Thinking a little Clearer

Looks like I am in for a long wait so I figured I would blog on the Treo.

So after a shitty nights sleep, lol, I am a little removed from my latest tilt session and able to look at things a little more clearly. Emotion has always been a double edge sword for me at the poker table. Although I do not tilt at the poker table like I once did, tilt/mindset remains a huge factor for me online.

I think what I need to do is step away from the online cash games and instead have a huge session of 3.40 sng’s. Like play 100-200 of em and grind it out. I have a little more than 40 buy ins or so for those. I need to stop giving responsible bankroll management lip service and actually practice it. Discipline. Patience. Same old stuff. Feels like I am starting over, and I am not too pleased about it lol.

Thinking a little Clearer

Looks like I am in for a long wait so I figured I would blog on the Treo.

So after a shitty nights sleep, lol, I am a little removed from my latest tilt session and able to look at things a little more clearly. Emotion has always been a double edge sword for me at the poker table. Although I do not tilt at the poker table like I once did, tilt/mindset remains a huge factor for me online.

I think what I need to do is step away from the online cash games and instead have a huge session of 3.40 sng’s. Like play 100-200 of em and grind it out. I have a little more than 40 buy ins or so for those. I need to stop giving responsible bankroll management lip service and actually practice it. Discipline. Patience. Same old stuff. Feels like I am starting over, and I am not too pleased about it lol.

Thursday ponderings

Well I donked my way around the Mookie tournament last night, started out squeeky tight, ending up donking myself out with AJ on the last hand before the first break. I didn’t feel like playing in the first place so should have sat out. Ahhhh well.

I am working on a post about my long day on Tuesday when I satellited into two 50+5 tourneys on Full Tilt. It was a long day of poker, just one day after I said I wasn’t going to play for a while (par for the course in my schizo journey in poker). I will have that post up hopefully by end of day.

I need a lot of work on my game. I have done enough work on my game over the last two years and played enough that I should be a winning player online by now, but I am not. I was telling my buddy last night that I still have holes in my game that you can drive a truck thru, the biggest one being Bankroll Management. I play above my roll, and if you don’t play perfect poker, you will lose.

It stinks, cause I want so badly to be a great player. I enjoy all aspects of the game, playing, reading studying, but I continuously get in my own way. It’s a tough game, with peaks and valleys, and its important to be able to handle both, or you won’t make it out alive.

Anyway off to work on that post. Enough rambling for now….lol

Thursday ponderings

Well I donked my way around the Mookie tournament last night, started out squeeky tight, ending up donking myself out with AJ on the last hand before the first break. I didn’t feel like playing in the first place so should have sat out. Ahhhh well.

I am working on a post about my long day on Tuesday when I satellited into two 50+5 tourneys on Full Tilt. It was a long day of poker, just one day after I said I wasn’t going to play for a while (par for the course in my schizo journey in poker). I will have that post up hopefully by end of day.

I need a lot of work on my game. I have done enough work on my game over the last two years and played enough that I should be a winning player online by now, but I am not. I was telling my buddy last night that I still have holes in my game that you can drive a truck thru, the biggest one being Bankroll Management. I play above my roll, and if you don’t play perfect poker, you will lose.

It stinks, cause I want so badly to be a great player. I enjoy all aspects of the game, playing, reading studying, but I continuously get in my own way. It’s a tough game, with peaks and valleys, and its important to be able to handle both, or you won’t make it out alive.

Anyway off to work on that post. Enough rambling for now….lol

Joined a Training Site

One of the problems I have had over my online playing days, has been impatience. I am not talking about getting my money in bad, cause I just want to play a hand but more on the bankroll side. Trying for the big score, or trying to make 100 dollars a day or whatever. The Mental aspect of my game, along with Bankroll Management by far has been my biggest leaks, and I am working hard to plug them.

So with that in mind I have taken a couple steps to work in fixing these holes in my game. Last night I joined with a 2 month subscription to try it out Pokerfox.net training site. I have never been a member of a training site, so I am using this one to see my thoughts on them. So many of the best players you hear about are members of these sites, so I think it can do nothing but help, and if its not for me I am only out 40 bucks.

