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.

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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.

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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.


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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.