Feb review, March goal setting

I've finished playing for this month & wanted to get in quick so I can move on with March.

Taking a look at my goals for the month
[X] 112 games (4/day)
[ ] 5% ROI
[X] Watch 3 videos a week
[X] Review the previous days session before I start to play that days games.

Although I didn't hit the volume I set, I'm setting it as an acheivement due to the fact that I had about 10 days where I couldn't play. If I didn't miss the 10 days I'm finishing on 120 games.

Didn't hit my ROI target but I'm not worried about that anymore. So long as it's +ROI I'm relitively happy. Plus I get the added boost of rakeback now from my play at FTP.

So my march goals.

[ ] Play 120 games on FTP
[ ] Play 25 games on Stars
[ ] Stick to my schedule.
[ ] Post 1 hand on 2+2 a week
[ ] Reply to 1 hand on 2+2 a week
[ ] Acheive positive ROI at $2 level.
[ ] Hit the $20 bonus on FTP.

All of the above is well within my capability. I've played the volume before. I'm progressing with my shedule & have started to post in 2+2. I have over 30BIs for FTP at the $2 level, so combine that with lower rake & rakeback I should easily grind out a profit. I play the $2 level on Stars and tend to win so I'm pretty confident.

Once I hit the $20 bonus I'm gonna try to split my time between Stars & FTP. Not sure how best to do it but I'll figure it out I'm sure.

- Good luck at the tables.

Feb goals update

There is only a few days left in Feb & I am pretty happy overall. It has been a bit up & down but I've learnt some valuable lessons & feel I'm a stronger player for it.

Looking upon the negatives, I busted my Stars roll this month after playing way above my BR and during a tilt session. I've reloaded to $10 and have been playing $2 HUSNGs so far I've run it up to $20 so it's getting there.

I still need to play a little tighter in certain situations and I think this is causing me to spew off chips in bad situations.

That said I'm happier with my game, I am improving a ton. Although I'm not hitting the 5% I'm not really concentrating on this goal anymore. As long as I finish positive and I'm learning I don't mind too much right now. I'm going to stop setting monetary goals as I don't really have control over it. I guess my future goals are going to be around volume & study. I'm still persuing my schedule & it seems to be working out well for me. I'm watching a video every morning & afternoon & reviewing hands of the previous session before sitting down to play. Hopefully this will give me more time to wake up, focus my mind a little more and give me a greater awareness of my leaks.

- Run Good

Poker: Luck or Skill?

The great poker debate has been going ever since god was a lad. I think I’ve spent enough time playing the game & although I’m no professional player I have my own take on it.

Luck is an important part of poker, but also luck isn’t an important part of poker. Expanding on these contradictory comments the timescale within which we view these two statements is the key to unlocking the answer. In a single HUSNG (such as this one http://www.pokerhand.org/?5205825 ) you can outplay your opponent & get all the chips ahead but sometimes, just sometimes your opponent will hit the miracle card/s he needs. Referring to the above example, my Jacks are good 88% of the time. What some people neglect to recognise is that 12% you will lose. I’ll happily play that hand 100 times again the exact same way because I know it’s +ev & I’ll come out a big winner from that scenario. But that is over the long term, which is the time frame of my second statement on luck in poker. Over the long term, luck doesn’t play a part in your results, the coin flips will even themselves out & your results will start to tell you a story of how good you really are as a player, or really how skilful you are.

I’m not going to deny, luck does play a part in poker, but long term the winners win & the fish will still play because they occasionally suck out when they’re behind. Without this mechanism bad players would give, go broke or both! The winning players can recognise the times when to get the money in ahead and long term will make healthy profits which is why poker is clearly a game of skill.

Finding pieces of the jigsaw.

I've finally nailed down a schedule for my play & this is very dependant on my ability to get out of bed in the morning as I've got no spare time. I've structured my routine around both learning & playing.

I decided to watch a video from HUSNG.com first of all, mainly due to my alertness from just waking up isn't always 100% and I want to give myself the best chance to win every game i play. After I've watched a video, I dedicate the next 30 mins to reviewing the hands from the previous day & trying to spot any leaks I may have. I'm still working on my pasivity & have been trying out different strategies to see what works best for me.

Once I've reviewed my games & I'm happy with what I need to improve on I then move onto playing a few games. I've been playing pretty well the past week or so, still at around 5% ROI but I'm not pushing myself on this target as much as I have done in the past. I realise I can't dictate what ROI I acheive & doing so may even stunt my results from a psychological point of view maybe once I've reached the target I'm not as focused on winning. I guess I just need to make sure that in the long term I'm in positive ROI & concentrate on making the right moves & my results will benefit from this.

Away from poker, I've started reading a book on meditation. Not really sure what I'm hoping to get out of it, but it may help me in some tough tilting spots in the near future, we'll see!

Waking up at 5am seems to be working out ok for me right now, certainly helps fit a lot into my day but makes it even busier & sometimes more stressful but it's worth the investment if I can improve & start to move up the limits.

Currently, my FTP roll is around 60BI for my current level & 30 for the next. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to move up in the next month. As long as I don't spew my roll I should be able to run it up & bolster it with a bonus that I've been clearing since Dec! So fingers crossed this will be one step closer to the $10 level!


- Run Good

The only way is up, maybe

I've had a couple of good days both on FTP & Stars. I'm currently reviewing some HHs, playing in the morning on FTP & then watching a HUSNG.com video & in the evening playing a single game on Stars.

