Americas Cardroom user complaints, part 2 of 2

In yesterday's post I crossposted six criticisms of the software from members of the 2+2 poker forums.  Today, I am crossposting my solution, which I know will not be heeded:

I was a computer science major for three semesters in the 1980s, before my college had a modem. We learned to write good code that had been extensively tested, and it was hammered into us over and over that the code had to do what it was supposed to do, and it MUST be both user-friendly and idiot-proof. I am certainly not up on current languages or coding procedures, but once I understood the language, I would like to think that I could find the reason that the 5-minute tournament break countdown clock often starts over a minute before my table finishes, leaving me with a break of something like 3:35. There should be code that says something like this (pardon my possibly ancient psuedocode): IF (all tables finished) = TRUE THEN (start coundown clock) Clearly that hasn't happened, unless it's in the update (my computer is in the shop so I haven't played in several days.) Why? Writing the code to solve this may be a lot harder than I think, but the concept is simple. There have been so many things. What is wrong with the table-balancing subroutine which occasionally puts me in a hand heads-up with 200 players left in a MTT? The only possibilities that I can think of are: 1. There is a problem with the code that moves players to balance the tables. 2. The table balancing code is OK, but players are moved too slowly, taking up empty spots one by one while I am playing the heads-up hand. User friendly? No. Solvable. It should be. Basic fixes like this should be priority #1 before adding new games, table themes, bigger cards, or anything else. There is no reason that players have to sit and watch while their blinds are stolen. That, like so many of these lingering issues, is totally unacceptable. If it was my call, I would seriously consider apologizing to all the players and announcing that: 1. Effective immediately, no more tournaments will be started. 2. When the last tournament is finished, all games on the Winning Poker Network will be shut down. The network will remain open for those who wish to make a withdrawal from their poker account. No new sign-ups will be taken during this time. 3. All possible resources will be devoted to fixing these issues which affect the integrity of the games, and if necessary, we will call in outside consultants to help us do this as quickly as possible. 4. In the future, more resources will be devoted to fixing anything that might give certain players an unfair advantage, or that might otherwise affect the integrity of the games. 5. ACR will post daily updates on 2+2, updating players on our progress. 6. As soon as these issues are resolved, the site will be back up. 7. To help make up for income lost by players, when we return we will offer [double-rakeback days, or some other significant benefit] to those who are currently reigstered on this site. Only players who are registered on the Winning Poker Network when we resume full operation will be eligible for this benefit. ----------- There are of course things that would have to figured out, such as how this shutdown would affect time-lmited contests such as rake races or leaderboards. But I think it's the way to go.

Americas Cardroom user complaints, part 1 of 2

HOSTAGE UPDATE:  It's 1119 on Wednesday, and I'm still waiting to get my computer back from Crashmasters.  Last Friday they said that they would try to get it back to me that day.

----------

Americas Cardroom is a mess, and the players know it.  But it's still one of the best available options, because as bad as it is, when players want to make a withdrawal from their poker account, they get their money in a timely manner, usually within a week if they request a paper check, faster if they use a special debit card.

The other sites available to American players may work better and provide more options, but players have reported waiting as long as a month to get their money out.  So players on Americas Cardroom (which is actually a "skin" on the Winning Poker Network) hold their noses and put up with the other problems, knowing that at least they can get their money out when they need it.

In this blog entry I'm cross-posting some of the user complains posted on twoplustwo.com.  Part 2 of 2 will be a reposting of my opinion of some of the problems, as well as my proposed solution.  Most of the comments are fairly short.

Six users speak:

---------------

HAVE THE TIMEBANK KICK IN AUTOMATICALLY FOR GOD'S SAKE. GROW A BRAIN AND STOP MAKING THINGS WORSE.

---------------

I've had my blinds stolen when I late registered for tournaments several times. Generally what happens is I get put at a table with only 1 or 2 other people and for some reason I'm sitting out for just a brief moment, allowing the other players to steal my blinds while I am forced to auto-fold my hand. Generally it's only 30 chips or so but just based on principle it is incredibly annoying.

To the Rep, you asked me which tournament the auto-add on function did not work in. The answer is about half of them. The option simply goes away even when I had it checked. Other people in the chat complain about it too, so this is not an isolated incident. It only started happening after your update.

---------------

You guys are on the right track whenever you carbon copy anything pokerstars does (rewards/cashout times/active in community/good support), but fail miserably in areas where you go off track (bbj/beast/bad software/timebank). Three of thesee things can be fixed without much hassle, and new software is on the way. WPN is close to exploding, and you guys are fumbling the football ten yards from the goal line with no defenders in sight. You guys need to rethink some things, and fast.

---------------

If you think things are bad now, just wait until this "Online Super Series II" starts.... Jesus. I can already see the madness now.

They better get all of this shi* fix ASAP.

 

---------------

I just asked a rep to use some of my combat points to get into a SNG and she told me that I have to go through the store to do this now... Well clicking on the store link results in a

SERVER APPLICATION / ERROR.

Tested on multiple computers, multiple browsers etc.

I tell her that there seems to be an error with the store link, and she tells me "no errors on our end. It must be your computer"... Riggggggggggggggggggght.

Sheesh.

---------------

I'll end with the following user comment, remembering that this site/network is considered by many to be the best option for US players:

I made the mistake of not signing out of my account before I left for the holidays, and when I just tried to sign on, I was notifed of another open session and to contact customer support for resolution. Read the below gem: 21:01Taylor D: Hello! Welcome to our Live Chat Department, my name is Taylor, how may I help you? 21:01chris: I forgot to log off on my home computer and now I cannot login from my current location. 21:02chris: username = 21:02Taylor D: Please note that unfortunately we do not have access in our system to log out players manually 21:02chris: Are you serious?!?!! 21:03Taylor D: Yes Sir 21:03chris: so I am screwed for the next 3 weeks? 21:03chris: i am out of town for holidays/business 21:03Taylor D: Is there any body back there that can help you with ? 21:04chris: umm no. lol. how can you guys not manually log me offf?????? I am going to miss the OSS2 because of this 21:04chris: unacceptable for a poker site 21:05chris: the error message told me to contact customer support for help on the issue 21:06Taylor D: I wish I could help you, but we do not have access in our system to do something like that 21:06chris: goodnight

 

 

Computer is STILL down

I've been doing some studying and reading, but to be honest, it's been hard to get motivated when I'm unable to play day after day.  There are times when I feel a little burned out, but on the rare occasions that I go two straight days without playing, I get antsy and can't wait to play again.  (Anyone reading this who thinks that poker players are all degenerate gambling addicts, I just gave you your ammunition.)

My wife asked me yesterday whether I wanted to download Americas Cardroom to her laptop (on which I am currently typing.)  I said no, because there is so much other information that goes with my poker playing which is on that computer (Pokerstove, a program used to to compute equity in different hands and situations, spreadsheets where I track my hours and results, and various other information and programs.)  But this time, I haven't played for 13 days.

If I had known that it was going to take this long to get my computer back, I would have put Pokerstove on the laptop by now.  Last Friday, I was told that they would try to get it done that day, but it would definitely done by Monday.  On Monday, Christmas Eve, they said it was "on the final scan,", but I didn't get it back then.  Tuesday was Christmas.  I certainly hope that I get it today.

I know that poker is tough, and that tournament poker especially has huge variance.  I also know that even given that, if I'm not making money at it yet (even though I have in the past), I must be doing something wrong.

Still, it seems like I can't catch a break.  The quality of, and the options with, Americas Cardroom, is getting worse, not better.  Players are using words like "horrible" and "a mess" to describe the recent update (which I have read about, but not yet seen.)  Some language that has been used by current players is such that I won't use it in this blog.

Worst of all, at the best possible time to play, when recreational part-time players are putting their Christmas bonuses online, and college students who think that they can be the Next Big Thing in poker are ready to donk off their money, I've missed a lot of those days already.  That really hurts.

My computer is down again.

I'm typing this on my wife's laptop.  Once again, my computer is in the shop because I won't pay whoever locked it (supposedly the FBI) $200 to have it unlocked.  The last time that this happened it was the Department of State.  I never figured out what power Hillary had to fine me.

It's hard to believe the anyone falls for this and actually sends the $200, but I suppose that they wouldn't keep doing this if it didn't work.  When I took it into the shop this time, the guy said, "Oh, another one of those."

