Friday 31 August 2007

All Day Session!

No not poker… drinking! Well, it is my best mates wedding after all! Congratulations to Andrew and Danielle! I wish you many happy years of marriage.

It’s 4:17pm: Actually, I escaped a real all day session, so that’s why I’m here killing time. Also, it’s the end of the month, so I have to review the goals I set myself.

I didn’t expect to start so early (drinking). But it was 10:30am and nerves needed calming (not mine of course, but the groom). A round of Bacardi and Jack later… nerves were calm(er).

I don’t have to fill you in on the rest, but I have less than 3 hours until I return for the reception. Erm… double Bacardi diet coke please!

JULY GOALS:

Play 30K hands at 1-2NL.
Err… not quite. Played 14,190 hands.

Achieve 5PTbb/100 hands or better.
A little less. Won 1.22PTbb/100

Review and discuss key hands from each session of play.
Yes. Been doing that successfully and found a few leaks.

Finish reading NLHTAP (Sklansky) - (Well I read it already, but now I'm studying it).
Yep. Now reading professional no-limit hold’em.

Catch up on the Cardrunners videos I've missed.
Been watching videos. But not as many as I would've liked.

Actively participate in the forums.
Yes. But must be more consistent!

Okay, so I didn’t achieve my goals and objectives. I kind of expected that for the first month. I’ve played on and off (because of my job) for the best part of the last five years and always found that it takes a good 1-2 months to fully get into the swing. Usually by then, it’s about time to go away again… and I think that’s where I have been sticking!

I find that playing 1,000 hands a day of cash games is actually quite difficult. I only 3-4 table, so that means about 3 hours of play. I can play other games – donkaments, SNG’s, live etc. – but online cash is hard to play for more than 3 hours. I could increase tables and play six at a time, but my personal preference is three. Sometimes four if they are slow. I find that by playing fewer tables my observation is very good. I’m constantly taking notes and making reads. I think that’s very important if you want to progress to the higher stakes.

Anyway, I may not have done fantastically this month, but I didn’t run great either! For example take a look at my “luck graph” for July:




The red line shows what I should have been winning - had I'd broken even (luck wise). i.e. It calculates my equity based on the hands I was all-in. As you can see I ran like crap! Two hands that stand out are having the big full, all-in against bottom trips. Both times I was rivered by a one outer for 300 BB!

In comparison; look at a longer term graph:


As you can see, the luck factor should always even out in the long run, but lately I’ve just been way under.

In any case, what’s important is how short term luck affects you as a player. For me it’s blah! I realize that in the short term poker is a game of luck, but in the long term it is a game of skill.

It’s only a matter of time before I’m posting a graph the other way round (when I get super lucky), and made like 15bb/100 for the month! Just wait and see… the law of averages dictate it!

Oh, did I mention I crushed my live cash game this month and won multiple satellites into $1,000 tournaments! See, it wasn’t that bad after all!

I’ll be posting September goals later.

TB

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