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.

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

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.