Reset Your Mind for the End Game

I've been getting deep lately in online tournaments, but seem to make some sort of wierd mistake that I can look back on and clearly see where it went wrong. Call it a brain fart or whatever, but for some reason I'm dominating early and mid stages and when it starts getting closer to the final table, I'm making mistakes.

Part of this could be because I recently went through a downswing and hadn't made it deep in a while, but I figured out it was something else. I'm getting anxious (in an excited, impatient sort of way) about making the final table and making a big cash and I'm narrowing my focus to my cards. I'm losing sight of putting others on a hand and I'm forcing situations in order to win a specific (sometimes insignificant) pot. I'm not thinking about any particular hand I'm representing and I'm just blindly being agressive without regards to my opponent's holdings.

Why am I doing this and what am I going to do about it?
It only makes sense that after hours of play you are going to have wound up tension from multiple coin flips and dodging miracle river cards. This can create an anxious feeling as you get closer and closer to hitting it big. It's certainly a normal reaction, but in order to excel at this game (and any other competition for that matter), you have to eliminate this emotional response...especially when tensions are mounting. It all goes back to that detachment thing I keep talking about.

So the first thing I need to do is recognize that the tension exists. Do a gut check...literally. When you're all wound up, your stomach muscels tend to tighten. If your stomach and shoulders seem to be tensed up, it's a good sign you need to do something. This tension needs to be released in order to think clearly and approach the end game as a new beginning.

What I have done in the past when I recognize this feeling is to Re-set my mind. Consider it half-time or a TV timeout or whatever, but there needs to be moments of stepping back and re-assessing your game plan.

How you re-set is simple:

Step 1: Recognize - Just keep a general tab on your psychological and emotional state throughout the game so you can identify when you might need to do something about it. It's not like you have to constantly monitor yourself and make it a big deal, just be able to determine if your play is being affected.

Step 2: Relax - Step away from the computer (or table in live play), get a drink, stretch, take a big deep breath, shake it off, yell out, etc. Whatever works for you to break the tension and clear your mind, do it.

Step 3: Re-Focus - Take a look around the table. What are the stacks like around you, what are the emotions like of the other players, what types of plays are optimal based on your stack size and these other situational factors? In other words, determine a proactive game plan moving forward instead of being subjected to the luck of the cards. Thinking about the future helps you focus on the end goal and how each decision impacts that.

So moving forward, I'm going to incorporate this re-set plan as a regular routine for tournaments. I'm not necessarily going to stand up from the table everytime things start getting heated. It may be as simple as taking a quick breath and adjusting my game plan to the dynamics of the table. But I will definitely start using it to keep a clear, focused and determined mindset to take down more final tables.

Yummy Stop n' Go

Rather than push since he has the stack and will be getting good odds to call, I don't want this guy to see 5 cards. Text book stop n'go where you push no matter what falls on the flop.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (7 handed)

MP2 (t1060)
CO (t1175)
Button (t2305)
SB (t2600)
Hero (t1445)
UTG (t3880)
MP1 (t1035)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ts, Tc.
UTG raises to t450, 5 folds, Hero calls t300.

Flop: (t975) Qs, 8c, 4s
Hero bets t995 (All-In), UTG folds.

Final Pot: t1970

Learning the Game vs. Understanding the Game

I'm at a transition point in my experience with poker (No Limit Hold'em specifically) in that I'm shifting from looking to other sources for the "correct" way to play certain situations to a deeper level of understanding of the game, where I look to myself for the answers. Books and poker forums are now reference points for additional perspective instead of text books or instructional manuals with a magical answer.

It's really a shift in confidence. Where I used to think "what did Harrington say about small pairs with 8M again?", I have been in enough situations where I'm referencing my own past experiences instead. I now think through multiple ways of approaching a situation and understand the full implications of each course of action, then select the one that has the highest positive expected value (EV).

I'm certainly not saying that I know everything about the game. I still have a lot to learn and there are definitely answers that others with more experience can provide. In fact, I'm sure there are questions I don't even know to ask yet. But I feel like I've passed through a stage of skill development that has brought me one step closer to reaching my goals.

