I really dislike grinding up and losing all or a big chunk of money on one hand.  Limit you do not go broke from one mistake.  Take last night for example, I was playing 2 games at the same time. $2-$4 Horse on Tilt and PLO8 1cent 2 cent on Stars, with some friends from Cardclubs.net; do not take the limits into consideration because the players in the PLO8 game were good players, we just wanted to play and not break each other. 

In that game I bought in for $3 and turned it to $5.50 and then made a bad play and lost it all, in one hand. On HORSE I bought in for $40 and ran it up to $165 and then got tired and sloppy and chased a few hands and went down to $128 I got up and went to bed with a nice profit, I am not sure I would have chased if the game were anything but limit, it did cost me a lot of money, but not as much if it were no limit, the difference was that I could call to the river and not lose it all.

The tough thing about limit is you cannot protect your hand, but I find that to be the biggest challenge during the Hold Em portion, the other games you basically know if you are a head or not.  The key is not to chase too much!

I think it is funny the more poker I play the more I like the stricter limit games, although some may say the limit games make me more of a maniac. 

Life Lesson: Whatever you are, be a good one.  -Abraham Lincoln

I was one of the tightest players anyone has ever seen, no matter the position not matter my stack size. I now focus on where I am in relationship to the button, and what my stack size is in relation to the rest of the table.  I am also betting more…… I am not afraid to push with any two cards especially if I feel there is a better then 50-50 chance my opponents will fold.  I realize the need to make sure that my stack does not get too small.  In addition if I have 2 smaller cards that are live I am only about a 45% dog (give or take).  

One of the ways that I have been working on my game is by playing more turbo sit n go’s both 9 and 18 man ones.  I have been working hard to loosen up and play my better hands faster.  One thing that I have been learning is that most of the time you do not destroy people with premium hands,  I have found that if you only play those hands you have limited options for success.  I have been more selective about the hands I play out of position and I have loosen up on the hands I play in position.   

I have been watching more videos on Poker X Factor (it’s a great sight that my pokerfox account was switched to when Chris Wallace sold it).  It is amazing watching these games buy all the top pros the cool thing is they have enough different players that play different styles that I can see some of how I play in many of these players.   

I seem to have the best results playing 18 man Turbo SNG’s on Full Tilt.  I seem to make the cash regularly and finish in the top 2 the majority of the time.  I am up to 4 $26 tokens, I did play one 18 man for a $75 token and Nemed Medic was at my table…. The cards did not fall my way and I lost a race when I was down to 8 big blinds.  I plan to play another one on the $75 token events.  

Just say no to clicking call….

I for years had a habit of saying what the heck.. and calling just to see what they had.  I have been doing better at getting away from the hands once I know I am beat.  If anyone watched my tourney I posted on my last post they will see a hand where I bet with pocket 9’s and was raised by a player that would not do that with out a big hand, they may have only had overs but it was not worth the risk at that point in the tourney, I folded and waited for a better spot.  I took the tourney down.

Since I am going to play so many at a time and my poker tracker only picks up NLHE, I am going to stick to that game and see how it goes.  I will adjust the number of games as needed.  I need to avoid being heads up on more then one table at a time.  (Hopefully I get heads up).

I am going to measure my play buy the following criteria:

1. How much of any Money did I win? How much per hour?

2. What is my ROI?

3. How comfortable am I playing multiple SNG’s compared to Multi-tabling cash games?

4.  How many points can I generate in per day based on playing the same number of hours in cash games?

5. (MOST IMPORTANT) Am I having fun?

I am going to attempt this on Full Tilt Poker I am going to try to play a minimum of 14 a day, or about 4 an hour for 3.5 to 4 hours.  If I keep my long term average of $1 profit per game I should do OK.  My goal is to improve on this average especially considering I will be playing all 1 table SNG’s. 

I have also chased the Iron Man on Full-Tilt for the last 2 months.  I made Bronze in February and will make Silver in March (need 1 more day at 50 FPP’s by the end of the month).  I only have 1 day this month that I have not got at least 50 points and that day I had 47.  50 FPP is not a challenge; you can get it in an hour or less at my level and playing 4 tables.  As the weather gets warmer and the kids and I get more active and my job has me traveling more, this status will become less important to me.  I plan on taking this time to work on my game and my head.

I have started to take a more critical look at my game; more to the point I have been looking at how I prepare for the game.  I know the mechanics, in general I know the hands to play and fold.  I need to improve the other aspects, when to call or fold in marginal areas.  This came when I noticed a player following me around, he would steal my blinds and bet me off hands when the flop missed what he perceived as my hand range.  I did pick up on this when I noticed him waiting at all the tables I was playing and there were open seats on other tables.   My VPIP is low about 17% and my PF raise is 9%.  I need to be more active. 

I have been taking my hand histories and running them through a universal re-player and watching how I played then hand and how my opponent has played the hand.  I now starting to make notes on paper and then search for the player when on line and put the notes on them.  In addition I can see what I do wrong, and I am seeing plenty. 

I had a friend tell me that he is too busy playing and dos not have time to study, of course he also refuses to read a book.  I have been following this as well, I have had Harrington on Hold Em Vol. 2 for a year and have not finished it, and I have had the Professor, The Banker and the Suicide King since Christmas and only have read 120 pages.  I have 23 days left on my poker fox membership and have not watched all the videos, yet (the ones I have watched have really helped).  I have down loaded Pokertracker3 and have not used it to analyze my play enough.  See a pattern here

So here is the plan, I currently play about 30 hours a week, I plan to cut that to about 20 to 25, the balance is going to working on my game and reading books, watching videos and watching my play through the re-player.  Take notes about my opponents and my play. I plan to play less tables and pay attention more. 