What we have here is a classic arms race.  Every time the antivirus companies come up with a defense for this, the criminals change the code slightly and do it again.

It's getting tiresome, not to mention expensive.

December tournament selection

In my previous post I said,

"To miss late December MTTs, which are full of weak players as during no other time of the year, is almost unforgiveable."

For now I'm sticking with my strategy of playing only SNGs, but if while doing that I grind up my bankroll significantly by Christmas, I might take a few shots at the MTTs that give me the best chance to cash.  I'm about dead even so far this month (-$2.42), but there's time to open up a window big enough to take a few MTT shots after Christmas.

Playing only SNGs is the right move for now, but they definitely aren't a long-term solution.  The players that grind SNGs relentlessly and make a decent income do a huge volume while multitabling, sometimes playing 100 a day or more.

I'm not capable of doing that.  It's way too much on which to concentrate, and with my memory issues, there is no chance that I would remember how certain players played, and be able to use that information if I played against them again.  I take notes, which helps a little, but I could never play a bunch of tables, take notes on players, and keep track of everything that was going on.  If you've seen the sci-fi movie "Scanners," which features human heads exploding after telepathic attacks--that would be me if I tried to play 100+ SNGs a day.

It would help a lot if  Holdem Manager would add the Winning Poker Network (which includes Americas Cardroom) so that I would have some tracking information to go on.  They keep saying it's coming, but they were saying that six months ago.  Tracking software wouldn't make me capable of playing 24 tables, but it would help, regardless of what games I was playing.

Ultitmately, the goal is the same--to get my bankroll high enough so that I can ride the MTT variance roller coaster and generate a decent income from a few big scores during the year.  In fact, even though the players get better as you move up to more expensive tournaments, in some ways it is easier (once one has the proper bankroll) to play at higher limits.  More about that in a future post.

November 2012 Results

It wasn't great.  I had two winning weeks and two losing weeks, finishing the month -$17.75.

That's not a big loss, but in general I've been on a long slow downslide, and I started December with a bankroll of just $30.  I'm up a few dollars this month playing only SNGs, but it's taking way too long to get anything going.

I have some difficult decisions to make at the end of this month.  My bankroll is so low that I don't have any business playing MTTs, most of which go off for at least $5.50.  Of course, starting off on a new site with a $50 deposit, I have never had the requisite bankroll of $550 that I should have started off with to play multi-table tournaments on this site.  I had no idea that the tournament choices on Americas Cardroom would be so bad.

The obvious solution would be to forget about MTTs and build a bankroll of $550 playing $1 SNGs.  That would certainly take a long time, but there is another issue.  The best time of the year for any online poker player between is between Christmas and New Years Day.  A lot of workers, college students, and even 18-year-old high school students are on vacation.  It's a once-a-year opportunity to play against players who don't play much, aren't very experienced, and in general aren't very good.  To miss late December MTTs , which are full of weak players as during no other time of the year, is almost unforgiveable.

I always say that there is more than one solution to a problem, but I seem to be stuck in a box with no easy way out.  I'm not going to give up, but it definitely gets discouraging at times.

Clarification of my previous post

In my last post I said that one of the reasons that I'm switching from primarily MTTs to all SNGs, at least in the short term, is because I have a new (and much better) monitor.  I wasn't clear about the connection.  The main reason that I'm switching to SNGs is to reduce variance while my bankroll is so small.  Having a good monitor makes it possible to multitable SNGs, which I couldn't do before, and that makes that makes the switch more practical.

On America's Cardroom, the traffic in both SNGs, and in playable MTTs, is spotty.  MTTs are scheduled for certain times, but the ones that are playable are sometimes several hours apart.  Sit-n-goes, as the name implies, go off whenever enough people sit at the table to get one started, but depending on the time of day, that can take anywhere from a few minutes to (more often) 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or even longer to get started.

Now that I have a decent monitor I can multitable, which matters when I can get two or more SNGs running at the same time.  Usually there is is only MTT at a time that is worth my time to play, so multitabling is much less relevant.

Also, since SNGs go off as soon as they fill up, I can register for two or more at a time, and if one fills in 10 minutes, and the other fills 30 minutes later, then I'll just play both at the same time until one is finished.

I hope that clears things up.

A humbling change in bankroll strategy

In my previous post, I said,

"One of the problems I've been having with poker is that I'm doing it on a shoestring. I haven't had some things that would help me a lot. I started with a $50 deposit to America's Cardroom (which is very inferior to the site on which I played post-Black Friday.) Since I should have a minimum of 100 buy-ins to play MTTs, and most of them have an entry fee of at least $5.50, that's a big problem. I know that I should just play poker and not worry about the size of my bankroll, but it's hard not to factor it in when I'm making decisions about how much risk to take in a tournament, or which one I should enter. I'm careful and tentative, and as much as I try to fight against that, I guess it's natural in my situation. More about that in the near future."

I have considered grinding my way up with SNGs with an entry fee as low as $1.65, and I have played a few, but that wasn't a real option, because there were so few SNGs running that I might wait half an hour, or longer, for one to fill up.  Two important things have changed since then, and one has changed a little.

First my bankroll is getting really low.  Currently it is $31.40.  To play $5.50 tournaments with that bankroll is absolutey ridiculous.  If I get a run of bad cards (or any other kind of negative variance) I will be broke in a few days.

Second, I have a monitor that actually works.

Third, SNG traffic has picked up a little, but there are still times, for example, around 5 A.M. weekdays, when nothing is running.

It's time to bite the bullet.  I need to play nothing but $1 SNGs for at least a week while I grind my bankroll up a bit. Once I have some wiggle room, I might move up to $3 SNGs and mix in an occasional $3 or $5 MTT if the structure and prize pool are especially attractive. It's humbling to have to drop back down to $1 SNGs--on PokerStars I had a 14% ROI (return on investment) playing $10 SNGs. I'm frustrated and embarrased that it's come to this. But it's my only option now.

A new monitor

One of the problems I've been having with poker is that I'm doing it on a shoestring.  I haven't had some things that would help me a lot.  I started with a $50 deposit to America's Cardroom (which is very inferior to the site on which I played post-Black Friday.)  Since I should have a minimum of 100 buy-ins to play MTTs, and most of them have an entry fee of at least $5.50, that's a big problem.  I know that I should just play poker and not worry about the size of my bankroll, but it's hard not to factor it in when I'm making decisions about how much risk to take in a tournament, or which one I should enter.  I'm careful and tentative, and as much as I try to fight against that, I guess it's natural in my situation.  More about that in the near future.

I also don't have a lot of the tools that winning players use.  I can't subscribe to a poker coaching site or to poker magazines.  I don't have a real office chair--the chair that I'm sitting on has wood slats on the back.  I don't buy poker books, even though I know that in any field it's important to keep up with the literature.  At all levels, the games play a lot differently than they did 10 years ago.

My wife gets me a poker book for special occasions like my birthday or Christmas, and I don't want more than that when the money is coming out of family funds.  Finally, until a few days ago, I was using a monitor that wasn't helping me at all.

The monitor flickered a lot.  It needed a new screen (which I was against paying for because one can almost buy a new monitor on sale for the cost of a screen).  The way that the glare from incandescent light acted on the monitor was so disconcerting that sometimes I would sit in total darkness, and have a flashlight in case I needed to type or read something on paper.

I don't feel right using family funds to fix these problems when I'm not making any money.  My wife finally insisted that we get a new monitor, and I found a good price online.  Now I can see the tables in any light or no light, there is no flickering, and I can actually read the names of the players when I have two tables on the screen.

It will make a big difference, and I hope, help me to finally get this enterprise on the right track.

Report on my Monday flash card work

In my previous post, I said,

" . . . I'm blocking out some serious time to work on flash cards--this should be fun. I'll let know you how it goes."

It didn't happen.

Sunday after church I knew I would be too tired to play the big 8 P.M. tournament, so I decided to take a nap first.  I think that I slept for about 5 hours.  After the tournament, I was tired, but not able to go to sleep.  I'm a very sound sleeper (my wife said that I didn't wake up when a cat was jumping up and down on me) but I often have a lot of trouble falling asleep.

I was too tired to play or study, but unable to sleep, from late Sunday night well into Monday afternoon. Once I got my sleep schedule somewhat straightened out, I was facing the Wednesday morning city deadline to have all of our leaves bagged and raked.  As soon as the weather cleared I had to take care of that as well.

