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.