2010

On to poker in 2010. I need a starting point so here's current standings:

overall graph includes just about everything up to this point for cash game.




Sng & tourney graph:




As far as goals for 2010, my first goal is to watch Haj School on DeucesCracked. From what I understand this series is about becoming more efficient in regards studying poker and progressing as a player. After I have watched this series, then I will set my goals and I think be in a better place to make a plan for this year. I will follow up with this my next post.

Updates (remix)

Since my 100nl challenge mentioned in my last post, I've been playing 200nl pretty consistently. I actually haven't played 100nl since November 15th. There have been a couple differences between 100nl and 200nl that have stood out to me. At first I thought there might be more fish at the 200nl level. Now that I've played it more I don't think this is true. I do however believe that quite a few fish find there way to 200nl easier due to the fact that in a casino typically the lowest stake is $1/$2 (200nl). Either way there isn't a lack. There are more good regs that appear to know what they are doing. It seems a little more aggressive and I notice more leveling attempts. It's a challenge and being competitive as I am, I enjoy it. The most noticeable I'd say are the 400nl+ players dropping down for whatever reason.

Even tho I haven't been at 200nl long I do feel like my game has grown from it. I'm being put in situations that I think are helping me think about the game better. This is due to both moving up and studying. Typically every month that passes, I look at the previous month and see an improvement on how I view the game or a certain situation.

Something I had to get used to was the dollar amount between 100nl and 200nl. The first day winning $800-$1000 was very exciting and the first day losing $800-$1000 was really gross. But for the stakes I'm playing $800-$1000 is nothing really. It's 4-5 buy in's which whether you are on the losing or winning end isn't anything too crazy. I know to any normal person these dollar amounts may seem large, but it's really relative to the size of your bankroll and how many buy ins you have. It's bankroll management, a system. And really, it's a way to keep score. The bankroll is also money that is separate from life money. Also the dollar amounts I'm speaking of aren't anything close to being big in the poker world nor to my situation. I think the best way to handle adjusting to the $$ amounts is being bank rolled deep and moving up when you are rolled deepish for the new stake. I know this has helped me a lot. There are different approaches for different people.

Something else that's been happening to me more and more is it's getting tough to stay motivated at my real job. From playing poker and being part of the community my view of money is already desensitized. Being a poker player it has to be to a degree obviously. From my perspective, it's pretty normal for me to make 2-3 days (18-27 hours) worth of my real jobs pay in one day playing a few hours or less of poker. I've been doing this consistently relative to the stakes for some time now. It has opened my eyes a little bit more to some things in life that I already knew. Going to college, graduating, and getting a job is the "normal" way of life. Before this is misunderstood I'm definitely for going to college. What a great experience and opportunity to learn. My point is about after school. Ever since I've been young I knew that the "normal life" of finishing school, getting a monday - friday job and work until I retire was not for me. In my opinion sitting at work 40-50 hours a week is an inefficient use of my time to make money and I feel like sitting behind a desk for all the hours over the span of time is wasting a lot of my life at the rate of about 2080 hours a year. I think I can achieve more taking a different approach. I'd rather live life having the time to enjoy it. And I think it's important to enjoy how you make your living. I'd say this even if I wasn't exposed to the life poker can very well bring me. It's not about the money, it's about the freedom.

That said, I have much respect for everyone that works a real job. A lot of people live great lives working the 8-5 mon-fri and are happy. or not. It's really a personal choice of how you go about your life. This is why for the most part we have the lower, middle, and upper class. Personally I think it would be cool to work for Google or a stock trading job, but these aren't realistic options for me now so this leaves me with poker. And don't get me wrong, poker is no get rich quick deal. Poker is certainly not an easy road. I have busted my ass studying and put in a ton of time to get where I am currently and will have to continue to do so to move forward. By no means is this the easy way out, it's more like a tough way to make an easy living.

Poker is also not the end to my means, but rather one of the means to my end. I have other plans once I can achieve a certain point. Anyway I think in a previous post I outlined some goals for 2010. I know I posted some on a thread at DeucesCracked, but I'm going to go into more detail about my plans for 2010 since it's most likely going to be a very important year for me considering I will more than likely go professional. I'll post my plan for 2010 soon..


Results since coming back from my break in October:

A+

As mentioned in my previous post, I gave myself a challenge to beat 100NL for another 15 buy ins before moving up to 200NL. Basically my exit test out of 100nl. Today I completed the challenge. Really wasn't too difficult which is a good sign considering the reason for doing the challenge.

