Quiet on the poker front

Well, things have grown quite quiet on the poker front for me. Another failed buy in online, and have not played live since the 14th. I will spare you the details of my recent online bustout, but lets just say it included the craziest (and one of the most costly) 17 minutes of my online career. I call it, “The 17 minutes of Infamy”…..lol

I have a live game tonight at one of the TNT’ers and I am looking forward to that. I have no idea if it is a cash game or a sng/tourney, I just know I am looking forward to having a few wobblies and throwing around some chips. Just looking to have some money and hopefully pad my meager live roll I started a couple sessions ago. If all works out I will use that and only that for poker, and build it a little at a time.

I started reading “Why you Lose at Poker” today, one of the books I got this fall from PokerStars. Being a “Goals guy” as my buddy Onemanblitz calls me, this time of year I have often set a huge list of goals for the New Year. Last year at this time I was riding high, coming off the biggest one night live haul of my poker career. This year I come into the New Year limping. I am not playing at my best, although I feel my game is coming around after a terrible, tough year. I have in fact made a list of goals, although it only has one item, and that is simply this:

“Get Better at Poker”

Nothing fancy to be sure. I plan to get back to studying. I plan to get back to thinking about the game, rather than bitching about my bad luck or bad beats. I will not let the game consume me as it has in recent years, but I will spend most of my poker related time to getting better, and at least in my case, for this coming year that will be done away from the table. I plan to play less in 2008 than I have in the past, but when I do play it will be focused play, rather than playing out of habit or compulsion. I plan to read all the books gathering dust on my shelf and I plan to work hard on my mindset and strategy, all of which can be done away from the table. To truly get better you need to play of course, which I will, but not as much in years past. I think by playing less, but playing more focused, and getting back to my roots of being a poker student I can have the best year yet of my poker life, as well as set myself on the right track to enjoying this game, the highs and the lows, going forward for the rest of my playing days.

Quiet on the poker front

Well, things have grown quite quiet on the poker front for me. Another failed buy in online, and have not played live since the 14th. I will spare you the details of my recent online bustout, but lets just say it included the craziest (and one of the most costly) 17 minutes of my online career. I call it, “The 17 minutes of Infamy”…..lol

I have a live game tonight at one of the TNT’ers and I am looking forward to that. I have no idea if it is a cash game or a sng/tourney, I just know I am looking forward to having a few wobblies and throwing around some chips. Just looking to have some money and hopefully pad my meager live roll I started a couple sessions ago. If all works out I will use that and only that for poker, and build it a little at a time.

I started reading “Why you Lose at Poker” today, one of the books I got this fall from PokerStars. Being a “Goals guy” as my buddy Onemanblitz calls me, this time of year I have often set a huge list of goals for the New Year. Last year at this time I was riding high, coming off the biggest one night live haul of my poker career. This year I come into the New Year limping. I am not playing at my best, although I feel my game is coming around after a terrible, tough year. I have in fact made a list of goals, although it only has one item, and that is simply this:

“Get Better at Poker”

Nothing fancy to be sure. I plan to get back to studying. I plan to get back to thinking about the game, rather than bitching about my bad luck or bad beats. I will not let the game consume me as it has in recent years, but I will spend most of my poker related time to getting better, and at least in my case, for this coming year that will be done away from the table. I plan to play less in 2008 than I have in the past, but when I do play it will be focused play, rather than playing out of habit or compulsion. I plan to read all the books gathering dust on my shelf and I plan to work hard on my mindset and strategy, all of which can be done away from the table. To truly get better you need to play of course, which I will, but not as much in years past. I think by playing less, but playing more focused, and getting back to my roots of being a poker student I can have the best year yet of my poker life, as well as set myself on the right track to enjoying this game, the highs and the lows, going forward for the rest of my playing days.

Sixth Street

I am constantly trying to do all I can to learn all I can about poker. Be it reading books, forums, blogs talking with friends, or listening to podcasts I am constantly working to learn and improve.

A couple weeks ago while looking for some poker podcasts, I came across www.holdemradio.com which is the home to numerous poker podcasts. Lou Krieger has a podcast there as does Alan Schoonmaker, amongst a few hours. The podcast production isn’t always top notch but the content is fantastic.

