The first two nights felt awesome. I was running the tables and my reads were crystal clear. I played last night and also felt like I had a great session. There were a selection of hands that I felt like were good opportunities to learn (some winners and some losers). All three nights I was up in the session. BUT, I am really trying hard to focus on the long run and not the financial success of each session.
Tonight has been a bit on the rough side. I'm a little tired and I have been bleeding a bit. I don't think the first half of the session was bad because of being tired, but it has started wearing on me a bit. It's nothing too out of the ordinary, but it's one of those nights where AK keeps missing and my c-bets are getting raised/floated and my double barrels aren't working (and I know the triple won't work). Or when I decide to triple, I'm getting called down...or I get KK and everyone folds to my raise. I'm getting 3bet when I have crap and they are folding when I have big hands. I'm really trying to not nit up and stay aggressive, but at the same time pick my spots, but I think I might be forcing a bit toward the end of the session. I'm playing a bit more passive pre-flop but then I'm attacking post flop without telling an accurate story. I think partially because I accidentally saw how much I was down for the session earlier, it has made me a little hesitant to 4-bet. Okay, enough venting.
As per the advice in the latest book I read, I am using this session as an opportunity to push through and focus when the night isn't so hot (which I do believe in so long as you are keenly aware of your mental state). By hunkering down and focusing it will only make me stronger. I've got about 100 or so hands to go to hit 800, so I'm going to finish strong.
-----
So the last 100 hands were pretty much like the first 700. Tons of action when I'm bluffing and zero action when I flop the virtual nuts. Oh well, such is variance. If I had to grade the sessions on overall playing ability (and NOT results or running good) I would roughly say:
Day 1: B+
Day 2: A-
Day 3: B
Day 4: C
I'm giving myself a C mainly because of mental state. I realized toward the end of the session that I was becoming passive pre-flop and a bit spewy post flop. I needed to probably 4-bet in a few spots (I only 4 bet once tonight and got jammed on) mainly to make them think twice before 3 betting me. I did, however have some good moments as well. I made a really good Ace high call in a relatively big pot when my read was that their pair got counterfeited. I also did a good job of moving tables when there weren't enough fish.
So it wasn't all bad. But I definitely have some things to work on when sessions aren't going my way. I mean, it's not like I started going crazy and spewing chips. It was more of a slow bleed. I need to recognize when the bleeding is growing and then make the necessary adjustments (and also learn what those adjustments need to be).
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
2nd Night of Cash
I really felt great playing tonight. I was a bit on the tired side, but my reads were spot on. There are definitely some hands that occurred that are situations I need to work on, but all in all it was a great session. I bluffed at the right times, 3-bet, value bet and induced action.
I'm not sure what the final result of the session was and it really doesn't matter. I was working hard not to even really know what my stack size was except for the purpose of how many I had in relation to the other people. They were just chips used for ammunition.
I only had one major hand go wrong with JJ on a ragged flop where my read was that they were super strong. I played the flop fine, but my radar really went off on the turn. I ended up jamming it in anyway though and lost a buy-in there. But overall I think I was up about $150 or so. Either way it doesn't matter though. My goal right now is number of hands.
I felt really comfortable 4 tabling and I think I'll be able to add 5 after a few more nights. I ended up with 716 hands after about 3 hours of play. I might of been able to keep the session going, but I'm trying to ease into things a bit. I need to get used to the consistency and the amount of hands. When I was playing tournaments it was different because a lot of the time I was just waiting for a good shove spot vs. using my brain to think through multiple lines of a hand. I want to build my endurance up so I'm able to have longer sessions that are productive.
I'm not sure what the final result of the session was and it really doesn't matter. I was working hard not to even really know what my stack size was except for the purpose of how many I had in relation to the other people. They were just chips used for ammunition.
I only had one major hand go wrong with JJ on a ragged flop where my read was that they were super strong. I played the flop fine, but my radar really went off on the turn. I ended up jamming it in anyway though and lost a buy-in there. But overall I think I was up about $150 or so. Either way it doesn't matter though. My goal right now is number of hands.
