Randomness

No big news to report, but i have been playing somewhat regularly and have managed to get deep in several tournies since my 3rd place finish. Unfortunately nothing major, but i'm still really pleased with my progress. I don't post often so i will posts some random stuff here.


Cash Vs. MTTs
When reading forums or blogs i often see players post about the frustration of playing for hours in a MTT and not cashing or having insignificant cashes.I simply don't have this problem, no not because i cash all the time lol, its just that i don't get frustrated. Perhaps its because i dislike cash games, but i think it also has to do with my approach. Most players like to see that their bankroll is steadily increasing... so each session, week, or month they want to see that increase. But for me i think that one 1st place finish will equal or be greater than a cash game player's winnings (playing at an equivalent buy-in @ small stakes) over the same period of time. So i'm not concerned about winning every tourny or going deep for small cashes... I know that the big score is coming and so i continue to put in work.

Bankroll & Field Size
Ever since i deposited $95 to FTP its been all about bankroll building for me. At first i just wanted to get to a certain amount so i could start making regular withdrawals. But recently I've begun to notice that most regular big wins for online players come in smaller field tournaments. Obviously it is easier to win in a 300-800 field tourny than in a +2500 field. The buy-in usually limits the field size, so the higher the buy-in the smaller the field... I think the ideal buy-in for these smaller fields is between $75 - $216.

My goal then is to increase my bankroll to $5500.00 where i can directly buy-in to the $55 50/50 tourny on tilt, take occasional shots at $75 buy-in and try to sat into the 109s and 216s. Eventually I like to have at least a 12k roll so that i can play up to the 109s regularly. Obviously with smaller fields and higher buy-ins the players will be better buy i believe i will be able to hang.

Establish a Routine & schedule
Ever notice that when a NBA player goes to take a free throw or a MLB pitcher goes to pitch or batter to bat that they follow the same sequence of actions? Why is this? I believe it is what signals to the brain that they are ready to perform. It prepares them to perform exactly as they practiced. I believe this can be applied to poker also. I am working on a pregame routine that i believe will allow me to get into the right frame of mind to perform my best in a tourny. It will not guarantee a win obviously, but it will make sure I bring my 'A' game.

In addition to this pregame routine I also want to establish a kind of schedule. Most times we just log in, see whats starting soon and jump in. Instead i'd like to know which tournys i'm joining ahead of time and play these same tournaments regularly. This creates a comfort level with the particular tournament and structure as well as players that increases the chances of success. I know that there are Pros that play various games at the same time, but for the small stakes player it might just be better to specialize for the time being.

RTR Challenge
RTR is a small fast growing forum community, And while i don't get involved with forums much, I enjoy the small challenges they often run there... and so far the members seem to be really good people. I recently signed up for a$4 180 man challenge and it looks like i'm gonna take it down.

I haven't been motivated to play these much because of the time issue but this challenge did the trick. These tournies are soft as ever and i crushed one last night taking 1st. When we got 3 handed i was chip leader and the other two were pretty weak, so i toyed with them alot and eventually dropped to 3rd place. lol You can tell when players think you're done and start to play like its just a matter of time before you bust, right :)... unfortunately for them i still had 24bbs so i was not concerned at all. I just focused, quit the shenanigans and eventually busted the 2nd guy, then crushed the other guy heads up... we started HU almost even stack and i think the only pot he won off me was when i folded... lol. gg sir.


well that's it for now.

-Isgrinder

Variance & Tilt in micro stakes sngs

On average how many tournaments would you expect to win in a given amount of tournaments? I'm not sure exactly but we all have a rough idea in our heads, even if we have never articulated it to ourselves, that we are comfortable with. Beyond which we start to feel the pressure of not winning. This number is different depending on your skill level and the type of tournaments you play.

Beginning last friday, I've gone 72 tournaments without winning a single one. The buy-ins range from the $3 & $6 45 man turbo sngs to the $4 180s and a few low buy-in MTTs. Over this time i've had 2 2nd, 1 7th place finish in the $3 45 sngs, a 5th in a $4 180 sngs and a 214th in a $3 mtt... thats it. Over this time it seemed that i could not catch a break, that no hand was safe. It was just impossible to win a race. Villians called with complete crap and still won against me. It was brutal.

However, Variance in sngs and poker in general is inevitable. You just have to be prepared for it, be able accept it and continue to play your A game. How do you prepare for variance? Its one thing to know what variance is. But when your AA gets crushed by A2o or Q4o as happened to me just lastnight, its hard to sit there and go 'well thats just variance'.

For me, after playing 6 max cash games and having huge swings of hundreds of dollars @ 50nl i'm better able accept losing 20+ tournies in a row, after all its just not that much money. So first step in dealing with variance i'd say is knowing your tolerance level and having proper bankroll management. By bankroll managment i'm not talking about what is considered standard on the forums, but what you're comfortable with. Being comfortable for me means that losing 20 x avg. buy-in doesn't make me go "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST LOST $X DOLLARSSS!!!!"

