I’ve played quite well even though my results don’t show it. I’ve been ill and have played about half of my usual volume. On the whole i’m running fine at NL100 but not at NL200. That being said I should just give up on playing any stakes of Heads-Up game as it’s really not something I can claim consistency in. The variance is higher than 6max or full ring games anyhow so the sample size would have to be pretty large to even out. Not something I have time for right now.
Here are a few of the things that have got my attention recently whilst playing…
- Learning to be invulnerable. Plugging those leaks in my game before exploring newer, marginal areas of gameplay. Something that is a fundamental in ‘The Art of War’.
- Being calm and focused enough to ALWAYS remember poker is not a way to get rich quickly. A steady mind means less mistakes. Patience has been a big theme for me this month in conjunction with…
- Staying in the present to get into the zone. Too often I have drifted ‘off topic’ when the real enjoyment I get from playing is being perfectly right, in the moment. I have been taking the advice of a psychological coach to focus on relevant cues and nothing else. I can already see the improvement in my hand reading ability.
Being more patient has seen me make fewer mistakes at less expense. I’m much more willing now to play a whole session and be content with not getting the information I need to make a play on someone if the cost of getting that info in the short-term is too high. I’ve found it really is important to never pay too much for that information.
I heard a useful soundbite in a TV show recently. Something like “You don’t remember the ones you save; you only remember the ones you fail.” There’s a myriad of ways to interpret this into something useful in my life. Poker not the least. The people in my life especially. I don’t intend to fail any of these aspects and this just motivated me further to make sure I do my best and not settle for a weak effort.
On motivation, this game can be a trial on the mind to overcome the strains but, ethically or morally frowned on as I realise some motivations may be, each person has their own particular way of finding purpose. As much as I want to be the greatest at this…and I do, i’m feeling more motivated if i’m doing my best to win the most money as I can, not necessarily be the best I can. I’m certain they go together, but the structure of my thoughts in this way is proving more beneficial to me than searching for that champion spirit. It’s almost a release of external pressure as i’m no longer judging myself by an intangible but something I can get immediate feedback from.
An interesting snippet from this month was that I played a 19 hour session with a lunatic who had a VPIP of 98%, and another of 68%. Both at the same table, they blew about $2000+ in about 3 hours between them. My run of luck was so bad at first, and then I won it all back plus a little for my trouble. I captured it on Video and may post it one day. Honestly one of the craziest, highest intensity, pot swelling sessions i’ve EVER had. Funny stuff.
Anyway, here are the mid month graphs. I’ve added a Player summary to add a little understanding to the choppy graphs.
Weird as it is, I seem not to have posted a mid-month update for October. Even though I thought I had! Meh! In that case i’ll just post a recap on the whole month. If I babble, it’s becasue I have a cold/flu/illness, sorry 
yuck!
Well, I played just over 34,000 hands and showed a very small profit, about $90. With Rakeback and deals thats about $800. Not great but not terrible either. I’ve been working on structuring my hand ranges to get a solid TAG game and to allow me to realise what a LAG game actually is! My TAG game is around a 16% VPIP so working from there I can now mix up my ranges to LAG it up when appropriate. A positive improvement from this is the reduction in Standard Deviation of my BB rate by about 10BB/100 which i’m pleased with. I can definitely feel the reduced variance in my style.
My trip to Ireland was great. I cashed in the tournament for the 2nd year running and finally sat in a cash game. My issue in the past has been, upon watching these games, the LAGy nature and crazy styles means the best way to play is a nitty, uber-tight style. A bit boring if you’re sitting there for 3-4 hours and that didn’t appeal to me at all. However, I did it, and it paid off. Not least because I hit a straight flush (to the french opponents exact same straight; non-flush of course) but I played it well and enjoyed the experience. Me and my travelling buddies were part of the sponsors entourage and thus got to hang with many pros. Lots of bracelet winner’s amongst them and just had a blast listening to some crazy drinking stories, which it seems is the hobbie of choice for many of these seasoned players! Our host was exceedingly gracious and put us up in the hotel without charge.
As for Octobers graphs, i’ll split the EV graphs into stakes (NL25/NL50 and NL100) as the graph gets overly choppy and difficult to read with both of them side by side. The showdown/non-showdown graph shows all totals. My bankroll management has changed somewhat. Where I used to say that I would jump up a level when I had ~2000 bb for the level I was moving to, some recent articles i’ve read have made me adjust that, so now I ‘take shots’ at the level above when I have surpassed my lowest comfortable bb/buy-in level for the stakes below. i.e. In the past i’d jump to NL200 with 4K in my roll. Now i’ll take shots when it reaches 2K but drop back to NL100 when/if I break below this amount. It’s working nicely at the moment and I feel as if i’m able to expand my horizons and understanding faster this way than before. My old rules may have been too conservative.
Here are the graphs. As you can see I ran about 450bb below EV for NL100, and about 400-500bb above expectation for NL25-NL50.
I can say it’s been a bumpy month! I feel a little lost with my game, not nearly as much now as earlier this month, but there are things that just don’t feel right to me. Conscious incompetence if you like. I am working on that by digging through my understanding of the game holistically, and building from what I believe is correct. There have been positive developments, yet undoubtedly I have a long way to go.
Most notably, I’ve structured my hand reading to be formulaic yet flexible. I think it drifted off of that for some time while I was taking good money and my response was just complacency. Not any more. I’m still posting at a much increased rate on forums; watching videos more frequently; asking questions at all times. Even the understanding between my brother and me has improved dramatically as we both see that working hard, without ego or reproach, with one another will make us much better. It’s a VERY pleasing experience knowing someone has your best interests at heart…without question. I think at the moment i’m the main supplier of fresh educational material for the two of us, but that’s mostly down to me knowing more of the ‘landscape’ for acquiring information and his current internet connectivity. Regardless, he reads/watches/listens to it all and we are able to discuss it between us which is great. Good things are ahead of us if we stay on this path.
Most recently, I have been learning (and re-learning) strategic thinking. Re-analyzing ‘The Art of War’ has given me some great ideas, and in general the process of actually planning a strategy from your own knowledge and not just using someone elses ready made strategy. I’m doing my best to keep my hand volume up whilst not having my focus deteriorate via multi-tabling, as some of these new strategic measures are yet to become habit. As i’ve learnt before, even when they do become habit, it’s too easy to let those positive changes go and to fall back into negative habits, so i’m constantly reminding myself of it’s importance and to be on my A-game as much as I can. Aside from that my poker trip is very soon so i’m excited about that.
Here are my graphs for the latter part of September. Let me know what you think.