The second thing I did was with Frequent Player Points on stars I bought a couple books this weekend, The Poker Mindset by Matt Hilger. And Winning in Tough Hold’em Games by Stoxpoker. I have read great reviews for both of these books and I am looking forward to reading them.

A third thing I am going to do, to slow down, and not be tempted to play 2-4 even though I have been doing very good at the level, is play 4000 hands minimum at 50-1 and 1-2 before I play 2-4 again. This whole bankroll challenge was about instilling discipline and patience in my game, and playing 2-4 with 150 bb’s does not accomplish this whether I am doing well at that level or not. There is no rush. With 600+ bucks I have a good base to start off my roll, and not having to buy in again. Slow and steady is the key here.

Joined a Training Site

One of the problems I have had over my online playing days, has been impatience. I am not talking about getting my money in bad, cause I just want to play a hand but more on the bankroll side. Trying for the big score, or trying to make 100 dollars a day or whatever. The Mental aspect of my game, along with Bankroll Management by far has been my biggest leaks, and I am working hard to plug them.

So with that in mind I have taken a couple steps to work in fixing these holes in my game. Last night I joined with a 2 month subscription to try it out Pokerfox.net training site. I have never been a member of a training site, so I am using this one to see my thoughts on them. So many of the best players you hear about are members of these sites, so I think it can do nothing but help, and if its not for me I am only out 40 bucks.

The second thing I did was with Frequent Player Points on stars I bought a couple books this weekend, The Poker Mindset by Matt Hilger. And Winning in Tough Hold’em Games by Stoxpoker. I have read great reviews for both of these books and I am looking forward to reading them.

A third thing I am going to do, to slow down, and not be tempted to play 2-4 even though I have been doing very good at the level, is play 4000 hands minimum at 50-1 and 1-2 before I play 2-4 again. This whole bankroll challenge was about instilling discipline and patience in my game, and playing 2-4 with 150 bb’s does not accomplish this whether I am doing well at that level or not. There is no rush. With 600+ bucks I have a good base to start off my roll, and not having to buy in again. Slow and steady is the key here.

A week in

Well I am a week into my Ferguson style bankroll challenge and its been a bumpy road so far. I am still in play, have slightly more than double what I started with but I have had a couple issues, quitting while ahead and with session length. This challenge is about instilling discipline in my game, and although I have doubled my starting roll, I am not being as disciplined as I should be.

I have reverted to playing limit for the last 1000 hands or so as opposed to NL like I started out. I think if you play ABC poker there is money to be made at the limit games online, but man, there can be some terrible suckouts! Any two suited in limit at lower limits? Cap it. Pair under the cards on the board with one street to go? Cap it. On the other hand there are some situations where you have tremendous draws, such as straight draw flush draw, with top pair, etc, that can lead to a couple more bets, and big payoff, or can get costly if you do not hit a few times.

So although the results money wise (doubling my starting roll) are good, its important that the discipline part, and the bankroll management part of my game gets addressed. That is the part of the game that will keep me in play, on the bad streaks and when the cards run dry. It’s tough at the small levels, as you can reload fairly easily if you bust out. However, I don’t want to reload anymore. I want to build a roll that can withstand the ups and downs, and be stable. I really want to play in the FTOPS and the WCOOP in 2008 and in order to do that I need to have the roll to be able to play satellites and stuff to make it happen.

A week in

Well I am a week into my Ferguson style bankroll challenge and its been a bumpy road so far. I am still in play, have slightly more than double what I started with but I have had a couple issues, quitting while ahead and with session length. This challenge is about instilling discipline in my game, and although I have doubled my starting roll, I am not being as disciplined as I should be.

I have reverted to playing limit for the last 1000 hands or so as opposed to NL like I started out. I think if you play ABC poker there is money to be made at the limit games online, but man, there can be some terrible suckouts! Any two suited in limit at lower limits? Cap it. Pair under the cards on the board with one street to go? Cap it. On the other hand there are some situations where you have tremendous draws, such as straight draw flush draw, with top pair, etc, that can lead to a couple more bets, and big payoff, or can get costly if you do not hit a few times.

