I'm in my home office now. It's going to make things a LOT easier.
I've spend the last two weeks trying to force myself back onto a daytime schedule, and it wasn't easy. I was setting my alarm so I didn't sleep more than four hours a day, but I was still up until 2 A.M. or later every day. In fact, I'm up that late now, but it is no longer the norm. I'll be up at 7 A.M., and still more-or-less on my daytime schedule. I'll just take a nap during the day if I need to.
During my schedule conversion, I was in a kind of a no-mans-land. I was always tired, and seldom had a block of time when I was awake enough, when the living room was available, to play a tournament of any size. My wife and I always had to figure out when we were watching TV, when I was playing poker, etc. We managed to work things out pretty well, but it wasn't an ideal situation.
Now we're done with that. I'm on my daytime schedule, and I can start a large tournament at 7 or 8 A.M. If I go deep in the tournament, I can just keep playing when my wife comes home from work, and she can watch TV, entertain the cats, or whatever else she wants to do in the living room.
I've had a real problem getting my hours in, but now I'm on a more-or-less regular schedule, I have a place to play whenever I want, and things should go much better.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
#25, 5/7/2010--Treating poker as a job
Someone started a thread in the twoplustwo.com poker forums, basically whining about what a rotten someone has when they play poker for a living. The following is an exchange that happened in one of those forums. To make it a bit easier to follow, I will put the comments of the three different posters in different colors.
Originally Posted by ~Caligula~
whether or not playing poker professionally is a ****ty life, depends entirely on the individual.
scenario1: you wake up at 4pm daily, switch on your pc and light up cigaretter no. 1 of 32 for the day (yesterday's remnants spilling out of the ashtray on your desk). You fire up 8/12/24 tables and grind away without even looking outside at the sun.. You never call your friends anymore.. You eat takeaways daily because you couldn't be bothered to shop or cook anymore. When you make good money or run well, you're hyper-ecstatic. However, a bad run and you're morose or even suicidal.. questioning everything in your life.. even your own sanity.
Scenario 2: You wake up at 7 or 8 every morning like the rest of the world. You eat a healthy breakfast, walk the dog, walk yourself.. go for a run. You clean your "office" and read the paper/novel. You analyse yesterday's play and plot your aims for the day. You either go to a local casino to play sociable poker for a few hours, or play your usual online games. You take regular long breaks. You go out in the evenings with friends.. revelling in the fact that IF you're hungover or tired you don't HAVE to wake up early in the morning. You travel regularly with a laptop so you can carry on earning, but at the same time you see the world, learn new things and meet new people daily. You take advantage of the gift of a non-fixed profession.. a job without borders/bosses/obligations. You spend every third or fourth day on a new hobby (if you can't spare this kind of time, you shouldn't be playing professionally).Option one is depressing. Its no better than flipping burgers, only you work alone.. Your mind and body WILL atrophy.Like any other job, you can and should take some time off. But if you're playing a live cash game, it's not a good idea to bail after two or three hours Option two is a gift.
Posted by Poker Clif:
I agree with the thrust of your argument, but the danger is that this could lead to approaching poker as an easy, part-time job. And that's a bad mindset for several reasons.
1. If you're playing cash and you have a couple fish at the table, that's not the time to play for a few hours. Make the money while it's there to be made.
2. If you play MTTs, short sessions aren't an option.
3. Your scenario doesn't include much time for reading/studying/recordkeeping. It's amazing how many poker players try to do their income taxes while having no idea how much money they made the previous year, and don't have a single receipt for expenses/deductions.
4. If you've never been your own boss, I would suggest being very disciplined at first. If, after a few months, everything is going well and the money is rolling in, then you can cut back your hours. If you start out lazy and quit playing every time one of your friends calls, you'll wind up having to fix your habits AND retrain your friends. It's best to let the people in your life know from day one that poker is a real job.
All of that said, yes, you should have a life. Lots of people work 30, 40 or more hours a week and still have a life. I want to get in good enough shape to run my second marathon. I went out for my anniversary last month. I will be going to three birthday parties (my grandchildren) this month. I hope to start playing more live poker soon, both to make money and to associate with real, face-to-face people.
So yes, definitely, have a life. You don't have to grind for 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make Supernova Elite.You can if you want to, but it's not my idea of a good time. Just make sure you understand that if poker is going to be your living, you have to treat it that way, be serious about what you're doing, and make choices with that in mind.
Posted by RedVortex:
I was thinking the same thing Plus, in poker even when your making money, it's a good idea to play more to get a cushion that will help you move up (so that its a bit easier to play less). And poker pros MUST keep up with trends in poker. Like when three-betting weak on the button became hot **** two years ago. If you didn't keep up with your hw, you might give people a lot more credit when credit is not due. Fantastic post Poker Clif.