So my results on FTP are looking better. I'm just short of 5% ROI which is the minimum I've targeted myself for. I'm watching the videos & now playing the 4 games per day, things seem to be working out ok right now but I've been here before & need to keep a level head.

Given that I busted my roll on Stars I've redeposited $10 I cashed out a few months ago. Playing a tight BR straight away by hitting the $2 HUSNGs, won 3 straight but I'm looking forward to the variance & if I hit $5 I'm gonna grind the $1 DONs!

- Run Good

Mixed results

So I'm starting to put the hours in to my study with respect to the HH reviews, picked up a few points that I need to work on so I'll see how that goes over then next week o so. past few days results haven't been great:

12/02/10: 1-3 -$2.40
13/02/10: 2-2 -$0.40
14/02/10: 3-1 +$1.60
15/02/10: 2-3 -$1.50
MONTH : 13-12 -$1.50

I'm studying more & reviewing hands more so hopefully this will help me out, out of my goals I set I'm not too far out. Watching the videos, starting to review the sessions before playing, not going to hit the 112 games but I'm getting 4 in a day & I don't want to push the volume button too hard ATM as I spazz out when I do. plus I need to improve my win rate to hit my 5% ROI targets but I have a relitavely small sample size.

- Run good

Bad day at the office

Ok, so the day started off well after I booked in a winning session from 4 games early on. Ended 3-1 up. That's where the run good ended. I seem to be donking off my cash on Stars over the past 2-3 days & this all came to a horrible end when I took my last $27 and smashed it into $2.30. I'm now gonna have to go back & grind it out in the micro-DONs FML!

For some reason this always happens when I have plenty of time to play & I just play wrecklessly as if I have to get as much volume in as possible. I'm going to try to use this time to study my game & watch videos. New plan for stars is to grind $1 DONs up to $20, 1 tabling up to $5.

- Run Good

PokerStars > Full Tilt

I'm a week into Feb & I haven't played a game on Full Tilt yet. Just back from my trip to London village & still not feeling awesome, it's affecting my ability to get up in the mornings. I'm hoping to fully recover from this shifty cold in the next few days.

On a positive note, I've recovered from my drunken session at the biggining of the month & I'm now back into positive ROI on Stars. Just finished 2 games, first a simple HUSNG & lost! Then I decided to play a 4man game. My first opponent was a competent player but I managed to get the right hands at the right time. My opponent in the final was BAD, calling down with A-high afer I raised pre & on all 3 streets, raising bottom pair but then checking down top pair on a dry board. Gotta love the players that are worse than me!

I was inspired after reading a few posts from a SNE on FPPPro.com, the guys name was dannyohboy & this guy has a wife, three kids, full time job & still manages to get in 6 hrs of poker a day. Now that is dedication! As soon as I can get my early routine going I'll have to figure out how I can acheive the same level of play.

- Run Good

Sick beat

I'm on my way back down to London & as a result I'm not gonna get any games in, but that's probably a good thing as I'm feeling like shit right now & haven't been able to get up to get the games in. I have managed to play a game in the evening on Stars & I'm running pretty good in the $6 games. I'm 5-0 so back to breakeven due to my 3 $10 drunken spew games the other night.

I'm feeling pretty confident in my game which usually comes before a big losing session!

- Run Good

Location:Harrington Gardens,Kensington,United Kingdom

Jan review & Feb goal setting

Bit of a late post to start the month, but I've been away on my annual conference with work at Chelsea FC, which was great fun when the beer was flowing.

January was a bit of a mixed month for me. I set myself a tough challenge in hitting 15% ROI after only one full month in HUSNG & achieving an 8% ROI. Volume I think was adequate, although I think I'll reduce this next month by one to make room for my new daily routine, but more about that later. Lets look at my goals & where I finished.

[ ] Play 150 games - 127 games
[ ] Achieve ROI of 15% - 0.21% ROI
[ ] move up to $2 HUSNGs - Due to ROI, bankroll isn't sufficient for $2 games
[ ] Review sessions on a regular basis - Sporadic
[ ] Post on 2+2 - Not one post
[ ] Finish reading the heads up book - Didn't read.

Obviously, this is fucking abysmal! I really need to try harder if this is going to work. I know I can do it, after playing the higher games on Stars I'm confident in my ability to some degree, but I need to change my mindset while attempting my goals. With this in mind, Feb goals are:

[ ] 112 games (4/day)
[ ] 5% ROI
[ ] Watch 3 videos a week
[ ] Review the previous days session before I start to play that days games.

If i can't achieve this, I seriously need to look at my commitment to my game. I know I can hit the volume as I've done it both months I've been playing, although I need to get right back into it after I've had a few days off with work. 5% ROI should be very achievable at my level, its just going to take patience & perseverance. the new regime should help me address my leaks before going into a new set, hopefully this should stop me making the same errors in the next set.

I've also downloaded a heap of videos from HUSNG,mainly cog's stuff as I know the fundamentals of his game & this is the style I'm trying at adopt.

I figured I'd show you the results of my play from both sites.
So the Full Tilt I played 127 games as previously stated & finished $0.3 up.

Stars on the other hand, I played a very small sample size of 23 & ended up at $76 up, 50% ROI



I'm going to stick to a 40BI bankroll for Full Tilt & continue playing the $6 turbos on Stars till I hit $100, which maybe some time after I donked off $30 after a night out with work [LESSON #1: Beer & Poker don't mix!]

But looking back I've learnt to look at my priorities when playing games, I've also had an awesome run goot on Stars after 50% ROI and I also won the $11 SCOOP ticket, so not a horrible month after all.

- Run Good