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Overcoming obstacles in online poker

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 1 Comment

Cory was kind enough to write an article about his own poker experiences and how to overcome the obstacles we all experience in life. Hope you enjoy the article as much as I did. If you have time, check out corywilkinsband.com. Great music!

I was recently asked to incorporate a little bit of autobiographical information in my poker articles for the Bankroll Blog.  Before I do, I just want to let you all know that the contents of this article, overcoming obstacles, in no way is meant to give you the impression that my life is so much tougher than yours, because it’s not, we all have obstacles and negative factors that try and hold us back from doing our best, but one of mine happens to be very visible.

For those of you who don’t know, I was born nearly completely blind and over the last twenty-eight years the little vision that I had has been slowly deteriorating until I’m left with just the slightest bit of light perception, which will probably be gone in the next few years.  I used to play card games with my grandma when I was a small child and I had enough vision back then to play games like Go Fish with a regular deck of cards as long as they were the jumbo print.  Now I can, in the right lighting and if I hold the card an inch from my face tell you if I’m looking at a face card or not and be right about three quarters of the time.

I discovered poker about five years ago, interestingly enough not from Rounders or from Moneymaker, or from TV at all, but from this website called allinplay.com that has accessible on line games, so blind and sighted people can play together.  In 2005 they introduced a play money Texas Hold ‘Em game and I had remembered playing five card draw with my parents and figured learning a new poker game would be fun.

I quickly lost my chips over and over again in this new form of poker and being the competitor that I am, I figured I was going to learn better strategy.  I spent two weeks looking up Hold ‘em strategy on Google before I played another hand.  I learned a good many things, I should be raising more than calling, I shouldn’t be playing many hands when I’m one of the first to act.  By applying a few simple rules I began to completely crush the games.

However, crushing play money games isn’t exactly something to get all excited about for me, so I decided that I wanted to play live.  I asked one of my friends to help me and trained her to whisper my hole cards in my ear, then let me know all of the action as it goes around the table.  After we developed our system it was time to convince the local casinos to let us play.

Most were very helpful and encouraging once I was able to convince them that I was indeed blind and needed the assistance to play and would not be using my helper to make my decisions because I would be making all of my own decisions.  Then I started playing live.

Most times other players are really great about it too, but every once in a while I’ll have a player complain and I’ll explain to him or her my situation, if they are still not satisfied I’ll call the floor to explain for me.  This can be a rather uncomfortable way to start a session, but it’s just reality.

So just from my poker life I’ve had to create a way to help me play, get my method allowed in a live casino, plus have to deal with the occasional ass hole who thinks I’m cheating.  Also think of the physical tells that I miss, my inability to quickly estimate someone’s stack size and you would think I’m at a rather large disadvantage.  However, I’m still a winner in the games I play.  I play live about once a week and with the help of my lovely girlfriend Kathi I also six table limit hold ‘em on full tilt.

So next time you’re facing a tough situation, stress, just not being on you’re a game, I don’t want you to think from this article that I’ve got it worse than you, that’s not my point at all, I just want you to remember, that no matter how big the obstacle is, no matter how long the odds if you set your mind to something and are determined to succeed, I mean really determined nothing can hold you back.  Success is not just the glory of accomplishing a goal, it’s the product of all the hard work, the late nights, the overcoming circumstances that are out of your control and coming out on top.

It’s so easy to give up or put in half the effort you should, but you will only meet your potential if every day you strive to effect any changes you can in a positive way, overcome the things that you’re powerless to change and always focus on getting better.  Nothing is free and nothing is handed to us on a silver platter, but great things are there for the taking if you put forth the initiative.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Goals in Poker; adjusting your expectations

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Management, Poker Cash Games, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament, Poker and Life | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

It’s every poker players goal and dream to drag the million dollar pots in the biggest cash games or to be sitting at the final table of the World Series with the TV lights shining.  While this is a cool goal and the dream is possible, you can’t expect to go from novice player to big time winner all in one night, one year, or probably your entire lifetime.  It is important to set goals for yourself in poker, but you want to set goals that, though challenging, are also likely to be accomplished with some work.

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Many players will never develop their abilities beyond the level of occasional hobbyist, which is fine, especially if they realize where their skill level lies.  If you can admit that you’re playing for fun, then a $200 losing session doesn’t hurt that bad.  It’s the price of a night out and the fun you got to have making jokes with your table mates was worth the price.  However, if you only have the ability of a novice and expect to win like a pro, you’re in for a lifetime of frustration.

