Langerz Grinds

Well as you all know the sky fell on Friday.  Ironically I didn't have a lot going on a work so I took a half day of vacation with the sole intent of grinding all afternoon.  About an hour into the session a couple tables got really nitty and I joined some waiting lists.  When the waiting list window popped up I was told I couldn't play cash games.  Of course the first thing I did was check DC and found maglame's now epic thread.  Also ironically I played out the 4 tables I was on for as long as I could and went on one of the sickest heaters of my poker career.  

I'm feeling the need to blog so I thought I'd right my own what's next thread but more from the perspective of a micro part time grinder.  I don't really bowl, so I had to change the words of the dude a little for the title of this post, but here's my plan going forward.

Although to start with I'm going to digress and hit a couple other topics.  First please get involved politically and not just because of this.  I've been somewhat of a political junkie my whole life and the direction in Washington continues to get worse.  It's time we do something about it.  There are far better blogs/articles telling you specifics of what to do, but get off your ass and make sure your congressman knows you aren't happy.  If you don't and you lose poker forever then you only have yourself to blame.

Second my heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to all the full time higher stakes grinders on DC.  I'm writing this from the perspective of a micro stakes hobby poker player and I fully understand my situation is completely different.  I cringe hearing people like WoT talk about the amount of money they have tied up on the sites.  Having that level of uncertainty while raising a family is something no one deserves.  The higher stakes guys created one heck of a great environment that we've all enjoyed over the years.  They are all highly talented individuals and if poker is truly gone I'm sure each of you will find success elsewhere.  

Ok not to the topic at hand, what do I do next.  Over the week I kind of muddle along wondering what to do.  I actually downloaded some stupid game called Governor of Poker and grinded that for several hours.  Finally I decided that hell with it I'm going to play some real poker and made a deposit on the Merge network.  I have no idea how long it will last, but I'm going to go out playing.  I'm not terribly confident that it will last long so I was a chicken and only put $50 on the site.  So I'm going to start over from $50 (for now the 3rd or 4th time in my career) and grind it up to a 50NL or higher roll.

As I've been thinking about it I'm excited about the opportunity.  Poker has always been more about the mental exercise than the money anyway.  I also have a confession I haven't been beating the game in a long time.  I haven't been losing, but certainly not winning.  I've had trouble focusing on the game lately and rarely playing my A game (or B for that matter).  I'm looking at this as my last shot and I have not idea how long it will last so I'm going to do things "right" this time.

I'm going to follow roughly the same schedule I did in my original blog post.  That worked very well while I stuck to it.  

The general schedule is:

• Monday - Grind
• Tuesday - Study (videos, database review, session review etc)
• Wednesday - Grind
• Thursday - Study (videos, database review, session etc)
• Friday - Grind
• Weekend - lots of Grinding, but at least review each session

I'm adding a few rules...

Regular blogs are a must - I started good the last time but then got away from it.  I'm not sure if I have anything that exciting to say, but I think at least talking about my progress will keep me accountable.  It's probably been 18 months since I was really playing my A game.  I knew it, but never really admitted it.  Coming on here to post my progress will keep me accountable to how I'm playing.

Stay active in the forums - This shouldn't be a problem I love talking poker on the forums

Record one session a week - Each weekend I'm going to record a session and post it in the members video section.  With this weekend being Easter I may wait a week to kick this one off, but I definitely could benefit from people looking over my hands.

So anyway that's my plan going forward.  If anyone's with me I'll see you at the 4NL Merge tables.