I felt really comfortable 4 tabling and I think I'll be able to add 5 after a few more nights. I ended up with 716 hands after about 3 hours of play. I might of been able to keep the session going, but I'm trying to ease into things a bit. I need to get used to the consistency and the amount of hands. When I was playing tournaments it was different because a lot of the time I was just waiting for a good shove spot vs. using my brain to think through multiple lines of a hand. I want to build my endurance up so I'm able to have longer sessions that are productive.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Good first cash session
Tonight was a good first session. Not necessarily in terms of winnings (although I was up $120.30 playing .50/$1), but more in terms of how comfortable I was playing. I actually started the session pretty card dead and wasn't getting to involved in many pots. I wanted to, but the situations just weren't there. I started with 2 tables and after about 30 min I added a third. I won a few small pots, had to fold a few hands I didn't want to and got looked up on a couple of bluffs. BUT the success was in just staying focused on flowing on to the next hand. I didn't wallow or start getting frustrated because things weren't going great. I'm in this for the long haul and I took a very business like approach to the session.
One cool thing about multi-tabling cash games is that its easier to get over tough hands. Stuff happens, but then you are forced to just keep playing new situations and eventually forget about what happened. You just kind of keep playing and then let the dust settle at the end of the night to see if you've made any money. Some stacks at some tables are up and some are even and you have no idea how much you've lost at those tables. This will help me break the habit of getting attached to stack sizes and being upset if my stack goes down.
Another good lesson that I re-inforced to myself was when contemplating between two plays, go with the one with your strongest & initial gut feel (i.e. I probably should X because his range is strong, but he could also have this range, so maybe I should Y.) Without going into the hand too much, a tight player that I had no info on check/called a ragged flop after raising pre. He checked the turn and i felt I should check behind with TT for pot control, but then I changed my mind because I thought he could also have pairs that were smaller than mine. I bet and then he raised and I ended up folding because his line was super strong for a tight player.
I also decided to use the Full Tilt colors for tagging players:
Green = loose/passive/stationy fish
Purple = spewy aggro
Light Blue = tight nit
Orange = regular player
Red = really good aggro
Yellow = decent aggressive
Versus my goals, I felt I did well for my first night:
Hours Played: 3
Hands: 631
bb/100: I'm not even close to being able to report on a big enough sample size
One cool thing about multi-tabling cash games is that its easier to get over tough hands. Stuff happens, but then you are forced to just keep playing new situations and eventually forget about what happened. You just kind of keep playing and then let the dust settle at the end of the night to see if you've made any money. Some stacks at some tables are up and some are even and you have no idea how much you've lost at those tables. This will help me break the habit of getting attached to stack sizes and being upset if my stack goes down.
Another good lesson that I re-inforced to myself was when contemplating between two plays, go with the one with your strongest & initial gut feel (i.e. I probably should X because his range is strong, but he could also have this range, so maybe I should Y.) Without going into the hand too much, a tight player that I had no info on check/called a ragged flop after raising pre. He checked the turn and i felt I should check behind with TT for pot control, but then I changed my mind because I thought he could also have pairs that were smaller than mine. I bet and then he raised and I ended up folding because his line was super strong for a tight player.
I also decided to use the Full Tilt colors for tagging players:
Green = loose/passive/stationy fish
Purple = spewy aggro
Light Blue = tight nit
Orange = regular player
Red = really good aggro
Yellow = decent aggressive
Versus my goals, I felt I did well for my first night:
Hours Played: 3
Hands: 631
bb/100: I'm not even close to being able to report on a big enough sample size
Cash Games it is
I decided that despite being primarily a tournament player that my current goals for consistency outweighed my love for chasing the big cash. I also have a strong desire to play a more deepstacked game and my time limitations make it challenging for me to play long MTTs. Once I came to a logical conclusion, it was a no brainer decision.
I'm very excited about this new forray and am ready for the challenge. I'm not naive and I know there will still be swings. I also am fully aware that I am playing with "real money". I've been playing long enough to appreciate the game.