Today (Wednesday) was a family meeting about a serious medical issue, and on it goes.  My wife keeps telling me that the problems that I'm having getting my hours in are unavoidable.  That may be true, but on the other hand, when we still had three children at home I often worked 60 hours or more per week between my "regular job", overtime, and the National Guard.  For some reason, when I can in theory control my hours, that never seems to happen.

It's incredibly frustrating.  I have to stop reacting and start planning again, but it never seems to be possible.

Part of the problem is that I don't really control my schedule, or much of anything else.  We have one car right now, and my wife needs to take it to work (with her hours varying quite a bit lately.)  She also has additional obligations, such as breakfast meetings, taking care of her aging mother, and being a tour guide for the local historic homes.

Under different circumstances, when I finished a study session or there was a break between tournaments, I could jump in the car and do my errands.  I have tried to plan, and save all of my errands for the one night a week when I usually get the car, but that night changes just about every week.  It's very difficult when I'm fighting to conquer my ADD and be organized, and I can't really plan or schedule anything.  Lately the only that times I put anything in my planner are the times that I know that I won't be able to play or study.

I don't want to end this on such a pessimistic note, so I will say that one of the major handicaps to my making this work has been taken care of.  Read about it in my next post.

Another change in my study strategy

If you have been reading my blog for any time at all, you know that I'm always tweaking something.  That seems to be my learning style-- I break everything down into little pieces, and work on one thing at a time.  That approach is probably much of the reason that my poker playing doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere.

Once when I played clarinet in the 126th Army Band we were working on an Alfred Reed piece, and not surprisingly, it was technically difficult. I would take one line or phrase of music, take out my metronome, and practice the music at a slow speed. When I could do it perfectly at least three times in a row, I would set the metronome four beats per minute faster, and work on it some more.  I might have spent as much as an hour on just eight bars of the piece.  That's how I work on a project, big or small.

I started with a very small poker bankroll and some other handicaps, and the damage that even slight varinace can do to a small bankroll is huge.  But I've survived that so far, and I have no doubt that a lot of the little things that I'm learning will all come together.  At some point (soon I hope) I'll make a big jump, get a bunch of good MTT cashes, and move up quickly.

So, now I'm teaking my study strategy again.  It's a small change.  I'm still aiming for at least at least 25 play hours and 15 study hours every week.

I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, but if weekends, for a variety of reasons, are the best time to play poker, then I should pound my study hours early in the week, so that I have the weekends free to play.  As long as I get all the hours in, there is no reason that I have to play every day.

If something comes up on the weekend and I don't get to play for 25 hours that week, that's bad.  But shorting myself on study hours is worse.  The best players spend at least half of their time studying.  I'm not ready to go there quiet yet, but if I don't take study seriously, I'll never be able to move up and win against better players. Next week the plan is to study for at least four hours on Monday.  I've really been slacking on my memorization (flash card) work, nut as boring as flash card work is, it has to be done.

I have ADD, and therefore trouble concentrating on something that I find boring.  I also have trouble moving information from short-term to long-term memory.  And I'm  blocking out some serious time to work on flash cards--this should be fun.  I'll let know you how it goes.

The Leaf Police and Other Distractions

My wife just reminded me that Thursday will be Thanksgiving.  I had forgotten all about it.  I'm going to my parent's house for that, which is nice, but I didn't plan very well.  I'm going to have to rethink when to get my hours in during the rest of the week, because there is another demand on my time.

All of the leaves in my yard have to be raked and bagged by the end of the month, or the city leaf police will come over and fine us.

I keep thinking that it should be easy to get my hours in, and somehow it never is.

Results for Novermber 11-17

In my previous post I had the wrong month in the post title.  My wife caught it, and it has been fixed.

Until I signed on to write this post, I had no idea that I had not posted since my previous weekly results..  I'm ending the weekly posts anyway. A week is such a short period of time, and poker is so much about the long term, that it's silly to even talk about results in such a short-term context.

I'm going to post about whatever is on my mind that day, and I'll try to do it more frequently.  That could involve how I did that day or week, or what I'm thinking about in general, but the formal weekly posts are out.  The results posts will be monthly from now on.

Your comments or questions are always welcome.

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It was once again a close to break-even week  Nothing dramatic, just a few small cashes that didn't quite make up for the times I didn't cash..  Here are the numbers:

Poker Profit or Loss
-$14.67   tournaments
     1.66   rakeback
     1.00   bonus
---------
-$12.01


Poker Hours
28.00   play
  8.25   study
  4.50   administrative
-------
40.75

That's two out of three weeks that I put in at least 40 hours, which shows that I'm starting to get control of my time and my schedule.  But there is always room for improvement.  I need to get more serious about hitting my weekly goals of at least 25 hours of play and 15 hours of study.  I have to start hitting that study number--I don't think I've done it yet.

As does any player, I have my strengths (tenacity and very high intelligence) and weaknesses (problems moving information from short-term to long-term memory, and all the issues that go with having ADD.)  Poker is like just about anything else--the people that make it to the top are usually the ones that work the hardest to get there.  The best players study, a lot, and I need to take that more seriously.

Once I'm meeting my play and study goals, I'll set new goals for my total hours, probably 45 hours per week.  My 25 play hours and 15 study hours would already add up to 40, and I will always need at least an hour or two of administrative time.  If I take care of the smaller goals, the 45 hours should be there.

Results for November 4-10

Last week was one of my worst ever.  I'm not talking about the numbers.  I just didn't play well.  I was putting myself in way too many bad situations.  My main problem was not having a plan for the entire hand before I would bet.

Way too many times I would make an intial bet, play the hand, and suddenly I was down to such a small chip stack that my only choices were all-in or fold, and I shoved way too often.  I probably booted at least five $5 tournaments where I could have had a decent chance of cashing.

Fortunately, I did have one tournament that went well, 3rd of 52 for a cash of $36.22 (net $26.92.)  That kept the week from being a total train wreck.  When entering a pot, having a plan for the entire hand is basic.  I think I was just tired, nentally and physically.  I took a day and a half off, and I've felt a lot better since.


Poker Hours
19.25   Play
  7.75   Study
  3.25   Administrative
-------
30.25   Total Hours


Profit or Loss
-$25.63   Tournaments
     0.99   Rakeback
     0.00   Bonus
---------
-$24.64

Confirmation of my previous post

In my previous blog post, I said,

 "In the post-Black Friday poker environment you play the tournaments that are available given your bankroll, and the choices aren't good. Now, multitabling tournament players play across several sites, or at several levels on one site, or both."

I have posted about this issue on 2+2 as well.

Yesterday, in the 2+2 forums I received a message.  In part, it said,

"In this market, I think US players should probably cherry pick from all the US sites (Merge, Revolution, WPN, Bovada) b/c inevitably every one I speak to has volume issues."

I agree, but multiple sights won't work for me, at least not now.  I don't have the bankroll to be making deposits on multiple sights.  I'll have to come at it other ways.  Later tonight I'm going to open a couple tables and just watch, and see if there is a way I can arrange the tables so that I can at least read the player names.

I can't put my finger on what exactly is wrong, but if I tile even two tables on America's Cardroom, I have a lot of trouble reading the player names.  When I played on PokerStars, using a smaller monitor, I didn't have that problem.  I'll probably wind up cascading or overlapping, but that's not what I prefer to do.  For me it's easier to be able to see entire tables.  If on one table I have a hand that I know I'm going to fold, I can do that and just concentrate on the other table(s).

I really miss PokerStars.

Results for October 28-November 3

I realized something yesterday.  I was in a $5 tournament, and two players were chatting about other tournaments that they had played.  I was surprised, because some of them were much higher than $5, and I couldn't figure out why these guys were "slumming" in my tournament.  Then it hit me.  There are probably a lot of players doing that.

When I played on PokerStars, almost every hour on the hour there was an MTT starting at almost every buy-in level, from as low as 10 cents to as high as $100 and beyond.  In this new, post-Black Friday poker environment you play the tournaments that are available given your bankroll, and the choices aren't good.  Now, multitabling tournament players play across several sites, or at several levels on one site, or both.

That could at least partially explain why it's taking me so long to have a breakthrough.  To be sure, the more I study, the more I realize that I have a lot of holes in my game.  But still, I couldn't figure out why I wasn't dominating players at the $5 level, especially since I did quite well at that level on PokerStars, and I am (I hope) a much better player now.  When I keep seeing a lot of the same players at the last two or three tables of an MTT, some of them are probably playing at $20 or higher.

