July Progress Wk2: Volume, Volume, VOLUME!

This week as been pretty good for volume, the weeks overall target was to get in 42 games & I missed that by one but I'm still ahead of target by about 3 day. I've been getting up a little earlier than normal, around 5am so I can wake up & have breakfast before I hit the grind. This has been working out quite well, but I do have days where I just can't get outta bed which sucks cuz it wastes a day which is valued around 7 games so I need to make sure I'm getting in 7 games more than I normally would.

Results aren't that sexy, but I'm showing a profit so I'm not gonna complain. I've had a couple of bad sessions this month which has hampered my results, 0-4, 4-8 sessions have hit my return. However, I've handled these sessions pretty well & as long as I keep learning from my mistakes, I'm growing as a player.

The last measure for the month is my hours played, this is down & I need to keep working on this where I can, 6 hours back on where I should be & it leaves me needing 2 hours of poker per day. I need to be on my game completely these last couple of weeks, I need to  be up & playing & making my mark.

I'm just about done with my reviews with Hokie, this has prob been my single best investment in my poker career yet & recommend anyone to do the same. I fully intend on continuing getting coaching from Hokie & I'm pretty confident I'll move up to the next level within the next few month as  result.

So, focus for next week is to continue with the volume. Make good decisions & make them count. I also want to make sure I'm implementing all of the advice I can from Leatherass' book, I think this will hone my abilities as well as the coaching has.

- Good luck at the tables.

J

July Update: Poker Diet & volume crushing smoothies

So far this month the results are pretty meh, but I'm not too interested in my results. I'm trying to shift focus completely away from how I'm doing, I think it's impeding my progress. I'm trying to set my PT3 to only show games played so I have no idea where I am for the month as I'm pretty sure that once I get in the correct mindset on concentrating on the volume, everything else will start to fall in place more, so long as I continue to study correctly that is! In terms of volume, thats going great, I'm plus 17 games on my target so I just need to keep the concentration going & the momentum & shoud crush it.

Another thing I've decided I need to change is my diet, struggling to wake up at 5:30am every morning & I'm pretty sure its the shit I eat that contributes to this, if I'm going to be dedicated to this I need to look t everything & unfortunately that means banning myself from the regular sausages & burgers I eat along with the gallons of coffee too!  Been doing research on healthy energy foods & began to put together a meal plan for the week.Stuff like peanut butter, bagels, eggs, blueberries (I f*cking LOVE blueberries!) apparently do the trick so I've adopted these things into my diet.

I've decided to give up on the Everest challenge, I feel it's taking my focus away from where it should be. I'm dedicating my play to Full Tilt for the foreseeable future, the benefit of rakeback is probably the primary motivator for this. I think if I concentrate on playing at one site I should be able to move up quicker & start crushing the next levels.

One of my other goals this month was to read Dusty Schmidt's book, 'Treat Your Poker Like A Business'. I've done this already, I was totally engrossed from the outset & there is a ton of great stuff to think about your overall game that I've often considered implementing into how I play but never known how to, this has the answer to those questions. I intend to post my review of the book, but I want to give it another read first. Then I think I'm going to move onto 'The mind gym' which was recommended by HokieGreg, so thought I'd give it a try.

I guess my new goals should look  like this:

[  ] 180 games on Full Tilt (Currently +17 of target)
[  ] Play 55 hours of poker (-2.5 hours behind)
[  ] 15 hours of poker study (On target)

J

June results

I've had a pretty decent month in terms of results, run well & finished up with my best month ever on Full Tilt & managed to get all the games in I needed. It went to the wire in terms of volume, but I guess that just good goal setting. At times it has been tough, but at other times I've managed to sit down, find the zone & press out a good session of games.

Stars hasn't been as good, had a mix of bad play & running bad has made me have to grind it back up to a break-even position. 

Everest is a struggle, no doubt. The system is just too slow, getting in a session take way longer than I could have imagined & I need to compensate for this next month. Results have been a bit of a rollercoaster, started out up 4BIs & back to break-even then back up 5BIs & after a bad session where I lost 7BI's i was back down & I'm pretty much break-even. I'm pretty sure I can beat the $10 limit on this site, I just need to maintain my focus & hope I don't hit a downswing. I can't afford to drop down limits because I'll need to play twice the number of games & 90 per month is a big ask as it is for a site as slow as this. 

