So Much Has Happened

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for a month.  So many things have changed that I don't know where to start.  They certainly can't all be tackled in one post, so here are some of the things that have happened during that month. I might be talking about some of them in future (and more frequent) posts:

I'm now playing in both Grand Rapids and Muskegon, and each has advantages and disadvantages.

I was the chip leader in a tournament in Muskegon a couple days ago which had a first prize of $700.   I was the chip leader for about two hours.  I went out in 8th place--seven players cashed.  Players that I've talked to have agreed that my all-in was a very close call under the circumstances, and that folding would have been an equally good, but not necessarily better, choice in that spot.

We have car problems again, and our only car is in the shop as I type this. Having one car is tricky when it's running, and I'm trying to play poker it two cities and move between two residences.

The state of Michigan can't seem to stop making rules which make it harder for both charity poker rooms and the players.

Both of our computers were in the shop at the same time.  We have them back now.

I'll be playing in Grand Rapids

In my previous post, I talked about the need that poker players, especially tournament specialists, have for more and more information on what's going on in the poker world.  We want to know where and when the tournaments are running, how much they cost, what the structure is, how long it usually takes to finish, how deep the structure is, etc.  I found a room, near the city of Grand Rapids, that looks like it will be a good fit for me.

The room has just about everything that I'm looking for, and I'm reasonably certain that I can do well enough there to make up for the travel expense for playing a little farther from home.  I sent an E-mail to the folks that run a room in Walker (a Grand Rapids suburb) and they agreed, at my request, to put a schedule of blinds and antes for each tournament on their web site.

They run a tournament every night from Wednesday through Sunday.  The buy-ins are in a range that is reasonably OK considering my growing, but still inadaquate, bankroll.  Sunday is way too big for me at $125 and Wednesday is questionable--it's only a $20 tournament, but with unlimited $10 rebuys, so I'll wait on that until I find out how many times you have to buy in to stay competitive.  If that number is 3 or less, then it's an option.  That still leaves Friday and Saturday nights, and it looks like the tournaments are fairly deepstacked. I'll know for sure when the blinds and antes are posted on their web site.  I'm usually not on duty with my mother-in-law on either of those days.

Poker Players Need Information

Poker players need information.  I'm not talking about paying attention at the table, or even what we learn when we study.  We need to know what's going on.  We need to know what tournaments are scheduled where and when.  We need a good estimate of how many players there will be, because that tells us how big the prize pool we be.  We need to know if the players are in general good, bad, or average.  We want all of that information and more.

Some casinos, charity rooms, and tournament directors understand that, and they compete for the players by giving them as much information as they can.  Some even have charts showing the blind levels, how long the levels last, and how much the blinds and antes are at each level.  On the other hand some places, especially charity rooms, often won't do this.

Players talk about this.  They ask questions on poker forums.  They read charity room or casino web pages.  They talk to other players.  Players here in Michigan check the Michigan Gaming Control Board web site. They want every bit of information that they can get their hands on.  Here is an example of that information seeking, from the Detroit thread on the twoplustwo.com poker forums:

Q:  update from vision? how many seats did they sell? what was the buyin? what time did it sell out?

A1:  50 seats. Flip is out already. I'm down half a stack. Sold out before 630 I believe. Flip would know.

A2:  Coach there were about 4 2-5 games running all day & all night till I left at 3 in the mornin, and even when I left there were 12 on the list waiting. It's a $500 max 2-5, but the thing I liked about this room was it was a time-rake. Also the games seemed to play pretty deep, I had atleast 4 stacks of 2k on my table, and only 3 or 4 "regulars" in the game, the rest seemed to be from somewhere or another. Solid dealers, room is run well.

Q: Looking to play some live cash during the day near the waterford area.. any rooms open??

A:  300 bowl. Not sure what time they open or if there is any cash running during the day but you can call them to find out.

Players do this constantly.  We want every detail that can be nailed down.  "Where should I play" questions can sometimes dominate several pages of the Detroit thread.  If they can't get the information they want, they will go somewhere else.