As I think about my situation, I could get discouraged that some of my opponents have me outgunned in both experience and bankroll.  But I see it as good news.  I'm playing against opponents who play at well above my level, and I'm holding my own.

---------------

Poker Profit or Loss
-$1.53   tournments
   1.41   rakeback
   1.00   bonus
--------
-$0.88

Another breakeven week.  I would get several small cashes in a row, then have 3 in a row where I didn't cash, which brough me back down to even.  That was pretty much how it went the entire week.

---------------

Poker Hours
19.50   tournaments
11.50   study
  9.25   administrative
-------
40.25

Finally!  I managed to put in a 40-hour week.  I'm very happy with how I spent last week, both with the number of hours, and the distribution.  Over 28% of my time was spent studying, and that's a decent number.  If all I did for a week was study, I certainly wouldn't consider that time wasted.  If in fact I am playing against opponents who are more experienced, and more heavily bankrolled, at the last two tables of my MTTs, then the holes in my game need to be fixed sooner rather than later.  A lot of studying is the only way to do that.

Results for October, 2012

October 2012 Poker Profit or Loss
-$30.91   October 1-6 (partial week)
  -43.54   October 7-13
   70.25    October 14-20
      2.91    October 21-27
    -9.54    October 28-32 (partial week)
----------
-$10.83   NET LOSS FOR OCTOBER

Considering how the month started (down $74.45 in the first 13 days) I can live with being down just $10.83 at the end of the month.  It's nice to know that I can weather a big downswing relative to my bankroll and not lose focus.

The priority now is to get my bankroll up to where two losing weeks (or months) isn't a big deal.  That majic number hasn't changed, it's still $500 (about 100 buy-ins).  Standard bankroll management recommends at least 200 buy-ins when using poker winnings to pay the bills, but I have to take one step at a time:  get to $500, take a breath, then figure out the next step.

A bad start to the day.

I woke up just before 8 A.M. today, which is earlier than usual.  I had left the computer on overnight, so I checked to see if there was a decent MTT in my price range.

There was, an 8 A.M. $5.50 entry with a $150 guarantee.  That's not much of a prize pool, and I was barely awake, but since I didn't play at all yesterday (an all-study day), I decided to take a shot.  I entered at 8:02, and at 8:15 I was in second place.  Then it happened.

I was dealt aces, someone raised preflop, I reraised, he 3-bet, and it was obvious that villian had a big hand (or though he did.)  All the chips were going in one way or another, so I shoved, he called and showed kings.  He flopped a third king, and I was out after playing for 22 minutes.

I know that my aces have 82% equity in that spot (meaning that I can expect to lose about 18% of the time) and I'm not one of those players who throws his mouse against the wall (there are players that claim to have broken several of them) when I get a bad beat.  And there wasn't a lot of money on the line, as first prize in a $150 guarantee would be around $37.  Still, it wasn't exactly a great way to start the day.

It's a good day when I get some hours in

I"m very happy with what I did yesterday.  The results weren't spectacular.  I ended the night about even, at -$1.35.  What I'm happy with are my hours.

I went to church in the morning, and in the afternoon I watched Fox News Sunday and the Detriot Lions football game.  It was a great game, with the Lions scoring the winning touchdown with 20 seconds left in the game.

I felt guilty about doing all that.  I skipped both Fox News Sunday and the football game last week.  But once I got started with poker, I was on a roll.  Right after the football game (4 P.M.) I looked at the available tournaments. SNGs were dead, as is often the case, but a $5.50 MTT had just started.  After that I just kept going (everything is rounded to the nearest quarter hour):

1600-1715   $5.50 MTT, 61 of 112, no cash
1715-1930   Administrative time: Data entry, bankroll reconciliation, blog.)
1930-1945  Study: Flash cards (odds and outs to hit the turn.)
1945-2000   Break (I don't count breaks toward my total hours.)  
2000-2245   $5.50 tournament, 91 of 785, net cash of $2.74.
2245-2300   Break
2300-0115   $3.30 MTT, mincashed, 11 of 64, net cash of $1.41.

I didn't get started until late afternoon, and I got 8.75 hours in.  I am very, very happy with that.  If I work all 7 days (which I almost always do) I have to average just under six hours per day to get to 40 for the week.  This week, I got  a nice headstart.

Results for October 21-27

Poker Profit or Loss
$1.20   tournaments
  0.71   rakeback
  1.00   bonus
-------
$2.91   TOTAL PROFIT

Another breakeven week--not much else to say.  I was about even both in SNGs and in the few MTTs that I played.  My bankroll has been hovering arond $100 for a week or so. At the end of the week it was $97.46.


---------------


Work Hours
20.25   tournaments
  8.50   study
  1.50   administrative
-------
30.25  TOTAL HOURS


I felt lost last week.  Using strict bankroll management, there really aren't many MTTs that I can play.  Between midnight and 4 P.M. there are none.  What SNGs there are take a long time to fill up, sometimes half an hour or more.  As I write this it's 6:44 P.M.  I was knocked out of the 4 P.M. MTT, now I'm filling time until the next one, which starts at 8 P.M.  After I finish this, it's time for flash cards--what fun!

I see two options:

1. Go back to waking up at noon (or later) every day.
2. Do all of my study and admin work in the morning.

I could study while I wait for a SNG to fill up.  The problem there is that I don't want to get deeply involved in a study topic when I don't know whether I will be playing in 5 minutes or 35.  Also, having a large block of study-only time would be a major challenge to my feeble attention span, but it's something I might try.

I am naturally a night person, and poker is a nights-and-weekends game.  Doing all of my studying in the morning is not an ideal solution.  When I play my favorite tournament, which goes off at 8 P.M. twice a week, I will be playing well past midnight when I go deep.

I"m starting to think that I will never be in control of my time to the extent that I thought I would.  I'm not one of those 18-year olds with no responsibilities who can play 100 SNGs a day, grinding a bankroll in his parent's basement.  I keep getting mad at myself for not getting in 40+ hours, and my wife always says something like: You couldn't help it because event A happened, then we had to go to location B to do something, etc.

Yesterday I was watching a video made by a $150-an-hour poker coach (I got his advice free during a 30-day free trial of a coaching site.)  He opined that the most important things for a tournament player are first, good bankroll management, and second, volume (getting in as many tournaments as possible.)  He referred to putting in volume as "outrunning variance."  I like that term--it's clever, descriptive, and mathematically accurate.

I'm much more diciplined and organized than in the bad old days before my ADD was diagnosed, though I can still do much better.  I'm spending a lot more time on study.  Every month I feel like I'm a better player than the month before.  The only area where I'm not making any progress is volume.  One way or another, I need to make it happen.

My longest MTT this year

I just played what I think was my longest MTT this year.  It started yesterday at 8 P.M., and I was knocked out, getting third place, today at 12:56 A.M.  I cashed for $46.44.  It was good to go that deep, but not very exciting.  I know that I'm a threat to take down a micro (under $10) tournament any time I enter, and I'm disappointed when I don't get first place.  I don't get excited about final tables any more--I expect to make it that far more often than not.

I have been sticking to my bankroll management plan of mostly playing SNGs.  The above tournament was the only MTT that I entered yesterday.  It's ironic that now that I'm not concentrating on MTTs, I'm doing quite well when I do play.

Results for week of 10/14-10/20

I'm racing the thunderstorms which are on the way as I write this.  I got a couple SNGs in today, now I'll try to finish this entry before I have to unplug the computer.

I was already more than a week behind in my recordkeeping when my computer went down, so I didn't do entries for the week of  9/30-10/6 or 10/7-10/13, but I was down almost $100 for those two weeks.  I'll list everything in my monthly post.

Variance works both ways, especially over very short time periods like a week, and I was up $70.25 for the week, which put me in the black for the month.  It's been a while since I've been a SNG specialist, and the progression of the blinds and antes is much slower than it was on PokerStars or Juicy Stakes Poker.  I think I've adjusted now, and I should do a pretty good job of beating up the SNGs from now on.