Originally Posted by ~Caligula~
whether or not playing poker professionally is a ****ty life, depends entirely on the individual.
scenario1: you wake up at 4pm daily, switch on your pc and light up cigaretter no. 1 of 32 for the day (yesterday's remnants spilling out of the ashtray on your desk). You fire up 8/12/24 tables and grind away without even looking outside at the sun.. You never call your friends anymore.. You eat takeaways daily because you couldn't be bothered to shop or cook anymore. When you make good money or run well, you're hyper-ecstatic. However, a bad run and you're morose or even suicidal.. questioning everything in your life.. even your own sanity.
Scenario 2: You wake up at 7 or 8 every morning like the rest of the world. You eat a healthy breakfast, walk the dog, walk yourself.. go for a run. You clean your "office" and read the paper/novel. You analyse yesterday's play and plot your aims for the day. You either go to a local casino to play sociable poker for a few hours, or play your usual online games. You take regular long breaks. You go out in the evenings with friends.. revelling in the fact that IF you're hungover or tired you don't HAVE to wake up early in the morning. You travel regularly with a laptop so you can carry on earning, but at the same time you see the world, learn new things and meet new people daily. You take advantage of the gift of a non-fixed profession.. a job without borders/bosses/obligations. You spend every third or fourth day on a new hobby (if you can't spare this kind of time, you shouldn't be playing professionally).Option one is depressing. Its no better than flipping burgers, only you work alone.. Your mind and body WILL atrophy.Like any other job, you can and should take some time off. But if you're playing a live cash game, it's not a good idea to bail after two or three hours Option two is a gift.
Posted by Poker Clif:
I agree with the thrust of your argument, but the danger is that this could lead to approaching poker as an easy, part-time job. And that's a bad mindset for several reasons.
1. If you're playing cash and you have a couple fish at the table, that's not the time to play for a few hours. Make the money while it's there to be made.
2. If you play MTTs, short sessions aren't an option.
3. Your scenario doesn't include much time for reading/studying/recordkeeping. It's amazing how many poker players try to do their income taxes while having no idea how much money they made the previous year, and don't have a single receipt for expenses/deductions.
4. If you've never been your own boss, I would suggest being very disciplined at first. If, after a few months, everything is going well and the money is rolling in, then you can cut back your hours. If you start out lazy and quit playing every time one of your friends calls, you'll wind up having to fix your habits AND retrain your friends. It's best to let the people in your life know from day one that poker is a real job.
All of that said, yes, you should have a life. Lots of people work 30, 40 or more hours a week and still have a life. I want to get in good enough shape to run my second marathon. I went out for my anniversary last month. I will be going to three birthday parties (my grandchildren) this month. I hope to start playing more live poker soon, both to make money and to associate with real, face-to-face people.
So yes, definitely, have a life. You don't have to grind for 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make Supernova Elite.You can if you want to, but it's not my idea of a good time. Just make sure you understand that if poker is going to be your living, you have to treat it that way, be serious about what you're doing, and make choices with that in mind.
Posted by RedVortex:
I was thinking the same thing Plus, in poker even when your making money, it's a good idea to play more to get a cushion that will help you move up (so that its a bit easier to play less). And poker pros MUST keep up with trends in poker. Like when three-betting weak on the button became hot **** two years ago. If you didn't keep up with your hw, you might give people a lot more credit when credit is not due. Fantastic post Poker Clif.
#24, 5/6/2010--Satellites and poker profits
I have realized something that, logically, I should have figured out much sooner. If I can win tournament dollars playing satellites faster than I can win real dollars making other tournaments, then I will make less profit when I am converting my $t to USD.
As an example, let's say that I spend a day playing 21 $2.20 satellites to the PokerStars Sunday 1/4 Million, and I cash (earn a tournament ticket that can be cashed out for t$11) in one out of every 3 tournaments:
Gross winings = (21 tournaments) X (1/3 cashes per tournament) = 7 cashes = t$77.
Expenses = ($2.20 entry fee per satellite) X (21 satellites) = $46.20.
Net profit = 77 - 46.20 + = $30.80.
Keep in mind that to keep the bookkeeping simple, I count a dollar as a dollar. When I enter a tournament, when I win one, and when I lose one, it doesn't matter if I've won, lost, or spent t$ or $US. A dollar is a dollar. It's no different than when I play a tournament that is denominated in euros. I have PokerStars set up to automatically convert everything to USD, not matter what currencies are shown on the list of tournaments. As Freud might say, sometimes a dollar is just a dollar.
Ok, the bottom line is coming, I promise. Keep in mind that the example above is a day of playing nothing but satellites. theoretically, I could use all of my t$ to play more satellites, win more t$, and pretty soon, the majority of my bankroll is $t.
