So here's me making a continued and concerted effort towards at least one of my new year's resolutions: Consistently Profitable Poker. It's a goal i know is attainable, and one that i'm not even that far from, really, but this blog is necessary for a lot of reasons.
I'm capable of good play. I have hands that i have logged and analyzed in which i show some pretty amazing insight and made some very good plays that i would not have even known i didn't know a year ago. Not to brag, but those situations just feel really good. At the same time I have leaks; i know i do. I've closed one or two in just the past few weeks, but i feel that others just GAPE for now. On top of which, I STILL tilt at times. My "Money Won/Hands Played" graph looks like an M right now with my break even line splitting the middle rather nicely. I know some of these downturns are variance and horrendous beats that I'm destined to see at the stakes at which i'm playing for now. I also know that the downturns are much longer because after these beats my play sometimes deteriorates to a disgusting degree.
I'm not going to analyze anything this post, just introduce. So i'm going to be writing here to force even more honesty on myself about my game than i've allowed since the new year. Aiding me will be PT3 stats and hand replays and the like.
Some goals...
For reasons that shall be put behind me for now, i stand with approx $15 in my full tilt account(my bad, $15.87).
This puts me back into $1 SnG territory for now. I have played these almost perfectly break even over 130 tournaments. PT3 shows a slight loss, but that's because it doesn't know how to read the 4 HORSE tournaments i entered, 3 of which i cashed in. Of the 130 Hold 'Em tournaments I've bought paid $162.50 in buy ins and neted $152.
My intention is to play the $1 NL SnGs until maybe $50 at which point i may try to reincorporate 6max micro stakes NL and/or LHE, after that point i'll establish/stick to approx the 20 buy in rule as far as moving up in limits.
This is because i know(or at least perceive) myself to be more proficient at NL SnGs and LHE 6max than other game types for now. Also PT3 has no idea what to do with HORSE tables and the like, so i feel there may be more benefit in focusing on improving my Hold 'Em for now and adapting those lessons to my other games at a later date. This will also give me a chance to focus on one game at a time and hopefully really lock down my SnG game.
Money is tight for now, and my schedule is crazy, but i'm kinda close to being able to hit up a CardRunners or StoxPoker membership via Full Tilt points, and intend to take advantage of that as soon as would be reasonable(if i don't have internet for 2 weeks, spending 5k points on a one month membership would be frustrating).
along with this clean slate idea i exported and purged my PT3 database. It's there to look at later, but i've spent a lot of time looking at those numbers already and know the adjustments i want to make - i want to be able to see myself truly commit to those.
A big part of my goal with all of this is to gain control over my mental game. It's been a huge hurdle for me, honestly. I play poker for a lot of reasons. Sometimes I play when i'm bored, sometimes i play when i'm drunk, sometimes i play when i'm frustrated, sometimes i play when i have an hour to kill, sometimes i play when i have 10 minutes to kill, sometimes i load up a table because i'm pretty sure i have enough time for two orbits of 6max.
I know for a pretty solid fact about... 20% of the time that i log into my FT account, i'm in the right place mentally to play solid poker. that isn't to say that all those other sessions are guaranteed to be losing sessions, bare minimal decisions can be profitable where i play, but bare minimal decisions combined with distraction, frustration, or worse than usual luck can't. I feel like all that and focus, can. I feel like i can happily limit myself to freerolls on any site when i'm just "in the mood to see some hands", but my brain is miles away from the table.
I need to buy earphones. My room is distracting as hell. I need to limit myself to 4 tables MAX , realistically 2 until i get a hold on just how distracted i get from my tables. I will listen to music, but i won't watch videos while i play any more, again, until i get a hold on how much distraction detracts from solid play.
Especially since i've limited myself to SnGs for the time being, i'll only play when i'm pretty sure i have a few hours to sit down and really play.
My life is still pretty well balanced, though i acknowledge that as an important factor and intend to evaluate it on occasion. My social life has never taken a 2nd seat to my FT account, though i have been working on developing a secondary and/or tertiary hobby so as to ensure that poker isn't my only "true down time" activity. I'm into two really good books at the moment, i've been getting back into Go and i've been making myself play video games with the kids next door on occasion. I get exercise every day out of necessity 'cuz of my job, so.
I need to find rakeback/some sort of rake compensation. For this reason i think my next deposit will be at Poker Stars if i think i've been able to devote enough time to log enough volume of hands to make that worthwhile(FT says(bullshit) that i signed up through an affiliate to their site, and giving me rakeback anywhere would violate their agreement with that affiliate... so).
Okay so this has sort of been a meandering brain dump of a first post, but those are the general ideas. Hopefully i'll get to log a good session tonight(though i have a really long errand to take care of first) and post some hands and start on a reasonable path down my poker journey here, and be able to give this blog some direction and focus.
$15.87
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