Playing the Situation

Simple little hand, but nice example of playing the situation.

This bet was made based on my stack size relative to theirs and the likely hood that one of them had an Ace since there was no pre-flop raise. Also there are no significant draws out there, so the likely hood of getting called goes down.

PokerStars Game #7637832681: Tournament #38704499, $9.00+$0.90 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2006/12/27 - 22:05:27 (ET)
Table '38704499 8' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: AgReSSiVe79 (1780 in chips)
Seat 2: akdgh (1295 in chips)
Seat 3: DP388 (2720 in chips)
Seat 4: bigtimin (1230 in chips)
Seat 5: PCD48 (1410 in chips)
Seat 6: TheG8dFather (1115 in chips)
Seat 7: righty0130 (4405 in chips)
Seat 8: LowLead77 (3160 in chips)
Seat 9: cup1948 (1275 in chips)
DP388: posts small blind 50
bigtimin: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DP388 [3h Qh]
PCD48: folds
TheG8dFather: folds
righty0130: folds
LowLead77: folds
cup1948: folds
AgReSSiVe79: folds
akdgh: calls 100
DP388: calls 50
bigtimin: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ts 4c Ah]
DP388: bets 200
bigtimin: folds
akdgh: folds

When I'm Playing Good I...

1. Have a grin. I may not be showing it, but inside I'm smiling because I know I'm going to take everyone's chips.
2. Act deliberately. Every play has a reason.
3. In tune with the emotions of everyone at the table, whether I'm playing online or live.
4. Have a relaxed focus
5. Am having a good time
6. Have relaxed shoulders, stomach muscles and "chi"
7. Completely detached from emotions or results, only reacting to or creating situations
8. Settle into a rhythm and don't tend to think too much
9. Don't commit to a play until I've seen all the action ahead of me
10. Know what the other guy is thinking
11. Make bets that will extract the most chips out of a situation
12. Make sick laydowns

More to come...

Why Am I Playing Poker? (old post from Sept 06)

This was a post from my old Pokermentor's blog from September 2006. I felt it was important to post here in order to give some perspective on why I'm playing poker and why I love the game so much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, this is kind of a stream of consciousness post, so bear with me.

Something interesting occurred the other day. I was invited to attend a WSOP Circuit event by a friend who is planning on playing the $1,000 tournament on Saturday, Sept. 30th. He asked if I wanted to play in that event. Well, my bankroll is around $8,000 so I told him that playing in that event would be outside of my bankroll, but I would probably play in the smaller satellites and SNGs.

Well, this friend actually writes articles for Bluff Magazine in a column called "The Amateur’s Mind" and my response about not having the bankroll prompted him to write an article called "Tournament Bankroll Fallacies". This article, which will actually be running in the November issue, talked about the author, myself, and another friend who all approach tournament entry fees in a different way.

To make a long story short, my comment about having the money but not the bankroll to play bothered him because I wasn't taking into account the experience and confidence that I would gain by playing in a larger buy-in event. I also was not taking into account the fun and overall life experience that is had by playing in these types of events.

Now both of us do not play poker for a living, or really a true income per se, but our approaches to managing a bankroll are much different. BUT, his article and subsequent emails that we exchanged really got me thinking. WHY AM I PLAYING POKER?

At one point I felt that I wanted to use poker as a way to make some side money for our family to ensure we were meeting our bills, pay off some debt, etc. Oh, and maybe one day if I made enough, I could officially play part time while teaching and coaching for a living (I am not a teacher, but I've always wanted to). Well after our third child was born, my frequency of play has been reduced to about 3 days a week and I also haven't been playing in as many big tournaments. After staying up until 2 or 3am, my productivity at work was really going to crap. I started feeling guilty about this, so I've been sticking with smaller tournaments that I know shouldn't go past around 12am or so. And even on the weekends, the kids are waking up around 7am and my lack of sleep was really causing me to be short-tempered with them.