So let's say I have a bankroll of $200: 25 $US and t$175. And I want to cash out (withdraw from my PokerStars account) $50. I can't cash out tournament dollars, so I have to convert t$ to $US, and the only way to do that is to spend T$ on tournaments where I can win US dollars. That is, I have to play something other than satellites in order to have $50 that I can cash out.
This leads to an interesting result when I count my profits. I can spend a day playing other-than-satellite tournaments, spend t$25 and cash for US $25, and the change to my bankroll is 0. My total bankroll is still 200, but now it's US $50 and t$150. Now I can take my $50 out.
But in real life the satellites are much softer than the other tournaments, so when I'm not playing satellites I'm going to make money (build my total bankroll) more slowly. To keep my profits steady, I have to make sure I don't play too many satellites. When I play only satellites, my total bankroll will almost certainly go up quickly, but I can't keep that up indefinitely if I ever want to cash out. And when I'm not playing them, that is, when I'm converting my t$ to US$, my bankroll will go up more slowly, and there will be longer stretches when I only break even.
It's amazing how many things there can be to think about that don't have anything to do with actually playing poker. And of course, it's not just a matter of whether I play tournament A or tournament B. It depends on the payout structure, the tournament structure (how long it takes, how quickly the blinds go up, etc.), how soft the field is, what time the tournament starts, etc.
This week, for the first time I played a "bounty" (also called "knockout") tournament, where you pay a little extra in entry fees, and get a "bounty" each time you knock someone out of the tournament. My spreadsheets don't have a place for bounties, and I don't have room for any more columns, so I'm going to have to redo the whole thing.
I guess poker is like anything else at which you want to excel. An elite runner doesn't just go out the door and run when he feels like it. He stretches. He has workouts to build speed, or endurance, or resistance (such as running hills or stairs). He practices good nutrition, and does weight training.
There's a lot more to running than just running. Likewise, poker is more than just playing poker.
As an example, let's say that I spend a day playing 21 $2.20 satellites to the PokerStars Sunday 1/4 Million, and I cash (earn a tournament ticket that can be cashed out for t$11) in one out of every 3 tournaments:
Gross winings = (21 tournaments) X (1/3 cashes per tournament) = 7 cashes = t$77.
Expenses = ($2.20 entry fee per satellite) X (21 satellites) = $46.20.
Net profit = 77 - 46.20 + = $30.80.
Keep in mind that to keep the bookkeeping simple, I count a dollar as a dollar. When I enter a tournament, when I win one, and when I lose one, it doesn't matter if I've won, lost, or spent t$ or $US. A dollar is a dollar. It's no different than when I play a tournament that is denominated in euros. I have PokerStars set up to automatically convert everything to USD, not matter what currencies are shown on the list of tournaments. As Freud might say, sometimes a dollar is just a dollar.
Ok, the bottom line is coming, I promise. Keep in mind that the example above is a day of playing nothing but satellites. theoretically, I could use all of my t$ to play more satellites, win more t$, and pretty soon, the majority of my bankroll is $t.
So let's say I have a bankroll of $200: 25 $US and t$175. And I want to cash out (withdraw from my PokerStars account) $50. I can't cash out tournament dollars, so I have to convert t$ to $US, and the only way to do that is to spend T$ on tournaments where I can win US dollars. That is, I have to play something other than satellites in order to have $50 that I can cash out.
This leads to an interesting result when I count my profits. I can spend a day playing other-than-satellite tournaments, spend t$25 and cash for US $25, and the change to my bankroll is 0. My total bankroll is still 200, but now it's US $50 and t$150. Now I can take my $50 out.
But in real life the satellites are much softer than the other tournaments, so when I'm not playing satellites I'm going to make money (build my total bankroll) more slowly. To keep my profits steady, I have to make sure I don't play too many satellites. When I play only satellites, my total bankroll will almost certainly go up quickly, but I can't keep that up indefinitely if I ever want to cash out. And when I'm not playing them, that is, when I'm converting my t$ to US$, my bankroll will go up more slowly, and there will be longer stretches when I only break even.
It's amazing how many things there can be to think about that don't have anything to do with actually playing poker. And of course, it's not just a matter of whether I play tournament A or tournament B. It depends on the payout structure, the tournament structure (how long it takes, how quickly the blinds go up, etc.), how soft the field is, what time the tournament starts, etc.
This week, for the first time I played a "bounty" (also called "knockout") tournament, where you pay a little extra in entry fees, and get a "bounty" each time you knock someone out of the tournament. My spreadsheets don't have a place for bounties, and I don't have room for any more columns, so I'm going to have to redo the whole thing.
I guess poker is like anything else at which you want to excel. An elite runner doesn't just go out the door and run when he feels like it. He stretches. He has workouts to build speed, or endurance, or resistance (such as running hills or stairs). He practices good nutrition, and does weight training.