Study has been good, but difficult to record. I think I've set goals that are a bit too unrealistic. In order to get the 30 hours I needed to get 1 hour of study in a day at work & that hasn't really been possible. Also, when I read as part of my study, I don't sit down & record this by the minute. I've decided to go with the 80:20 rule, so 80% playing poker 20% studying. This should set a decent goal for my study, allowing me to figure out the videos I want to watch at work & allow me to actually study them & take good notes, also to pick up on and HHs I need to look through.

So, in terms of hitting goals it has been pretty good, volume is generally there & the intent to succeed. 

[X] 100 games on FTP

[X] 50 games on Stars

[  ] 85 games on Everest

[  ] 30 hours of study

[X] 30 hours of poker

[X] Finish reading 'The poker mindset'

July could be an interesting month, I'm expecting my first child in August, but if it arrives early the goals may change. But, I need to have some solid goals to hit because there is no guarantee he'll come early. So, in terms of Full Tilt, I'm going to bump the target games back up now we have a full month to go at it. I think 180 is a big stretch to hit in the designated time I have, it is achievable but i need to have focus & be efficient in my approach to sessions, I can't afford to waste any time I've got so we shall see how I get on. 

In terms of Stars games, I'm going to have to sacrifice play here next month in order to get in an allocation of 100 games on Everest. Again, the Everest is a big target but to give me a chance of hitting the goal in August I need to finish up in July in credit. 

All in all, I think 55 hours of poker in July is a decent amount to play. Doing the maths it works out slightly short on average times of 16mins for Everest games & 10mins for Full Tilt, but if I can aim for 55 hours, I won't be far off. It works out to be 2 hours of poker per day, so a session of 3 hours per day will work out pretty well. 

Study-wise I'm going for 15 hours, this allows me to spend 4 sessions a week going over a couple of videos & a final day to review some HHs. I've neglected to look at HHs but I think this has been a huge mistake & I'm looking at brining this back up to speed. I don't think it's necessary to set a goal to review HHs, I just feel the study volume gives me some flexibility to change it up where I think I'll benefit. 

I also intend to read Leatherass' book Treat Your Poker Like A Business it's totally where I'm going with my poker, building up everything from volume to study to finances so I think I'll get some great tips from this.

[  ] 180 games on Full tilt

[  ] 100 games on Everest

[  ] 55 hours playing poker

[  ] 15 hours studying poker.

[  ] Read Treat Your Poker Like A Business

Study

I've been reading quite a bit recently, nearly finished my first read of Poker Mindset & there is tons of great advice in there. In addition to this I've been reading Leatherass' blog & intend to buy his book 'Treat your poker like a business'.

My intention is to really up my game & make sure I'm making the most of every opportunity. I want to make sure I'm getting the most out of each session, obv I need to play my best in each game but am I maximising game time in every session or is there something I can change to allow me to fit in an extra game or two per session.

I'm also going to change my approach to my study. I need to get back into the habit of reviewing some of my HHs so maybe I'll add that to my goals for next month. I also want to make sure I'm getting the most out of my studying. To date I've gone with the attitude of watching as many videos as possible, which seemed the obvious thing to do. As time has gone on I've adjusted slightly & tried to get more by taking some notes. But it's really not the best way to study. From now on I've decided to structure my studies & decide in advance the videos I want to watch & break the sessions up & watch a video a couple of times to try & extract as much information I can before I move on to the next video. Hopefully this will allow me to take in more, but also allow me to implement the changes to my game while still watching the video I got the strategy from & give me a better chance at implementing them correctly through practice & reaffirmation.

- Good luck at the tables.

Jay

June update: Run like god edition

Its fair to say this week has been pretty epic in terms of run good. My Stats on FTP are telling me I'm running at 23% so far this month. Although I've not checked what the top players at my level are achieving, I'm pretty sure I'm running better than normal. I'm not going to try to convince anyone I'm the best $5 player there is right now, I have put a ton of work into my game but I think there is still a long way to go. I'm starting to put in the volume & should hit around 250 games across 3 sites by the end of the month & that is in just 3 weeks. 

With the volume I'm hitting now, my aim is to increase the volume steadily up to 500 per month. This is obv a big task in terms of time commitment considering I have a 9-5 job. It means waking up even earlier, as it stands I'm usually grinding by 6am till 7:30am Mon-Fri & 6:30am-9am Sat & Sun. Before I look at my working hours I'm dealing with my attitude to play, trying to make sure I'm making best use of my time when Im playing. In the past Ive been guilty of wasting valuable time when I could be grinding out more games or cutting sessions short just to book a win. Since I've been reading The Poker Mindset I've realised that this isn't a great approach to have. 