So as a result, I haven't been able to put myself in a position to make as much money as I once was. I'm playing in tournaments with smaller fields and now, even if I final table, I'm only making a few hundred dollars. Now, I'm not complaining about "only" making a few hundred, BUT for me to make any side income that is significant enough to make a difference, I'll have to stick with grinding things out over a long period of time.

SO...that got me re-evaluating why I play. I make enough at in my career to support my family, so why am I so worried about this regular side income? For me to achieve this long-term dream of teaching/coaching and playing poker for a living, I would have to commit a significant amount of time to playing poker. More time than I have to give really. Do I really care about grinding out a couple hundred a month and following strict bankroll management rules?

Meh, in a way I do and in a way I don't. I play poker because I LOVE the game. I love the blend of psychology, math and competition. I love how it's helped me learn how to achieve a calmer, more focused state of mind when approaching different aspects of life. I love the fact that I have something that continuously challenges me and that pushes me to become the best. When I stopped wrestling competitively in college, there was a void missing in my life. I no longer had something that I could pour my heart and soul in that related to my own personal achievement. With poker, I have this and I want to push myself to become one of the best. I want to break down my own personal barriers of self-doubt and I want to see how far I can take this thing. I think this love for competition is why I like tournament poker over the other forms. So really my ultimate goals are related to winning significant tournaments (whether this is the nightly $55K guaranteed on Stars or a WSOP bracelet). All efforts that I put into poker should now be focused on achieving these goals.

So am I playing poker because of the money? Only from the sense that money is the measurement for success. Money is how you keep score. And while the monetary/income oriented role that money plays is obviously a nice byproduct; it is NOT why I am playing.

Wow, okay...there's the breakthrough. There's the self-realization that I was hoping would come from this blog entry. If you've made it this far, thanks for listening. If you haven't, then I'm talking to myself and that's okay too.

So, what next? What about bankroll managment? I've always called myself a bankroll nerd because I never really took a shot at playing tournaments that might be outside of my roll. I mean I had $8K and it still made me nervous to play $100sngs.

Now I'm not saying that I'm going to start playing the daily $100 rebuy on Stars and every Sunday tournament. But, what I am going to change is my feeling about losing money. Since my goal is not to generate income (again, I'm looking at this as a nice byproduct), if there is a tournament that I really want to play in I'm going to be more likely to take a shot at it for the challenge and the reward of a big payday. The whole thing about playing within your bankroll is that if you REGULARLY play at a certain level and hit a downswing in variance, it can put you in a position to go bust. I do not plan on regularly playing outside of my bankroll. For the most part, I will still play within my bankroll. But I think the difference is that now, especially because the frequency in which I am able to play has been reduced, I am not going to shy away from tournaments that will put me in a position to make a nice payday. And even more importantly, I will play in tournaments that challenge me and are in line with my competitive goals of being one of the best. I also think this new attitude will help me become a better player because I am detaching myself from the monetary aspect of money. I won't be worried about losing a certain amount of money. Instead, I will be looking at the opportunity to make a certain amount.

Good luck at the tables...unless you're at mine :-)

Observing People, Not Just Their Play

When everyone took their seats last night, I noticed that the gentleman to my right was wearing a visor. Underneath the visor it was apparent that he had went through some sort of hair plug or hair growth treatment. He was probably in his early-to-mid 40s.

What does this say about him as a person?
Loosing his hair at a relatively early age is probably hard for most men to deal with. But the fact that he has done something about it means that he is concerned with his image and how others see him. He probably wears the visor because the treatment isn't finished yet and doesn't want to look awkward.

What could this mean about the way he plays?
Since he is concerned with his image, he will likely not want to get into situations where the table sees him make a bad play. He'd be embarrassed. So in the back of my mind, I felt if a situation arose, I could put him to the test and make him laydown. At the same time, I knew this would only work a few times because he would not want to look like he was getting pushed around. Obviously I was going to pay attention to his play and table talk to see if my observation was valid. It was.

