Build-a-Bankroll: 2

So, I've not played too many more games since last time due to my new found parental responsibilities! I've broke the 100 game mark & as predicted my ROI has dropped significantly, but its still in a decent place so I'm not too concerned. 

I cleared the requirement of MGR to get the free coaching from Broker so I've started stage 1 of that, which is covering Loose-Passive players. Although this is only the first session from Broker, I actually prefer the video style & the depth he goes into compared to the fundementals course I took back in December. I feel it looks at more things you need to consider such as range of hands, maybe this is because I've had time to play & develop my thought processes whereas when I took the fundementals I was like a rabbit in the headlights & didn't really know what I needed to think about & what questions to ask.

I'm still at the $1 games for now, a couple of wins short of moving up to the $2 games but should be able to hit this in no time.

In terms of FTP, I've played 77 games so far this month, the games played early on was when I was playing really bad & tiredness was kicking in from sleepless nights causing more mistakes than normal. Thankfully I've recovered from that, I'm picking my session times better albeit few & far between at the moment. I'm hoping the situation improves by month end & I can start showing some decent volume. 

When I can't get much time alone to concentrate, I've been loading up Stars. I tend to use Stars just for playing around & trying out new concepts. I've only got around $30 on there so I also tend to load it up if I'm a little drunk too! Better to blow a small $30 roll thats easily replaced than my main roll & regret it afterwards!

September: Poker is hard!

So I haven't posted for around 2 weeks now so I thought I'd give a quick update as t how things are going for me. I'm learning fatherhood is +EV for life but -EV for my roll & poker time! Hats off to anyone who can maintain their grind while dealing with a newborn.

Since Nate has been born I've not had a normal grind schedule & it's affected my play to some degree. My shot at the $10s started much the same as my start at the $5s, but it was mostly down to bad play on my part. Thankfully I came into the $10s over rolled, at one point I was down around 8 buy ins but have slowly brought it back up & I now stand around 2 buy ins down.

 So, where do I go from here?

I'm still progressing my little BR Builder series & I'm going to update it again soon. But as for my main BR I need to make sure that when I play, it's optimal. Making sure I'm not tired, rushing things just to get games in & I have peace & serenity in my surroundings. I'm pretty comfortable at the $10s I don't feel like I'm being out played or anything so I just need to play my best & crush. Hopefully things will settle down & I'll regain my schedule soon, also hoping to secure enough games to hit my requirement for the free training from Brokerstar.

Good luck at the tables.

- Jay

Build-a-Bankroll: 1

Hey all, in-between my last few entries I've joined TAGPoker.co.uk & begun building a new bankroll on Titan Poker. I've done this for one reason only, if I generate $15 in MGR I can get free coaching from BrokerStar. And free coaching is worth the time investment IMO!

So, the plan. I deposited the minimum $20 & intend to move up once I hit 20 BIs for the $2 level, slightly aggressive I know but I don't give any credit to these players at all so I'm pretty confident I can crush the $2-$5s no problem.

Progress so far: I've played around 35 games so far, so pretty small sample. I think my ROI is in the region of 30-35%, obviously running super HOT ;)
Another couple of buyins & I'll be at the $2s & ready to crush.

If I can, I might make my first video at the levels as I progress.

- Good luck at the tables.

Jay

Aug Week #4: MiniJayOMG

This week has been an epic fail volume wise. I'm pretty sure I've played like 10 games all week. That being said, I clawed back the loses I endured last week so it's not all bad. However, I did set myself a volume goal this month & it looks like I'm going to miss it, but for a valid reason. On Saturday we finally saw the arrival of MiniJayOMG which was pretty epic & always a proud dad moment. I have tried finding some baby poker clothing, turns out there isn't any decent retailers I can't find on the t'interwebs. Definitely a gap in the market!

So, I'm gonna write up my full review of the month in a couple of days, once I've had chance to review everything I've done & analyse where I want to go with things next month. Should be a pretty epic month next month hopefully, start of the $10s so hopefully September is rungood month for me.

Aug Week #3: Get rich or die tryin'

This week started out pretty bad for me. I had a severe lack of confidence, which was strange. I'd been running pretty well, had +10% ROI & around $80 profit from the games I'd played. But for some reason, I couldn't get my head into the game. Had a bad session Monday, slight winning session Tuesday & Wednesday was an unmitigated disaster! I played 26 games & lost 3 BI's. I was on full auto-pilot, spewing off chips in the wrong spot, calling light & I was getting sucked out on pretty hard in a couple of games which added to the misery.