Poker Profit or Loss
$69.56   tournaments
    0.69   rakeback
    0.00   bonus
---------
$70.25   PROFIT

---------------------------

For those of you who aren't regular readers, I keep track of things, like my work hours, that a lot of you probably don't care about--but it's very important to me.  I have ADD, and I have a great ability to procrastinate, get distracted, or just plain goof off.  For that reason I monitor my hours just like I'm punching a time clock.  It keeps me from lying to myself about how hard I'm working at this, and putting it out there for my readers give me another reason to document that I'm getting my hours in.

This week I didn't do so well with the hours, but part of the week I didn't have my computer, and there was a lot of other stuff going on, including an out-of-town wedding, so I don't feel too bad about the week  What is encouraging is that I got my priorities right, and I didn't do nothing but play poker, at the expense of studying, when I got my computer back.

My priorities are in the order that I list them:  playing poker first, studying a close second, and after that, whatever administrative hours I need to keep myself and my records straight.

Work Hours
10.25   tournaments
  9.50   study
  5.25   administrative
-------
25.00

A Surprise Win

I said in my previous post that I was going to cut out the MTTs for a while and play a bunch of SNGs to lower my variance.  Yesterday afternoon I was the second player to enter a $2 SNG.  Two more players quickly joined (it takes nine), then nothing happened.  It went back down to two players.  It would get up to three or four again, then someone would get tired of waiting and drop out.  After about 20 minutes of this, I noticed that it was almost 4 P.M. and that a $5 MTT with a fairly weak field was about to go off.

Since there was no SNG action I decided to give it a shot, one last fling with the MTTs.  This was a Thursday, and I was hoping that there would be more SNG traffic on the weekend.  88 players entered, and 3 hours and 45 minutes later I won it, for a cash of $77.  Since I had a little money to work with, I decided to enter another small $5 MTT at 10 P.M., and I got 11th of 88 for a small cash.

To make a long story short, three days ago my bankroll was under $20.  After 4 straight cashes (the two MTTs plus a first and a second in SNGs), it's now $98.

It's nice to be back from the dead, but I'm still going to have to be very careful with my bankroll.  There are some tournaments with great sturctures that cost around $10 to enter, but I have to be realistic and stay away from those for a while.  In general, my tournament selection strategy will still be to play the two big weekly $5 MTTs along with a bunch of SNGs.  If my bankroll keeps going up, I might throw in one of the smaller MTTs every once in a while, just to keep in practice and apply what I'm studying.

Change in tournament selection strategy

I finally got my computer back.  It's nice to be playing again.

I rethought my tournament selection strategy (again) and I shouldn't be playing most of the available, MTTs, given my small bankroll.  I'm going to play a lot of SNGs for a while, mostly at $1.50, to slowly but surely grind up my bankroll.

There is one MTT that I'm going to keep playing.  I will still be playing the $5.50  8 P.M. MTTs with 500 or more players whenever I can.  They go off twice a week with guaranted prize pools of $2,500 and $3,500.

You might be wondering why I'm concentrating on such big fields, since larger fields mean more variance, which is what I'm trying to avoid  There are two things that make these tournaments always worth playing.

First, the fields are very soft.  The play is bad enough that, in my opinion, my positive expectation more than makes up for the variance that goes with larger fields.  Big prize polls attract fish hoping to get lucky.  Compared to 100-player tournaments at the same level, the players in the $2,500 and $3,500 guaranteed tournaments are really bad.

Second, it really isn't that hard to cash.  Sure, there are a lot more players, but Americas Cardroom MTTs generally pay 20% of the field, whether it is a 100-player tournament with 20 cashing, or an 1,000-player tournament with 200 cashing.

So, that's the plan.  Catch up on my recordkeeping, lots of studying, lots of SNGs, and play the two big tournaments.  There will be a lot of $1 to $5 net cashes from the SNGs, which isn't very sexy.  I just played one for $1.50, took second, and won $4.05. But it's within my bankroll, I can play several in a day, and sooner or later I'll play one of those big tournaments and get a big cash, which will move things along nicely.

My computer is in the shop

I have been without my computer for several days, which means that I haven't played poker for several days.  I'm also behind on my recordkeeping and some other things.  I was a week behind on my recordkeeping before the computer locked up, so I'll be putting in a lot of administrative time when I get it back.

I was looking up something online, and suddenly everything locked up.  I got a screen that said I had done something illegal.  I don't remember all of the possiblities on the list, but one was that I had downloaded child pornography.  Even though I knew it was a scam (I did not download anything during that computer session) it was definitely creepy to see that as a possible allegation.

It wasn't a very convincing scam.  All I had to was send $200 to a certain address to pay my fine and get my computer unlocked.  Also, the logo at the top wasn't the US Department of Justice.  It was the Department of State.  As far as I know, Hillary doesn't have the power to fine anyone.

I've been without my computer for a few days, and http://crashmasters.com/ told me that their turnaround time is usually between two and five days.  I hope that I get my computer back soon.

Empasizing process over results

It occured to me that I'm doing a lot of that in my posts.  I talk about how many hours I work, or how I approach my studies, rather than about how much money I made that day.  One reason is, of course, that I'm making sure that I have the right mindset.  Daily results don't mean much.

Poker is game of probability.  I make a certain play, and either it will win more often than not, or more likely, it will make money over time even if I don't win the pot very often.

That said, I do realize that results are important to the readers, so I'll try to put more of that in my posts.

As I thought some more about process verus performance, I realized that success is any field is like that.  Most successful people don't talk about it.  Yo Yo Ma never told anyone that he practices scales six hour a day, although every serious musician understands that that kind of focus is necessary to perform at an elite level.

Some people do talk about process, and I wish that more people would understand that concept, and not wait for the government to take care of them.  Results only come after a lot of hard work.  On ESPN they talk about pro football players who play jusr a few months a year, but train almost every day during the "off season."

Financial talk show host Dave Ramsey often stresses process and the link to financial success.  He talks about how important it was to his career to get a finance degree from a good school.  He says that you need to hang around with winnners, so that the losers and complainers don't drag you down.  Ramsey famously said, "I know a lot of millionaires, but I don't know anyone who got rich working 40 hours a week."  (I have a lot of work to do in that area.)

Donald Trump gets it.  He said that he would be glad to give any of his children a management role in his businesses--after they got a business degree from a good school, then served an apprenticeship in the lower levels of his companies.

Poker is no different.  People who watch someone "get lucky" in a televised tournament have no idea what got him to the point where he can play at that level.  He might have hired poker coaches along the way (Johnathan Little had three of them).  He probably read every poker book that came out, and he might have studied probabilty and game theory as they relate to poker.

He works out in the fitness room in the casino/hotel where the tournament is held, because he understands that he has to be in shape to deal with tournaments on the World Poker Tour which run twelve hours a day for a week. He almost certainly subscribes to one of the teaching sites with online poker videos which include expert commentary.  Some players even study the psychology and physiology of tells--one player co-wrote a book with a former FBI agent who is an expert in body language.

When I talk about how many hours I work, or what goes into my tournament selection strategy (which I have to change yet again), it's because all of those things aren't just important.  They are foundational.  A lot of players who were once poker millionaires lose it all because they don't do one of of the foundational things correctly.

It takes me a while to get good at something.  In 10th grade, I was playing second clarinet in the number four band in my high school.  I was humilated.  I seriously onsidered quiting band, but I decided instead to get better.  Six years ago, I retired as the clarinet section leader and principal clarinet of an army band.

Financial success with poker has been a lot slower, and has been a lot harder, than I ever expected.  The more I learn, the more I undertand how many things I'm doiug wrong.  As I take care of those things, sucess will come.  Of that I have no doubt.

$2,500 guaranteed tournament

Twice a week on Americas Cardroom there are $5.50 tournmaments with large prize pools.  Wednesday at 8 P.M. (US Eastern Time) is the $2,500 guarantee, and Sunday at 8 P.M. is the $3,500 guarantee.

I played fairly well last week in one of them and finished 28th for a small cash, and last night in the "$2,500 GTD" I finished 29th of 522 for a cash of $14.35.  As I made the money and got deep into the tournament, I got so nervous I was sweating and my hands were actually shaking.

I know that shaking hands are a "tell" when a poker player has a big hand, but I always thought that it was kind of silly that even very good players were unable to control their emotions and movements.  As one author put it, you need to have not only a "poker face", but a poker body.  No matter how hard I try to be inscrutable when I play live, I guess I'm human after all.

I definitley would have liked to go a lot deeper.  Several places at the final table paid over $100, and first was over $600 (first place generally pays about 25% of the prize pool.)  Even though I didn't go any deeper than last week, it seemed easier to get that deep.