So yeah, moving to 200NL. I'm rolled 40 buy in's deep and I don't see any reason to go about the transition any differently than I did 100NL. Probably start off playing only 2 tables at a time just to test the waters and get comfortable. Other than that, can def start making some alright money at these stakes. We will see happens.. I'll post more later.

Challengament Results:

Quick post break updates

Since it's post break and because I set a challenge for myself, I figure I will post my progress up to this point. It's been pretty good so far. My game is def feeling sharper. I feel like everything I studied this past year finally had a chance to really sink in. Having a fresh, clear mind I was able to adjust a couple of mistakes I was making. Had a few random aha moments that's for sure. Then to top it off, my friend sweat me the other night and helped me basically fine tune my game. All that combined and I feel like I've never been better.

The challenge for myself was to beat 100NL for another 15-20 bi's post break before moving up to 200NL. Including a couple hundred in rakeback and sng winnings I'm at 15 bi's now, but I feel like including rakeback and sng's is sorta cheating myself so I'm not going to include them. I think I'm aiming for 15 actual 100NL buy ins and my sng winnings and rakeback will give me a little extra cushion making it more like 20bi's. Either way I will be rolled quite deep going into 200NL and that can't be a bad thing.

Challengament progress @ 100NL so far:

Dos

Well I'm back from my poker vacation. Didn't mention before, but since this October 15th marked the end of the first year of my poker career I decided to reward myself with a vacation. Also, balancing my poker career and not too mention some coaching now with a full time career can be a lot. It's easy to get burned out as was I. Running bad wasn't helping either. The timing was a win/win situation.

I wish I could say I went to some exotic beach, but I can't this time. Instead I just took a simple trip to San Antonio, TX to visit some college friends. Def a great time since I got to hang out with some friends. Ever since The best beer in the world thread at DeucesCracked I have been craving "real beer" so I def satisfied my craving. Other than that I relaxed and avoided anything poker for about 3 weeks including DeucesCracked. It was just great going to a place I have so many kickass memories of. I feel totally refreshed and 100% ready to begin another year.

Speaking of year two, I'm pretty damn excited. If I'm able to accomplish half what I did the first year, I will be more than pleased. Considering where I train, I'm very optimistic. This next year I will hopefully get some more live play. Unfortunately the only live games worth my time around Houston are going to be underground and who knows how shady they may be. I don't really like the idea of that. I am however planning on going to Vegas for the World Series of Poker in 2010. Def play live and some tourneys. Should be a blast considering a lot of my friends from DeucesCracked will be there. Can't wait.

Alright so it's def time to set a path for my second year:

-I've been on the verge of moving to 200nl and will def be a big part of my 2nd year. I'm rolled for it now and I think I can hang, but I've decided that because of my downswing, I'm going to set a goal to beat 100nl for another 15-20 bi's. To elaborate, post downswing I'm technically only up 11 bi's at 100nl now. At one point I was up 30 bi's. So I've gone on a 20 buy in downswing. Fortunately for rakeback, the damage has only been about 10bi's. So in my opinion if I think I'm good enough to play and beat 200nl, then I should be able to beat 100nl for another 15-20 bi's no sweat and at the same time finish 100nl respectably imo. And especially coming off a break and feeling fresh, this will be my new challenge going into the new year. I like challengaments :)


-Stating the obvious, but continue to study study study. Where I currently stand, I have a great opportunity to seriously go far this year. I proved a lot to myself this past year about what I'm capable of and knowing that gets me excited about what I can accomplish this year if I put my mind to it.

-Where would I like to be this time next year? I hope to be consistently beating 400nl. I obviously won't be upset if I get higher, but I think that's realistic considering the circumstances. The circumstances being I have a full time career other than poker so I can't play 50-100k hands per month. Quality not quantity... man.

-Coaching. Def going to keep this up. I'm going to have to ponder on how to fit it in my poker/job/life balance. It's a complicated situation. The problem is pretty much an opportunity cost issue. As mentioned, I work a full time job during the day, so the times I'm on my A-Game is limited. Sometimes I'm rested enough to come home after being at the office for 10 hours (typical day) and put in a session or coaching lesson. To be honest tho, a lot of times I'm not. My job can be pretty stressful and involved sometimes. Deadlines!! So considering my a-game time is limited, I have to take advantage and play if I ever want to progress through the stakes. And to be a good coach takes up time. Coaching is no breeze. You basically become a mentor and can spend a lot of time with the student. I def enjoy it and with some past life experiences think I can be good. I just have to work out the opportunity cost issue and make my poker/life/coaching/job balance work.