My development plan is not due to any set backs, its due to wanting to get better. If anyone is interested in helping I could use all the advice I can get.

Life Lesson: Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. -Will Rogers

In the few days that I have been playing on Cake, I have played the .05 .10 NLHE and have yet to have a losing session and I have doubled my buy more times then not. I have played 5 SNG’s and have a 1^st and a 3^rd and three bubbles due to suck outs. I think I am going to stick the cash for a while on that site, until my bankroll gets to a level that I can play bigger then a $5 SNG.

My challenge is when I play on Full Tilt I am not tightening back up. The .25 .50 level is not filled with pros but the players are still better, then on Cake. I find myself dropping $20 and buying in again and then winning it all back plus some as I tighten back up. I would like to not drop the $20 and just win.

So I need help, what is the best course of action to avoid becoming the players you play? Should I just tighten up on Cake and play less, this will hurt my hourly rate, or is there some secret that can help me play the 2 sites differently?

As a side note, I only bought into Cake for $25 that is the reason for the small stakes. I had to trade money with a friend to get them money on that sight; I was unable to get it on in other ways. Also, since Cake does not allow you to resize your table, and I play on a laptop my tables over lap, this makes it a little difficult for me to play more then 2 tables at a time.

My own personal Iron Man Challenge, I made Bronze last month, I am on pace for silver. As my bankroll increases Gold is not too far of into the future. I am sure if Iron is on the cards for quite sometime, to many days and too many FPP’s per day.

Life Lesson: Challenging ones self to achieve greater things is the best way to not get left behind. – Jerry Thomas

I took the class primarily because I had too.  I learned more then I thought would.

There are four generations from the Seniors (born before 1946); Boomers; Gen X and Gen Y. Gen Y are folks born from 1978 through 1992.  Why does this have anything to do with a poker blog? 

Glad you asked…  Gen Y is the generation that had their self-esteem worried about, they were taught to worry about them selves, and they want/demand it fast, quicker and better then anyone other generation.  They are more interested in how they are and what the company they work for can do for them, where the traditional way of doing this is to keep your head down, work hard and the company will eventually recognize you and take care of them.  Gen Y thinks it is ridicules to put that kind of blind faith into their company, and too a certain extent they are correct.

The “Old Guard” of poker players veterans playing years at the tables learning how to play the game at 30 to 40 hands per hour.  They have played for years and have developed how to play based on reads, and feel.  The Gen Y players are the young internet kids playing 4, 8, 10, maybe more tables at a time.  They have are playing 500 to 3000 hands an hour, they have Poker Tracker and a HUD that tells them what somebody’s VPIP or the pre-flop flop aggression, or some other statistic that that they want.  They look they see they concur and they move on.  

Many of the Old Guard and recreational players cannot even spell VPIP let alone know what it means.  Why spend $40 to be told how someone plays or to look at how they play their hands.  One trick that a poker player has is the ability to adapt to his surroundings.  So right now the young guns are starting to run over poker, I would not count out the wily old veteran that is willing to learn a few tricks.

So Gen Y is a group of very hard working people, that are enthusiastic and want to learn, they are the ones that have started to driver the knowledge wagon and are taking it to levels that other have not thought of going.  The are worried about what the world owes them not what they owe the world.  They generate there information quickly and are willing to take risks.  This maybe why so many of them prefer tournaments to cash games, they take risk early, they get chips or they get out and go to the next tournament.  They are willing to risk money on small advantages time after time in order to gett the big score. 

The Old School players seem to take a more conservative approach to playing tournaments but also play cash games, they do work for the big score, but in addition to that they want the steady, smaller, income that comes from grinding out cash games.  In order for these players to compete, especially online, they are going to need to make the adjustments that are needed and learn a new way of playing the game. 

  Life Lesson: Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. -Will Rogers 

I have for years tried to play MTT’s the same way.  I have gone deep in a few when the lottery hit and I got several big hands early and built a big stack. Under normal conditions I play tight and try to find spots to double up, with only premium hands.  In its self it is not a bad thing, but as I blind down it gets harder and harder of for me to get folks to respect my pushes.  This is a huge leak in my MTT game, and part of the reason I joined a training site. 

Some of these videos are like watching a different game.  I almost never stole blinds, I would bluff only if a big hand missed, and then I may have been bluffing with the best hand, never a naked bluff to steal blinds in order to grow my stack or to remain flat.  Also, I do not on average bet the right amount, like many inexperienced MTT players my betting patterns tell a lot about my hand.  So I am going to make an effort to make my betting more consistent and none of them being a minimum bet. I am also going to try to avoid going to showdown no matter what cards I have.

I am going to try, and fail at first I assume, to steal more blinds, re-steal more pots, and only get called when I want to be called.  (This may be a challenge at the levels I play at).  I no longer want to a nit and always go out right before or after the bubble.  I had 3 final tables in tournaments with over 500 entries in 2007.  The first one I had a big run of cards and got a huge chip lead and spent the entire tournament in the top 5.  The others I did not care if I went broke (winning $900 helps that) and I took a few chances and got lucky. 

I am developing a plan to take chances and learn how to grind my chips up whether I have cards or not.  Time to get back to more MTT’s.

  Life Lesson: If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. -Mary Engelbreit