Every tournament, because of various factors including the size of the prize pool, speed (how fast the blinds go up), buy-in level, and even the time of day, has it's own quirks.  In both tournaments, this week and last week, I had a lot of trouble at the beginning.  Yesterday I lost a lot of chips in the first 30 minutes.  I didn't get back to my starting stack until over an hour into the tournament.  From there it went well.  The way people play at the beginning of these tournaments is just crazy.  In poker terminology, I was playing against maniacs.

I was playing in a textbook manner, looking for situations where I could raise and be aggressive.  Almost every time I raised, it would go something like this:

We started level one with 2,500 chips and  blinds (forced minimum bets) were 15 and 30.  I would check my hand, raise to 90 or 120, someone would reraise to 600, and a third player would go all-in.  At this point I have two choices: fold to the pressure, or be prepared to put all my chips in by the end of the hand.  Since I didn't have any monster hands (and might not have risked my tournament life even if I did) I wound up folding a lot of hands.  I lost every hand that I played for the first 20 minutes or so.

There are two reasons that people play like this:

1. They are just having fun, and seeing if they can "get lucky" and double their chip stack.  They aren't playing optimally, and they don't care because they know they probably aren't going to make it into the money unless they get lucky.

2. Less likely, but possible, is that a serious player who values his time might take some big risks to double up early, so that he can be the "table captain,"  Once he has the biggest stack at the table, he can bully the players with shorter stacks and build his stack even more, putting himself in a great position to make it to the final table.  A common saying among such players is, "If I bust out, there's always another tournament."  A few of the pros play this way.

In this tournament, I'm sure that almost all of the maniacs are type #1.  Raising a lot and pushing players out of pots is one thing.  But with the hands I was seeing at showdown, these players were indeed mainacs.  A pro trying to double up early is taking a calculated risk.  If I was dealt aces early in the tournament with several players in the pot, I might just shove and see who comes along for the ride.

I just ran the numbers on Pokerstove, and aces win about 63% of the time against 3 players playing anything in the top 50% of hands.  For a chance to put myself instantly in the top 10 of the tournament, that's a gamble for all my chips that I would probably take.  But if it was any hand other than aces, or maybe kings, I would probably fold, depending on the situation.  There is nothing wrong with folding every hand for 30 minutes.  It's a lot better than spewing chips.

Now that I've finally figured that out, I'm already excited about playing the next big guarantee tournament.  It will be really nice if I can get through the first hour with at least an average stack.

Results for September 2012

I was positive for the month, and I came back from the brink when, at the end of August, my bankroll was $29.28.  I was hoping to be up at least $100 for the month, but a very bad last day of the month took care of that.

As mentioned in a recent post, I'm being a lot more strict about my bankroll, even if that doesn't leave me many tournaments on Americas Cardroom that I can play.  With my current tournament selection strategy, and the increased emphasis on study, it should be almost impossible to lose over $30 in a day any time soon.

Here are the numbers:

Week          Profit or Loss
9/1                     $0.00
9/2-9.8             83.76
9/9-9/15          47.26
9/16-9/22      -44.25
9/23-9/29       12.90
9/30               -37.70
                      ---------
                       $61.97

Results for September 23-29

Playing big boy tournament poker involves some big swings, and I''m starting to get a taste of what that feels like.  It really hit me when I was reading my latest poker book, and the author said that when he books a flight to a city holding a week-long tournament, as they do on the World Poker Tour, he always gets a one-way flight.

The reason is that if he "busts out on the first day" (which happens often) he doesn't have to hang around, and he doesn't have to pay a large fee to get his ticket changed.  He just buys another one-way ticket home, or to the next tournament location.

When I read that, I realized that I wasn't completely committed to this new style of high-risk, high reward poker.  I was almost always making it through the first hour of an MTT, which means I wasn't taking enough risks.. I was opening up quite a bit, at least from my perspective, but it wasn't nearly enough. Since that style is where the money is, I have to do that, in fact, I've been doing it the last few days, and the swings are incredible.

On the 27th I started playing at 8 A.M.  I won three straight small tournaments, and by 3 P.M. I had a net profit of $85 for the day.  In the next 14 MTTs I cashed once, and I lost all of that $85 and more.  I wound up positive for the week, barely, but something has to change.

I've been playing all of the decent MTTs that I can find between about $3 and $20, because the choices aren't very good.  Clearly that's too risky, even if most my tournaments are on the low side of that range.  I need to stay on the low end of those buy-ins, and probably mix in more SNGs to further reduce variance.  And of course, there is always plenty to study when there is nothing good to play.

I feel myself getting better almost every day, and one of the reasons is that almost every day I'm realizing that I'm not very good at some aspect of poker, and it goes on the list to get studied and fixed.

I started with a $50 online deposit to Americas Cardroom.  My bankroll has never been much over $200.  That just doesn't work with my current situation.  I've dialed back my playing of tournaments over $5, but that's not going to be enough.  For now, I have to completely stop playing at that level.  I can't get better unless I'm willing to take more short-term risks for long-term gain, and I have to do that only in tournaments that are reasonably priced for my situation.

I'll be playing about half as many MTTs from now on, at least until I have a larger bankroll to deal with this variance.  It's weird and frustrating that getting better means that I have to play less, but for now, that's the way it has to be.  Of course, variance works both ways, and sooner or later I'll have a streak where the high finishes come in bunches, and the size of my bankroll won't be much of an issue.  I sure hope that it happens sooner rather than later.

This is already a long post, so I'll present the numbers with little commentary.

---------------

Poker Profit or Loss
Tournaments     $11.20
Rakeback                0.70
Bonus                      1.00
                              --------
                             $12.90

---------------

Work Hours
Tournaments     18.25
Study                     8.25
Asministrative     4.50
                             -------
                             31.00

I'm actually OK with those numbers.  My wife had some time off and took a four-day weekend, so we spent more time together than usual, which is certainly a good thing.  So 31 hours in that situaiton isn't bad at all.

Study was 26% of my work time, which is probably the highest it's ever been.  I'm very happy about that.  Since I'm going to have to cut back the MTTs, there shouldn't be a problem with spending at least 1/4 of my time studying every week.  I have a lot of holes in my game, and I'm eager to fix them.

Am I playing too low and too high at the same time?

I am now in my second readthrough of Scerets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 2.  I usually read a poker book two or three times before I break it down and start studying and applying the text to different poker situations.  Yesterday, something jumped out at me that I hadn't noticed before.

On page 160, Kindle location 2305, Little says the following:

"The level of tournaments that you win is a decent indication of your skill level.  If you have been playing $500 tournaments for years and only have one win, you are probably playing too high.  Similarly, if you play $10 tournaments and win one every week, you are probably playing too low."

In September so far, I've won twice and made the final table two other times:

9/3, $5.50 buy-in, 2nd of 131, cash of $91.70.
9/4, $5.50 buy-in, 7th of 110, cash of $22.00.
09/15, $5.50 buy-in,1st of 120, cash of $138.00
9/27, $5.50 buy-in, 1st of 46, cash of $66.70.

A month is obviously a very small sample size, but even so, I'm clearly a lot closer to that one-win-a-week player that needs to move up than I am to that one-win-a-year player that needs to move down.

Unfortunately, bankroll management rules (which the author also stresses, and correctly so) say otherwise.  Little says that you should have 100 buy-ins to play at your level, unless it's your only income, in which case you need 200 buy-ins.  I have done a lot of reading about bankroll management, and those numbers are pretty close to the standard advise on the twoplustwo.com poker forums.

Since tournament choices are limited, I'm playing everything between $1 SNGs and $15 MTTs, but the majority of the MTTs that I play go off at $5.50.  100 buy-ins at that level =  $550, and 200 buy-ins comes to $1,100.  My current bankroll is around $200.

I'm devoting more time to study, and I'm gradually getting more and more comfortable with the playing style that Little advocates, and with adapting it both to my skill set and to tournament situations at my level.  I have no doubt that I can go deep at my current level on a regular basis.

As I build my bankroll, I'll have some tough decisions to make.  I've said that when my bankroll reaches $500 I'll take another look at the situation, and that I won't even think about moving up. or about taking money out, until I reach that goal.  But even then, I'll barely be bankrolled for what I'm doing now, and moving up would be a very dangerous thing to do.

