Hey Poker Aficionados,
So guess what? I know you're thinking I went busto again and lost all my money aren't ya? well yeah that actually did happen but that's besides the point. I'm actually up for the month of December and have actually outdone my own expectations. Except for the busting part.....
So it's been a while and I wanted to go ahead and give a full update of my online poker progress in December. The ups and downs, Where I started, where I'm at, as well as what lies ahead for me in the new year.
The month of December
Playing Style: Was swingy and left me with a bunch of specific points to note in my game. 1. I've improved tremendously in my hand reading ability. I used to just look at the strength of my cards and take stabs in the dark at what my opponents have. Now although not perfect have learned to narrow down the range of my opponents hands. 2. I love being a LAG. (Loose Aggressive Player) I am very aggressive at the tables and have mixed in a lot of 3betting and some check-raising into my game, keeping players honest, and using aggression as leverage in spots where I don't have position, or need to get more information about the opponents hands. I used to be a bit unsure about the right times to kick start the aggression and bluff opponents, now I feel like I am usually on point with most well timed bluffs and probably need to bring it back in a little. 3. LAG play has it's drawbacks. Poker = Variance, Variance is a Biatch, so if you're mixing it up and getting into a lot of pots, you will have way swingier sessions. Still it's worth it to me at these stakes to mix it up with players, especially when I feel I have an edge against them. When I don't thats, when I need to reel it back in, but I'm working each day to make the best decisions possible
Setbacks: I've had some tough times as I've tried hard the first 2 weeks and the more hands I play the harder it is sometimes to keep focus since you want to auto-pilot. I felt within the month I haven't been as consistent as I would like to. I missed some good +EV spots and pushed action in spots where I knew I was beat but was too stubborn to let go of the hand. Two of these spots are in my head where my hand was clearly beat but I got so emotional about playing the hand badly that I just shut down the thinking. I think we all have moments where our emotions get the best of us but I have to work harder to change habits like that if I ever want to really be a consistent success at poker. I can't let emotions make my decisions for 1 hand since they'll be plenty of spots where I'll put my money in later in the session and know I have the best of it. This is tilt in a way. although not the uber monkey tilt that I used to be on, but I still tilt in small ways here and there, although playing better helps to limit the damage tilt does to my bankroll. I have a lot of work to do in disciplining myself. Letting go of hands when they're beat and not getting emotionally attached. I also don't want to kid myself and think I'm like this professional poker player bad @ss. I have a lot of work to do to ever be able to say I am a good player. I'm just a donk who gets lucky but I'll keep studying hard to make sure that the luck as well as the skill is consistent
Progress Report (The Poker Road so far) : well I know the one or two people who actually get past the first paragraph in these posts are probably wondering where am I at money wise (yes mom, I promise I won't play poker til 2 in the morning). Well I climbed up for a while as I kept on working my way up the poker ranks. Heads up poker has been good to me this month. The mano y mano approach of reading one player, learning his tendencies, adjusting to his game, the competitive and personal nature of it all is so amazing and it has netted me some good results for the month. As you'll see on the Heads Up graph for December I had a good month playing HU although one of the last opponents really did some damage to me since he was a reg at the tables. I wanted to challenge myself a little but he took me to the cleaners. He wasn't that much better than me. infact I'd say if there was an edge it was maybe 5% but apparently he didn't like losing coin flips and decided that any pocket pair was good against my two high cards and vice versa. Plus everytime I put him on a weak hand I was right. problem was it was one tad bit less weaker than mine..... like I'd be sure he didn't have top pair in a spot and push all in with my second pair on a K 9 6 board with 98 and he'd have 9J. It was a tad annoying but at least I know how to play against the uber aggressive tard if I ever want to challenge myself against him.
Heads Up Graph for December
and surprisingly 6-max has been ultra good to me. I wasn't much of a 9-max player it seemed since losing almost $200 to 9-max this month...... 6-max allows me to still play somewhat aggressive, get mixed up in a lot of hands with players when I feel I can push them around and have an edge on them but at the same time isn't a TAG (Tight Aggressive Player) fest where you have to wait around all day for a hand. Because the blinds come around faster forcing people to play more hands, I can still get into a lot of pots and then work on my reading individual players as I pick and choose 2 or 3 people at the table who I wanna get involved with and try to outplay.