If you develop your skills to the point where you’re a winning player and can supplement your day job with some poker earnings, it is probably not the time to quit the day job because you may have made a big score or two.  Rather, you might want to see how things go over the next year before you even entertain the idea of going “pro.”

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If you keep your expectations in step with your talent level you will always be getting better, but you won’t be nearly as frustrated with the game.  It’s important to have a healthy relationship with poker and an honest assessment of where you stand is the basis for this relationship.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Management, Poker Cash Games, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament

Poker losing streak

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 | Poker Strategy, Poker and Life | No Comments

Submitted by Steve, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

Poker losing streaks represent the incarnation of necessary evil in poker.Regardless of how good and lucky a player you are, you will hit a snag in the road sooner or later, and you can take that pretty much for granted.

Poker is a game of variance. You win some and you lose some, and your goal as a successful poker player is to balance things so that at the end of the day, when you add up your wins, your losses, your rakeback, your sign-up bonus and who knows what else, you should be above the dreaded red line. If you can achieve that, you’ll be a successful player.

Dealing with poker losing streaks seems pretty simple on paper, however, due to the emotional intricacy of the human race and to the often perverted ways poker finds to put one to the test, it is not nearly as simple in practice.

That would explain why some of the top poker professionals (and I’m thinking about Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow here) have such a tough time handling poker losing streaks. If these guys can’t do it, what chance do you – a mere commoner – stand?
Successful poker and bankroll management hinges on one thing and one thing alone: knowing when to quit. If you become adept as quitting in the right moments, you’ll be able to handle your losses better than anyone else. As a general rule, as long as you play well, and as long as you keep piling up those “Sklansky dollars”, you shouldn’t quit.

Some people set themselves session goals. Such practice is counterproductive from several angles. Suppose you say you need to log a profit of $100 before you call it the day. You start playing and you play extremely well indeed. You reach your goal before you know it, then you quit. What you’ve done is that you’ve minimized the time spent playing while on your A-game. The following day, you log in again, once again set to reach that same $100 profit mark. You get hit by
bad luck though and as your set succumbs to a straight, followed by your A-high straight being knocked cold by a boat, you find yourself $100 in the hole. You begin to tilt and to make foolhardy moves, but you can’t stop: after all, you have $200 to make up for now.How does that translate? You maximize the time you spend playing while on your worst game. So the key to
managing poker losing streaks is to just stop playing once you realize your judgment is clouded.

Being able to stop at the right time though, means that you need to be able to manage your emotions. Often when hit by losing streaks, players fall into a sort of mental rut, which ends up prolonging their suffering.

Tell yourself that it’s all math, and as long as you’re still amassing Sklansky dollars, you’re going to come out a winner on the other side of the tunnel.

It is interesting to see how many players manage their emotions badly. They let despair take over when hit by bad beats, and they begin to fear that every time they shove those chips into the middle, they’ll end up watching them shipped in the other direction. Just take a look at the posts in a poker forum, you’ll see what I’m talking about. This kind of thinking brings about more trouble as it interferes with the optimal decision making process. Staying upbeat is easy when things are going well. Keeping a stiff upper lip is much more difficult when under assault by Lady Luck though.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

Latin Ballroom or Pass the Trash

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 2 Comments

Submitted by Jonathan, this article belongs to the Poker and life series.

Jonathan runs the Why do I play poker website, which as the name suggests is all about sharing each others motivations for self punishment on the felt.

I’ve been married for 10 years, have 2 kids and almost no time to myself. If you count my internet porn babes as company, then I do in fact have no time to myself. When I get a call to join a neighbor’s home game on a random Wednesday night, I think to myself, “What would I rather do? Watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance with my wife, or hang out with the guys smoking pot, telling lies and acting like a 15 year old.” Hmmmmmmmmm

I arrive at the game a bit giddy. This night is going to be fun. Buy in is $80 and it’s dealer’s choice. Everyone hates NLH at home games. It’s too slow, too restrictive…requires too much talent! I know this going in. We are going to play games that are just a hair above roulette in skill level. Shit, I was going to be watching Tiffany and Raj do the Latin Ballroom, even if I lose $80 at stupid games of chance, I’m a winner. I’ll gladly play 3 hours of “Pass The Trash” if I can escape the suffering of a round of comments from the faggy dancing judges about how much Raj extended his arms during the pirouettes. Not that I have a problem with gay or dancing. But really? Is this even a contest?

