Outlook on Play (and January)

I took a decent-sized break from poker at the end of '08. I didn't play at all in October, under 30k hands in November, and about 15k in December. I paid off some debt, spent money on presents, went out (barely), and basically didn't think too much about playing.

So during this little break, the thought kept entering my head that I might be rusty when I got back in '09. What was my goal for '09? Did I want to put the hours in? Would the break have been disasterous for my game? I wasn't playing yet, but I was thinking about what was going to happen if/when I did for '09.

Now this month has come to a close (one day left but I'm not going to play tomorrow), and I did well for myself. I felt like I was "comprehending" what I was doing. There was so much less guessing what the other guy had. There was much more planning per street ahead of time. Things just began to click. I ran good; I ran bad. I ran more good than bad. I ran above expectation this month, and that is DEFINITELY something I have to keep in mind. I have to remember that I need to play better and to appreciate a good month. I need to keep putting the effort in and keep the concentration up as well.

With rakeback included, January was a solid month. $10k month was pretty close.......

PS

By the way, there are much dumber players at night. Either that or I just got lucky to sit with some certain people.

I sat down and there was a guy playing aggressive pre. I saw him 3bet two people. I raised a hand (I forgot what it was) and he 3bet me and I folded. A few hands later, and with only FOURTEEN total hands on this guy, I 4bet/snapcalled-his-shove w/ AJ to see him pushing with A7s. Oh, and it held.

Not many hands later, I was shipped +$350 out of kindness? A guy I only had 24 hands on raised on the button to $7 and I made a LARGE reraise to $38 (we were deep, I'll leave it at that). And this guy pushed over my large reraise allin ($368.75 to be exact). He tabled 44 and my big pair held. So I just sat down at some table and in just a few minutes I had action all around me. For a quick two hours I made nearly $1k--sweet.

Treading Water

Today I got stuck playing a session. I didn't want to play as long as I did, but wanted to get out of the negative. I played pretty good and came out of it a few dollars shy of +$500 over 5 hours. I got burned deep, but it was about time as I'd been the guy burning people deep. I stuck with it and I'm happy I did.

Past Days

The heater has slowed down a bit, but I've still been at it trying to get the hours in. The sessions since have been (in order): +$50.60 in 3.5 hrs, +$378.50 in 1.25 hrs, +$230.25 in 2 hrs, +$920.80 in 2.25 hrs, -$1,240.25 in 3 hrs, +$939.70 in 6 hrs. In a quick estimation, it's been about +$1,250 since the 17th. So I'll still be at it. At the end of the month I'll post a graph of the month of January.

In other news, Justin is doing good as well. Now if we could ONLY get all three on the same page for ONCE. It seems like 2 out of 3 is the best it's EVER been. Justin and I are doing fine, but now Aaron is shuckin.

Facing Reality

I'm winning money, but I'm VERY aware that I'm running good. Today I got it allin on the TURN with AA vs top two for a little over 150bb, and I did it without too much thought. That's obviously not a good thing as I realized, after I snapped, that I didn't even pay attention as I acted. I did catch up on the river to take it down, but it really drove the point through that I'm running above expectation. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely flashes of brilliance (and of course stretches of blank thought), but more homework has to be done before I'm confident enough for the $400s.

This is what I mean, this is for the month of January. As you can also see, I haven't put many hands in....

The Waves

I'm not even talking about the ups and downs of running hot/cold. That's been there throughout. What I am trying to get over is having to dip into my bankroll. Those waves keep crashing down on me.

My bankroll goals are hard to reach because I have bills and debt. The bills are one thing: health, auto, phone, gas, etc. Those are actually manageable. But the debt is always staring me in the face. My ultimate goal is to build my roll (and skill) up to play the $400s permanently, get comfortable, win some, and pay off my debt EASILY--in that order. But the game doesn't wait and I want to knock off some debt in the mean time.

I just paid someone I owed money $2k (of $4.5k). Because I'm in the "business" of needing to have a good cushion to survive and feel comfort to play, that $2k hurt. However, it gave me a lot of piece of mind and I know that person can call in their debt at any time. So now my total poker bankroll is a few pennies under $16.4k. Damn I need to put in more time, that seems so low.

The main debt I am now most concerned with is my Discover card. I owe a little under $4k on that card. My first and foremost goal is to pay that credit card OFF by the end of April, while still maintaining payment on everything else (and buying a few things for myself and others as well). If I was at the $400s, that would be "just" 10 buyins. Where I'm at now, it's more than twice as hard to knock that debt out. We'll see what happens.....

Good Results

I played two sessions yesterday. The first was 1.75 hours @ $331.09/hr for $579.40; and the second was 6 hours @ $389.07/hr for $2,334.40. That totals out to $2,913.80 for almost 8 hours of work. I admit, the results are not typical, but I did play fairly well. And by that I mean I played decent, but had excellent table selection. Other than one $800 pot I was a huge underdog in (where I turned my two-outer when all the money was in on the flop), I was a favorite for, I believe, all the all-in hands. At worst I was a slight dog and drawing to almost half the deck.

So, trying not to expect these results to be the norm, I will strive to keep the hours going and still find time to be productive...

What Goes Down...

Will come up? As I said previously, I've not put in much volume over the last two months. Just playing a little here and there. And right now I think I can say the "vacation" did me good. I straightened some things out, and got some time to get more organized. I still have more to do, and always will, but I feel like things are much more in order.

My first session on the 6th was 4.25 hours @ -$228.44/hr for -$970.85, and I noted that I was "losing 100bb stack thinly." I also felt the first-day-back-so-don't-fuck-with-me tilt and spewed a little. But I definitely didn't play "horribly" and it was a good way to get back to the tables.

My next session was later in the day for 3 hours @ -$116.47 for -$349.40. This actually irritated me more than losing more in the previous session because I actually felt I was winning. I try to do a good job not to check my balance while playing to just concentrate on the hand I'm playing. However, when I checked my balance while unposting I saw that I was actually down a little over a buyin. Oh well, the lesson here was that this wasn't going to be easy to just hop back into it expecting to own.

On the 7th I handled some things and took a trip over the bridge to visit a friend recovering in the hospital. When I got back, I used the free time to start a session. It was for 3.75 hours @ $384.89/hr for $1443.35. That was definitely a nice bounceback for me. I'm not going to credit that to playing great, because I noticed things I was doing wrong right after I did them--not taking down unwanted pots on the flop, not getting into enough hands with the fish, etc.

I'll update as I go, and hopefully my bankroll will continue to go up as well. It's currently near $16.2k. Still having that kind of roll after Christmas and paying bills cheers me up a bit, but I'm also trying to do my best to get to $20k again while paying bills and enjoying some of it.

Happy New Year

Quick post:

Feel like I haven't played in a long time because of the holidays.

Aim is approximately four hours a day.
Will update blog page more often.
Will update bankroll conditions more often.
I'm about to finish a 4 hour session. Noticed I'm rusty and tilty.
Approximate roll is about $15k.