There's a lot more to running than just running. Likewise, poker is more than just playing poker.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
#23, 5/1/2010--April Results
Bankroll, beginning of April, $140.87
Bankroll, end of April, $151.45.
+$10.58
It was certainly an interesting month. I had huge swings. There were quite a few days when I wasn't able to play at all. I completely changed the tournaments that I played.
I played a lot of $2.20 satellites to the PokerStarts Sunday 1/4 Million, tournaments that usually have anywhere from about 30-130 players, depending on the time of day. I'll play the actual 1/4 Million (that's the prize pool guarantee, but it's usually more than that) one of these days, but for now, I'm cashing the satellite wins out and using the $11 to add to my bankroll.
A lot of players who play satellites aren't very good. They hope to get lucky on the cheap, and win a chance to go for the big money. So, the fields are very soft, and once you understand the format, they are usually a much easier way to make money than a small $2 tournament that is not a satellite into something bigger.
In fact, I'm so good at them that I have a problem. When you cash out a satellite win, you don't get actually money in your PokerStars account, you get t$ (tournament dollars). You can use the money to enter other tournaments, but you can't cash out and withdraw it from your PokerStars account.
That's not a big deal, it's all fungible anyway. t$ are real dollars that I don't have to take out my bankroll to play tournaments. The problem is that since I have to use the t$ for other tournaments, I eventually have to stop playing satellites so that I can use up my t$. It's pretty easy to cash out a few $11 tickets and have have more than 1/4 of my bankroll in t$--which doesn't do me any good when I'm ready to cash out and buy things or pay bills in the real world.
So I gave the satellites a rest and played 5 of the $1.40 90-player tournaments last night before I had to stop because of the possibility of thunderstorms. These are new tournaments. The stucture isn't as good as some MTTs, but it's decent, a much better structure than much of what I was playing in early April. And $1.40 tournaments fit nicely into my bankroll.
I had a slow start and didn't cash until the last one, but that 4th place was good enough to put me up for the session, and it pushed my bankroll over $150.
I think that $150 was a psychological barrier for me, and that $200 might be as well. It's hard having to fight to get back where I was a couple years ago, but things happen. I had to tap my bankroll, and I can 't let myself get discouraged.
Once I get my bankroll up to the $250 or so I had as a part-time player, it will feel like a weight has been lifted. It's crazy that it's so hard to do what I seemed to do easily in the past, but poker can be like that. Just like any job, there are times that it's easy, and times that it's hard. I can keep plugging away, or I can crawl under a rock and eat worms. I choose to keep fighting.
Bankroll, end of April, $151.45.
+$10.58
It was certainly an interesting month. I had huge swings. There were quite a few days when I wasn't able to play at all. I completely changed the tournaments that I played.
I played a lot of $2.20 satellites to the PokerStarts Sunday 1/4 Million, tournaments that usually have anywhere from about 30-130 players, depending on the time of day. I'll play the actual 1/4 Million (that's the prize pool guarantee, but it's usually more than that) one of these days, but for now, I'm cashing the satellite wins out and using the $11 to add to my bankroll.
A lot of players who play satellites aren't very good. They hope to get lucky on the cheap, and win a chance to go for the big money. So, the fields are very soft, and once you understand the format, they are usually a much easier way to make money than a small $2 tournament that is not a satellite into something bigger.
In fact, I'm so good at them that I have a problem. When you cash out a satellite win, you don't get actually money in your PokerStars account, you get t$ (tournament dollars). You can use the money to enter other tournaments, but you can't cash out and withdraw it from your PokerStars account.
That's not a big deal, it's all fungible anyway. t$ are real dollars that I don't have to take out my bankroll to play tournaments. The problem is that since I have to use the t$ for other tournaments, I eventually have to stop playing satellites so that I can use up my t$. It's pretty easy to cash out a few $11 tickets and have have more than 1/4 of my bankroll in t$--which doesn't do me any good when I'm ready to cash out and buy things or pay bills in the real world.
So I gave the satellites a rest and played 5 of the $1.40 90-player tournaments last night before I had to stop because of the possibility of thunderstorms. These are new tournaments. The stucture isn't as good as some MTTs, but it's decent, a much better structure than much of what I was playing in early April. And $1.40 tournaments fit nicely into my bankroll.
I had a slow start and didn't cash until the last one, but that 4th place was good enough to put me up for the session, and it pushed my bankroll over $150.
I think that $150 was a psychological barrier for me, and that $200 might be as well. It's hard having to fight to get back where I was a couple years ago, but things happen. I had to tap my bankroll, and I can 't let myself get discouraged.