Additionaly, Nick Rainey's post made me realise my work ethic is good but its not great, not impressive & not good enough. I'm going to spend more time reading up on what it takes to get this level of commitment & how I can fit it into my already busy schedule. I've already browsed a blog or two made by Nick's Students who also have full time jobs, hopefully I can glean some advice or tips from here. If I can get near to 500 games a month this will put me in excellent shape for when I decide its what I want to do for my main source of income. 

In terms of my bankroll, I'm prob only a couple of months off hitting the $10 level providing I don't hit a downswing in the mean time. Obv the $10 level is my end of year goal, which at the beginning of the year & at the $1-2 level seemed so far away. Now I can feel its within sight, I might even make the stretch to the $20s & I'm pretty sure I would have done had I been playing on one site. I'm not sure it was my best choice to split my time through Stars, Full Tilt & now Everest. But I started out on FTP & used Stars to try out a few moves & used it as my play account for when I wasn't in the mood for concentrating properly. I didn't want t donk off my roll, but I managed to build it up near $100 which was enough to make me change my mind about the purpose of the account. Then Everest comes along after I got $50 free & I decided I'm gonna take shots at the $10 level & I'm playing pretty well against the French donks & after playing less than 40 games I've run it up to $160. So the plan with that is to get my 1000 points, which is the requirement to keep the free $50, run it up as high as I can & then cash out once I've got there because that software is so slow it tilts me!

54/100 games on FTP (2 behind)
39/50 games on Stars (11 ahead)
36/85 games on Everest (12 behind)
7.25/30 hours of study (9.75 hours behind)
26/30 hours of poker (9 hours ahead)

Everest: +$57.25

Full Tilt: +$77.95

Stars: -$27.85

WSOP Ladies Event: In response to @realkidpoker

First off let me start by saying I agree with the point Daniel is trying to make, I just think the arguments he uses are weak.

First of all, the point that the event is used as a learning experience isn't that strong. What is wrong with playing in a lower buyin tournament regularly run at any one of the casinos in Vegas. Sure it's a steep learning curve playing live for the first time but isn't it exactly the same for guys too? The WSOP is a prestigious series & I'm sure it's a daunting experience for anyone playing for the first time. But I don't think playing in the ladies event is going to be any less daunting given there are plenty of exellent players.

The next point is the sexual equality argument, I gues this is the one that really makes me laugh. I just find it horribly patronising. The comment "Men have had it pretty damn good. They could always work, vote, or pretty much do whatever they please, while women had to struggle and fight for their rights." is like saying, there has always been a white president why not let Obama have a play around for a bit. Or making a woman CEO of a company because women have had a bad time of historically, it only belittles the contribution she has to make which is probably better than any man could make anyway.

Sexual equality should mean just that, are we going to see an event for black, Jewish or disabled people?? No, so I don't think you can argue this point either.

Like I said at the top, I agree with Daniel. If it's a ladies event, then it should only be for ladies.

- Good luck at the tables.

Jay

June progress report: Week 1/3

I'm pretty happy with my commitment this week, in terms of what I want to achieve from my goals, I'm on target to hit them all pretty much. I guess all it took was putting together a simple spreadsheet to monitor my position in all of my goals & where I should be in relation to the current date. This allows me to sit down at the beginning of the session &  decide how many games I need to play & which site needs to be played when.


Overall, my play is coming along & I'm happy to carry on grinding it out. I know I'm still a fish but I have the commitment & determination in myself to get better. My goals from now on are to keep stretching my volume targets & capitalise on my time I have available, I think in the past I've been too happy to get a few games in here & there & cram in the volume when I need to. Now, I want to play as much as I can when I have the opportunity to do so. 


I was discussing the variance aspect of the game with another player as I feel this is still affecting my game. I think my approach to playing games as I just mentioned above has had an impact on this. For a while now I've still been affected by the short term variance swings, even at the end of a session which could only be a few games long. I know this is the wrong mindset, I know long term I should show a profit & this is a demon I need to conquer. 

30/100 games on FTP (2 ahead)

13/50 games on Stars (1 behind)

23/85 games on Everest (1 behind)

4/30 hours of study (9 hours behind)

13/30 hours of poker (4 hours ahead)

Everest:  -$6.25                           

FTP: +$13.95 

Stars: -$9.25