Upon listening to one of Schoonmakers podcasts, he had a guest named Tommy Angelo that introduced a concept I have never heard of before called “6th street” Here’s a quote that Schoonmaker read from Angelo’s book

“Sixth street starts when the betting stops. Sixth streets starts when no one is talking about the previous hand. Sixth street usually stops by the time the next hand starts, but sometimes it can last for years. Sixth street is when players let their guard down and all the sudden it is safe to reveal classified information to the enemy, its like they don’t even know that the war is still going on”

This is a great great quote. It talks about how much of losing/winning at the poker table is not the cards themselves, but it’s the mental aspect, the history between players who know each other, its your tendencies, and your habits. Great stuff. I am going to do some research on this Tommy Angelo, (his web site is here) and see what else this guy has to say. From his interview, I think he has a lot of fresh ideas (to me) at ways I can look at my game.

Sixth Street

I am constantly trying to do all I can to learn all I can about poker. Be it reading books, forums, blogs talking with friends, or listening to podcasts I am constantly working to learn and improve.

A couple weeks ago while looking for some poker podcasts, I came across www.holdemradio.com which is the home to numerous poker podcasts. Lou Krieger has a podcast there as does Alan Schoonmaker, amongst a few hours. The podcast production isn’t always top notch but the content is fantastic.

Upon listening to one of Schoonmakers podcasts, he had a guest named Tommy Angelo that introduced a concept I have never heard of before called “6th street” Here’s a quote that Schoonmaker read from Angelo’s book

“Sixth street starts when the betting stops. Sixth streets starts when no one is talking about the previous hand. Sixth street usually stops by the time the next hand starts, but sometimes it can last for years. Sixth street is when players let their guard down and all the sudden it is safe to reveal classified information to the enemy, its like they don’t even know that the war is still going on”

This is a great great quote. It talks about how much of losing/winning at the poker table is not the cards themselves, but it’s the mental aspect, the history between players who know each other, its your tendencies, and your habits. Great stuff. I am going to do some research on this Tommy Angelo, (his web site is here) and see what else this guy has to say. From his interview, I think he has a lot of fresh ideas (to me) at ways I can look at my game.

Some Resources I have found

Just wanted to post a couple links I found tonight to some great info.

Some Different Views on Bankroll Management

http://www.cardschat.com/poker/lessons/bankroll

http://www.thepokerforum.com/runehansen16.htm

http://www.thepokerforum.com/joebenik1.htm

http://www.playwinningpoker.com/poker/bankroll/

http://pokerworks.com/article-506.html

Some Resources I have found

Just wanted to post a couple links I found tonight to some great info.

Some Different Views on Bankroll Management

http://www.cardschat.com/poker/lessons/bankroll

http://www.thepokerforum.com/runehansen16.htm

http://www.thepokerforum.com/joebenik1.htm

http://www.playwinningpoker.com/poker/bankroll/

http://pokerworks.com/article-506.html

Introspection, getting back to basics: Part 1

I am forever analyzing my play at the tables, both live and on the net. I am going through some what of a downswing right now and I am playing increasingly frustrated. It’s time for a real break from the tables and time for me to refresh. Time for me to get back to what I love about the game, get back to where I enjoy playing and to regroup.

I have really been analyzing my game over the last few months and trying to figure out the leaks and the best way going about plugging them. Here are are a few of the things I have come up with.

Live Play.

-I am playing too loose in tourneys, and risking too many chips early with marginal hands

-I am making correct reads, but then acting against that read and not letting go of hands, especially with TT-QQ

-When going thru a successful run last year, where I posted winning sessions 24-29 sessions live, I was playing tight aggressive, right now, playing tight weak right now it seems

-in cash games I am grinding out mid size pots at our level, playing fairly tiight, but often having a monster pot at some point in night with marginal or second best hand where i lose all most of my stack

ONLINE

my leaks online are same as they have been since i started playing

-playing too long sessions

-playing tired, bored, po’d, tilting

-chasing money

-in cash games, playing too loose, seeing too many flops with things like KJ, QJ, K10, AJ

-playing over my bankroll (100-150 bankroll, playing with 50 dollars in play on 50-1 omaha table, hoping to get lucky

I have talked on my blog and with my friends alot about my OCD like tendancies to latch on to something and drive that aspect of my life into the ground. Have always done it, and it has been on activities like, golf, reading, computer certification study, fitness when younger, poker, etc etc. I was talking to one of my friends this morning and said I would like to treat poker differently going forward. Almost business like. I want to reduce my hours playing, but play with more focus. I want to bring the fun back into the game for me, and not play just cause i have money on stars or whatever. I want to take advantage of the tools I have at my disposal such as poker office and maybe get a membership at sharkscope. Things like that.