Once I get my bankroll up to the $250 or so I had as a part-time player, it will feel like a weight has been lifted. It's crazy that it's so hard to do what I seemed to do easily in the past, but poker can be like that. Just like any job, there are times that it's easy, and times that it's hard. I can keep plugging away, or I can crawl under a rock and eat worms. I choose to keep fighting.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
#22, 4/25/2010--A crazy month and a crazy schedule
I mentioned in my last post that I have been culling the nonperformers from my tournament schedule. I started out as a one-table specialist, and now I'm converting to being a multitable tournament player, which usually means hundreds, or thousands, of players.
That hasn't been a problem, but to but it bluntly, I looked over my records and discovered that I stink at the in-between sizes, from around 2 to 5 tables, that is, more than 9 or 10 players, but less than 100.
In fact, this month those "in between" tournaments killed me. I lost $60 (about half my bankroll). That happened in the first ten days of the month. I cut the nonperformers out, and in the next ten days I played only MTTs with a good structure (the smallest was 1,000 players), and satellites (where the fields are unusually weak, more about that in a future post). In the second ten days of the month I won back most of what I lost in the first ten days.
Between about the 10th and the 20th of the month I got small cashes in about 1/3 of my MTTs, which was enough to be up a little bit, and I tore through the satellites to win back most of what I had lost.
After that, not much happened. I've barely been able to play. I've had to go through a schedule change again, which always messes me up, and I'm now a daytime person for a while. I had to switch because there were a lot of things that had to be done during so-called normal working hours.
There are some family things coming up. I have a twice-a-year job delivering neighborhood association newsletters, and I did that this week, going door-to-door with about 900 of them. (The association is going to have to get someone else to do it next time). I have to go to the neighborhood "dumpster day" on May 8 (it only happens twice a year) and get rid of some of the junk in our basement.
There are other miscellaneous things going on, a day here and a day there, that pretty much commit me to being up during the day, and not playing many of the late tournaments. It's almost 3 A.M. as a I type this (these schedule switches aren't easy!) but I'll set my alarm to be up later this morning, and I'll try to keep myself on my daytime schedule. My wife even expects to go out for our 30th anniversary tomorrow--can you believe it? (Just kidding dear.)
Anyway, here are some of the numbers for this crazy month so far:
Start-of-month bankroll: $140.87
Bankroll ending 4/11: $85.37
Bankroll as of 4/25, 3 A.M.: $133.00
At least I won't be hitting the streets with the newsletters now, so that will give me a lot more time. But I'm really suprised at how hard it seems like it's going to be to set aside at least an 8-hour block of time every day to play MTTs, at least for the next month or two. There just seem to be so many things, like the dumpster day, that are going to cut a big piece out of the middle of my work day.
But it won't always be like this (I hope). I understand now why some authors sequester themselves in a cabin somewhere so they can get their books written!
That hasn't been a problem, but to but it bluntly, I looked over my records and discovered that I stink at the in-between sizes, from around 2 to 5 tables, that is, more than 9 or 10 players, but less than 100.
In fact, this month those "in between" tournaments killed me. I lost $60 (about half my bankroll). That happened in the first ten days of the month. I cut the nonperformers out, and in the next ten days I played only MTTs with a good structure (the smallest was 1,000 players), and satellites (where the fields are unusually weak, more about that in a future post). In the second ten days of the month I won back most of what I lost in the first ten days.
Between about the 10th and the 20th of the month I got small cashes in about 1/3 of my MTTs, which was enough to be up a little bit, and I tore through the satellites to win back most of what I had lost.
After that, not much happened. I've barely been able to play. I've had to go through a schedule change again, which always messes me up, and I'm now a daytime person for a while. I had to switch because there were a lot of things that had to be done during so-called normal working hours.
There are some family things coming up. I have a twice-a-year job delivering neighborhood association newsletters, and I did that this week, going door-to-door with about 900 of them. (The association is going to have to get someone else to do it next time). I have to go to the neighborhood "dumpster day" on May 8 (it only happens twice a year) and get rid of some of the junk in our basement.
There are other miscellaneous things going on, a day here and a day there, that pretty much commit me to being up during the day, and not playing many of the late tournaments. It's almost 3 A.M. as a I type this (these schedule switches aren't easy!) but I'll set my alarm to be up later this morning, and I'll try to keep myself on my daytime schedule. My wife even expects to go out for our 30th anniversary tomorrow--can you believe it? (Just kidding dear.)
Anyway, here are some of the numbers for this crazy month so far:
Start-of-month bankroll: $140.87
Bankroll ending 4/11: $85.37
Bankroll as of 4/25, 3 A.M.: $133.00
At least I won't be hitting the streets with the newsletters now, so that will give me a lot more time. But I'm really suprised at how hard it seems like it's going to be to set aside at least an 8-hour block of time every day to play MTTs, at least for the next month or two. There just seem to be so many things, like the dumpster day, that are going to cut a big piece out of the middle of my work day.