The 2nd step is to realize that you don't 'deserve' to win, because there is no deserve in poker. An excellent article that illustrates this point is called The Grossness (or beauty) of poker. An excerpt taken directly from that article really illustrates this;

Three poker playing friends are each offered 100 separate bets in which they’re a 2 to 1 favorite. They can place a $400 wager on each individual bet. In other words, 65% of the time, they win $400; 35% of the time, they lose $400. Now at the end of the 100 bets, they compare results to see how they’ve done and to their surprise, each has a different bankroll, in some cases, thousands of dollars apart. Three different guys, all making the same wager. Three very different results and likely, three very different opinions of their game.

That said, I was still unable to completely accept variance and therefore experienced variance's closest relative;Tilt.

Even pros tilt, it is almost just as inevitable as variance. I personally think that its impossible to not tilt ever, but we can manage tilt. The key to managing tilt imo is recognizing what triggers your tilt response, recognizing that you are tilted and having a pre-planned response to being tilted.

I don't tilt as easily as i use to but there are several things that tilt me.

1. Consecutive beats over a short period of time
2. extremely poor play by opponents... e.g. L/c preflop with Q4o, Callings 2/3rd psb on flop with gutshot drw, calling another 2/3rd psb on turn with gutshot and a pair, then making two pair on river to take down my AA

These are the two that come to mind right away. I very rarely tilt because my AA loses to something like 77 AI pf or when it flops a set on the flop, but bad play as in #2 above gets me.

Of course there are different levels of tilt so recognizing that you are tilted is also very important. There is full blown monkey tilt, where you completely lose control. There is the slow creeping tilt, where you slowly get looser and looser limping hands you normally fold etc etc. There is tilt where you decide to play hands differently than you would normally; slow playing big PPs, larger than normal open raises with AK, etc etc.

To manage tilt effectively you should have a plan on how to deal with tilt... is it to stop playing and take a walk, sit out for a short while... take a few days off. i have one of those squeeze balls that i throw sometimes, other times i just stop playing for the night... in extreme cases i may take a few days off.

SOUND OFF: what works for you? how do you handle variance and tilt?

Add your ideas on the subject.

gl at the tables and don't tilt!

Feb. Resluts & stats

Ok here are my overall stats for February. I consider it a successful month except i donked off a few buy-ins playing 100nl.



My results by position.

Interestingly even though i'm tighter utg, its still the biggest loser for me. A quick review of the hands played revealed that i was playing for stacks too often oop. basically i should be going for pot control and not trying to jam the pot. Also i seem to really have sticky palm utg... I always imagine opponent is trying to put a move on me and end up bluffing off chips.

Junk hands are losing me 440.00... In review i've opened hands as bad as 52o and J4s. Just -ev hands. Axs is also a cause for concern as well as 98s. Interestingly A5s & 98o are my two largest winners... I may be over playing 98s.

I've also noticed that many of my really bad plays seem to be at 100nl. I just don't know what happened there. I really stunk it up... just made one -ev play after another. ugh!

March Goals

Rebuild my roll for 100NL

play 20k hands

perform regular session reviews

grunch at least 5 hands per week on 2p2

watch at least 2 vids per week on CR

put up a vid of myself playing 50nl on this blog

Life:Poker Balance & Complacency

Recently I've been having some problems balancing my life and poker properly. I have a full time 40hr per week job, I'm a partner in a startup company with a friend and i play poker. In the month of February I think i made more at poker than at my regular full time job. This was obviously a really good month and i don't expect to duplicate it monthly. However i consider myself to have 3 jobs and I have to work on balancing them properly.

We're getting ready to fully launch the company and i expect that my poker time will decrease somewhat. I would still like to get in at least 15k hands per month though. Therefore i have to schedule my poker time wisely (study & play) and get the most out of every session. I have to start using my time more efficiently from now on... no more procrastination!

Complacency
There was a point in Feb. where i was totally focused when i played... I was reading opponents to the point of sometimes predicting their next play. I was aware of my image and using that knowledge. I have lost that focus. I tilted today at 50nl for the first time this year.

I have become complacent; by the end of Feb. I was not reviewing sessions, I was not checking my biggest losing or winning hands for poor play. I was not reading any poker literature beside a post or two on 2p2 or watching any vids from CR that i pay a monthly fee for. My opponents were so bad that i was lulled into complacency. This was a lack of discipline and character on my part.

I will re-focus in March and continue to work on and improve my game. This means regular review sessions, regular study and analysis. I will also attempt to learn PLO as a diversion so that i can stay fresh. Its only when i become bogged down in nl that i start to play by formula instead of actually thinking. PLO and the occassional sng should keep me fresh.

I was suppose to perform a review this weekend of my attempt at 100nl that did not get done. So no more poker until i do that and a general review of overall results for February. My next post will include stats, hands and analysis from that review.