One of the biggest changes I need to make in my game is the internal game. The Pschology of the Game. I named my parent site Nevertilt as kind of a tongue in cheek reminder. I have had a problem with tilting from the beginning. I need to concentrate on decisions. If i make the correct decisions that is all I can do. I can control my decisions but not the cards. If I continue to make these correct decisions, over the long haul, the rest will take care of itselves.

It’s funny, while I want to treat poker in a more “business like ” way, I also need to bring the enjoyment back to the game for me. I think I may be suffering a little bit of burnout with the game. For the last year so much of my free time outside of work and family has been dedicated to reading writing, playing and watching poker. My never ending search for Balance in my life applies to poker as well, maybe especially to poker. So as I said, shorter, more focused sessions , always striving to play my A game, and make proper decisions. When I get to a point in a session where I am no longer making proper decisions, shut it down.

There will be more posts like this coming from me, as it is something I have been doing a lot of reading about, thinking about and discecting my game. I am basically just thinking out loud, trying to make sense of my thoughts, and trying to figure out how best to proceed in order to improve my game and reach my goals.

Introspection, getting back to basics: Part 1

I am forever analyzing my play at the tables, both live and on the net. I am going through some what of a downswing right now and I am playing increasingly frustrated. It’s time for a real break from the tables and time for me to refresh. Time for me to get back to what I love about the game, get back to where I enjoy playing and to regroup.

I have really been analyzing my game over the last few months and trying to figure out the leaks and the best way going about plugging them. Here are are a few of the things I have come up with.

Live Play.

-I am playing too loose in tourneys, and risking too many chips early with marginal hands

-I am making correct reads, but then acting against that read and not letting go of hands, especially with TT-QQ

-When going thru a successful run last year, where I posted winning sessions 24-29 sessions live, I was playing tight aggressive, right now, playing tight weak right now it seems

-in cash games I am grinding out mid size pots at our level, playing fairly tiight, but often having a monster pot at some point in night with marginal or second best hand where i lose all most of my stack

ONLINE

my leaks online are same as they have been since i started playing

-playing too long sessions

-playing tired, bored, po’d, tilting

-chasing money

-in cash games, playing too loose, seeing too many flops with things like KJ, QJ, K10, AJ

-playing over my bankroll (100-150 bankroll, playing with 50 dollars in play on 50-1 omaha table, hoping to get lucky

I have talked on my blog and with my friends alot about my OCD like tendancies to latch on to something and drive that aspect of my life into the ground. Have always done it, and it has been on activities like, golf, reading, computer certification study, fitness when younger, poker, etc etc. I was talking to one of my friends this morning and said I would like to treat poker differently going forward. Almost business like. I want to reduce my hours playing, but play with more focus. I want to bring the fun back into the game for me, and not play just cause i have money on stars or whatever. I want to take advantage of the tools I have at my disposal such as poker office and maybe get a membership at sharkscope. Things like that.

One of the biggest changes I need to make in my game is the internal game. The Pschology of the Game. I named my parent site Nevertilt as kind of a tongue in cheek reminder. I have had a problem with tilting from the beginning. I need to concentrate on decisions. If i make the correct decisions that is all I can do. I can control my decisions but not the cards. If I continue to make these correct decisions, over the long haul, the rest will take care of itselves.

It’s funny, while I want to treat poker in a more “business like ” way, I also need to bring the enjoyment back to the game for me. I think I may be suffering a little bit of burnout with the game. For the last year so much of my free time outside of work and family has been dedicated to reading writing, playing and watching poker. My never ending search for Balance in my life applies to poker as well, maybe especially to poker. So as I said, shorter, more focused sessions , always striving to play my A game, and make proper decisions. When I get to a point in a session where I am no longer making proper decisions, shut it down.

There will be more posts like this coming from me, as it is something I have been doing a lot of reading about, thinking about and discecting my game. I am basically just thinking out loud, trying to make sense of my thoughts, and trying to figure out how best to proceed in order to improve my game and reach my goals.