10,203 Hands Played (4 day week due to holidays)
Profit/Loss -$551.81
BB/100 -2.70(Poker Tracker)
V$PIP 22%
PFR 15%
Post Flop Aggro 1.92
Showdowns Won 48%
Rakeback $300(Estimated)
Total Proft/Loss -$251.81
Ok lots to get through and i think this will turn into a bit of a novel. Ive been doing alot of soul searching and doubting my game, im still playing 3bet pots badly but ill eventually get a grip on this. Ive as always done alot of hand reviews and have been thinking through my game and ive think ive identified more leaks which i wont go into for obvious reasons.
So due to horrible variance which sends me on tilt and with 9 tables running even though i dont tilt for long i start turning into a calling station and playing exactly like the people im chasing. Its like a scene out of The Fly, where he comes out of the vacuum chamber and slowly but surely he starts growing wings and the eyes of a fly, this was me except i was growing fins and a tail and every 5 seconds i kept forgetting telling myself to stop spewing chips. So it again came to surface after i only managed a short 4 day week due to been away on holidays, i had 2 good days building a profit of about $500 and by the end of day3 i was down over 8 Buy ins. Sick is an understatement especially since i felt i was finally coming through this bad spell. I will admit im having horrible variance but im also spewing too much.
Image Taken From HowToRunShite.com
So anyways the changes ive put in place from this week on, some ive already started practicing and others are new. Firstly since im officially playing professionally, if i can use the word the way im playing, ive decided to treat it a bit more like a business. I need to devise a sink plug to stop me spewing chips down the drain when im running bad so i stop now when i make 2 bad mistakes or when ive played for 2 hours or if i lose 3 buyins. I generally stick to 2-3 x 1-2 hour sessions.
Also i review each and every single session and write a report on how i play, not so my boss can review the report but i find when i write something i pay more attention to it than just thinking it which can fade quickly so i find this makes me recognises where i went wrong more vividly. So i have these sheets printed out with date, time start, time finish, profit/loss, 2 boxes to tick when i make bad mistakes and a section to write a review. Theres not much to reviewing a 1-2hr session anyway rather than trying to review at the end of the day so i dont mind it. Its mostly a discipline exercise because as you can see last month i made -$500 which if it continues ill be out of business in a couple of months.
Now anyone following this from GJP will be delighted with the following, ive giving up on the rakerace, i was in with a great shout of winning it but although i tried to convince myself i was coping with 9 tables i was timing out too much when trying to write notes, making rushed decisions, constantly seeing zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz in the chat box etc etc and i feel i have a great nose for the stats so reducing my tables to 6 and concentrating on them will obviously greatly benefit me. Ill probably only be playing 8-10k hands a week and will quickly fall from the rakerace but i think its well worth it as i also find myself being forcing into playing a rediculous amount of hands to keep up with the rakerace rather than playing when im up for it. For example the few days before i went on Holiday i was playing 4-5k hands per day to beef me up for the days i would miss while i was away.
I really do feel ive improved so much over this last 4 weeks and i strongly believe that when we hit a bad run like this we learn a great deal about our game and put alot more effort into finding leaks which we dont seem to do when running well. So i can honestly say i no longer have any excuses for a bad performance other than bad variance, thats not to say i dont have other leaks but i certainly have plugged alot over the last few weeks and i was running very well before this so as i say no more excuses.
4 comments:
read your blog often and am very impressed with your honesty. hard to post losing sessions to the public but i suppose it can help to get it off your chest.
a few qs
what is your daily routine like?
can u see yourself doing this in 12months time?
how well or otherwise do you handle losing months?
what is the biggest differance to your game since you started playing full time?
Thanks for the comments, the main reason i started this blog was for discipline, i know if im playing terrible it will hurt and be emarrassing when i have to post the results so it helps keep in check somewhat.
Daily Routine is usually based around 2 or 3 sessions of no longer than 2 hours, i find anything i play over 2 hours im not concentrating and making bad decisions, i now only play 6 tables max and im concentrating on note taking and making the best decision every time more than rakeback and rakeraces. If you asked me was playing 9 tables affecting my decisions 2 weeks ago i would have been telling the truth at the time and said not much, but after reverting back to 6 i can tell you 100% it makes a huge difference and it can only help my game plus when you tilt on 9 tables it can go into freeroll very quickly but 6 is easier control.
So i basically have a session in the morning, go to the gym or vice versa (not because i like to keep fit but because id like to get fit) then ill play another session and have an afternoon snooze in no particular order and have another session later in the evening.
As im not working now ive found myself going to bed very late and getting up late i.e sleep around 5am-6am and get up around 3pm but id like to get back into the habit of getting up at 12noon and going to be at 1-2am.
I feel ive definetely improved my game over the last few weeks and i let a good few leaks creep into my game but ive been running terrible, yesterday i posted 13 pots over $50 that i lost that were bad beats and i still managed to lose less than a buyin and played solidly, this has been the norm the last few weeks, its not that i havent been stacking people alot too but im obviously going to be drawing out less as when i get all in my hand will already be strong but it seems everytime i hit a good run a worse run is around the corner, everytime i stack someone, someone stacks me soon after and its hard to take.