I was due to have a Skype session with another player last week but his internet was down (seems to happen a ton in the US!) but I SS'd him & he is crushing the $5s & $10 for around 30% ROI, which got me thinking about something I'm reading in 50 cents book at the min. One of his keys to fearlessness is to rediscover curiosity. Explaining that as a child the world was a huge source of information & we paid close attention to everything, as time goes on we tend to close our minds off, thinking we know all we need to know mainly out of fear that our assumptions about life have changed. 


This strikes a chord with me when I think about poker strategy. There is certainly 2 definitive camps when it comes to HUSNG 'basic' strategy, you're tendencies are either passive or aggressive (As argued on 2+2) but no one really considering each others strategy to be effective. Maaybe this is a bad example but it got me to open my mind back up, remembering the style of play that Cog taught me & try a little small ball & it seemed to work. Hopefully I've moved past this roadblock of auto-piloting & found my creative side where I'm thinking more for myself & not just re-enacting the actions of my peers.


I finished the week off pretty dismally, Saturday I played way too much, I think I dropped around 5 BIs which is terribad TBH & tottally lost focus. PLayed a short 5 game session today, won all 5 for around $22 profit leaving my week around -$10 but a valuable lesson learnt. Volume wise I exceeded my target but the auto-piloting has hurt me pretty bad. Overall I've played 82 games this week, bit too much I think and my loss of $10 shows it.

Good luck at the tables.


Jay

Aug Week #2: Pump up the volume

Hai Guise! Another decent performance this week, I was more consistent this week too & although I took Monday off which made it a tough to maintain for the rest of the week but I made it happen, obv! I hit my target 57 games & added an extra 1 again. This weekend wasn't the best session I've had & I think I can improve on this. Sat I got up late so only put in 6 games (4-2) & today put in 13 (8-5) after family distractions knocked my concentration - man I need a proper office!!

For the month I've played 126 games which is +5 on target, although this is pretty good I'm not over the moon about it, I would have hoped to be further ahead. I want to push my volume up past 300 & as it stands this month I'm just doing enough to hit 250. There is a couple of spots I can gain an edge from, the weekend is my biggest opportunity to hit serious volume. I think anything less than 15 is a failure form now on regardless of what happens midweek. Midweek, I am more time constrained due to work commitments & usually get 2 hours of play. Hopefully this coming week I can put in solid volume & bolster it at the weekend with 30 games bagged. I kinda already know I wanna stretch myself another 25 games next month, taking a monthly total to 275 & then 300 in October.

Week: +$33.50
Aug: +$93.25
2010: +$243.20

Aug Week #1: VOLUME 58

This week has bee pretty mixed in terms of volume, started off quite poor on Mon only getting 2 games in. I woke up & felt like shit & realised I wasn't playing my 'A' game so quit the tables. Didn't get up on Thurs due to being in the hospital until gone midnight expecting to be a dad! And then a few long games left me a couple of games down Friday.

All this left me a tough task for the weekend, to hit my weekly target of 57 games I needed 30 games over Sat & Sun. I managed to hit the volume, I was quite surprised that I could concentrate for that long. Sat my session lasted 4.5 hours & I finished 10-5 & Sunday lasted 2.5 hours & I finished 8-7 so for the week I've played 58 games & finished 35-23 for $45.50 profits. This leaves me $0.38 over my requirements to move up to the $10s.  I'm gonna keep going this month at the $5s & move up at the start of September, gives me chance to finish the month strong without the pressure of the new level, plus I'm expecting pandemonium once the little one arrives this month.

I'm pretty satisfied with how things are going right now, I know I've come a long way since I started out & with help from Cog, Hokie & a few others I'm pretty confident in my game now. I know I still have tons of leaks, but I'm determined to work on them & become a better player. This week I've included the Sharkscope table that shows my results at the $5s which is pretty decent I think, considering I wasn't a great player when I first started & I also went through the worst downswing of my playing career (granted it was 10BIs but it was 1/2 my roll at that time. It hurt!!)

So, enough blowing smoke up my own ass. Next week is definitely more of the same, apart from the irregular play! I hope I can keep on target to hit the required 8 games a day throughout the week & if all goes well I may even try top continue with the 15 games over the weekend days which should give me around 70 games per week without a rest day. Not sure that's sustainable, but we'll see!

- Good luck at the tables

Jay