This worked out beautifully for me. Right after the first break it folded to him in the small blind. He raised 2.5x and I re-raised with a marginal hand, putting him in a push or fold situation. He mucked (again, not wanting to look bad). I took down a few more pots he was involved with and I could tell he was starting to play with ego and felt like I was getting out of line. After a few rotations, an early player limped and he raised 3x. I picked up AA. I thought about shoving, but instead put in a raise which would cause him to push over the top of me. As planned, he pushed with AJ. GG sir.


I like this concept of this post. I'll try and find more examples like this.

Ah yes, that's what it feels like to win

I just got back from a local $100 tournament and played some really good poker. I was relaxed and was in tune with everything going on at the table. And most importantly, I got back to playing the players and didn't let any emotions or pressure to win affect my play. I made some nice reads and took the right action each time, whether it was to call, make a move or extract chips with big hands. I didn't really catch a ton of monster hands or anything. Just nice balanced play all around. And it really felt great. After a few nice hands, I was really having fun playing smart poker without trying too hard.

The result was chopping 3 handed giving the short stack a little extra and even chopping the rest with a guy who had slightly more chips than me. I definitely felt like I was the best player and would win it, but the blinds were starting to get high and I felt chopping was the smartest move.

Anyway, just gonna keep this mindset going and try to build some momentum.

Trying Too Hard to Win

So I tend to go through these periods where I'm trying so hard to focus on making smart plays that it inhibits my ability to loosen up and open my mind to all the information at hand. It also causes me err on the side of caution too much, preventing me from making the "well if you have me, you have me" type plays that are usually key hands in building a massive stack.

I alluded to this in the Fear of Being Wrong post and after taking a couple days off, I've realized that I've been trying too hard ever since I decided to go to Tunica again and am trying to build up my bankroll before the trip. I know that those periods in which I don't really care as much about the outcome, are the ones that I play my best. I think the key is to realize when you are being blinded by these emotional factors, take a few days off and come back and play simply for the fun of playing.

Alright, no more whiny posts about introspective psychological crap. Shake it off and get back in the game!

Time for a Hold'em Break

I love the game, but I feel like I'm out of sync for some reason. I'm questioning my plays and not trusting my instincts. My gut is right, but I'm being letting emotions dictate my decisions more than I should. I think this whole bankroll issue is making my losing streak worse. I don't think all of it is variance and I think I just need to shift gears a little and get my head on straight.

I really want to get better at Omaha PLO8 and some other games, so I'm going to focus my attention there.

Are You Playing or Practicing?

In almost all sports, there is a clear delineation between practicing and competing. In contrast, every time you play poker for money you are in a competition. Unfortunately there are many times when you are in a competition, but playing as if you were in practice mode.

Let's define what I mean by practicing. During a practice, you think through the intricate techniques involved in a move or a play. You break those down into individual steps and you perform it repetitively in order to perfect the technique and make it second nature. You may simulate competition, but there is always an interjection of analysis in order to optimize your skills.

In a competition, however, to perform optimally you should be on auto-pilot, letting instinct take over. Thinking through each step on a conscious level is actually counter-intuitive to the goal of winning. I could expand more here, but there are several sports psychology books written on this subject (one is Winning Ugly, by Andre Agassi's tennis coach Brad Gilbert). Another book you can check out that talks about the power of the human sub-conscious is Blink.

So how does this apply to poker?
What can often happen during a session is that instead of playing, you are actually practicing. You may be new to the game and refer back to what a book said was the "correct" way to play or if you are a student of the game, you may try new plays in order to take your game to a new level. You may also decide to play against a particular person in a different way than you are normally would or might just be in a tough situation that you haven't had enough experience with to know the best way to proceed. In these situations, your actions have not yet become second nature and you revert back to "practice mode".

Practicing while playing poker is not optimal because you are taking too much time and effort to analyze each step and not playing a hand through to completion. You might be thinking only one step at a time and not an entire line (i.e. pre-flop without a plan for the flop, flop without a plan for the turn or river, etc.). Additionally, you may be analyzing previous hands which can prevent you from optimally attacking current and future hands.