But it won't always be like this (I hope). I understand now why some authors sequester themselves in a cabin somewhere so they can get their books written!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
#21, 4/14/2010--Responding to a reader comment
I just read a comment on my previous post. It was thoughtful enough, and important enough, that I thought it should be addressed. I'm going to address the reader's comments in the order that they were written. This will get a bit long, there is a lot to address there, and for those of you who are not poker players, you might get lost in the weeds a little bit. But I'm sure you'll get the idea of what's being talked about, even if you don't understand all of the details.
jsren81 said...
I came across this while searching for something else poker-related.I think bankroll wise you are putting yourself in some dangerous territory. The bare minimum for playing large MTTs is 100 buyins. This would limit you to the $1 level. A lot of people (including myself) will not play with fewer than 200.
I agree with you, and I completely understand bankroll management. I have a plan in place to require extra buy-ins every time that I move up, so that I will eventually be playing with 100 buy-ins. I'll reevaluate then. The reason that I am not playing $1 MTTs has more to do with tournament structure than with dollar amounts.
The cheapest PokerStars tournament with a really good structure (3,000 chips and 15-minute blinds) is a $3.30 MTT on PokerStars. And honestly, it makes a huge difference when I play in that structure. I feel much more comfortable, I can comfortably play more hands in more situations--it just works better for me.
I played that tournament today, and when I have more chips and more time to work with, I am not that player you referred to who is playing too tight so that I can at least mincash. Just having a little more room to operate makes a huge difference.
Today I mincashed in the tournament and was about in the middle of the pack with just under 400 players left. I was prefop with QQ and an M of 9. Villian raised preflop, I reraised, he raised, I shoved my queens and was thinking about landing in the top 50 and going from there--and he showed aces.
That's going to happen from time to time (sometimes a lot of the time, my nut flush lost to a rivered straight flush in the same tournament yesterday, and I just missed the money). But I'm not results-oriented. I know it's about making the right plays and winning over time, and in a deep structure, I am MUCH more confident than I am playing anything else, even STTs--even though I had a 14% SNG ROI in 2008. Running into aces or rivered straight flushes isn't going to happen every day. The results, and the money, will come.
I've had to change my entire schedule so that I can play when the deep MTTs are running, and when it will be quiet enough, long enough that I can play. The computer is in the living room, and I have ADD--which means that having a quiet work environment matters a lot. I should be in my home office any day now, which will help an awful lot as well. So the MTT concentration really hasn't had a lot of time to show results yet.
The bottom line is that I would normally never play outside of a good bankroll structure, but the difference in my playing a deep structure is so great that I believe it justifies the risk. I will add that I've taken a hard look at my numbers a few days ago, and my choices when I'm not playing MTTs haven't been good. I've done well with $2.20 satellites and OK with SNG, but I've been spewing money with other tournaments that I thought would work well for me, so I'm making those adjustments as well.
Also, I have only played live a couple times this year. Even though I was up a few hundred last year in live tournaments, I know that I'm not really bankrolled for it, so that's on hold. I plan to eventually build a separate bankroll to play live. I am taking bankroll management very seriously.
Beyond the actual safety it gives you, it also puts you in a frame of mind where you are not afraid to bust out before the money, so you can gamble optimally. A comment you made in your tournament report post seems to betray the fact that you might be playing too tight in order to make it to the minimum cash. ("all cashes are welcome, even the small ones.") This is bad thinking for an MTT player. Plot a graph of the money in a 1000+ player MTT, it all goes to the final table.It cannot be emphasized enough how sick large field MTT variance is. As one person put it, "a single coin flip or 70/30 can mean end up meaning a 10 or 20% difference in your ROI". That's the difference between winning and losing to most players. Most people do not play solely large MTTs, they play things like 180s and 1000 caps and complement that with larger field tourneys.
I do plan to play more MTTs, but that's a work in progress. I started out as an STT specialist. But I'll never be one of those guys that can play a bunch of tables, so STT isn't the solution. I eventually realized that even a 14% ROI in $10 + $1 SNG is only an average of $1.54 per tournament. That means I would have to move up a lot, or add a lot of tables, to ever make serious money at it. MTTs clearly need to be the emphasis for me, but I'll still grind satellites and mix other things in, which will help with the bankroll issue.