I am also excited to treat poker like a business and focus on the long-term metrics of the game. I have a plan for the volume I need and I have a "work schedule" ironed out to achieve it. My initial goals are the following:
1. Work up to 840 hands per day or 16,800 hands per month (this is approx 3.5 hrs of 4 tabling full ring games for 25 days a month). Once I work up to and am comfortable 4 tabling, I will add more tables.
2. Earn 5bb/100 hands - I see so many different rates that people say is "good". I think 5bb/100 may be a little on the high end, but I will just play through the first 50k hands or so and see where I stand.
Anyway, tonight is my first session. I would say that I will post some results, but after one night that's pretty counter-intuitive to grinding. I will post results based on more important metrics such as how comfortable I felt playing, my reads, etc. I think I'm going to start 2 tabling and then add a third or possibly 4th table. I usually 3 or 4 table tournaments, but I want to be comfortable with table flow first.
I'm very excited about this new forray and am ready for the challenge. I'm not naive and I know there will still be swings. I also am fully aware that I am playing with "real money". I've been playing long enough to appreciate the game.
I am also excited to treat poker like a business and focus on the long-term metrics of the game. I have a plan for the volume I need and I have a "work schedule" ironed out to achieve it. My initial goals are the following:
1. Work up to 840 hands per day or 16,800 hands per month (this is approx 3.5 hrs of 4 tabling full ring games for 25 days a month). Once I work up to and am comfortable 4 tabling, I will add more tables.
2. Earn 5bb/100 hands - I see so many different rates that people say is "good". I think 5bb/100 may be a little on the high end, but I will just play through the first 50k hands or so and see where I stand.
Anyway, tonight is my first session. I would say that I will post some results, but after one night that's pretty counter-intuitive to grinding. I will post results based on more important metrics such as how comfortable I felt playing, my reads, etc. I think I'm going to start 2 tabling and then add a third or possibly 4th table. I usually 3 or 4 table tournaments, but I want to be comfortable with table flow first.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Treat Your Poker Like Your Business - What I Learned
In an effort to make new knowledge permanent by re-writing my notes, the following is a re-cap of what I learned by reading the new book "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Some of these are new discoveries and some are great reinforcements of things I've previously learned, but they are all crucial in using poker to make money.
1. Because poker is a game of variance, the more important metrics to focus instead of money earned is hours/hands played. After that, then focus on hourly rate. You can make a high bb/100 hands, but if you are only playing 100 hands a night you won't be putting the volume in necessary to make consistent income.
2. You have to make yourself accountable for a total number of hours spent on poker. Just like success in wrestling or any endeavor, to be great you have to commit yourself to it. You have to put in the reps and you have to constantly find ways to improve your game.
3. Be proactive about improving your weaknesses. Be honest about where you need work and then study the situations you most commonly struggle with. But don't just focus on the big pots. Focus on the smaller situations that occur more frequently where you may be losing more overall money. After each session, write down the smaller situations that bothered you and then post those in forums, talk to friends, study the $EV, etc. By improving and finding those small edges, you are optimizing your winning and looking at big profits over time.
4. Your hours must be filled with quality time. If you are having a hard day or are distracted, then you need to push yourself to focus and NOT reduce the number of tables you play. If you normally play 8 and are having a hard time, you shouldn't just play 1 or 2 tables. You will improve your overall game if you can learn to play in tough situations. Dedication to becoming great means plowing through each day no matter what comes your way. Tilt, variance, doubt and pressure are all emotions you will feel at some point but you can chose to push through them or let them hold you back.
5. Be realistic about your current abilities (both skill and time you can commit). Focus on making small improvements each time you play instead of trying to be the next Phil Ivey overnight. You must develop mental endurance, not only to build up to longer sessions, but also to have a long-term focus. If you expect too much too soon, it's like trying to run a marathon when you are only comfortable running 5 miles.
6. After learning new tactics, focus on implementing only one or two new ideas when you are playing. Don't try to overhaul your game in a few sessions.
