February Recap

Here's a recap of February 2011 went.

Goal: 100 tournaments
Actual: 83 tournaments played

With my own money
Played 68(39 were turbo multi-table sngs)
$1,353 in buy-ins
$1,073 in cashes
- $280 in profit

Backed:
Played 15
$3,480 in buy-ins
$1,596.75 in cashes
- $1,883.25 in profit

Summary

Feb started out being a tough month with a lot of self-discovery toward the end. Up until the 2nd to last day, I had cashed once in the last 54 tournaments on Full Tilt for only $17 and my make up in backed tournaments continued to grow. The weight of tournament variance started to take hold a bit and I started getting frustrated.

BUT I started making a nice rebound just this Sunday with a final table in the $30r and 3 cashes on Monday night (3rd in a 45 man on Tilt, 2nd in a $10 bounty tournament and another small cash). Sunday was actually the first session where I turned a profit in backed games.

When you are only able to put in limited volume in high-variance games your mind can play tricks on you, but I was able to rebound and wrestling season is almost over so I'll be able to play more soon. But, I'm also working on a blog post where I'm taking a step back and trying to figure out what games are best for me based on my goals and my situation. I'm in a good and determined frame of mind, so I'm ready for March.

How I Improved vs. January's Leaks

1. Light 3 Betting - I consciously looked for these spots and increased my 3bet % to 4.8% from 4.2%. I still probably missed a few spots and I there were a couple of questionable oop 3bets that cost me some chips. I'm mostly 3betting in position, but if I am going to 3bet oop, I need to increase my sizing.

2. Fear of Mistakes - I improved here as well, especially in backed games. It makes it much easier when you can focus on just playing good and not being overly results oriented.

3. Hero Calls - I made some progress, but then toward the end of the month some tilt must have set in from my impatience of achieving results as I found myself not able to let go of a few hands when my gut said I was beat. In those sessions, however I was able to recognize this leak and make adjustments accordingly.

4. Light Steals - I definitely improved here. I actually started covering my hole cards with those electronic post-it notes. It's helping force me to make situational decisions first and think about my cards last. I've stolen blind a handful of times as well. My VPIP/PFR for the month increased to 16/12 as compared to 15.4/11.4 last month. It's not a giant jump, but it's an improvement.

Stuff I'm Doing Well
1. Floats - I'm really recognizing good boards and situations to float and bluff the turn.

2. Extraction from Big Hands - I've always been good at this, but I think I'm improving on making decisions between building the pot on early streets and trapping to extract on later ones.

Areas to Work On
1. Double Barreling - Not that I need to force this, but I found myself c-betting once and giving up more than I should.

2. Folding to 3bets - Since I'm still playing a lot of shallow turbos there are less spots where this makes sense, but I also think I get bluffed off of KQ and AT type hands more than I should.

3. Long-Ball Bluffs/Alternate Lines - Again, you can't force these spots but I feel like there are a few situations where I need to mix up my lines a bit so I'm not exploitable. This could be cbet/giving up or calling flop, checking turn and folding to river bet. But, I feel like when I'm calling these river bets that I'm beat by pot control lines too. I also think there are some spots where I can turn my hand into a bluff in deeper stages. In early stages I am better at recognizing these spots, but in later stages I hold back because of the fear of losing a semi-healthy stack.

So that's February. Not the worst month in the world, but not the momentum swing I was hoping for. I ended the month strong however and in just these last few days I feel I've made major progress in both my mental approach and my focus.