I live about 200 miles from Detroit.  There is no poker networking here that I am aware of.  There is no site where people in my part of Michigan can share such information, which is why I spend so much time keeping up with the Detroit thread.  I can at least find out how it's supposed to work.

A few months ago I asked the tournament director at my local room if I could get a printout of, or link to, the levels, blinds and antes.  The TD said that I couldn't do that.  I told him that I know the information is available, because it shows on an overhead monitor when we are playing.  The TD again said that it wasn't possible.

I posted about this on the Detroit thread, and the first response was (not a direct quote, but close, "Are you serious?  He has to give you that information."

In Detroit, the players have clout.  They can, and will, go to another room if they don't get the information that they want.  In a stretch of four contigous counties bordering Lake Michigan there are no casinos and no open charity rooms.  We might have one room open in October.*  We have no clout and unfortunately, the owner of that one available local room knows that.

The web site for my local room, their Facebook page, and direct information from the owner sometimes all conflict with each other.  After I asked the owner about this a few (4?) times, including telling him about information errors on both the web site and the Facebook page, he finally typed, "CLIF JUST STOP"

Since there is little information sharing, the only way to find out about the other rooms is to try them, which in my case would require at least a 35-minute drive.  If it's not a good room or tournament, then I've wasted time and money on a 70 mile round trip.  The nearest casino that deals poker is 103 miles from where I live.  Detroit area players often have no problem driving 40 miles or more to a charity room--but only if they know what they're getting.

Last week there was a tournament 20 miles from me, at an American Legion Post.  I don't think they had done it before.  I hope that the first time wasn't the last time.  I need information, and I need options.

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*There might actually be two rooms open, but only one at a time.  One room open Monday through Wednesday, the other Thursday through Sunday.

To travel, or not to travel? That is the question.

This is still another one of the short-term vs. long-term issues, complicated by a lack of reliable information.

I know that when I limit myself to playing live tournaments in one location, I am limiting my options.  I also know that playing in small local tournaments, where first prize might only be ten buy-ins, I'm not going to make a lot of money.

At some point,when I am finally able to play full-time, if I really want to make poker a viable option where I am making more than the average individual income in the United States (about $36,000 if I remember correctly) I have to be willing to go to charity rooms or casinos in other cities, where the first prize is 25 or 50 times the buy-in, or more.  But for now, I have to stick pretty close to home.

Here is the current situation, as I see it:

1. I no long consider The Big Game Room to be reliable, and the information that they put out is often wrong.  I once went to TBGR and found it closed, even though the web page said that there was a tournament running that day.

Due to state meddling and overregulation, TBGR can no longer operate as a standalone business in their own space.  From now on, most of the weekday operations will be at a room in a sports bar, and weekend operations will be at a room at a bowling alley.  Or so they say.

In late August, the TGBR web page said that they were closed for now, but they would post an update after Labor Day.  The update was finally posted several days after Labor Day, and it said that operations would start on 9/18.  That never happened.  A few days ago, they posted on the web page that operations in the bowling alley would start on 10/2.  I'm not sure that I believe anything they say any more.

Information is always either lacking, incorrect, or contradictory.  The web page says that they will be open on 10/2 at the bowling alley.  However, the Facebook page not only says nothing about the new openings and locations, it still shows the old (standalone) address, with a map of how to get there--and the name of the strip mall is misspelled.

I have pointed out the information problems and inconsistencies, and for the most part nothing gets done.  At one time the owner of TBGR told me (this isn't an exact quote but very close) that he wasn't responsible for the web page, and didn't know what was on it.

So, soon there could be poker at a bowling alley that is less than two miles from my house.  Maybe.  It might be a pretty small prize pool if a lot of players check the Facebook page first.

The good news is that there is another option in Muskegon County.  There is a tournament Saturday night in Holton, a city about 20 miles from where I live.  It's a one-shot deal, but they have had their one-day state license in place for about a month, so I can be pretty sure that it's actually going to happen.  TBGR still does not have their state license.