Tonight I am catching bad cards. Couple that with missing some of the “subtleties” of Pass the Trash and I am thru my first buy in. It’s only 8:30. Raj is still doing pirouettes. RE-BUY!

At 9:07, my second buy-in is gone. Raj or chips? Raj or chips? Raj or chips? It’s a tough one, but at this point I need to acknowledge the grace and beauty of Raj’s dancing. He actually does have a place in my life. When all the money is gone and there is absolutely nothing left to do, Raj is the answer.

I come home. My wife remarks that I am home early. Bad night. I take my place on the couch and manage to show some enthusiasm when I ask, “Hey did I miss Raj and Tiffany?” “Nope”‘ she says, “just in time.” I force a smile and say, “Great! Can’t wait to see them really nail this Latin Ballroom.”

Sometimes I play poker to postpone the inevitable.

Why do you play? Let me know at stories@whydoiplaypoker.net

If I subjectively pick yours as the story of the month, I’ll deposit $100 in to your online poker account at Full Tilt, Poker Stars or UB.

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Personality Deficient

Saturday, May 16th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | No Comments

Submitted by Dungbeetle, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series

It’s been a while since I’ve checked up on Dungbeetle’s poker life on the Magical Mystery Poker Tour blog. Last I heard he was not doing well and sadly the bad streak has not improved. Below is a particular sad post which I have chosen to post here because it reminds me that no matter how many times we keep saying to ourselves that poker is a variance game and bad beats / losing streaks are supposed to happen, sometimes they simply get the better of us leaving us miserable.

Work finished early today, so I thought I’d continue my hate/hate relationship with online tournaments and promptly lost $600 without ever coming close to the money. I played poorly, but seemed to be cold decked a lot.

The highlights:

- Held AA on a board of AK78K whilst going well in a $100 tournie. Lost to KK. Money all went in on the river after we both slow played.
- Flopped 9 high diamond flush out of small blind when average stack in a $75 tournie – other guy has ten high flush
- Held QQ on KQxx board in UB tournie – got it in against KQ – river = K

I’m not really complaining as I didn’t play well. In 2007 and 2008 I was dynamite in online tournaments, taking down about 85k in profit. Now I am just making up the numbers. I actually canned 2 tournaments with average stack tonight – there is just no point, so I might as well be blinded off.

Not sure what the answer is. My son, girlfriend, friends and family are fantastic, but I just seem to get down on myself and that clouds everything.

Clearly I’ve had a few wines before this post, but maybe it’s good to get stuff off the chest. However, it seems the upcoming Vegas trip is a car crash waiting to happen.

I think time and again how lucky I am – there are millions of people in the world who are much worse off either financially or health wise. Despite this self coaching I am unable to lift this downer.

I need to lift out of this pathetic self-pity, but whether I have the strength to do this is another matter.

About to play football manager………..anger factor about to rise by a multiple of ten.

Apologies readers for you wasting five minutes to read this drivel

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Don’t Tell Me Your Bad Beat

Monday, March 30th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker and Life | 3 Comments

Submitted by Vic Porcelli, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

“…so I got my full house on the turn and the guy gets an 8 of diamonds on the river for the straight flush and beats me.”  

How many bad beat stories have you heard?  Hang around a poker room for a night and you’ll hear plenty.  They will be offered to you.  You don’t have to ask to hear them.   As poker players, we remember those bad beats vividly.  We remember the suit and rank of every street, plus the hole cards involved in all of our bad beats.   Now let me ask you.  How many bad beat stories have you told?
We feel the need to tell these bad beat stories to anyone that will listen.  We even feel the need to tell bad beat stories to people who have not agreed to listen.  Why???  Let’s take an honest look at why we insist on telling everyone and anyone about our bad beats. 

The answer is really simple. To let everyone know what great poker players we are.  We didn’t lose the hand because we played it wrong.  That would never happen.   The planets lined up against us, the poker gods put a curse on us.  The cards came out to the benefit of an opponent and knocked us out of the tournament or at the very least decimated our chip stack.  So we steam out of the poker room to find a fellow poker player to plead our case. 