For now, all I can do is keep winning.  Figuring out what to do with $500 will be a nice problem to have.

Results for September 16-22

Work Hours, 9-16-9/22
Tournaments     13.25
Study                   10.50
Administrative    6.25
                             -------
                             30.00


Thirty hours is better than last week, and better than any week in more than a month. The study hours are up, and that's important. Nevertheless, I keep failing to get my 40 hours, no doubt at least partly due to my natural, ADD-fueled tendency toward disorganization and laziness.  But I've isloated another problem.

Now that we are a one-car family and my wife drives to work, it's harder for me to control my own time.  I can't just jump in the car when I want to take care of something.  I have to wait until my wife and the car are home.  What usually happens is that when we have some things to take care of, we go together to take care of them.

Form the standpoint of family efficiency, doing it that way makes sense.  We can knock off a list of things that have to be done (go shopping, visit my parents or her mother, pick up perscriptions, etc.)  One trip, north to south, then back.

The trouble is that for my purpose, which is to plan and control my schedule, based partly on the Americas Cardroom tournament schedule, it doesn't work at all.  I could do one task, for example, go to the local Walgreen's, and be almost certain that I would be back in time for that tournament that starts in an hour.

With a long list of things to do, things are more unpredictable, and at least one thing on the list is probably going to take longer than expected, for example, the grocery store or the drug store might be busier than we expected.  If I have a two-hour window and visiting my parents is last on the list, I can't walk in and announce that we have we have 12 minutes to talk.  But if we skip that last item on the list, then we've defeated the purpose of the venture, which was to take care of all of our errands in one trip.

I'm getting really discouraged that I have so little control over my time and schedule, and there seem to be no easy answers.  The only thing I can come up with is that I try to put in days of 12 hours or more in the early part of the week, on the assumption that something will go wrong later in the week.  This isn't an ideal solution, since good tournament selection strategy says that I should be doing most of my playing on the weekend.  But I have to get those hours in somehow.

---------------

Profit or Loss, 9/16-9/22
Tournaments   -$47.07
Rakeback                1.82
Bonus                      1.00
                            ---------
                           -$44.25


I would like to be profitable every week, but I know that's not going to happen.  Johnathan Little said in his second book that he has gone 40 straight tournaments without cashing.  I certainly understand that that could, and at some point probably will, happen to me, but the end of my bankroll would come well before then, thus, the urgency to grow that bankroll to $500 as quickly as possible.

I was successful in getting my study hours up, but at the expense of playing only nine tournaments, getting small cashes in three.  It will take me a while to get the right balance between play and study.  I'm was hoping to finish the month up at least $100.  I'm still up $80, so I have a decent shot at doing that.

Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 2

New thing I learned recently
A World War II battle was fought on American soil, and I didn't know that until I watched the History Channel last night.

The Japanese invaded and captured two of Alaska's Aleutian Islands.  The US retook one of the islands, then the Japanese evacuated the other one under cover of fog.  The westernmost Aleutians are actually closer to Japan (about 1,000 miles) then they are to Anchorage, which was a surprise to me.

Anyone who says that there is nothing good on TV hasn't really looked.  I learn something new and useful (this does not include the latest pageant exploits of Honey Boo Boo) from televison on a regular basis.

------------------------

There isn't much to say about poker.  I haven't played a tournament in the last 24 hours.  I'm being very selective about what I play this week while I'm concentrating more on study.

I downloaded Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 2, by Johnathan Little, to my Kindle today.  One of the nice features is that is has page numbers along with Kindle locations.  I like that because when a book is discussed on the twoplustwo.com poker forums, it is customary to refer to the page number when addresssing a topic.  If some players are referencing a book printed on paper, some have a Kindle, and some are using a Nook or other device, it could certainly complicate communication on the forums.

Much of the book is about the nuts and bolts of playing a hand of poker. But it also covers other things, for example:

having a retirement fund
how to stack your chips
how to take useful notes online
how to interact with dealers and other players
why playing slowly costs you money
why berating other players costs you money
why arriving late to a tournament costs you money
why you should wear sunglasses at the table
why you should not wear headphones at the table
why you should be in a study group with other serious players

In this book, even more than with voume 1, I realized that Johnathan Little and myself are a lot alike in that we are both ruthlessly analytical.  I get some interesting looks (and sometimes comments) from my wife when I say something like, "I'm going to lay down.  I think there's a 70% chance that I'll be able to fall asleep."

I knew that Little was a kindred spirit when he stated that he's very good at housework, ". . .  because I have figured out the most efficient way to do each task."

As far as the importance of the topics in the book, you've probably looked at my partial list and are thinking something like, "Is that really important?"  I thought that too, espeically when I saw the section title, "How to Stack Your Chips."

It turns out that there are good reasons for the section.  For one, if your chips aren't well organized, you have to fumble for the right chips to make your bet.  Any extra moves you make can give off tells.  One of the basic tenants of live poker is that you never give your opponents free information, and to that end, you should make the save movements every time you bet.  Here is an excerpt from the book:

"I once saw a player who would shake like crazy when digging through his stack if he had a large hand and would smoothly go through his stack when weak.  I wonder how much money he would save if he just stacked his chips so they were easy to access."

When playing live I put my chips in stacks of ten or twenty, with different stacks for each denomination, which is very similar to what Little advocates, but I do it for a different reason.  I want to always know how many chips I have, and if I always keep them organized, I don't have to guess, or count them.

I"m learning a lot about how handling something seemingly mudane can actually make a difference.  The only downside was having still another poker expert tell me how important it was that I have poker friends with whom I can study and discuss hands.  That's not an option for me for a varity of reasons.

I'm learning a lot from volume 2 so far. I already have a long list of things to study based on volume 1, so I will be using Little's books as a core part of my studies for a long time.

Attempting a deep run against 500 players

A few hours ago I finished a $5.50, 503-player tournament.  Most of the tournaments that I enter have around 100 players. The larger tournament runs twice a week on americascardroom.com, and I had played it a few times, but not recently.  I thought it would be interesting to try it again and see how I did.

I always think about that particular tournament carefully before I play it, because with that many players it's a pretty big time committment, and the larger the tournament, the less often I'm going to cash.  I struggle with the idea of playing for several hours, and probably not cashing, when I desperately need to build my bankroll.

I decided to give it a shot last night, and it went pretty well.  I played for 3 hours and 20 minutes, finished in 28th place, and cashed for $13.83.  I got some good experience, went pretty deep in a large tournament, and I got a little money for my time.  I'm pretty happy with that outcome, and I definitely learned a few things that I can do differently the next time.

I would have loved to last another hour.  It was a very nice prize pool, with final table prizes ranging from $42.75 for 9th to $490.42 for first (as always, the big money is in the top 3 places.)  As with any tournament, with a few breaks I could have gone deeper, and I now believe that I'm capable of making the final table of that tournament.  It certainly wouldn't happen often (you have to catch some breaks to get through 500 players) but with that kind of money, even an occasional good cash would make a huge difference in my bankroll.

Overall, it was an interesting tournament, and I feel pretty good about my chances when I play it again.

Another week saved at the end

Near the end of the week it looked like I would wind up in the red.  A week isn't that big a deal (and I can't let it be, as that kind of short-term thinking can lead to nothing but trouble) but I'm tired of treading water and not getting anwhere.  I want to get my bankroll built up sooner rather than later.  I pulled it off in my last three tournaments of the week:

$1.65 buy-in, 9 players, 1st place, cash of $6.75.
$1.65 buy-in, 6 players, 1st place, cash of $5.95.
$5.50 buy-in, 100 players, 1st place, cash of $138.00.

I have been lurking at or near the final table in a lot of tournaments with around 100 players, including finishing 2nd of 131 on September 3.  I haven't taken one down in a while, and it feels really good.  It's certainly more profitable than finishing second--in this case, the difference between first and second place was around $50.

It was quite a battle, especially the heads-up. where first I was up, then he was, back and forth for over an hour.  The hand that won it for me had us both showing top pair (eights) but I had the better kicker.

Profit or Loss, 9/9-9/15
Tournaments $45.45
Rakeback            0.81
Bonus                  1.00
                          --------
                         $47.26

---------------

I'm not thrilled with these numbers, but 29 is the most hours I've worked since August 5-11. so I'll take it.  I'm getting my life back and organized again, and I hope to get my 40 hours in next week, incluing at least 15 hours of study (see my previous two posts concerning the need for a increased emphasis on study.)