So its crunch time, i had a good month previous to this but now that i have to rely on this for income i have to start preforming but like ive mentioned before i have the option of working as much or as little hours as i want if things dont work out and i will do this for a while if need be and play as much as i can in my spare time until i get up and running again but i should never go broke as long as i continue good bankroll management.
In a way because im relatively new to poker, this is the perfect time to hit a downswing, i had a great month previous to this, i had reduced my hours in work and needed the extra cash and i was flush from a good few good weeks, my bankroll was healthy. Now i realise how important bankroll management is and also i realise if im doing this full time i need to have a couple of months wages as backup for the next downswing put aside when i do well.
Do i see myself doing this in 12 months time, pretty much. Ive always fancied an internet type job where i could travel and work the hours i want in whatever country i want and poker pretty much gives me this. Now that i know how volitile swings can be im firstly going to concentrate on clearing credit card bills and loans i have first before moving up, then ill take shots at moving up and not before or at least until i have a large portion of my debts paid off. Id hope to have this done and paid off in 6-12 months and to have moved levels by then but im easy going and have few big bills so i can manage comfortable if im doing just ok.
Handling downswings, well ive had them at the lower levels and instaed of giving up i took more time off work to give a real go and went from full time to part time working, i analyze my game so much more when im doing bad than when im coasting and i think the key to success is to keep that same level of commitment when im doing well which i will try and do. I still have passion for poker, it excites me, it makes me think and its a lovely job, maybe it will feel like a grind in later years but for now i love it. The one thing i find hard is when friends ask how your doing because they obviously know your not working and now at the poker and you have to tell them your not doing so well at the moment, it makes me fell like a failure a bit but its what spurs me on to imprve it i suppose.
Difference since i began playing full time, ive been running shite lol. I had slowly cut my hours from 35 hours a week to about 12 so i eased into it but it dosent feel any different, i usually go out an have a few pints at the weekend so i play most of my poker during the week, the only difference is i dont feel rushed into playing because i have all day to fit in 4-5 hours of poker and if someone rings me to go for a game of pitch and putt, a pint or a game of ball, i can just say yeah ok and dont play much poker that day. So its great really i feel like ive much more time, less stress, less dragging myself out of bed at 8 in the morning, so great. All my mates work 9-5 type jobs or shiftwork so nothing really happens that im missing and i guess i work my life around poker rather than the other way around.
And if you havent already noticed i cant stop typing garbage
Firstly, I admire your honesty and your constant posting on boards. I´ve been reading through your blog and you are most definitely improving leaps and bounds since you first arrived in our midst.
I think that reducing your tables is the first step towards increasing your win rate. I find that playing any more than three tables is more robotic, leads to poor decisions and isn´t much fun. But that´s just how I feel about it, I hope you´re as comfortable with six tables.
Something I´ve noticed from your recent postings is your preflop play which I think is most certainly costing you $$$$. Example, in this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055192451 you really should be folding AJ preflop. RoundTower summed it up best I think, you cant expect to win any kind of decent pots with a hand like AJ in this situation against this villain. Against some money spewing fish, I´m happy to be in the pot but not against a TAG. Just throw it away and be happy about it.
I think you´re also aware that you´re playing poorly in 3bet pots. I´ve seen you post hands where you call 3bets from the blinds with marginal hands. Calling 3 bets in position is pretty bad but oop is even worse. It is just so difficult to make these spots profitable.
One other thing I think you need to be aware of is your bankroll situation for a pro player. In the modern game of online NLHE, with the increased aggression and thus increased variance I think that a bankroll of anything less than 35 buy ins is folly. Also, the term bankroll should cover only the money you are willing to lose playing poker, as a pro player, I think you should also have at least two months living expenses separate from your roll.
This is obviously just my opinion and I hope you don't take offence to any criticism. I shall continue to follow your progress on this blog as well as boards.
The very best of luck to you.
Spectre
Thanks Spectre, i would never turn down any constructive criticism and that was good advice. Im not going to re-write my reply to calling with AJ other than to say your definetely correct, as i replied in the thread on boards already.
3betting i know i was playing terribly and i think ive gotten a hold of it now which i also discussed in the boards thread in my reply.
I agree on your opinions about bankroll and living expenses, im cutting it tight in that i need to withdraw some money for living expenses now even though ive been having a few bad weeks and it will leave me with a bankroll of about 20-25 buyins which is borderline for me and id like more like 30+ but as ive said before if i want to work 50 hours over xmas or whenever the hours are there for me if i need it or even if i just want to work 10-15 hours a week until im over a bad patch theres no problem but i will when im sorted look into have 2 or more months living costs put aside, if for nothing else to cover me in taking 2-3 weeks off without playing poker to take a break or go on Holiday etc
Anyway thanks for stopping by and the advice
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