7. When multi-tabling, don't feel like you have to rush your important decisions. Run through a mental check-list and then act confidently. 1. What do my opponents actions mean? 2. What is the best action vs. his range of hands? 3. Consider all options carefully, take a deep breath and go with your initial and most confident gut instinct no matter how big or small the pot might be. Once you have seen the situation over and over, the decision making process becomes quicker.
8. Mistakes are not caused by tilt. Tilt simply reveals them and strips your skill set down to it's core. Tilt reveals you what skills you need to work on so that they can be automated and not effected by emotion in the future.
9. When moving up in stakes, don't consider taking a shot to be a pass or fail scenario. Instead, use the pressure to identify any weaknesses and focus on improving skill instead of the end result of winning or losing a session.
10. Mistakes are opportunities to improve. Improving means more money, confidence & enjoyment. You can choose to get mad at mistakes or you can embrace them.
11. Top psychological mistakes that were identified that I connected with are:
a. Premature realization of skill - skill is only proven when it shows up in tough spots, not the standard ones.
b. Pressure to improve fast
c. High expectations - this becomes a problem because of how you feel when you fall short. Don't expect things to happen, figure out how to get there.
12. Don't look at the cashier - focus on individual situations rather than the total in your account after each session. In that same light, don't focus on your stack size on each table other than to know how it relates to others at the table.
13. Table selection - since this is a poker business, you would want to spend your valuable time with the best possible chance at maximizing your profits. If you are at a table full of regulars, you don't have position on the fish, or there is someone constantly 3-betting you, it simply makes business since to find a new table. You don't have to waste time fighting an ego war or swapping money back and forth with the regulars.
So other than some valuable board texture and hand tips and, these are the main lessons that I learned from the book. If anything, it has given me a renewed sense of motivation and perspective on the game that I have already felt will make a massive difference on my long-term success.
1. Because poker is a game of variance, the more important metrics to focus instead of money earned is hours/hands played. After that, then focus on hourly rate. You can make a high bb/100 hands, but if you are only playing 100 hands a night you won't be putting the volume in necessary to make consistent income.
2. You have to make yourself accountable for a total number of hours spent on poker. Just like success in wrestling or any endeavor, to be great you have to commit yourself to it. You have to put in the reps and you have to constantly find ways to improve your game.
3. Be proactive about improving your weaknesses. Be honest about where you need work and then study the situations you most commonly struggle with. But don't just focus on the big pots. Focus on the smaller situations that occur more frequently where you may be losing more overall money. After each session, write down the smaller situations that bothered you and then post those in forums, talk to friends, study the $EV, etc. By improving and finding those small edges, you are optimizing your winning and looking at big profits over time.
4. Your hours must be filled with quality time. If you are having a hard day or are distracted, then you need to push yourself to focus and NOT reduce the number of tables you play. If you normally play 8 and are having a hard time, you shouldn't just play 1 or 2 tables. You will improve your overall game if you can learn to play in tough situations. Dedication to becoming great means plowing through each day no matter what comes your way. Tilt, variance, doubt and pressure are all emotions you will feel at some point but you can chose to push through them or let them hold you back.
5. Be realistic about your current abilities (both skill and time you can commit). Focus on making small improvements each time you play instead of trying to be the next Phil Ivey overnight. You must develop mental endurance, not only to build up to longer sessions, but also to have a long-term focus. If you expect too much too soon, it's like trying to run a marathon when you are only comfortable running 5 miles.
6. After learning new tactics, focus on implementing only one or two new ideas when you are playing. Don't try to overhaul your game in a few sessions.
7. When multi-tabling, don't feel like you have to rush your important decisions. Run through a mental check-list and then act confidently. 1. What do my opponents actions mean? 2. What is the best action vs. his range of hands? 3. Consider all options carefully, take a deep breath and go with your initial and most confident gut instinct no matter how big or small the pot might be. Once you have seen the situation over and over, the decision making process becomes quicker.
8. Mistakes are not caused by tilt. Tilt simply reveals them and strips your skill set down to it's core. Tilt reveals you what skills you need to work on so that they can be automated and not effected by emotion in the future.