I'm more than a third of the way throught the latest reread of my poker book (also discussed in the previous posts), writing down things on which I need to spend some serious study time.  I'll be getting volume 2 as a birthday present  this month.  There is always something to study or work on.

Work Hours, 9/9-9/15
Tournaments      22.00
Study                      3.00
Adminstrative      4.00
                              --------
                               29.00

My Homer Simpson moment

Lsst night I had one of those Homer Simpson moments.  I had planned to get some serious tournament time in during the week, and take a day just for studying this weekend.  Then it hit me.  The weekend is when more SNGs run, when the MTTs have bigger prize pools, and when there are more casual players (weekend warriors) in the tournaments.  I know that the best time to play is on the weekend.  Any halfway serious online player knows that.

Today is Saturday, the last day of the week. I haven't done much studying this week, and I'm certainly not going to do it today.  I guess my plan for more study time will have to be implemented next week.

Doh!

Studying poker

The latest poker book that I have been reading and studying is Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, volume 1, by Johnathan Little, the World Poker Tour Player of the Year for season six.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/34909-jonathan-little

I've read the book a few times, and now I'm going through it again,  this time taking notes on things that I need to study more deeply.  I'm learning more and more how many things I don't know.  There are a lot of holes in my game.

Most of these holes I already knew about, sort of.  What I didn't realize was what a difference it will make if I fix them.  One problem is that I'm folding too much in late position.  I'm much better at being aggressive from late position (form any position really) but it seems I don't have much feel or knowledge when it comes to calling from late position.  I'm folding way too often, when I should be calling even if I have a bad hand.  (One reason that I should be calling more often is that the advantage of being last to act significantly lessens the disadvantage of probably having the worst hand.)

To put it bluntly, as I struggle to build a poker career, I'm finding out that in a lot of ways I'm not nearly as good as I thought I was.  There is a lot more math that I need to know, and a lot more mathematical situations that I need to understand.  I have a ton of memory work to do for different situations, for example, how much equity does QJ suited have against my opponent's range?  Against two random hands?  Three random hands?  I need to know this, if not for every card combination, at least for enough of them that I can extrapolate to the ones that I don't have memorized.

There is always something to work on.  I have abandoned the study of poker tells since I'm not playing live right now.  I have to get back to that sometime.

I could go on, but the point is that I have to make study a higher priority.  Therefore, my goal is no longer to study for 10 hours and play for 30 hours every week.  My new weekly goal is to study at last 15 hours a week and play at least 25 hours. The more that I study poker, and the more that I read about how other players study poker, I know that 10 hours a week isn't going to get the job done.

Results for week of 9/2/2012

After this one I'm all caught up with my posting (the week ended yesterday) and I hope to post on a regular basis. I started the week with two very nice cashes:

9/3, $5.50 buy-in, 2nd of 31, cash of $91.70.
9.4, $5.50 buy-in, 7th of $110, cash of $22.00.

Most of the rest of the week I didn't cash, but those two results were more than enough to make it a very good week.  I started the week with a bankroll of $29.28, and ended it with $113.04.  That definitely puts me back in the fight.

The only really disappointing thing was how long I fought unsuccessfully to get the win in the first tournament, which would have given me an extra $40 or so for first place..  The heads-up was over an hour.  I've never played heads-up even close to that long online before.  We both had very short stacks at different times, but eventually I lost and settled for second.

I think I played the heads-up reasonably well, but I have to add a few tricks to my game.  My heads-up style will beat a lot of players at my level, but I'm not sure it will hold up when I'm playing $20 or $30 tournaments, and I haven't done any heads-up study in a long time.

---------------

Poker Hours 9/2-9/8
Tournaments        11.00
Study                        6.00
Administrative        3.75
                                 -------
                                 20.75

I'm not thrilled with those hours, but it was better than either of the previous two weeks.  This week my schedule is open, my time is my own, and there is absolutely no reason that I can't spend more that forty hours on poker this week.

---------------

Profit or Loss 9/2-9/8
Tournaments   $83.40
Rakeback              0.36
Bonus                    0.00
                           --------
                           $83.76

---------------


         

Results for week of 8/26/2012

Not much to tell.  This was the last of the lost weeks, when our life was either turned upside down, put on hold, or both.  Pretty much like the previous week--I didn't play much, and I would up around breakeven for the week.

This is the last of my catch-up posts.  Without further ado or commentary, the numbers:

---------------

Poker Hours
Tournaments      4.25
Study                    4.00
Administrative   2.75
                             ------
                            11.00

---------------

Profit or Loss
Tournaments   -$6.25
Rakeback             0.25
Bonus                   0.00
                             -------
                           -$6.00
                        

Results for week of 8/19

I don't have to report for jury duty this week, so it looks like I really do have control of my schedule again.

As promised, I'm catching up on my reccordkeeping, including results from pervious weeks.  I should have the week starting 8/26 up tomorrow.  That will bring everything up-to-date.

After a very bad previous week, around 8/22 the SNG offerings an Americas Cardroom got a little better.  I had been down for the week, but I cashed in a few SNGs so that I was about to pull even for the week.

----------------

Work Hours 8/19-8/25
Tournaments      6.25
Study                    1.50
Administrative   1.00
                             ------
                              8.75

-----------

Profit or Loss
Tournaments   -$0.27
Rakeback              0.98
Bonus                    0.00
                             -------
                              $0.71

Not much to say.  I didn't play much, but at least I stopped the bleeding.

------------

The last few weeks.

In my last post, I said that I would post results for 8/19-8/25 "tommorow".  That was several days ago.   Our lives (my wife and I) have been turned upside down the last few weeks:

1. Americas Cardroom has been making all kinds of changes, most of them bad, and there have been times where there were literally no tournaments available that I could afford to play.

2. My grandchildren have been over a lot, sometimes overnight, or several times in one week.

3. My wife's car wound up in the shop for several days.  Mine was totaled in an accident recently.  We had to rent a car, and extend the rental time twice, while we waited to see when/if her car would be repaired.

As someone with ADD, I don't exactly thrive on chaos. When I don't approach life with a plan and a schedule, chaos happens.  It doesn't happen often, because I know what I'm dealing with, and what I have to do to manage it.

But everything got away from me.  I had no schedule, and in fact some days we didn't know if we would have a car.  Planning when to play poker was out of the question, because we didn't always know how we were going to get around, or when the girls would be here.  We were reacting, and for me that's never a good thing.  But today, for the first time in weeks, I felt like I finally had things under control.

My wife's car is fixed.  The rental has to be returned tomorrow.  I was scheduled for jury duty this week, but today (Labor Day) is a federal holiday, and I don't have to report tomorrow, so I only have three days, Wednesday through Friday, when my plans are on hold.  My daughter-in-law and her girls now know when they leave for Germany.  They will be on a plane Saturday, and we will be there to see them off.  I finally know what's going on, and that, for me, is a really big deal.

Tonight I played a regular tournament (not just a one-table SNG) and I was excited and at the same time relaxed.  My bankroll had dwindled down to about $30, but I never gave up, and I never doubted my ability

I got a lot of breaks tonight, and I got more than my share of good cards.  But it's my job to take advantage of that when it happens, and I did.  The entry fee was $5.50, and there were 131 players.  I came in second, for a cash of $91.70.

That's how it's supposed to work.  There will be downswings, and there will be long stretches when it seems like all I can do is break even.  Being an MTT specialist is about getting the occasional large cashes that can make a week, a month, or even a year.  So, I'm back, and I'm making a renewed effort to spend more of my time on study.

My current bankroll of $115.48 isn't much, but it's a lot better than $30.  Now I have at least a little room to operate.  I'm learning to apply the things I've studied when I play, and I know that I'm only going to get better.

In a recent discussion on the 2+2 poker forums, someone asked if older players (meaning roughly over age 50) could remain competitive.  I responded that Doyle Brunson won a World Series of Poker Bracelet in 2009--at age 76.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doyle_brunson

I'm only 56, and I plan on getting a lot better, and on earning a real income from this game.  I'm not going to be ready for a rocking chair at age 65.  I plan to be playing a lot of poker, and maybe even running another marathon to celebrate my birthday..  I got a run in today, and the 89 degree heat didn't phase me at all.  It was a very good day.

I will try to catch up on posting week-by-week results in the next few days, but this time I'm not making any promises about exactly when that will happen.