Here's the problem.  Cost matters, and when I enter a tournament, I consider all of the costs, including travel, in this case, the cost of gas for the 40-mile round trip.  I have an account for live tournaments, and also an account for other expenses, including travel.   My Live Bankroll account is only about $450.  My Poker Expense account has about $300. That may sound like a lot of money, but my live bankroll, which I have built from nothing, is not enough money to play ten $50 tournaments.  The minimum bankroll to play MTTs should be about 100 buy-ins.  I don't have nearly that for even $25 tournaments (but you have to start somewhere) but at triple that cost plus travel expenses, it doesn't make much sense.  Or does it?

Again, I have an information problem.  The tournament in Holton could have an entry fee of $75 or it could be $25.  I have played at both levels..  Again, I have no information.  I called the Holton American Legion, and the people that I talked to on the phone either didn't know about the tournament, or knew none of the details.  This seems to be new to them.

Here is a best-case scenario:

1. If it's a tournament with an entry fee at or below $40, it's a lot less risk, because it's a relatively small piece of my bankroll.

2. Since tournaments don't run often in rural areas, it could be a big event for them, attracting a lot of players, and building a big prize pool.  I have seen those situations.

3. If the charities and the American Legion make a lot of  money, they might want to do it again soon.

4. If they become a viable option, it might give TBGR just what they need, competion.  TBGR no longer has the advantage of being a standalone, poker-only, poker-friendly environment.  If TBGR is to be competitive, their will have to up their game and do a better job of giving the players what they want.

If two or three of those four conditions exist in Holton, it will certainly make me think hard about at which place to play  And I will be happy to advise the folks in Holton on how to make themselves a viable option, on behalf of all of the players who are desperately looking for good options.

Learning Less and Winning More

This continues to be an interesting problem.  In my first live tournament since my previous post I cashed again,  3rd of 39 players for $155.  After subtracting the $25 buy-in, $10 add-on and $10 dealer tip, my profit was $120.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that I accomplished that by studying less and thinking about fewer things.

I have been able to play a few online tournaments in the last couple weeks. As stated in my previous post, I'm trying not to learn too much at once, so I've been concentrating on one thing--continuation betting.*

I've been c-betting a lot more in my online tournaments, and I have been succesful in picking up a lot of pots where I didn't have much of a hand.  But when I played live today I had to concentrate once again on the table mechanics, especially keeping track of pot sizes and player stack sizes.  I did a little better at that last night, but it took so much concentration that I never thought once about how often I was continuation betting.  That part of my game was on autopilot.

So, I'm making money when I go to The Big Game Room, and that's definitely a good thing.  But it also brings up an issue that a lot of players deal with, short-term money versus long-term goals.  Studying and learning are for the long-term, and the things that I learn have to be applied at some point.  Poker is all about the long-term, about studying and improving, and being a winner over hundreds of tournaments and thousands of hands.  What happens over a week or a month shouldn't matter at all.

On the other hand, I don't have much of a live bankroll.  I started from zero, when in fact I shouldn't be playing any tournament with under 100 buy-ins (which means a $3,500 bankroll for a $25 + $10 tournament.)  My bankroll is less than 10% of that.

In the short term, these cashes will increase my bankroll, and that's important.  The long-term view is that if I took more risks and brought more skills to the table, I wouldn't cash as often, but I would be a contender to win the tournament much of the time.

Winning money playing poker tournaments isn't about playing to cash, it's about playing to win.  Depending on tournament structures, just a few first places are usually worth  much more than many small cashes.  If I had won my last two live tournaments, I would have cashed for around $1,100.

I'm not good enough yet to win tournaments like this, with many players who study, and talk about strategy with each other.  I don't continuation bet enough to build a big enough stack in the early levels to be a serious contender for first place.  In all of the live tournaments in TBGR where I have cashed, when we got into the money the chip leader always had a stack several times larger than mine.

It's an interesting problem, and it's very strange that I can apply a concept in online tournaments, but then have to ignore that same concept playing live.  As much as is goes against everything I know about playing poker, I have to think about the short-term.  I have to concentrate on my mechanical weaknesses before I try to apply intermediate-to-advanced concepts at a live table.