And while poker is a thinking game, there is a line that can easily get crossed when you start over-thinking a situation. As you gain experience and have "practiced" a situation enough times, you can perform a very brief analysis and let instinct take over allowing for a more confident and fluid game.

So if you are always in competition, how do you practice poker?
Obviously you can read books and articles or even get a mentor, but that isn't the practicing I'm talking about. In order to practice, it involves either breaking down and analyzing skills or simulating a competitive environment. Here are a few ways:

• Post-hand analysis - Just like a football coach would watch film, analyze your hand histories after a competition. This can be done from live play or online. Also consider signing up for PokerXFactor to use their hand replayer.
  
• Participate in poker strategy online forums - But don't just read. Make comments about hands and how you would play them. It switches your brain from passive reading to active engagement, which will help you learn better. 2+2 is probably the best forum for strategy.
  
• Watch online play - Pick a few tournaments to watch, or even players you know are good. But, as with the forums, actively engage your mind by putting players on hands and thinking through how you would play a situation (and in this case you can make decisions regardless of cards, since you can't see what they have).
  
• Harrington on Hold'em's quizzes - Again with this one, don't read the answers until you've actually thought through the hand and answered it yourself.
  
• Simulate live play - You can do this by dealing out your own cards and play every position as if you don't know what they other cards are. You can simulate a full table, 6 handed or short handed play. This is something that was very helpful to me early on. It helped me understand how strong hands in late position are compared with those of the blinds because you can see the types of trashy random hands that they likely hold.

Now obviously, when you play you are going to find yourself in situations that you haven't practiced before. When those occur, do your best to play on a sub-conscious level without thinking too much. This is how you hone your instincts. Leave the hand analysis for later and separate practicing from competition.

Losing Streaks Suck! Where'd My Bankroll Go?

I normally stay pretty positive about things and I completely understand variance. I have been through downswings before, but things have really sucked lately.

I was on a nice little run earlier this year and built my bankroll up to $8K. I originally started with $300 online and even have dished out a couple grand in private training. After I won my first significant tournament, I really started getting in the grove and was playing really well. Even if I had little downswings, I was still very confident in my decisions.

After Jenni and I had our third child I toned down the frequency of playing and I balanced my time between work, family and poker a little better. I was really tired at work and poker was the culprit, so I started playing less of the big tournaments that would keep me up until 2am.

I did, however, start playing in some of the local $1/$2 cash games and found myself not adjusting. I wasn't adjusting to a cash game style and I wasn't adjusting to the players as much as I normally do in a tournment. The result of this and playing some cash games online was losing about $2.5K. 1/2 was certainly in my bankroll, but when every hand had a live straddle, I might as well have been playing 2/4.

Speaking of bankroll, during this time I also had a moment of reflection with regards to why I'm playing poker in the first place. I blogged about this on Pokermentors and I'll probably move that post over here. But the result of this epiphany was that I loosened my bankroll management rules. It took me a while to get used to it and I'm not sure I fully have. I think if I had made a significant cash, it wouldn't be a cause for concern, but now I'm down to about $3,500.

I've started playing more poker after I set my WSOP goal. Since then I haven't been able to get things going again. I've had a few minor cashes in some local live tournaments, but nothing significant. Online, I haven't cashed in my last 20 tournaments. I've bubbled a couple, but I'm really on a bad run of late. I'm trying not to let it affect my confidence, because I really do believe I'm a better player now than I was earlier in the year.

I think what is going on right now is a period of transition. I'm moving away from textbook plays and I'm trying to find my own style. I've always had certain tactics that work for me, but I've been experimenting with a few things lately. I think I have to go through this stage in order to take things to a new level, but it's not helping my bankroll. Technically, yes, I could replenish my bankroll with outside means. But it is very important for me to separate my poker money from my life money. I never want poker to create financial issues for my family.

So, right now I've got a trip to Tunica coming up for the World Poker Open and the WSOP Circuit event. Last time I allocated about $2,500 to the trip and came away down $1K. I'm confident that I can come away ahead on the trip, I'm just getting awfully close to wiping out the bankroll it took me almost 2 years to build.