Keep in mind as you are telling your bad beat story to another poker player, he has had that and every other bad beat happen to him.  As a matter of fact, all of his bad beats are running through his head while you are telling yours.   At the end of the day, someone sucked out on you and knocked you out of the tournament.  Get over it.  It happens every day in every tournament in every poker room in America.  No wait!  Make that in the world.

If you have won a tournament or even just made a final table, you have sucked out on an opponent.  It has to happen.  Yet we don’t run to find someone to hear that story!  “Hey listen to this.  I just sucked out a flush on the river to beat this guy who had already flopped the nut straight!”  Why don’t we do that?  Well, that would make us look like a lucky player, not necessarily a good poker player.
The bottom line is, bad beats happen.  They will always happen.  They don’t make you a bad poker player.  They don’t make the guy who sucked out on you a bad poker player.  They just happen.  Trust me, no one wants to hear them.  

I learned this early when I had the pleasure to interview Antonio Esfandiari.  I wanted to tell him about this time I flopped the nut straight and my opponent put me all in.  Of course I called and he ended up with a full house getting an ace on the river.  I started telling Antonio my story and he stopped me and said, “Wait a minute, is this a bad beat story?”  There was a long pause and I sheepishly answered, “Yes.”   He then stated he didn’t want to hear it.  He did joke about it and didn’t make me look like an idiot but I got it.  Right then and there.  I got it.  Poker players don’t want to hear bad beat stories.
Bad beats will always happen.  The true test is how we handle them.

Do you jump out of your chair and berate the player who just sucked out on you?  Maybe you just tap the felt and say, “Nice hand.”  That will the subject of my next column,  Tableside Manner. 

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

The best way to deal with bad beats is to experience a lot of them

Saturday, January 31st, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 4 Comments

Submitted by Rakewell, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

I recently read another long post on Rakewell’s PokerGrump blog and liked the way it touched on the subject of why we tend to remember our bad beats better when we are on the receiving end and how it becomes easier to deal with bad beats the more of them you have experienced. In addition Rakewell again draws parallels to situations that on the surface have nothing to do with poker, which I really enjoy and therefore also want to share with the readers of this blog.

In the original Star Trek series episode “Mirror, Mirror” several members of the crew get switched, via one of those frighteningly frequent transporter malfunctions, into one of the many parallel universes which is almost but not quite like our own. In this one, doppelgangers of our heros are on a ship identical to the Enterprise, except that they are all selfish, power-hungry, violent, and cruel. Oh, and they tend to wear goatees and/or have facial scars, sure signs of all that is wicked.

In this mirror universe, each crew member is required to carry a small device called an “agonizer.” In case of infraction of the rules of military conduct, a superior officer will take the offender’s agonizer, activate it, and apply it to his body for whatever length of time is deemed appropriate to the occasion, resulting in unspeakable pain being inflicted. For the most serious offenses, such as mutiny or assassination, the guilty party was put into the “agony booth,” which we must assume was unfathomably worse than the little agonizer device. As Mirror Spock coolly notes, “The agony booth is a most effective means of discipline.”

Yes, there is a poker connection here. I’ve had more than my fair share of cold-deck situations over the past week, and it has brought back to mind a bunch of painful memories. I remember keenly:

–the first time I drew to the low end of a straight, got there, and only then realized what a bad spot I had gotten myself into.

–the first time I flopped trips and lost it all to a guy who had flopped a full house.

–the first time I had a full house and lost it all to a guy who had quads.

–the first time I had an ace-high flush and lost it all to a guy who had a straight flush.

–the first time I misread my hand, thinking I had the nut straight, when I actually had nothing, and called off all my chips, only to be thoroughly embarrassed when I turned over my cards and saw what I had done.

There is something about the pain of these moments that sears them into our souls. Mike McDermott observes in a rueful voiceover in “Rounders”:

In “Confessions of a Winning Poker Player,” Jack King said, “Few players recall
big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with
remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” It seems true to
me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I
can’t stop thinking of how I lost it.

I recall that once when I was a small child my mother was preparing to do some ironing. The iron was standing idle on the ironing board. She was out of the room. I wondered whether the iron was on or off, so I did what seemed like the logical thing at the time: I reached out and touched its surface with my index finger. It was on. I cried, of course. When mom came to see what the fuss was about, and I told her that I had burned my hand on the iron, she asked, “Why did you touch it?” I thought that was the dumbest question possible. “I wanted to see if it was on.” Of course.