So although the results money wise (doubling my starting roll) are good, its important that the discipline part, and the bankroll management part of my game gets addressed. That is the part of the game that will keep me in play, on the bad streaks and when the cards run dry. It’s tough at the small levels, as you can reload fairly easily if you bust out. However, I don’t want to reload anymore. I want to build a roll that can withstand the ups and downs, and be stable. I really want to play in the FTOPS and the WCOOP in 2008 and in order to do that I need to have the roll to be able to play satellites and stuff to make it happen.

Couple Days In

Well a couple days into my bankroll challenge and I haven’t blown up, and jumped levels! Actually, does it help that I was sick in bed most of day yesterday and only played three 3.4 turbos and a handful of Omaha hands? Probably….haha.

No in actuality, I am doing ok, and I am going to work to keep tilt out of my game, and follow this way of managing bankroll indefinitely. I have a few goals in mind but they are long term goals. Here they are:

1. I want to build a stable base for my bankroll, a number like 1000 dollars.
2. I want to eventually be able to cash out a few 100 a month without it crippling me
3. I want to get my shark scape into the black (down couple 100 after 130 or so sngs)
4. I want to learn ALL the games offered on Stars, even if it take playing them at the absolute bottom stakes. Becoming an all around player is important to me and I think will really help my Holdem game anyway to be versitale.
5. I want to be able from this roll eventually start a roll on fulltilt, if for nothing else to be able to play the blogger tourneys.
6. I will play in an FTOPS and/or a WCOOP next year in 2008.

So that’s the thing, I am treating this as a fresh start. There is so much I need to learn. There are so many bad things and habits that I need to unlearn and break. Most, I would say 65 percent or more of my cash game online play has been limit holdem, then probably 25 percent or more was PLO, and then a very small left over portion has been NLHE. So I have lots to learn about all forms of poker but expecially NL. As I scour the net for resources and strategy I will post the more interesting links here in my blog.

This weekend I will try and get some hands in, but will keep to the plan. Never buy into a table for more than 5 percent of my roll, keeping to micro limit cash, 1 dollar mtt’s (less than 2 percent of roll) and 3.4 single table sng’s. I normally do farely well on the weekend, so it would be nice to have a good weekend, and start building the roll!

Bought in 150
Current 218.40

Couple Days In

Well a couple days into my bankroll challenge and I haven’t blown up, and jumped levels! Actually, does it help that I was sick in bed most of day yesterday and only played three 3.4 turbos and a handful of Omaha hands? Probably….haha.

No in actuality, I am doing ok, and I am going to work to keep tilt out of my game, and follow this way of managing bankroll indefinitely. I have a few goals in mind but they are long term goals. Here they are:

1. I want to build a stable base for my bankroll, a number like 1000 dollars.
2. I want to eventually be able to cash out a few 100 a month without it crippling me
3. I want to get my shark scape into the black (down couple 100 after 130 or so sngs)
4. I want to learn ALL the games offered on Stars, even if it take playing them at the absolute bottom stakes. Becoming an all around player is important to me and I think will really help my Holdem game anyway to be versitale.
5. I want to be able from this roll eventually start a roll on fulltilt, if for nothing else to be able to play the blogger tourneys.
6. I will play in an FTOPS and/or a WCOOP next year in 2008.

So that’s the thing, I am treating this as a fresh start. There is so much I need to learn. There are so many bad things and habits that I need to unlearn and break. Most, I would say 65 percent or more of my cash game online play has been limit holdem, then probably 25 percent or more was PLO, and then a very small left over portion has been NLHE. So I have lots to learn about all forms of poker but expecially NL. As I scour the net for resources and strategy I will post the more interesting links here in my blog.

This weekend I will try and get some hands in, but will keep to the plan. Never buy into a table for more than 5 percent of my roll, keeping to micro limit cash, 1 dollar mtt’s (less than 2 percent of roll) and 3.4 single table sng’s. I normally do farely well on the weekend, so it would be nice to have a good weekend, and start building the roll!

Bought in 150
Current 218.40