I'm Baaack

Wow.  It has been a long friggin' time since I actually wrote a blog.  In fact, the last time I posted results it was for October of 2009 - a whole fucking year!   I'm going to try and take it up again, I guess.

 What is really sad is that in looking back over some of my older entries I realize that I STILL suck at poker.  Well, I wouldn't say I suck, entirely.  I will give my credit for having a solid fundamental understanding of the game.  Unfortunately, with the wealth of poker information out there, that is only good enough to make a player a "meh", break-even player.  I need to step up my game.  And really, to step up my game I need to play less tables.  As easy and simple as that would seem to be, part of the "fun" part of online poker for me is the "grind" which is what a lot of these young poker players dread -- actually having to sit down and just grind away.  But I digress;  since I love to grind and just get hands in, I enjoy multi-tabling to build up hands and stats.  That is great and all, but the bottom line is I am not going to improve my game much by doing that.

I have literally just thought of a plan as I write this:  I will split my time grinding 4 tables of Rush and playing just 2 tables of Rush.  This will allow me to get the best of both worlds.  The next step is figuring out what that mix will be.  I've been doing 30-40 minute sessions with a 10-15 minute break in-between (work permitting).  Perhaps a good mix would be to alternate 4 tables of Rush with 2 tables of Rush each session.  Hmm...  that just might work.

So, here are my "results" for October, 2010:
I played 66K hands and with rakeback and bonus I was up $457.  I did really well playing 25NL fullring rush winning at a  8.19 bb/100 (4.09 BB/100) clip.  But alas, I sucked at 50NL fullring rush, losing at 2.04 bb/100 (1.02 BB/100).  I guess that isn't a hugely bad winning rate.


November 2010 Goals:

I need to come up with some goals, so here goes:
[  ]  Play at least 60,000 hands
[  ]  Watch at least 1 CR video per week
[  ]  Improve Double Barreling.  I'm not sure how to measure this exactly, though.  But want I want to do is to dub when a) I turned more equity (or still have good equity); or b) a scared card hit (scare card based on my opponents range of holdings).
[  ]  Do not look at HEM results or cashier more than 2 times per week.
[  ]  Get to, and stay at NL50 (I almost have enough roll to play there now, but I will prolly start at 25NL mixing in some 50NL.
[  ]  Read Tommy Angelo's book again.
[  ]  Study for a minimum of 15 minutes per day -- generally in form of HH review; do at least 1 equity calculation. 
[  ] Edit:  Whenever I play 50NL+, I will play a maximum of 2 tables.  If I feel like "grinding", I will play 25NL or lower only.

Random crap.
I read Tommy Angelo's book (title is alluding me atm) and I read the Poker Mindset.  Both fantastic books for helping with the mental side of poker.  I have come to the conclusion that a my winrate is taking a HUGE hit from me tilting.  I hope that reading these books (and re-reading them) will help with that.  I need to remember that poker is a long-term game and I must quickly let go of past hands.  If I feel I screwed up or played it wrong it is ok to briefly acknowledge that and make a mental note to review the hand, but then I need to move on.

I have rambled a shit-ton, so ima gunna wrap it up.

Chow peoples!  (and by peoples, I mean me, since I am the only person that will read this!) 

Mid-month update; Variety is the Spice of Life

Alright, so here's where I am through November 18:

NL50
Hands: 23,389
Profit/Loss: +$541
PTbb/100: 2.32

NL100
Hands: 10,438
Profit/Loss: +174.75
PTbb/100: 0.84 (hey, at least its positive!)

I've decided I'm not going to play NL100 until I get my bankroll at FT up over $3.3K (at $2,800) or next month, whichever is sooner but I can't move up unless I learn to fold when I'm obviously beat. I know that this is a huge leak, yet I continually do it and I believe its the reason I'm struggling so much an NL100 (I get away with making dumb calls at NL50 and it hurts the roll far less when I don't get away with it). Until I learn to plug this leak, I really shouldn't move up, despite having the BR.

Variety is the spice of life....
I keep reading that you should learn to play other poker games and with my struggles with NLHE, I thought I'd give Omaha a try, so I sat down at Omaha Hi PL10 table (no way am I ready for the PLOH/L game), where I was the biggest fish. About the only thing I knew about the game was that you get 4 downcards and the community cards play out like HE.l I didn't even know that you had to play exactly 3 community cards and 2 hole cards. After losing a couple of hands trying to use 4 board cards I thought I ought to at least look at the rules, lol.

I've come to realize that these games are pretty soft but I need to read some books/strategy posts and get up to speed a bit but I do find the games fun and I like the variety. Its also fun to donk around with only 10 bucks on the line. I may invest in PokerTracker for Omaha once the new PT comes out (dont' think I want to invest in it yet only to go and get the new version).