It must have been somebody with a similar childhood experience who coined the expression, “Once burned, twice careful.”

Some things do get better with time and experience–and some build-up of scar tissue. These days I am never as shocked at the kind of situations I listed above as I was the first time they happened. (Fortunately, I still haven’t experienced the really horrendous beats–things like quads being beaten by a straight flush, or the low end of a straight flush being squashed by the high end.) Just the other day at the Rio I had 6-7 offsuit in the big blind, so I took the flop for free. I loved seeing it come 8-9-10, two-suited. I bet, got raised by the button. It was early in the session, so I was relatively short-stacked, and moving all in was a no-brainer. Of course I knew that it was possible he had one of the two hands that had me drawing nearly dead (7-J or J-Q). But on the other hand, he would raise me and be willing to call my reraise, probably, with any two pair or trips, and maybe something like a pair and flush draw, or a combined straight draw/flush draw, or even just the nut flush draw with no pair. It was not one of those situations where my all-in raise would get called only if I was beat. But this time he did, in fact, have the J-Q. The only way I could win was with a runner-runner flush or split the pot with a runner-runner J-Q, neither of which happened. Sigh.

The point, though, is that I have become considerably more callused to this sort of thing, and because I anticipated the possibility of being shown the nuts, it didn’t stun me and send me reeling the way that those earlier stories did when they occurred. It’s not that it doesn’t hurt. It does. But my skin is thicker than it used to be, and I have learned to expect the unexpected. With anything short of the nuts, I’m braced to take whatever hit may come, and even with the nuts I’m mentally prepared to see my opponent turn over the same hand for a chop, when that is a possibility.

Before I started playing in real-money games online, I spent quite a bit of time with Wilson Software’s simulator. It was, I suppose, useful in getting me used to the mechanics of play, and giving me some feel for what starting hands were likely to end up winners and losers, but I honestly can’t remember a single hand I ever played on it. I think it’s because none of them actually cost me anything. If I got knocked out of a tournament, I could say, “Oh well,” and be in another one ten seconds later, with nothing lost–and nothing learned, I’m afraid, whether it was a bad beat or a bad play.

Simply put, if it doesn’t hurt, it’s a lot harder for the lesson to sink in. I’m sure there’s some biochemical reason for that, related to neurotransmitters powerfully stimulating certain loci in the nucleus-of-whatever deep in the brain. But you don’t need to know the physiology to recognize the truth of it.

Of course, the magnitude of loss it takes to inflict the kind of pain necessary for a long-term memory of the event to form will vary according to your means and past experiences. I remember reading a poker magazine story about Phil Ivey. His wife was just learning to play poker and was doing microstakes online. Phil came home on edge because he had had an unusually deep loss–a few hundred grand, as I recall. His wife was upset at her day, too; she told him that she had lost something like 70 cents, which is a lot when you’re playing $0.01/$0.02 games. Talk about different pain thresholds!

Mike Sexton said it well during an episode of the World Poker Tour a couple of years ago, when somebody got knocked out of the final table on a one-outer: “If you don’t like a little pain once in a while, poker is probably not your game, because as you can see, you’re gonna get it.”

Who needs an agony booth when you have poker?

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Loco Poker

Monday, January 26th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker and Life series

This is the story of a Texas Hold’em variant known among my friends and I as Loco Poker.

Loco Poker was developed in Newcastle a few years ago when Artur and I took two weeks off to visit my brother and a friend of his who had set op base in Newcastle to live the gambler’s dream. Now I’m not sure who actually invented it. If you ask Artur and my brother they will claim to their death that it’s their child, but I  like to think that the idea was developed by all of us.

To better understand the essence of Loco Poker you need some understanding of the grave situation we faced every night  in Newcastle: How to get drunk fast, when all you want to do is go to bed after a hard days work at the virtual tables. Regular beer drinking games were getting boring, so we needed something new.

