7/21/2010--Week of 7/11-7/17

Once again, my weekly summary is later than it should be. I've been dealing with a lot of technical issues, which I'm sure will come up in future posts.

HOURS
Administrative 4.50
Study 9.50
Play 21.50
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TOTAL HOURS 35.50

I'm pretty happy about this. It's the closest I've been to a real work week in a while, and the distribution is pretty good as well. I got some decent study time in while still geting 20+ hours of playing time. It's not anywhere near where I would like to be, but it's definitely progress.

PROFIT OR LOSS
Starting bankroll, $101.99
Ending bankroll, $105.92
+$3.93

I'm actually not unhappy about that number. I stopped the bleeding, and I had to make a lot of adjustments due to my depleted bankroll, mainly playing mostly $1 tournaments, and switching to tournaments with lower variance (I don't exactly have the reseveres to be taking short-term chances, and lower risk usually equals lower reward).

In a way, I've had to relearn how to play again. You might not think there would be much difference, but $1 low-variance (fewer tables) tournaments play a lot differently than $3 or $4 higher-variance tournaments.

I think that the main different is patience. At the lowest levels, the players don't like to wait. It's sometimes a good strategy just to wait and play very few hands, and wait for the clueless players to knock themselves out, so that I, and the few other players who know what we're doing, can fight over the prize pool. At this level it's not uncommon to play, say, a 27-man tournament, get into the money (the top 5 spots), and suddenly 4 of the 5 are pretty decent players.

That's a pretty typical pattern in the micros. You get into the money, and one maniac who bet 70% of his hands, who got very lucky (and scared all the timid players with his huge bets), is sitting on a huge pile of chips, and facing four players who are all pretty good. Then it becomes a race to see which of the good players can catch a big hand or two and get that guy's chips, and with them one of the top prizes in the tournament.

It is of course absurd that after all this time I've fighting for pennies against players that don't have a clue. On the other hand, the scaffolding (bankroll management, studying, and the many other issues about which most of my micro stakes competitors are clueless) is in place, and when the building goes up, it's going to go up fast, and it won't ever fall down.

This is a chance to make it on my own, without having to explain my job history, academic record, or anything else, to anybody else. As long as I have a dollar to fight with, I'm not giving up.

I'm still dealing with a lot of technical issues, inlcluding the unreliability of Comcast internet service. But I stopped the downswing, and that's no small thing, so I'm not as unhappy about my results as perhaps I should be, and the slow (so far) climb upward has continued since the end of last week.