I've been getting som hands in, nice and Dow a 2nl. Loving the new poker stars iPad app!
And then along comes my wife an gets m hooked on "draw something!"
Oh well - another three months of no volume :) A least I wont be tilting :)
Just smiled to myself after logging in again after about 3 months and seeing my last post from Easter saying I was going to start playing again after taking a little break.
Well I got a job offer I couldn't refuse and it came along with a side order of overtime and a whole load of mental exertion. I realised that much of the reasons I had for playing poker were about occupying my mind with a puzzle that felt a little more constructive than video games or sudoku.
When I took on my new job, I found I was coming home mentally exhausted and really in no mood for playing poker optimally. I even stopped listening to the podcasts.
But last night I sat at a few 5NL tables and began to think about taking another shot at the game. Wow I was out of practice! So I have come up with a notion to get back to basics and start playing again.
1. Deliberate practice
I will identify a measurable taget, where I feel I can be better, EG - identifying villains range, and spend 1 or two hours working on only that discipline.
2. Hand reviews
I will review any pots > 15bb and identify the reasons behind each decision. With the ultimate goal being to explain the reasons for every decision clearly.
3. Forum reviews
I will review hands on the forums and attempt to understand Hero's reasons, and possible opportunities to play it differently.
4. Keep it simple stupid!
I will believe their stiories, I will fold pretty hands when they put a lot of money in, I will not get caught playing out of position with no plan, I will not make light 3 and 4 bets, I will move tables when I dont have a good position.
5 - I will blog more
:)
I took a holiday at Easter and sort of fell out of the poker discipline.
Of course Black friday shook things up quite a lot, It didn't affect me from the point of view of my oppurtunities to play, or even the quality of the games, but my main study group was a group of American players, and a few other things (cough: blatent plug http://www.ownivey.com cough) just distracted me from the discipline I had applied to the game this year.
But now I'm feeling much more focussed again. I've booked a few coaching sessions with Inavaccum to try and give myself some more motivation to focus on the game again, and I've also benefitted from a little rungood from the Gods [ made a final table in a £10/5 at the local casino :) ]. So let us see how far we can take it.
I'm back at 5NL for a few weeks to get my mind back on the grind. (Also I broke my bankroll management rules a little bit by playing a Victoria Coren hosted homegame with rebuys),
But I'm hoping I can take another hit at 10NL very soon, and varience willing I can make it stick!
I'm really beginning to feel some affection for PokerStars. The games I have been in this month have all been so much better than those games I have been able to find at Full Tilt. I'm starting to get used to the software again, although it's still miles behind Full Tilt in my opinion, it's better than iPoker and some other sites I've tried.
Also the more I read about other players attitudes towards the operators of the site, it's easy to find other reasons to love them.
But tomorrow I'll be back at Full Tilt to clear the Take Two bonus. So we'll see how I feel in 10 days :)
This year I have been shown some new techniques for assessing opponents ranges and tendencies postflop and reacting to them effectively.
I've found it really interesting and looking out for this information has made the game very enjoyable even when some of the action has been frustrating.
One thing that has happened however is that I've become increasingly pressured trying to play 4 tables on Stars and take notes. It's partially because the note taking process in Full tilt is so nice - with the graphical hand history tool and the ability to make notes from in that interface. Since moving to Stars I've reverted to making notes in HEM (which is the correct place for notes btw - you will need access to them when reviewing your database later in the month to explain your motives)
I might give Note Caddy (http://www.notecaddy.com/) a try and see if that helps.
Meanwhile I have to say the games at PS are much better since they sorted out the short stack tables, with plenty of tables, hosting recreational players. Still only a few sessions, but I've enjoyed the action this far, and I hope it will continue through 10NL - I certainly wont miss those stupid card runners 5 handed tables that clutter up the Full Tilt lobby!
I've moved back to Pokerstars!
I still think FullTilt have the best software and I like their brand, but I have to admit that pokerstars seem to make more effort to engage with their players, and their brand is certainly rock solid.
I've only played 2 sessions but they have both seemed very passive with a few likely calling stations to pick on, which is how I like it.
Obviously I'm on a reload heater too ;)
I took a shot at 10NL again and missed. It's quite interesting this shift between 10NL and 5NL.
The games seem failrly similar. Maybe a bit more Badly thought out agression at 10NL, compared to the rock gardens at 5NL.
But 10NL feels cursed for me. I think I'm hanging too much attention on it.
I'm still enjoying the game but my motivation is shifting a lot recently. I'm much more interestied in playing to identify opponent tendencies than last year when I was trying to avoid losing big pots.
At the begining of the month I was very exceited about some of the things I was using to make good reads. This last two weeks I've felt a bit out of touch again.
It's vitally important that I dont measure the game by my results though. I've been trying to remind myself about that.
Hmm interesting, i complete the 50k hand challenge, chill out for a bit, decide to play 2 tables of 5NL for fun, and CRUSH it.
March has been feeling really good, although the volume has dropped significantly, I'm playing for the right reasons again.
It's after midnight now, and I need to sleep but I wanted to show you this:
A Slow Loris is a very cute animal. Giving it a tiny umbrella is frankly dangerous
I haven't blogged in too long but I've been doing quite a lot pokerwise which is interesting.
Unfortunately I've also been through quite a difficult process, so it's not all positive.
This year poker has felt like a cruel game. And somewhat expensive.
My green line continues downwards, I'm not calling it run bad or a downswing because I'm not entirely sure what it is yet.
I am reviewing hands and for the most part I feel pretty good about the way my thought process is coming along. I seem to be making a lot of good decisions for the right reasons.
It's a shame the results dont reflect that in my bankroll.
Which raises todays question in my mind:
If poker was a different game, maybe like chess some sort of video game where instead of wagering money, we scored our results based on the quality of our strategic decision. And in a world where we never knew about the alternative idea of wagering.
Would we still play?
I have had to accept a great many spots recently where the decision and implementation was correct, but the results were dissapointing.
I'm getting better at accepting this, although I recognise that by talking about it, I'm still complaining about it.
But on the turn of the card I think it really didn't matter to me anymore.
"Well you had the top of your range, but I think I had your range correct."
"Well I had x equity, and I was correct to make that bet-call."
"Well I had your range crushed but the river card killed my action, another time I get your stack."
And that's really all I want from the game next month.
I've dropped down in stakes, and I'm disappointed by that, but I think I've risen in my ability to think about, and play the game postflop.
And that's enough reward for now.