My 6-Max Graph for December
PLO
So I did play a little bit of PLO although I said I would stay away. For the most part I did but everytime I played I would play pretty good actually........... and still get slaughtered. It was like the poker gods were biatch smacking me everytime I played a session of PLO, probably because I said I wouldn't play it and they were teaching me a lesson :-P jk. I only played 233 hands of Omaha this month but managed to lose $81. I also lost 4 hands in a row 4 tabling where literally on my holdem manager they happened at each table simultaneously where I was a coin flip or ahead of the guy and got crushed. Okay maybe one of those hands I was slightly behind but come on, 4 hands near 50/50 and I get smacked? lol That's poker :)
My PLO Graph for December
busto happens when you're underrolled even if you're playing the best. I know I may not play the best but I've improved tremedously over the past 2 months of study and this last month of play and study and I feel confident that if I keep at it I will keep improving. So sometime in the middle of this month I manged to eat dirt due to some bad luck and some bad play. If you ever see me using my points instead of cash then it's probably cause I went bust. So I had to deposit $80 again at payday and work my way back up. If I want to make sure I can be a consistent winner I have to work on my endurance and stay focused even when the session runs long or I feel I'm getting p0wned. I've actually played over 9000 hands this month, playing mostly 1-3 tables at a time and I have to say that even though I had a bit of a challenge working my way up I've had a truly successful month when it comes to my improved performance and my bankroll increase.
My Total Hands Played Graph
The graph is off for a few reasons. one is that I played some Tournaments and SNGs, although probably no more than 10 total but I was successful in turning a $13 into $109 and I'm sure with the extra money to lose it adds to the fact that my graph dips lower than what I deposited when I had my busto moment, plus I'm getting a lot of rakeback, which is not included in the graph. FullTilt Poker pays 27% rakeback for the amount of rake you pay the site so if you sign up with a rakeback program like I do then you can take advantage of the extra money being deposited into your account every week.
My Total Hands Played Graph for the Month of December
Rakeback for the Month of December
The MGR is the monthly gross rake (the rake I paid to Fulltilt for the privilege of playing) and at the right you'll see what I get deposited into my account for rakeback. This chart shows the whole year. As you'll see I haven't played on this account until October came around. So in December I made $164.53 in rakeback :) much better than what I would have got at pokerstars at these stakes so I'm living high off the hog. I have about $50 of that being deposited on Friday so it feels pretty good to know I'm getting paid to play in other ways too.
Rakeback for the Year
So what's the grand total so far? well I'm happy to say I'm definitely in the black and proud of the progress I've made but I gotta be honest with myself. I have a lot of work to do and don't want to lose any of the progress in bankroll building that I have made. I think the next few days I have to take a break from the table and work on my fundamentals for Heads up play, Study the videos some more and make sure when I hit the tables again that I monitor my play better this month. I'm proud of the strides but need to improve if I'm going to be able to whether any kind of storm if I encounter the dreaded "run bad". I want to be playing my A game cause if I'm playing 100%, my optimum game and bad luck is working 80% on me for a week then I'll only profit 20% that week but I'll be doing well. Now if I'm playing 50% of my optimum best and bad luck is working 80% harder than the norm, then I'll be handing out money like creepy old men hand out candy to little girls, fast and often. I got a lot of work to do if I want to perform my best at the poker tables, and I don't want to waste the good will of fish who have offered to pay for my poker education :) lol that sounds bad but since I'm a fish I can say that.
My Bankroll Total
Current Bankroll = $700.41 (not counting this Fridays rakeback payment)
Total Deposits for December = $160
Money Made in the month of December = $540.41
My Poker Playing Grade = C-
What's in store for 2010.
2010 is going to be my year. I may be saying that and feeling a bit like I'm on Survivor putting my head on the chopping block but I truly believe that. I'm going to be studying harder than I ever have and working on perfecting my game. I want to improve and I know that it's not as simple as sitting down at a table hoping to get lucky. In my current state I'm playing mediocre with some bits of genius. I managed to call 2 or 3 people down with King high knowing they were bluffing the river with nothing and winning the pot. That's a good feeling when you feel that confident in trusting your reads. In all my poker playing I've never done that up until this month so I have definitely learned a lot but I have a long way to go. Once I finish committing to memory a lot of the tips I've learned for heads up play when it comes to combating different player types I plan to hire a poker coach and get a couple sessions. I keep saying that, but yes I'm gonna do it. I want to be able to take advantage of everything a coach can teach but I can't do that without getting a lot these heads up specific fundamentals down, otherwise what he's saying will just go over my head without having the fundamentals down pat.
So I plan to work hard and play hard this year and hopefully one day I'll be sitting at a World Series of Poker Final Table or playing high stakes cash at the Commerce but first lets work on not going broke again and use all the good will I've gotten in cash and use it to become a better and more consistent player. I have a long way to go.
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