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*From http://www.pokerology.com/lessons/the-continuation-bet/:

A bet from a player on the flop who raised pre-flop is known as a continuation bet or simply a c-bet. That player has continued to seize the initiative, hence the term, continuation bet. The normal use of the continuation bet is by a player in position against a lone opponent who has checked on the flop. The use of a continuation bet is rooted in the wisdom that most of the time one’s hand does not improve on the flop. Therefore the first player to bet may take down the pot right then and there.

Studying Without Learning Too Much

Even though I can't handle learning a lot of new things, there are still things that I need to keep track of.  I need to follow the 2+2 poker forums, pokernews.com, and pokernewsdaily.com to keep track of what's happening in poker.  I started a thread on Michigan Charity Poker in the 2+2 Poker legislation forum, and I need to watch it for responses.  And I have to do try do this without putting any new poker strategies or ideas in my head.  That's tricky.

If I want to work on just one concept in one of my poker books, I have to use the table to contents to go straight where I need to start studying, and not look at anything else.

One thing that can be exempt from that is memorization.  If I want to learn, for example, what the top 15% of hands, playing all suited connectors and pair, looks like, I can memorize that without messing up my play.  It doesn't require that I watch other players, or do anything else that I have to think about at the table.  When I'm ready, I can apply that at the table.  Once I know what a lot of hand ranges look like then I can watch a player and see if he's playing more or less than that range.  And once I can do that, I can work on how to react to his range given the table and tournament situation.

I've always liked breaking problems into small pieces, and working on one piece at a time.  As a musician I would work on a difficult passage in the music just a few measures at a time, at a slow tempo, then either add more measures or a slight tempo increase, and do it again until I could easily play the section on which I was working.  I see no reason that I can't work on poker the same way.

That probably sounds like a slow, even ponderous way to do things, but if it worked for me in clarinet playing, I don't see why it can't work for poker If I approach each new problem that way, incorporating a new step during each tournament or study session, at the end of a year that's hundreds of small new pieces adding up to several things that I can do well, and that adds up to more money.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that, with one glaring exception, I'm playing better and getting better results.  I've cashed a couple times at The Big Game Room since my last blog.  One of the dealers even said that he noticed I was cashing more often.

One of the cashes was my best profit to-date in a live tournament: 5th of 40, $35 entry, cash of $155.  That's a profit of $120.  I cashed a live tournament for $165 a few years go, but the buy-in was higher, so the June 28 tournament was my most profitable live tournament to date.

Keep in mind that I have ADD as your read the rest of this.

The bad news is that I'm having a very hard time concentrating at the tables.  I'm learning more and more, with very few chances to apply that that new knowledge at the table, and isn't seriously messing me up.

I've been playing out-of-turn quite a bit and making a lot of other silly mistakes.  It's to the point where I'm getting to be a joke:  "There's Clif, I wonder how long it will take him to open-fold his big blind again."

So my most profitable live tournament was the most frustrating I've every played.  I was so confused and frustrated that I was fighting back tears. I wonder how high I might have finished if I had not made all those mistakes.  As wierd as it sounds, there is too much in my head when I'm trying to play.

Basically what I'm doing is what is called in football "going through my progressions." In football (the American kind) the quarterback goes through his progressions by looking for his #1 receiver, and if he's not open, then he looks for his second and third options.  After a while, that routine becomes almost automatic.  If the quarterback takes to long, he winds up on his back.

That's what happens to me.  I'm going though my progressions, figuring out which of the new things that I'm studying apply to the current hand.  I forget about doing the things I already know how to do, I take too long and make dumb mistakes.  That has to change.

If things are going welI, I might work on just one new thing, such as watching the table for someone who likes to play a lot of speculative hands like small pairs and suited connectors. But that's all.  Just that one thing. The rest will have to wait.  I have to stick with the things that are automatic for me. Reading a new poker book and learning new strategies or doing anything else new will have to be put on hold.

I'm going to cut way back on the studying and spend more time with administrative and trouble-shooting tasks when I'm at home.  Today I'm working on getting my records  my records in better order.  Tomorrow I'll probably try to figure out why I can get to my blog on the desktop computer, but not on the laptop.  As much as I love to learn new things, especially where poker is concerned, I have to slow that way, way down for a while.