Moving Along

It's been a bit since my last post, so I thought a relative update was in order. I haven't been playing much lately. My crew finished the job in Orlando last Wensday and I've been sent to Gainesville to help out with a project there. So, moving the 5th wheel to a new place, weekend with Tracy and Jax(wife & dog respectively), and a round of golf with my buddy Alan hasn't left me with much free time. The new job is on the campus of UF and should go fairly well. Once again, I'll be heading up a night crew so timelines shouldn't change too much. This week has thrown a loop into my sleep schedual, but it should be back to normal next week.

As far as my game has been, what little I've played, I see signs of improvement. Since the session with Jennifear, I've really been focusing on playing at FTP because I can track actual gameplay there better and have a cleaner evaluation of what I'm doing. I will say that the players there are a helluva lot more aggressive than at Cake. I see this as a plus and a minus for my style. It's easier to read them and it's helped me get more comfortable with my own aggression levels around the bubble. The negative part is only from a standpoint where playing with all the "chat kids" is rather annoying. They seem to love berating anyone and everyone. Of course, I think it would be rather hilarious to meet some of these young people at a live table!! I'm not sure they really understand the true forms of intimidation.

Anyway, I'm not going to get into #s right now cause it's 3:45am and I'm supposed to be asleep. I will say that at the $10 level of Cake, my ROI has doubled since my coaching lesson. I will have to consider that a dramatic change(varience? doubtful because ITM #s have stayed the same) for the better. Oh, by the way, to answer a few questions about if I'd reccomend Jennifear as a coach. Without a doubt, if you're trying to get somewhere with this game. It has to be some of the best value I've seen out there. Between her knowledge, support and sheer love of the game, I don't see anyone out there presently that compares. I'm hoping to start a coaching comparison thread at PXF as soon as I can get some hard #s together. I think it would be a great topic for discussion.

Well, off to get some rest. BTW, if anyone would like to discuss poker or anything else for that matter, you can always e-mail at caissonsuper@gmail.com. And just about anytime my computer is on, I IM at Yahoo by the sn caissonsuper. I'm not great at typing but I like to chat occassionally. Good luck at the tables everyone!!

Coaching

So, the coaching session was definately a bonus in my mind!! I thought that the session went extremely well and it has opened my brain to alot more insight. I will let you know that my coach goes by the sn Jennifear and has an exceptional teaching ability. She came highly regarded by Chris "Fox" Wallace and now I can see why. I also learned that she has a plethora of published articles at PocketFives and is also being published elsewhere. Being relatively new to the "poker" world, I have to say I had no idea just how good this young lady is at the game or just how involved she is at teaching the game. Absolutely exceptional on both counts and I would reccomend her to anyone who has a want for improvement in thier game. I believe she has armed me with new weapons for my current game and taught me ways to make sure that I evaluate what I'm doing to improve even faster. Definately looking forward to another session when the BR can handle it!! Thanks a million Jen!!!!

So, on to current numbers and events. My results over the weekend were far less than fair. As a matter of fact, as far as the sngs went, I sucked!! I've thrown a new trick into the arsenal that has both helped and hurt. I'm using Sharkscope to color code my opponents as to how they have played historically. I am amazed at how much money some of these people are willing to part with in the name of a pasttime. Of course this leads to a new form of confidence in my own play but also leads to a way of feeling really stupid when you get pummeled by the same losing players. As I played, I watched almost every winning player get pounded by people playing hands like 92o from mid position coming in with a raise. Having AA cracked by QJo when all the chips went in preflop. Even my wife(who likes to play the pretty cards, bless her heart), was commenting on how bad the play was without me saying anything about it. So my ROI for Friday and Saturday was -16.36 and -61.67 respectively. Rather than getting upset, I actually marvelled at some of the play. Since I was struggling so much in the sngs, I decided to play in a $7,500 guarantee MTT saturday afternoon. A 24th place finish took some of the sting out of my loses but not much. Then Saturday night, the local bar has a "free" tournament that the locals play and I took that down for a nice bar tab some night in the future. It's always nice to play with actual people every once in a while, even if there isn't much at stake. Refreshing!!