-I think that's all I have for now. I will probably add more later. I think this next year is going to be interesting for online poker in general. The silly UIGEA regs. I'm not quite sure what will happen and nobody does. I'm sure there will be some deposit/withdrawal hiccups, but I don't think online poker will go away. Too much money to be made and I'm sorry but it's about to be 2010. This is called technology. That said, I'm definitely not for full Online Casino's. Poker is obv much much different than online slots, roulette, etc. Biggest differences in poker is you aren't playing against the house (playing against each other and the casino takes a rake meaning the results don't matter to the casino) and poker is a skill game. And anyone who says poker isn't a skill game, considering I've studied it the past year, sounds like an idiot to me. Nuff said.

yayy graphs

October is a pretty special month I guess you could say. I started my poker journey October 2008 and here we are a year later. Damn time flies.

My actual game has come so far this past year that it kinda blows my mind. Definitely not the same poker player I was a year ago. This past year I have gone from the micro's/$5 sngs to being just shy of 200nl. And rolled deep at that. Quite an accomplishment imo considering I started with practically nothing. Seeing how far I've come year 1, i'm excited about where I can potentially take my game year 2.

So to catch up below is my August and September graphs. Should illustrate the downswing/bad run I was on.

August:



September:



Also, since mentioned it's the 1 year mark, here is my overall progress since last October:



I'm not a complete poker table ratings hater because I think for some people it may be quite accurate, but if you know my screen name then it's OBV not accurate for ME. So proof that you shouldn't live by ptr lol. I'm really not sure why it's so far off, especially for even my 100NL. That said, I'm def leaning towards this being a good thing. No complaints.

Just A Post

It’s been a little while since I updated. There hasn’t been anything to spectacular regarding monetary advancements in my poker career since before August. As you can see from my other post I have been running bad and continue to run bad. Being a poker player you get used to these things. It’s part of the game. Think of it like the stock market. If you pay attention to the short term or day to day ups and downs you will go crazy. Instead you have to look at the big picture. Most people think playing poker is just about playing your cards right, but being in control of your emotions during rough times is also a big part if not half the game. And by this I mean, not going on tilt and spewing off your bankroll or stacks chasing money because you are stuck. Instead you have to be in control, take breaks, play smaller stakes, continuing to study and improve and not let it affect you etc etc. Be the professional. No big deal.

In other news, for a while now I’ve been interested in getting into coaching. I enjoy helping people improve their game and seeing them succeed. It’s rewarding and in turn my reward is that I continue to improve my game by doing so. I think to be able to master something; you have to be able to teach it. Some cool situations have presented themselves recently to help me get experience coaching. My coach along with another coach run a poker course at DeucesCracked and about a month ago they asked if I would like to be a teaching assistant to their students in the class forum. I took the offer and I’ve been helping out in that. From there, I was given an opportunity to take on a student of my own.

I don’t want to give away too much, but since she is my first real student I have to at least talk about it. I hope you don’t mind :). She is an older woman who has worked a strenuous job for a while and came across an opportunity to take some time off work and took an interest in poker. I don’t blame her :). She is new to poker so I will have to take her from the ground up. I think it should be a great opportunity for her and I know it will be a great opportunity for me to work on developing a system of my own and most importantly get experience coaching.

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying some time off of work lately. Using my vacation days strategically lol. Speaking of that I’m so glad The Office starts back up. Like a few other shows it’s great because I didn’t get into The Office when it first came on so a lot of the reruns are new to me. Sunday is going to be great on HBO because Curb Your Enthusiasm is starting back up and of course Entourage. There is another show in between that is going to premier this Sunday that may be cool. Also 2months2million on G4 has been kickass. Can’t forget football season and some good movies will be coming out on blue ray from the summer etc too. I typically haven’t watched much TV, but now I guess I have good reason.

I guess that’s about it. I’d post a graph of last month, but I’m on my laptop and not on my poker computer so I don’t have the data, maybe later. I ended down 6 buy ins so nothing pretty lol.