I know. I shouldn't worry so much about money. But I really don't want to have the talk with Jenni about taking out a few grand so I can re-build my bankroll. We have the means and it probably isn't that big of a deal, but its still an uncomfortable conversation. At the same time, I also don't want to grind out $5 sit-n-gos online. My only other option is to not play in Tunica unless I can build up enough money before then. But it's only a month away.

The thing is, this is why I'm playing poker. To be able to go to these events and compete, so I can gain the necessary experience in order to reach my goal. Yes, the money is great and its how you keep score, but I'm not playing for a living.

So the plan for now is to stay focused and not let the downswing affect my play. I'm going to grind out as many small to mid-sized online tournaments and sit-n-gos as I can. If I keep on this streak, I won't make too big of a dent in my bankroll, but it will put me in a position to hopefully win a few grand in the next month. I'm also not going to worry too much about this bankroll thing. I'm going to make some adjustments and not play in big buy-in tournaments right now, but if I worry about going bust it's just going to negatively affect my play. If it's something that happens, it's not the end of the world. All the great players have gone bust multiple times. I'll just cross that bridge if I come to it.

Oooh Hot Stuff! Playing the Player

Not your typical DP hand here, but it was played to perfection.

UTG = very loose donk - will pay off most hands
Button = passive - has folded to resistance pre and post flop multiple times

I came into this pot for two very specific reasons. If I hit, I could take UTG's stack. I also knew that I could outplay the button if he missed the flop.

My position in this hand was set up perfect b/c I could see how UTG acted before making my play and I knew that if the button made a bet that smelled like a continuation bet I could take it away from him.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed)

SB (t1260)
BB (t915)
UTG (t1620)
UTG+1 (t1230)
MP1 (t2345)
MP2 (t2620)
Hero (t1015)
CO (t700)
Button (t1355)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 7d, 8d.

UTG calls t30, 3 folds, Hero calls t30, 1 fold, Button raises to t90, 2 folds, UTG calls t60, Hero calls t60.

Flop: (t315) 4d, 9h, Th (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero checks, Button bets t210, UTG folds, Hero raises to t925, Button folds.

:-)

The Fear of Being Wrong

If I had to pick the number one obstacle I've had to overcome during my short poker career, it would be playing with fear.

I'm somewhat of a Type A personality and, for those things I care about, I'm a perfectionist. While trying to be perfect pushes you to be succesful, it also comes with some strings attached. Two negative side effects of perfectionism is overthinking and the fear of failure. Both of these really go hand in hand. It's "crap...that's a strong bet...what the hell do they have? Maybe X, no maybe Y, oh I know...it's Z. But wait, if it was Z wouldn't they have...hmmm...damn...if I'm wrong I lose half my stack. Better play it safe. I fold."

Why am I afraid of being wrong? I guess part of it could be not wanting to look bad in front of other people. But mostly, I think it's just me being anal and not wanting to make mistakes. A mistake would mean I didn't play perfectly. I'm sure there's something deeper going on there, but I'm sure I'll figure that out eventually.

I first realized I had this fear when I started playing poker online. My heart would race and my forehead would sweat anytime I was actively in a hand with even the slightest of action. And we were not talking about high stakes here. I started playing .05/.10 NL online, so I was basically freaking out over $4 pots.

So, knowing this was one of the biggest obstacles holding me back, I have consciously worked on this emotional/psychological aspect of my game. One of my favorite poker books is Zen and the Art of Poker. One of the best pieces of advice this book offers is to consciously practice trusting your instincts. "Playing by instinct is going to be wrong at times but doing it on a regular basis will purify the process. From practice, you will close the gap. Your instinct will improve, until what is in your mind will gradually become in alignment with the true nature of what is going on in the game."