We first tried playing SNG’s where the first guy who got knocked out had to drink a shot/glass of beer and the winner decided who should drink another shot/glass of beer. However after the first couple of rounds we always ended up all in preflop on the first hand played so we thought we might as well adjust the game. No point in using chips when you are always all in-)

So here it is with no further ado,  the Loco Poker game:

Loco Poker Rules and Point System:

• Hand rankings are the usual known from Texas Hold’em.
• Player positions follow the dealer as usual.
• There are three possible actions in Loco Poker: check, fold and all in.
• If you go all in and everyone else folds, you receive one small Loco Poker Point.
• If you go all in,  someone calls and you win after the showdown your opponent is knocked out. You do not receive any small Loco Poker points in this situation.
• If you go all in, someone calls and you lose after the showdown you are knocked out regardless of the number of small Loco Poker points you have. Your opponent does not receive any Loco Poker points in this situation.
• If the hand is checked to the river nobody wins any points.
• The Loco Poker winner is the player who either knocks all the other players out, or wins 3 small Loco Poker Points. The winner decides who drinks.
• The Loco Poker loser is the player who gets knocked out first. The loser automatically gets a penalty drink.
• Most importantly, whenever a player receives a bad beat you have to remember to shout in unison: “THAT’S LOCO POKER!!!!!”

Loco Poker Hints:

• If you are dealt any Ace, treat your hand as the nuts: push, push, push!
• Trap with any pair.
• Cheat your opponents if they don’t know Texas Hold’em hand ranks.
• Make secret alliances; remember the goal of the game is to get your opponents as drunk as possible so you can take incriminating pictures of them.
• Make up your own prizes and penalties for first and last place; play the game with your girlfriend and see where it takes you.

Enjoy!

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Live poker cash games mixed with drinking is a cocktail doomed for disaster:-)

Saturday, January 17th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 1 Comment

Submitted by Dungbeetle, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

 Dungbeetle has had a rocky start to 2009 mostly due to losses in live cash games. Hopefully he will turn things around now that he’s focusing only on tournaments for the time being.   

In 5 of my last 6 cash sessions the format has been the same – make steady profit for the first few hours when sober, before drinking compulsively and ending up a few hundred down.

For some reason my brain has inextricably linked heavy live cash sessions, with even heavier drinking sessions. This has become such an issue now that I am going to have to forego live cash play, at least in the medium term until I can get to the bottom of it. For some reason I don’t have the same issue with live tournaments, nor online cash. I am going to try and explore the reasons for this, but it seems the changing dynamic of tournaments and the multi tabling aspect of online, seem to peak my interest enough to stop me getting wasted.

The plan for Saturday had been to play a dealer’s choice game at the Loose Cannon before heading to the International for the £100 tournament. This never happened – myself and a couple of other players were tired, so we just holed up at the Cannon until we were kicked out at 10pm, before heading to Tom’s apartment for a marathon cash game.

The Dealer’s Choice game was great fun – Razz, Omaha8, 2-7 triple draw, Iron Cross, Stud, River of Blood, Reverse Iron Cross and 6 card Omaha all got a run out. By the close I was £250 to the good, but then 6 of us moved to Tom’s and the wheels fell off.

A steady stream of wine and vodka later I was £300 down, and heading home. Apparently I played a large Omaha pot, but I don’t even remember the hand so I can’t fill you in on the details and I’d suggest I didn’t play it particularly well.

So, just tournaments for me from now on, at least in the medium term. Hopefully I can figure out what is going on in my head, as I’d be a pretty tidy cash player if there wasn’t a loony at the controls.

- UPDATE -
News in of the big Omaha hand I played (of which I still have no memory). I held A9xx on a Q99 flop. Opponent holds QQ9x lol. Money went in on the flop, but turn was an Ace so I guess all the money goes in on the turn anyway. I didn’t even have the case 9 as an out – needed running Aces At least I didn’t bluff my stack away, which is something I guess.

P&L GBP 2009
Live Tournaments 30
Live Cash (600)
Online Tournaments 0
Online Cash 202
Poker Festivals 0
Rake (10)

Total (378)

Check out Dungbeetle’s Magical Mystery Poker Tour blog

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

My 2009 Poker Goals

Thursday, January 8th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 6 Comments

Submitted by McTap03, this article is a part of the Poker and life section.

With the new year now upon us, and me starting to play again (I took a brief unplanned hiatus over the holidays), I thought I would jot down some goals for the rest of this year. Since this is my first attempt at actually trying to plan long-tern (specifically for poker), please bare with me as I try to get all my thoughts onto this post.

Increase my BR
For me this would have to be my biggest goal for the year. I’m not planning on making so much money that I can quit my ‘day job,’ but if I can play steady smart poker each and every month, then my bankroll should go up. As for a final number, I would like to hit $2000 by the end of this year, which works out to about $125 per month, or around $40 per week. In order to accomplish this, I plan on sticking to my online bankroll management rule of a 25 buy-in minimum before moving up and 18 buy-in minimum before dropping down. I think these rules constitute playing it smart and safe which are key when trying to build a bankroll.