Here is how all the numbers stand as of today:

Site Limit #Games ITM ROI
Cake $4.60+.40 226 46.43% 23.46%
$9.20+.80 256 43.41% 3.24%
$18.40+1.60 9 55.56% 40.56%
FTP $2.00+.25 47 42.55% 15.74%
PS $3.00+.40 7 28.57% -11.76%

I've played in 5 MTT events and profited $37.33

BR/site
Cake $700.13
FTP $59.41
PS $0.26

Current Total= $759.80 add to that the $200 for coaching and you get $959.80.

Basically, the project has had a 300% increase since inception and is doing as good as can be expected at this point. I'm not by any means disheartened by these results but I do think there is room for improvement. I was going over all of the results by days and have noticed a familiar streak. I'm actually having my worst days on the weekends, normally both friday and sunday have been killers to the ROI. On two of the days that I would think that I'd be showing the most profit, I'm actually losing the most money!! HMMM!!! Here is some food for thought.

What did I take most from my coaching session? The NASH EQUILIBRIUM and how it applies to sng play. Absolutely fascinating stuff!! I'd seen "Sheets" go over some of this in a couple videos but didn't really understand how to apply it because I'm just not a huge math guy. I'm still not ,but Jen showed me how to apply it and use it for reviewing my play at the end of a session. I honestly do believe that this is going to do wonders for my game. The other aspect that I think is going to help out the most is reviewing my winning sessions as well as my losing games. We did go over one full game that I happened to win and found where my play was actually wrong for the situation. By doing this, I'll be able to fix problems that can cause huge negative effects when I'm ready to move up levels down the road. Which reminds me, I had started playing at the $20 level before my coaching session. Now that my BR is back below the 45 buy-in requirement, I'll keep playing at the $10 level and rebuild. I also want to see what kind of an effect the coaching session will have on that level ROI. With any luck, I'm hoping to bring it up above 15% over my next 100 games or so. Sort of ran out of things to say, so I'll bring this to a close. Good luck at the tables everyone!!!

Decisions,decisions

I think the time has come to seek outside help. The project is still going well and I have moved to the next level at Cake($18.40 + $1.60 Turbo). Yet, something seems like I could be doing better. My numbers aren't miserable by any means, so far this month my overall ROI is 32.02 and I'm showing a profit that should double last months output. I've played 1/6th of what I played last month and am already 1/2 way to the profit totals. Unforunately, I spent 4 days sick last week not playing anything and work has become alittle more demanding. Fortunately, I'm really starting to understand the game on levels that should be obvious if you have half a brain(I may have used/burnt-up alot when I was younger). So, let's talk about the title of today's entry.

I've been spending alot of time reading psychology books about poker and just poker in general. I read the forums at PXF almost religously. I try to study what the professional players are thinking and doing to improve thier game. All that being said, I have decided to take on a coach!! I'm not going to reveal who that is at this point because I like the mystery of it! I will say that I have had lessons from another instructor,"Mscell", who in my opinion, taught me how to play MTTs well enough to have scored 3 wins. I'm looking forward to working with him again once certain goals have been achieved. I will share more info about all this once it happens.

Why do I need a coach, if everything is going so well? I think that outside influence challenges a person to evaluate what they are doing on many levels that they normally wouldn't strive for. As a normal American, I understand that if you're not doing all that you can to improve, you're wasting you're time(I actually don't agree with this view in most cases!!). I am a firm believer in seeking help from people with more experience, depending on what the goal is and what the subject matter involves. My first session will begin tomorrow at 9am. Wish me luck and I'll write about the results soon. Until then, good luck at the tables everyone!!!!!

August in review

All things being said, August wasn't a bad month. Definately had runs of both good and bad but everything was mainly going in the good direction. Here is how everything has gone by number and site:
Site Game #Played ITM ROI
CAKE $4.60+.40 SNG 215 46.5 19.84
$9.20+80 SNG 223 42.6 3.25
$18.40+1.60 SNG 1 100 314
$10.00+1.00 MTT Bounty 2 100 38.14
FullTilt $2.00+.25 SNG 43 39.53 -1.4
PokerStars $3.00+.40 SNG 7 28.57 -11.56

So, what all this actually means is a profit of $350.98. Add to that $110 of bonus cash and we have a total of $460.98 for the last 6 weeks or so. It must be made painfully obvious that I'm not doing so well at PS or FT. I don't think there is much of an issue there, other than the fact that I don't believe that my game is that solid yet (DURR!!!). I have been considering getting a coach for awhile or just getting some one-on-one lessons. Couldn't hurt.

Got to cut this short, cable guy is here. Good luck at the tables everyone!!