9. When moving up in stakes, don't consider taking a shot to be a pass or fail scenario. Instead, use the pressure to identify any weaknesses and focus on improving skill instead of the end result of winning or losing a session.
10. Mistakes are opportunities to improve. Improving means more money, confidence & enjoyment. You can choose to get mad at mistakes or you can embrace them.
11. Top psychological mistakes that were identified that I connected with are:
a. Premature realization of skill - skill is only proven when it shows up in tough spots, not the standard ones.
b. Pressure to improve fast
c. High expectations - this becomes a problem because of how you feel when you fall short. Don't expect things to happen, figure out how to get there.
12. Don't look at the cashier - focus on individual situations rather than the total in your account after each session. In that same light, don't focus on your stack size on each table other than to know how it relates to others at the table.
13. Table selection - since this is a poker business, you would want to spend your valuable time with the best possible chance at maximizing your profits. If you are at a table full of regulars, you don't have position on the fish, or there is someone constantly 3-betting you, it simply makes business since to find a new table. You don't have to waste time fighting an ego war or swapping money back and forth with the regulars.
So other than some valuable board texture and hand tips and, these are the main lessons that I learned from the book. If anything, it has given me a renewed sense of motivation and perspective on the game that I have already felt will make a massive difference on my long-term success.
Cash Games vs. Tournaments - Where to focus?
So I've been playing poker almost 6 years now and I probably spend 95% of my time playing tournaments varying from 45 & 90 man turbos to larger MTTs. Based mostly on my ability to commit time to play I generally focus on the turbos. And while I have a good shove-botting game and have had success in these tournaments, I don't actually prefer to play them...especially the 45 man turbos on Stars. There is no real concept of post-flop play and even your pre-flop play is mostly all-in or fold. The 90-mans on Full Tilt have a lot more room to play and I prefer those; but toward the end there still aren't enough chips in play to really "play" poker without committing your stack.
The reason I'm even bringing this up is that I started reading an interesting book yesterday called "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Basically, this book talks about how if you are going to play poker for money (and not just purely recreation), then you need to treat your time and your bankroll as pieces of inventory...or assets that you are investing. I started reading it last night and flew threw about 75 pages in about 1 1/2 hours.
Now up until recently, I was a recreational player who has had some good success and only focused on growing my bankroll so that I could eventually make significant enough cashouts to do fun things with my family, etc. When I started my business, I withdrew everything except $250 on Stars and started back from scratch. I was able to build that back to about $11.5k. I've mentioned in recent blog posts that we have encountered some bills and my wife came up way to tackle it without having to withdraw my bankroll again. For our insurance, which is a little over $700/month, we set it up to auto-draft out of the ING account where I keep my bankroll reserves. This is a great plan! BUT, that also means that I have now shifted from "recreational player" to "semi-professional player".
So that's pretty cool. I get to say I'm a semi-pro poker player. Well guess what? That also means I'm on a timeline to make money. I am now accountable for a certain amount of volume each month and ultimately need to make, at minimum, $700+ each month just to keep my bankroll in tact. Of course right when we make this decision, I start running horribly. It comes with poker, but now I have the added pressure of getting results.
At first I was becoming tilted and last night I was tested again, playing 7 tournaments without a cash. I pushed through the pain and while I was a little annoyed at the end, it prompted me to download the book I mentioned above. After reading through the first 75 pages, I have a renewed sense of perspective on some things (including variance) and I am actually excited to take on the challenge of grinding each month. The question now becomes, do I continue to play tournaments or do I switch to cash games?
I really enjoy tournaments and have gravitated toward them for a reason. However, my priorities have shifted for now and I need to do what is best for my "poker business". I know that I only have a limited amount of time to play each week and I need to maximize my output during the times that I play in order to ensure my bills are being met. My original plan was to look at the ROI at each tournament type and put in the volume required to at least profit $700 each month. I am currently doing that and unfortunately started off going backwards. I don't necessarily want to abandon the plan now because when variance swings back the other way, I want to reap the benefits. But I guess that's not the best way to look at things. Variance doesn't know what games I'm playing and I can easily go through 10 more tournaments without a cash. I could start playing cash games and hit a hot streak too and make it up just as quick.
