Ugh. And Cardrunners

So it looks like I'm having another bad month. I'm up, but only because of rakeback and the bonus FT gave out this month. I'd say exactly how much, but I haven't looked in the last 2 1/2 days - its too depressing to see my BR fall, plus I think that I look far too often and its making me become results oriented instead of focusing on making the right decisions.

With regards to my 6-max experiment part deux, I started out doing really well and then hit a horrible downswing - mostly at 100PL 6M. Whenever I move from 50-100 (be it 6M or FR), I get creamed. What does this tell me? Well, everything I've read on the 2p2 forums indicates that its a fairly big jump, but not that big of one. What I think is that the way I play (too tight, too passive) can be a (very) marginal winner at 50 and below, but above that you have to ramp up the aggressiveness. I don't think that you have to play LAG, but you definitely have to be more aggressive and take advantage of position.

Three things I have decided to do to improve:

1. I'm going to stop focusing on trying to get a ton of hands in in order to get a high rakeback and FT points (I'm gunning for the 42" plasma TV). Playing 8-10 tables just adds to my tightness/passivity as I just go into my zone of tight/passive w/out giving much thought to my hand or villain's ranges. I'm now going to play a maximum of only 4 tables. I've been doing this for the last 2 days and I'm finding it beneficial. I was worried that I'd get bored but I'm finding that there is enough action to keep. Once I retool my game to be a true TAG (vs. thinking I'm a TAG when I'm actually a TAP), I'll add 1 more table at a time. I'm thinking I need to be disciplined and keep the 4 tables max rule through at least the end of April.

2. Reduce/eliminate distractions. When I was running well (and I'm not kidding myself that I was playing well), I'd fire up the ol' 8-10 tables, watch TV and surf the net all while playing. This further distracted me from the tables and I went into auto-TAP mode. Not good. When I play in the mornings I may open a table or two and surf the net, but that is just to pass the time. At night when the kids and wife are in bed, there will be no TV and no surfing the net. My only distraction will be listening to music on my iPod (Thank you, FT).

3. Finally, and perhaps the most important, I've bucked up and become a member of Cardrunners. For those who don't know what that is, its a website that features videos from some of the top online pros. It also features a forum, blogs, and other useful tools for improving your game. Its expensive - $99 activation fee plus 25 a month but my rakeback alone covers that and if I'm going to be serious about becoming a better player, this is well worth it. I've been messing around at 50NL/PL for WAY too long and I want to be able to play 200NL. I won't be able to do that if I don't drastically improve my game. I'm really excited about Cardrunners. I've already downloaded several videos and while I don't if its impacted my bottom line yet (since I haven't checked and the sample size would be way too small anyway), it has made it abundantly clear that I'm a TAP - and not a TAG. I always thought of myself as a TAG, but I'm not. It is SO helpful to be able to actually watch the pros play hands and see what they do when they get into situations that I find myself in and losing tons of money. It also made me recognize how key aggression is. Its amazing to see how many times I can 3 bet light and get people to fold, or make a CBet with nothing and take down the pot, and by watching the few videos has already helped me talk through villain's ranges and how to act and plan my attack. I believe its already helped my play and I'm excited about it.

I think by incorporating these three things (plus continuing to read/post on 2p2), I will grow significantly as a player and hopefully in a short amount of time. Of course, my dad always says that he's figured out his golf swing and will have his best year yet and that never happens, lol. I think that this is a different situation and while I recognize there will be some bumps in the road (from mis-applying what I've watched), I am going to be a better player for it in the long run. This is another reason I'm not paying attention to my results - I don't want to get depressed if the $ don't match the perception of my play. I'm going to play thru the weekend before looking at PT and FTP cashier and then do a big session review to go over hands and look at stats.

Wish me luck!

On a non-poker related note, my wife and I went to dinner with Andy and his wife Angela at a place called The Melting Pot. It is a fondu place. I had a really good time and the food is fabulous. Its a bit on the pricey side (a little over $100 per couple), but we get out so little that its worth it.

Also, I'm trying to lose 35 lbs. I started in January and have lost 12.5 pounds. I'm happy about that but I have a long way to go to reach my goal. I need to work harder and see some faster improvement.

Wish me luck!

6 Max Experiment Part Deux

FR NL started out horrible for me again - I immediately lost 8 buy-ins @ 50 NL. I decided I needed to change it up. I'm running really well (ok, just decent) at PL50 FR so I thought I'd try PL50 6-max. I'm going to do a little comparison of the two after running about the same number of hands. As of now, I'm doing well at PL50 6-max running at 4.86 ptBB/100 while running only 2.8 at 50PL FR - both over about 7500 hands. I'll continue to do this for the rest of the month and the winner will be the one I focus on next month. I may have trouble getting in as many hands at FR simply because there are far less tables so we'll see.

February Results

Two words: Not good. In fact, so bad I'm not going to post any screen shots. I ended up as follows:

P&L: - 568.60 (and that includes over 500 in rakeback).

Summary for 2008:
Jan: +976.04
Feb: - 568.60
Mar: - 199.00

2008: +208.44

I'm so far away from my goal of $12K in poker its pathetic. The bad beats have been horrible the last 3 weeks. Admittedly, I also played bad. Of the over $1K in poker losses last month, I can easily find $500 of stupid mistakes I've made and I'm sure if I looked harder I'd find more so its not all bad beats - although I have taken some particularly nasty ones.

This month has started out horrible. Lots of bad beats so far, but at least I'm not making a lot of mistakes. One huge one was a misclick I had with AA where I meant to be the pot on the turn, and bet a measly 50 cents into a $30 pot! Of course the guy calls (duh) and hits his 2 pair on the river. I was already burning at this point so I called his river RR even though I figured I was beat. That's a situation of a physical error combined with a mental error. I've got to do better if I want to be successful this month.

Ok, so there is some good news. FTP had some server issues and they gave me $25 bucks for my trouble. Additionally, as a result of their server problems, they gave me a $300 bonus opportunity and 21 days to earn it. I've earned $60 of it so far. I also have over $600 of rakeback coming to me this month - I think I'm becoming a rakeback pro. I earned over 3500 in RB last year and my total poker earnings in 07 was 4300. That is NOT what I want to be, but I'll take it.