I've come a long way in the last couple of years in defeating this demon. I'm proud of what I've accomplished but it still creeps up from time to time. Here's a great example from a tournament I played in last night:

At 100/200 blinds + 25 ante, we're 6 handed and I've been very active. I have about 4500 and get AT under the gun. Normally I'm raising there, mixed with a small percentage of folds, but I've been experimenting with a few things and I decide to limp, 2 others call behind and a very aggressive big blinds pushes all in for 2300. My gut says that she's pushing with almost any two here and most likely A-rag, but for some reason the fear of being wrong whispered in my ear and I folded...I found out later she had A2, which was what I figured. I was 70% to win.

Now of course if you simply look at the cards, AT isn't the type of hand you should normally call all-ins with. But I'm at the point in my game where I'm moving beyond what the books say and I'm evaluating the entire situation before even thinking of my cards. Moving forward I plan on trusting my instincts more and more in these situations, even if it makes me look like a donkey or busts me out. It's only through repetition and practice that I'll hone my skills solidify my confidence in difficult situations.

The Goal - WSOP Bracelet by 2011

The goal has been set. My challenge is on.

After a little over two years of playing poker, I've decided to set my sights on the most coveted prize in poker - a bracelet at the World Series of Poker.

I totally understand that this won't happen overnight, which is why I've set this as a five year goal. I believe that I have the foundation and raw talent to be a great player, but I also realize that developing skills and gaining experience takes time.

Why do I think I'm capable of reaching this goal?

1. I take a business like approach to things. Most people do not even take the first step of setting a goal. Of those, a very small percentage set a plan of attack to reach their goals.

2. I have the focus and determination to make it happen.

3. I believe that I have an edge over many players in that I'm always observing and taking in information. Because of that, I can read people well and I'm good at putting them on a hand. Empathy and the ability to put myself in other's shoes has always been a skill of mine and something I have utilized throughout my career. As this is already one of my edges, improving this skill will only make me stronger.

4. I take a logical and strategic approach to decision making and rarely make emotional decisions. This has been an aspect of my game that I've really worked on and feel it is very strong in relation to other players.

5. I rarely get star struck. The top pros are real people like anyone else. I've played with the best online and they don't intimidate me, so when I sit down at the table with Ivey or Helmuth I'll play them like I would anyone else.

6. I'm a student of the game and I am always looking for ways to take my skills to a new level.

Where am I in relation to my goal?

My statistics from online play are consistent with many of the pros, so I feel like I have a solid foundation of confidence from there. But I do feel like there are aspects of my game and elements specific to live play that I need to work on. In the entire world of poker players, I'd say I'm in the top 80-85% in terms of undersanding of the game.

The main thing I need is repetition acting on situations in order to continue to build my decision making confidence. In any given tournament there may be 3 or 4 complex situations that come up where there are a few different ways to play it based on the situation. I need to practice trusting my gut in these situations.

There are some tournament sitations like short stack play and playing sets that have become second nature. I want some of these more complex situations, especially ones where the opponent is playing back, to also become second nature.

Skills to improve to reach my goal:

• Continue to improve putting opponents on hands
• Don’t give away as much information about my hand and justification for my plays
• Turn play in NLHE
• Work on improving skills in PLO8 and PLO
• Increase the variety in my play/changing gears
• Become more comfortable recognizing and reading live tells
• Continue to work on picking who I want to be getting into pots with vs. those I don’t want to get into pots with
• Continue to focus on making smart decisions focused on long term EV
• Improve table talk to induce action
• For live play - getting better at quickly assessing odds and opponents' stack sizes
• Staying in the zone and reconizing situations during live play vs. just playing cards

Mental skills to enhance in order to reach the goal:

• Believe that it is possible
• Solidify my confidence by competing in WSOP/WPT & higher skilled online events
• Have fun every time I play and don’t take the game too seriously
• Develop a consistent “soft focus” at the table
• Don’t try too hard in any one tournament. Detach myself emotionally from the results.
• Detaching myself from the monetary value of money
• Work on understanding what level other players are thinking on so that I don't overthink situations

So there it is. The majority of my blog posts will be geared toward my progress in reaching my goal and the ups and downs on the way there. I'm confident that I will acheive my goal, it's just a matter of time.