I feel like I'm rambling now and I need to come to a conclusion. It all goes back to what my goal for playing is. My primary goal right now is to make consistent money each month. Tournament swings are going to be more dramatic on average than cash games, thus I would need to put in more tournament volume than cash games within a fixed period of time. My time is also limited because I can only play at night, so I can only put in a fixed amount of hours each month. Because of the need to make a consistent amount of money in a fixed period of time, it only makes sense to focus on cash games. Either way, I need to pick one so that I can focus my time and attention on the mental muscles it takes to be successful at that game. I can throw in a tournament or two here and there to keep those muscles warm, but my focus needs to be on cash now.
The only thing I'm a little worried about is that the majority of my training and experience has been in tournaments. There are obviously similarities, but there are also big differences as well. I also need to deal with the emotional aspect of playing with "real money". The last time I was experimenting with playing 6-max cash, I had a $700 loss one night and it freaked me out. My heart was beating through my chest. But I really like the idea of playing multi-street poker and honing my reads. I also could just be nervous because I will be going outside of my comfort zone. I will just have to go through a bit of a learning curve and an adjustment in the beginning and deal with any losses that occur because of it.
The reason I'm even bringing this up is that I started reading an interesting book yesterday called "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Basically, this book talks about how if you are going to play poker for money (and not just purely recreation), then you need to treat your time and your bankroll as pieces of inventory...or assets that you are investing. I started reading it last night and flew threw about 75 pages in about 1 1/2 hours.
Now up until recently, I was a recreational player who has had some good success and only focused on growing my bankroll so that I could eventually make significant enough cashouts to do fun things with my family, etc. When I started my business, I withdrew everything except $250 on Stars and started back from scratch. I was able to build that back to about $11.5k. I've mentioned in recent blog posts that we have encountered some bills and my wife came up way to tackle it without having to withdraw my bankroll again. For our insurance, which is a little over $700/month, we set it up to auto-draft out of the ING account where I keep my bankroll reserves. This is a great plan! BUT, that also means that I have now shifted from "recreational player" to "semi-professional player".
So that's pretty cool. I get to say I'm a semi-pro poker player. Well guess what? That also means I'm on a timeline to make money. I am now accountable for a certain amount of volume each month and ultimately need to make, at minimum, $700+ each month just to keep my bankroll in tact. Of course right when we make this decision, I start running horribly. It comes with poker, but now I have the added pressure of getting results.
At first I was becoming tilted and last night I was tested again, playing 7 tournaments without a cash. I pushed through the pain and while I was a little annoyed at the end, it prompted me to download the book I mentioned above. After reading through the first 75 pages, I have a renewed sense of perspective on some things (including variance) and I am actually excited to take on the challenge of grinding each month. The question now becomes, do I continue to play tournaments or do I switch to cash games?
I really enjoy tournaments and have gravitated toward them for a reason. However, my priorities have shifted for now and I need to do what is best for my "poker business". I know that I only have a limited amount of time to play each week and I need to maximize my output during the times that I play in order to ensure my bills are being met. My original plan was to look at the ROI at each tournament type and put in the volume required to at least profit $700 each month. I am currently doing that and unfortunately started off going backwards. I don't necessarily want to abandon the plan now because when variance swings back the other way, I want to reap the benefits. But I guess that's not the best way to look at things. Variance doesn't know what games I'm playing and I can easily go through 10 more tournaments without a cash. I could start playing cash games and hit a hot streak too and make it up just as quick.
I feel like I'm rambling now and I need to come to a conclusion. It all goes back to what my goal for playing is. My primary goal right now is to make consistent money each month. Tournament swings are going to be more dramatic on average than cash games, thus I would need to put in more tournament volume than cash games within a fixed period of time. My time is also limited because I can only play at night, so I can only put in a fixed amount of hours each month. Because of the need to make a consistent amount of money in a fixed period of time, it only makes sense to focus on cash games. Either way, I need to pick one so that I can focus my time and attention on the mental muscles it takes to be successful at that game. I can throw in a tournament or two here and there to keep those muscles warm, but my focus needs to be on cash now.