Only those who can put in an absolutely insane amount of volume play only large tournaments (and win). I also think you need to evaluate whether you are really beating the game. Any guy who tells me he beat the $10 level at one point and had to start over after cashing out should be able to grind out a few hundred bucks a month playing at the <$5 level. The games are just that much easier. Either you aren't putting in enough volume, or more likely you are a breakeven/losing player.My recs: * Play $1 or $2 STTs or smaller MTT SNGs (18-45). You are not rolled yet for $2/180 or $4/180, or $2 or $3 large fields. Get a >5% ROI over at least 500 games (preferably 1000). Get confident that you are truly beating the game and earn at least $100 in a month.When you hit $400 BR you can branch out a bit more and you'll have more options.PS Did not mean to sound harsh at all.
Again, thanks for the advice. Not putting in enough volume is an issue, one that I hadn't really considered--I have no idea why. The changes that I continue to make to my work situation should help a lot with that.
I'm not easily offended, and I'm always willing to take advice. I spend a lot of time on the 2+2 forums.
Thanks again,
Clif
jsren81 said...
I came across this while searching for something else poker-related.I think bankroll wise you are putting yourself in some dangerous territory. The bare minimum for playing large MTTs is 100 buyins. This would limit you to the $1 level. A lot of people (including myself) will not play with fewer than 200.
I agree with you, and I completely understand bankroll management. I have a plan in place to require extra buy-ins every time that I move up, so that I will eventually be playing with 100 buy-ins. I'll reevaluate then. The reason that I am not playing $1 MTTs has more to do with tournament structure than with dollar amounts.
The cheapest PokerStars tournament with a really good structure (3,000 chips and 15-minute blinds) is a $3.30 MTT on PokerStars. And honestly, it makes a huge difference when I play in that structure. I feel much more comfortable, I can comfortably play more hands in more situations--it just works better for me.
I played that tournament today, and when I have more chips and more time to work with, I am not that player you referred to who is playing too tight so that I can at least mincash. Just having a little more room to operate makes a huge difference.
Today I mincashed in the tournament and was about in the middle of the pack with just under 400 players left. I was prefop with QQ and an M of 9. Villian raised preflop, I reraised, he raised, I shoved my queens and was thinking about landing in the top 50 and going from there--and he showed aces.
That's going to happen from time to time (sometimes a lot of the time, my nut flush lost to a rivered straight flush in the same tournament yesterday, and I just missed the money). But I'm not results-oriented. I know it's about making the right plays and winning over time, and in a deep structure, I am MUCH more confident than I am playing anything else, even STTs--even though I had a 14% SNG ROI in 2008. Running into aces or rivered straight flushes isn't going to happen every day. The results, and the money, will come.
I've had to change my entire schedule so that I can play when the deep MTTs are running, and when it will be quiet enough, long enough that I can play. The computer is in the living room, and I have ADD--which means that having a quiet work environment matters a lot. I should be in my home office any day now, which will help an awful lot as well. So the MTT concentration really hasn't had a lot of time to show results yet.
The bottom line is that I would normally never play outside of a good bankroll structure, but the difference in my playing a deep structure is so great that I believe it justifies the risk. I will add that I've taken a hard look at my numbers a few days ago, and my choices when I'm not playing MTTs haven't been good. I've done well with $2.20 satellites and OK with SNG, but I've been spewing money with other tournaments that I thought would work well for me, so I'm making those adjustments as well.
Also, I have only played live a couple times this year. Even though I was up a few hundred last year in live tournaments, I know that I'm not really bankrolled for it, so that's on hold. I plan to eventually build a separate bankroll to play live. I am taking bankroll management very seriously.
Beyond the actual safety it gives you, it also puts you in a frame of mind where you are not afraid to bust out before the money, so you can gamble optimally. A comment you made in your tournament report post seems to betray the fact that you might be playing too tight in order to make it to the minimum cash. ("all cashes are welcome, even the small ones.") This is bad thinking for an MTT player. Plot a graph of the money in a 1000+ player MTT, it all goes to the final table.It cannot be emphasized enough how sick large field MTT variance is. As one person put it, "a single coin flip or 70/30 can mean end up meaning a 10 or 20% difference in your ROI". That's the difference between winning and losing to most players. Most people do not play solely large MTTs, they play things like 180s and 1000 caps and complement that with larger field tourneys.
I do plan to play more MTTs, but that's a work in progress. I started out as an STT specialist. But I'll never be one of those guys that can play a bunch of tables, so STT isn't the solution. I eventually realized that even a 14% ROI in $10 + $1 SNG is only an average of $1.54 per tournament. That means I would have to move up a lot, or add a lot of tables, to ever make serious money at it. MTTs clearly need to be the emphasis for me, but I'll still grind satellites and mix other things in, which will help with the bankroll issue.