When it comes to my live BR, well that is just fictious money. I know I’ve mentioned how much I have made playing live at Mohawk Bingo Palace Poker Room (MBP), but all the money has gone to pay bills and other things, so there really isn’t a BR to talk about (unlike my online money which is on the site until I withdraw it). In order to increase my live BR, I will stick to tournaments under $100 unless my stats (I keep a log of all the money I’ve won/lose to know if I’m up or down) start to show that I’m going to be losing money if I play in a certain live tournament. In reality, I will mostly play at MBP where they max most of their tournaments at $58, with some in the mid $30 range.

Increase my knowledge/skill of the game
In order to increase my BR, I will definitely need to increase my knowledge and skill of the game so that I become a better player who can successfully play at higher levels. I plan on doing this by reading and re-reading all my current poker books before venturing off and purchasing any more. I will also look into joining a site that offers videos and training (possibly cardrunners or stoxpoker) so that I can have help in becoming a better player. I’m currently involved with PokerStrategy, whom offer videos, so I will also spend time there trying to improve my game. Another thing I will do this year to increase my skill is purchase Poker Tracker 3. This will allow me to analyze my hands, afterwards, and be able to start labelling my opponents so that I can adjust my play accordingly. I’ve used PT3 for several months, during it’s free trial, and feel that since the trial expired, my game has dropped. I will also look into other software options, possibly Tournament Indicator, that can help me make better decisions during SNG’s.

Blog/post more
Although this is a moot point, as all I would have to do is post about anything and could increase my posts, what I really want to do is post more topics that require analysis and/or feedback. This would include hands that I have played poorly and/or greatly so that people can review them and critique my style of play so that I may become better. I’m also looking to finish my “Why the cards matter least” series, as I only have a few more points left to discuss. The interesting part about wanting to blog/post more is that it doesn’t necessarily have to happen here. I currently belong to several forums (see links on the right side) where I get to provide and solicit feedback to many poker situations and increasing this will help me gain a better understanding on how to play this game.

Games to play
Since the day I started playing, I’ve been predominantly a tournament player. I’ve tried on several occasions to play in the online cash games, but have only bled money. On the other hand, tournaments, mostly SNG, have been nice too me, but when it comes to online MTT, I’m still waiting for my 1st cash. The same can be said for my live action, except that I have never played a live SNG and have managed to cash in several MTT (under 50 players), all the while bleeding money in the cash games. For this year, and in order to expand my poker skill, I’m thinking I should try to play some cash games and enter 1 MTT per month, at the least. This should broaden my abilities as they both require a different perspective on how to play according to the table dynamics. Another thing I will look into is trying to qualify for this years WSOP. This will only happen if I can increase my online BR to over 600 by the end of March, otherwise, my skill set is probably not at the level of play required to survive the WSOP. When it comes to live games, MBP offered a WSOP qualifier last year, and if they offer it again this year, I will try up to 4 satellites ($48 SNG) to see if I can make the qualifying tournament ($420 MTT). Note: I haven’t played there in 2009, so I don’t know if they are offering it again. Will know more when I finally make it over there.

Where to play
Currently I play solely at Mansion Poker and have been since last summer. The problem with playing at Mansion is that I really get nothing for playing there, except Bonus points that I can use to get into tournaments or for some of their merchandise. I’m coming to the end of my Bonus hunting and after that I’m not really sure I want to stay on Mansion as I have had some issues with their support team while trying to get something resolved. I’m thinking that this year I should probably try to deposit on a site that offers some sort of rakeback deal in order to get back some of the fees I pay. I know that PokerBRB and PokerSource offer some nice rakeback deals, so I will have to take some time to decide which one to go with, if I decide to go that way. Either way I decide to play, I will focus on increasing my player status so that I may get better rewards from the site.

Side projects
Some of you may know, the ones that I’m involved with, but I have several side projects relating to poker that I would like see come to reality. I’m not going to speculate on the details, but once they are finally in motion I will gladly shout it out loud. In the meantime, I’m planning on devoting several hours per month on each in hopes of making all of them a reality before the end of the year.

So there you have it. A decent list which I think I can reach success with. Hopefully all goes well this year.

Good luck at the tables.

McTap03

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