I'm wondering if I'll be hungry considering I'm usually in my REM-stage of the sleep around that time.

Back to what I think the optimal sleeping pattern should be, I should be trying to wake up around 8 or 9 AM, so I have time to work-out before its to hot outside now in the summer. I need to eat aswell. Then I can setup a late-morning poker session, this is something new to me and I'm gonna find out soon what kind of action is on around that time. since I'm european it should be around 4-6AM in America around that time so there might be some possible action there. If i round up my day like this, I have 3 potential 2 Hour blocks for playing poker, late-morning, Afternoon and after dinner. I find 2 hour blocks to be the most beneficial for me if I'm thinking about my concentration levels.

So this week I'm not gonna focus on all of that stuff tho, this is to much for me to do. I'm gonna make a logbook and note the times I went to bed, I hope this makes me realise that its gonna be a relativly easy thing to do and its gonna probably gain quite alot for me longterm.

Peace and till some other time.

Yes, the life of a casual poker player that tries to commit to poker. But has other things in his normal weekly schedule that are hard to get out of. Im talking about dayly routine in your life, and how you need to change it if you wanna be a good poker player.
Including

- Correct volume

- Correct lifestyle

- Correct studying/play time relation.

THIS IS HARD. Atleast so I've noticed lately, especially if you wanna start something new the first days you control yourself more then normal. And truly open up your own so to speak 'failures' compared to what you know in your head would be the perfect way to do things.

I'm gonna keep working the comming days to change my sleeping rhytm, I think playing a session in the relative morning is good for me, it allows me to do some exercise early on and have a healthy breakfast.

So after my short intro some long term and short term goals i have:

Long term:

- I wanna proof to myself that i can commit for a longer period of time to playing poker online, and being succesfull at it

- I wanna improve my volume of play to a level where i can get enough sample sizes that i can accuratuly rate my game

- I wanna remove myself from monetairy influences related to poker, and refrain from thinking about money or stakes as a goal.

Short term:

- I wanna watch some mathematics fundamentals here on deucescracked

- I wanna setup some forum activity

- I wanna try and setup some sort of a network of fellow poker players that are interested in learning and talking about the game and hands/concepts.

Short introduction to myself:

I am a 19 year old student from the Netherlands, played poker for over 3 years now. I've had big succeses but never really played the game right. I've played the last 3 years on and off, never truly comitting to the game. however it has so far provided me with enough succes for me to never have to get some shitty student job.

On to where I am at right now:

I am in a place right now where i wanna try and commit to poker possibly for the last time, and this time make it count. 3 years of on and off have made me get a solid understanding of the game. however my fundamentals have always been rusty. Im gonna work from the ground up and cashed out a huge part of my roll to leave a 60 buyins for 25NL. This is much lower then i usually play, but for example last month i played 3K hands. I wanna give myself the chance to prove to myself that i can do this.

So july is gonna be my poker training camp, i'm gonna use this blog to give myself feedback on how i progress. Hopefully critical feedback.

What you can expect:

- My opinion on video's

- My look on all around poker topics

- Possibly results tho i don't think they are as relevant.

- updates on how i keep to my cycle of constant improvement and learning.