Only those who can put in an absolutely insane amount of volume play only large tournaments (and win). I also think you need to evaluate whether you are really beating the game. Any guy who tells me he beat the $10 level at one point and had to start over after cashing out should be able to grind out a few hundred bucks a month playing at the <$5 level. The games are just that much easier. Either you aren't putting in enough volume, or more likely you are a breakeven/losing player.My recs: * Play $1 or $2 STTs or smaller MTT SNGs (18-45). You are not rolled yet for $2/180 or $4/180, or $2 or $3 large fields. Get a >5% ROI over at least 500 games (preferably 1000). Get confident that you are truly beating the game and earn at least $100 in a month.When you hit $400 BR you can branch out a bit more and you'll have more options.PS Did not mean to sound harsh at all.
Again, thanks for the advice. Not putting in enough volume is an issue, one that I hadn't really considered--I have no idea why. The changes that I continue to make to my work situation should help a lot with that.
I'm not easily offended, and I'm always willing to take advice. I spend a lot of time on the 2+2 forums.
Thanks again,
Clif
Thursday, April 1, 2010
#20, 4/2/2010 March, 2010 Results
Bankroll starting March 1, $122.40
Bankroll ending March 31, $140.87
March results, +$18.47
A profit is a profit, so I'll take it. I'm not exactly thrilled. It was a very volatile month, with some pretty big swings.
I learned a lot this month. The main thing I learned is that, in general, I can't try to force myself into a "normal" daytime schedule, for church or anything else. I was tired all the time, and because of minor illness and other things going on in the family I never made it to church anyway. In general, it just didn't work. Poker is not a first shift job.
There are online pros who make poker work as a first shift job, and someday I might be able to do that. But my biggest problem right now is that I am more convinced than ever, especially after looking at my Sharkcope profit graph, that most of my money is going to come from MTTs (multi-table tournaments) of a thousand players or more.
The tournaments with the best structures for me don't go every hour. They are at all different times, many of them starting at night, and I need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. And, as I have mentioned in another post, the most US players are on Pokerstars (and other poker sites) during nights and weekends--which means that the most tournament choices are available then as well.
I recently had a 9 A.M. appointment. I slept most of the day before, got up in the evening and played poker all night into the day of the appointment, got a 2-hour nap, then got up and took care of the appoinment. That seemed to work pretty well.
So, the best approach to doing something during the might be to do it right after my work day (which would actually be starting about midway between normal second and third shifts), rather than starting my day with the appointment. If I leave more than eight hours between starting poker and my appointment, that will be enough make it to the final table of a large MTT. The times that I don't go deep into an MTT I can play a smaller tournament, or take some administrative time, or study. Or, if I have a daytime appointment later, or a chance to go to church, I can try to catch a nap first if I need it.
I am slowly but surely improving my playing situation. In 2009 I got a new computer and a 21-inch monitor. I hope to be moving into my home office very soon, maybe even this week. Eventually I will have a laptop, so I can play wherever and whenver I want.
The bottom line is that I'm disappointed about my meager profits this month, but I'm also optomistic. I'm learning what works and what doesn't, and that's not a small thing.
Bankroll ending March 31, $140.87
March results, +$18.47
A profit is a profit, so I'll take it. I'm not exactly thrilled. It was a very volatile month, with some pretty big swings.
I learned a lot this month. The main thing I learned is that, in general, I can't try to force myself into a "normal" daytime schedule, for church or anything else. I was tired all the time, and because of minor illness and other things going on in the family I never made it to church anyway. In general, it just didn't work. Poker is not a first shift job.
There are online pros who make poker work as a first shift job, and someday I might be able to do that. But my biggest problem right now is that I am more convinced than ever, especially after looking at my Sharkcope profit graph, that most of my money is going to come from MTTs (multi-table tournaments) of a thousand players or more.
The tournaments with the best structures for me don't go every hour. They are at all different times, many of them starting at night, and I need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. And, as I have mentioned in another post, the most US players are on Pokerstars (and other poker sites) during nights and weekends--which means that the most tournament choices are available then as well.
I recently had a 9 A.M. appointment. I slept most of the day before, got up in the evening and played poker all night into the day of the appointment, got a 2-hour nap, then got up and took care of the appoinment. That seemed to work pretty well.
So, the best approach to doing something during the might be to do it right after my work day (which would actually be starting about midway between normal second and third shifts), rather than starting my day with the appointment. If I leave more than eight hours between starting poker and my appointment, that will be enough make it to the final table of a large MTT. The times that I don't go deep into an MTT I can play a smaller tournament, or take some administrative time, or study. Or, if I have a daytime appointment later, or a chance to go to church, I can try to catch a nap first if I need it.
I am slowly but surely improving my playing situation. In 2009 I got a new computer and a 21-inch monitor. I hope to be moving into my home office very soon, maybe even this week. Eventually I will have a laptop, so I can play wherever and whenver I want.
The bottom line is that I'm disappointed about my meager profits this month, but I'm also optomistic. I'm learning what works and what doesn't, and that's not a small thing.
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