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.