Struggling pro

Yesterday was an awful day. The 5/10 games were unusably good so I sat down and played. I ran real bad no doubt and dropped 100bb. I tilted some and made a few bad plays. All in all my game needs some work I think. I am lost in many standard spots and I feel I don’t handle aggression well at all. I know a lot of theory but I feel my thought process at the table is weak. I play too fast, which I discussed in an earlier post. Of course it’s a risk to overemphasize these problems when one is running bad.

It would be a help if I could get in better physical shape and have a richer life on the side. I think both these things would make me less frustrated in general and more confident. However I don’t know how realistic it is atm. I suck pretty hard at “building a good life”. Usually I can do projects like that for a week or two but then I start to decline.

This was a major blow and right now I feel pretty small. I think it’s important that I do get back and play soon again though (tomorrow I think). Before blows like this has made me take breaks for several months, but that’s an expensive habit. Better to move down even all the way to 1/2 just to keep getting hands in. I think I need to work more on the side, but what I need more than anything is playing time.

This evening I’m meeting two friends to cook lamb and hopefully drink some red wine :). Feels good that I won’t have to sit alone in the appartment, because I feel petty crappy.

/Peter

As I explained in an earlier post I have a musical problem. The same song is played right outside my window for 10h/day. This has been going on since wednesday last week. Because of that I moved to my parents place for a coupe of days ad studied C++. I’m working on a poker application that I hope I will geto turn into a master thesis in optimization next year. Takes a lot of time but I have always liked programming (despite my overall computer clumpsy-ness).

The music will go on until frida and then I will finally have peace again. However I did move back anyway, because it was too dul on the countryside.

I’ve just finished a session dropin $250. I thin I played rather poorly. I obv ran bad, but I made some questionable plays and was overall uninspired. Sometimes I feel my game lacks an aggressive gear. Some opponents u need to make deeper bluffs vs. But I almost never do that. Maybe I need to get trickier. Anyway I quitted after 70min instead of the usual 90 and I think that was a fair decisson. Feel a bit low atm though.

/Peter

Week 2 started n a weird fashion. I was feeling nervous allready when I woke up. All day I was uneasy. I only managed to play for a little over 3h allthough I did play 3 sessions. I runned ok, up 150, not sure how I played though. There was also a problem with tables. Too few good ones running.

Last week I was on a huge heater and it almost feels like I subconciously and agaisnt everything I believe expect a downswing because of it. It’s super stupid, but I dunno. I’ve also been feeling bit cold, so I may be getting sick.

This was not my favourite poker day so far to say the least. And that despite winning! Instead of going for one more session I think I just try to go to bed early.

I have a poker worry too. I may be playing too weak agaisnt some regs that are able to take advantage of it. As long as I table select well I def think I have an overall edge. But it’s worrying that some players may be taking bites of me :). I think this is something I need to take a look at!

/Peter

Weeeeee first week done! Now I’m going out to meet a couple of friends. See u next week blog :)!

Today was the first day in the red. Lost $200, so no biggie for 2/4-3/6. Especially consider the heater I was on earlier this week. I’m consistently making two pretty big errors though:

1) When raised on river (and in some other spots aswell) I act way too quickly and end up making a lot of bad calls.
2) I miss pretty clear value by not raising and re-raising enough.

Overall I need to be a little bit cooler and use the seconds I have better. Point 2 is about taking my time and reading villains range and realize I have an edge (or not). They are also somewhat connected. My failure to make some obv folds makes me need a bigger equity edge on my value raises. I also feel my quick play results in me giving away some pretty obvius timing tells.

Tomorrow I will try to focus on slowing things doooown, which is easier said than done while 4-tabling. One trick is to let go of the mouse between every two clicks.

To be perfectly honest the last session today was the first this week I didn’t really felt like playing. But I decided to any way. I don’t regret that decission, even though I lost some. My priority was to get hours in and I think that’s fine.

Let’s hope tomorrow will be a better day!

/Peter

All poker sites use some sort of bonus system to “trick” their customers into playing as many hands as possible. The irony is: that is excactly what I need! Clearing bonuses is a very good type of goal in my situation, I think. Unlike winnings it’s something I can control. There is also an automatic reward connected to it. According to all “life-guides” I’ve read that’s an important part of setting goals.

I am trying to clear a 3k bonus at Party. According to my calculations that will take about 20 workdays (5h each). That feels like a very reasonable goal. It stretches over the perfect amount of time too.

Anyway now it’s time to start cooking for my badminton mates. I’m makig burgers (again lol)!

/Peter

So far (two days) I’m following the (modest) schedule of playing 3*1.5h sessions/day. I’m not a morning person at all. So my schedule is to get up at 10, eat breakfast and then basically do as little as possible until lunch. After lunch I become a human again and at 14 the first session begins. 15:30 is a short break with fruit/coffee or similar. Then I play 16-17.30. And then I have dinner. At 20 I start the last session of the day finishing at 21.30.

I’m starting slow so that I should be able to follow the schedule without too much problems. In the long run I should add one more session/day I think. Tomorrow there will be badminton action 17-21 (including dinner). So I need to re-schedule. I think 14-15.30 + 16-17 + 21-22.30 should do the trick even though Im then 30min short.

In a week or two I will be forced to tke a break for the sickest reason ever. I live next to a high-school. Every year at tis time they build something that is called the Cortège. The problem is that it’s a tradition that they choose one, alway very silly, song and play it on repeat from 10-20 ever day for two weeks. Needless to say that drives me nutzzzzz! My plan is to move out to my parents and work on a little computer application Im making. Then it’s back to grinding.

/Peter

Making one last (maybe :)) attempt at doing this poker pro thing. This time one thing I will focus on is to be much tougher when my friends ask me if I want to do differnt actvities. I have been very bad at turning anyone down in the past and that has made it very difficult for me to get enough hours in. Frequently when I hang out with my buddies I do so to late hours. The problem is that Im really bad at coming back after one night without enough sleep. This time I’m going to accept that and simply turn down some activities nd give strict time limits to others.

I have four friends/group of friends that I meet on a weekly basis. Typically I also have sunday dinner at my parents. Thus 5 days/week gets booked before the week begins (not every week and not always 5 days). When I say it this way it sounds stupid lol. Well I do like my friends and a couple of them don’t have a ton of others to hang out with. So it’s not going to be so easy. I don’t blame anyone but myself that Im bad at turning down people obv.

I do a few things on my own that consumes a lot of time. Video-games, poker shows, sometmes railing are all means to waste my time. And it can be a LOT of time aswell. This is a leak I MUST plug! I think my A-game is strong enough to make a living albeit not getting rich. The missing piece is the mental part. Both at the table, but more importantly off the table.

At least we have awesome spring weather today in Gothenburg so I feel great. The word “conistency” is on my mind though. I always end up blowing these shots by turning into a total degen. But this time will be different!!! Now I have my DC blog to think about!

/Peter

Yo just trying out this feature. Today I played a 5/10 session and runned gooot. Awesome! That’s all for now. Peace!