The only thing I'm a little worried about is that the majority of my training and experience has been in tournaments. There are obviously similarities, but there are also big differences as well. I also need to deal with the emotional aspect of playing with "real money". The last time I was experimenting with playing 6-max cash, I had a $700 loss one night and it freaked me out. My heart was beating through my chest. But I really like the idea of playing multi-street poker and honing my reads. I also could just be nervous because I will be going outside of my comfort zone. I will just have to go through a bit of a learning curve and an adjustment in the beginning and deal with any losses that occur because of it.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Staying Patient While Running Bad
I guess I can be running worse (and I have), but it always seems like when you need to win everything is working against you. I guess there is something psychological about it though. It's not that you are running worse, it's just that you put more stock into each individual tournament, coin flip or bad beat. The loss just stings more because you need to win. The trick, of course, is avoiding tilt and staying patient.
I recently set up my ING account (which holds my bankroll that isn't on each site) to be drafted for my monthly insurance. Jenni came up with this idea instead of cashing everything out and paying off bills. I thought it was a great idea so I wasn't dependent on trying to hit a big score in a MTT. It would be different if I could put in the time and volume needed to overcome variance, but my playing time is limited. So instead, I figured out my ROI and determined how much volume I would need to put in playing 45 and 90 man tournaments. So it's kind of cool because I guess I can consider myself a semi-professional player in that part of my monthly income now comes from poker. Of course with that comes a little more pressure to make sure I'm not only putting in the volume, but also producing results.
So I set up the auto-draft about a week ago and I had taken a week off of playing because I was busy with wrestling. I had started running bad before the break, so I figured it would start reversing itself but it hasn't. I've had a few min cashes and I did place 2nd in a smaller buy-in 90 man, but over the last few days I'm definitely running at a loss. It isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's one of those things where I'm losing big coin flips, getting sucked out on when I shove and overall not having great starting hands. It's normal and certainly not the worst run I've had, but I'm getting acclimated to playing with the "need" for money. It's like I'm playing with a time clock running down. As the time gets closer to the draft, I get more and more anxious to hit a score. That is obviously not conducive to good poker and I'm trying to not let it affect my play. It's one of those things where I am going to have to keep a detached perspective and truly play for the long-term. I know that I can't get mad at bad beats and losing flips and I know that I can't force the action. That's the key. I need to work on not putting as much emotional stock in any one tournament. I need to stay confident that I'm going to make good decisions and when I decide a move is right, I need to pull the trigger without fear of consequences. It doesn't mean I need to force bluffs all the time, just well timed spots that I feel confident in.
So the key moving forward is to stay emotionally detached and just put in the volume. Don't worry about when money is going to come out or even worry about being in a current "bad" or "good" run. Just play poker and the luck will even out.
I recently set up my ING account (which holds my bankroll that isn't on each site) to be drafted for my monthly insurance. Jenni came up with this idea instead of cashing everything out and paying off bills. I thought it was a great idea so I wasn't dependent on trying to hit a big score in a MTT. It would be different if I could put in the time and volume needed to overcome variance, but my playing time is limited. So instead, I figured out my ROI and determined how much volume I would need to put in playing 45 and 90 man tournaments. So it's kind of cool because I guess I can consider myself a semi-professional player in that part of my monthly income now comes from poker. Of course with that comes a little more pressure to make sure I'm not only putting in the volume, but also producing results.
So I set up the auto-draft about a week ago and I had taken a week off of playing because I was busy with wrestling. I had started running bad before the break, so I figured it would start reversing itself but it hasn't. I've had a few min cashes and I did place 2nd in a smaller buy-in 90 man, but over the last few days I'm definitely running at a loss. It isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's one of those things where I'm losing big coin flips, getting sucked out on when I shove and overall not having great starting hands. It's normal and certainly not the worst run I've had, but I'm getting acclimated to playing with the "need" for money. It's like I'm playing with a time clock running down. As the time gets closer to the draft, I get more and more anxious to hit a score. That is obviously not conducive to good poker and I'm trying to not let it affect my play. It's one of those things where I am going to have to keep a detached perspective and truly play for the long-term. I know that I can't get mad at bad beats and losing flips and I know that I can't force the action. That's the key. I need to work on not putting as much emotional stock in any one tournament. I need to stay confident that I'm going to make good decisions and when I decide a move is right, I need to pull the trigger without fear of consequences. It doesn't mean I need to force bluffs all the time, just well timed spots that I feel confident in.
So the key moving forward is to stay emotionally detached and just put in the volume. Don't worry about when money is going to come out or even worry about being in a current "bad" or "good" run. Just play poker and the luck will even out.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Stress, money and the affect on poker
So here's the deal. I've been stressing pretty hard about money lately. We have slowly accumulated debt over the last couple of years due to starting the business and not making as much as I used to. In addition, we owe one some loan payments and we are probably going to pay taxes this year (which was unexpected). We will have a big payment coming up on a humidification system and we just found out our insurance is going up $100 a month.
Why am I venting this on a blog no one reads? Because it's been affecting my poker game lately. Is it affecting how I play? Maybe a little. But worse, it is making me feel extremely tense and stressed every time I play. If a pot goes bad, I get pissed. If I get card dead, I stop looking for situations when I don't need cards or I start feeling either impatient or I start getting on myself for being a nit and not opening the pot with any two cards. Either way, it's putting me in a funk. I love to play poker, but the pressure of needing the money has been starting to get to me.
I have the money in my bankroll to at least take a large chunk out of our debt, but then I'll have to go back to grinding micro-stakes. I'm trying to play more MTTs in hope that I'll hit a big cash and can take care of some things. Some days I'm playing fine and I'm not forcing results because of the need for money and some days I'm just completely stressing while I play.
So...what's the solution? As much as I hate to say it, it falls back on the principles of achieving success in any endeavor...especially poker. I have to stay patient. I can't change the cards, I can't force things. I have to completely separate the need for money from the goal of playing poker. I have to play poker for the fun of it and any good result that may occur in the short run will be gravy. But poker IS a game of the long run and it has variance. For me to stress about results would be the equivalent of me flipping a coin and getting pissed that it didn't land the way I picked. I have to find other means of earning money and if it comes to it in the next few months, then I may need to withdraw some of my bankroll. If I'm able to make it bigger by that time, then that's great. But I need to focus on playing poker and not on winning money.
Why am I venting this on a blog no one reads? Because it's been affecting my poker game lately. Is it affecting how I play? Maybe a little. But worse, it is making me feel extremely tense and stressed every time I play. If a pot goes bad, I get pissed. If I get card dead, I stop looking for situations when I don't need cards or I start feeling either impatient or I start getting on myself for being a nit and not opening the pot with any two cards. Either way, it's putting me in a funk. I love to play poker, but the pressure of needing the money has been starting to get to me.
I have the money in my bankroll to at least take a large chunk out of our debt, but then I'll have to go back to grinding micro-stakes. I'm trying to play more MTTs in hope that I'll hit a big cash and can take care of some things. Some days I'm playing fine and I'm not forcing results because of the need for money and some days I'm just completely stressing while I play.
So...what's the solution? As much as I hate to say it, it falls back on the principles of achieving success in any endeavor...especially poker. I have to stay patient. I can't change the cards, I can't force things. I have to completely separate the need for money from the goal of playing poker. I have to play poker for the fun of it and any good result that may occur in the short run will be gravy. But poker IS a game of the long run and it has variance. For me to stress about results would be the equivalent of me flipping a coin and getting pissed that it didn't land the way I picked. I have to find other means of earning money and if it comes to it in the next few months, then I may need to withdraw some of my bankroll. If I'm able to make it bigger by that time, then that's great. But I need to focus on playing poker and not on winning money.
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