mbolt1

I am watching this guy's first stoxpoker video. So far, I like him.

March! A month of plans.

February was a pretty crappy month for the Sleepy Lion. Fatigue, listlessness, and a total lack of motivation dogged me nearly every day. (Actual) work, poker (work), exercise- they all seemed impossible. Fortunately, the issue has resolved.

I feel good and I'm eager to get things rolling.

Poker Goals for March

1. Grind up for 1k. I cannot predict outcomes, but making some money this month would be nice. My earn in side games should be $15/hr, in tournaments I should make 25/hr. I want to put these numbers to work. At 20/hr, I should play 50 hours this month to make my due. So there's the real goal.
2. Establish fixed playing times. From now on, I plan to play every Saturday from noon-3 no matter what, Wednesday 5 PM- 6PM and 8PM-10 PM no matter what, and Thursday 6PM- 9 PM no matter what. I hope to add an additional 5 hours flex time per week.
3. "Coaching", writing, and Video watching. I need to talk to other people are playing to win more regularly. Hopefully through posts, conversations with friends, and sweating with shippopotamus, I will get enough insight. I will try to update my blog more often as well- every Tuesday and Saturday. I also plan to use some frequent player points and free demos for coaching sights besides cardrunners and stoxpoker.
4. Winning approaches. I need to improve my perspective on playing well. I will implement a "cool down routine" beginning this week. For every 30 minutes I play, I will review it for five. By the end of the month I want to establish a warm-up routine and an exercise program to improve my health and focus.

Some Insights: the crappy month has taught me a few things.

1. There can be no focus without perspective. I had virtually no perspective this month and I did next to nothing productive. My colleagues remain detached from such things and my girlfriend is no help. I only got a hold on myself once I took the time to gather my thoughts. I only had the courage to do this once my organization scheme deflated and got chewed apart by wild dogs.
2. Tom Dwan is a savant, but Phil Galfond is a genius. In his interview with 2+2 pokercast, Galfond talks about his perspective on things. He is focused, disciplined, and clearly considers everything carefully. I want to check out his poker videos very much.
3. The more a poker player wins, enjoys his/herself, has a positive attitude, and/or understand the dynamic tension between thinking and doing, the more likely he or she is fond of Tommy Angelo.
4. There is no price too high for a good perspective. If you want to improve your poker play, talk to other people about it. If you want to improve at something else, talk to other people about it. If you don't know what to talk about, take a step back and remove yourself from the equation.
5. If you don't know how to remove yourself from the equation, meditate.
6. Have a plan. It's much easier to amend a plan than draft one. This goes from the highest level to the lowest.
7. Video sites and poker software are a steal at twice the price. I wholeheartedly endorse stoxpoker and cardrunners. I have heard good things about one or two others.
8. I hate being fat, but I love eating. Who's fault is that?
9. I'm excited for the Durrrr challenge. How can a smart guy stand to lose if a bunch of halfwits get into heads-up poker.
10. I really want to Super Sattelite into two WSOP events.

In your face, pokerbots.

In 40 minutes of superturbo play "to pass the time before I shower" I had a 15 game hot streak that tripled my return on the three dollar sit n gos.

They're poker the way MacDonald's is food.

As far as game theory contests go, it beats rock-paper-scissors*. I play these so good I get death threats.

* Free tips: the unexploitable RPS strategy is random. Humans cannot be random- they fail to repeat themselves often enough. If you throw whatever loses to the last hand they threw, you probably win more than your share. Also, few people start with paper. Start with rock.

Nice Day.

Made a deep run in a microstakes tournament. 4 handed, I ran into a lot of confrontations with marginal hands. My opponents were playing well but a little too gambly. Variance took the rug out from under me. Here are my last 100 tournament hands of the night.

Free Advice for abusive players.

If you are not a winning tournament player, please refrain from trash-talking other players in the chatbox. Big Sharky is watching.

A guy laid into me last night and I asked him if I even had to go to Sharkscope to look him up. This is a more advanced technique; the abusive player must know what Sharkscope is in order to react. I suspected he was, he used several poker slang terms correctly. By and large, the soon-to-be-Scoped become quiet if they are a slight loser, smug if they are not, and persuasive about how "Sharkscope is bullsh*t" etc. if their nose is open and chips are pouring out.

This guy chose the last option. Between that and his berating, I could tell he didn't understand the mechanics of tournaments, his ego was hurt by his poor results, and he was willing to take some of that out on me if I let him.

Just a friendly reminder that any information you give away is always in addition to the data available on the web. And I know who lost 2k last year and who didn't.

Session.

Today I played for a little while: two hours of tournaments and cash games. I did pretty well for myself.

Here are my big cash game hands from the day. I should also make the point that the autoreplayer ALWAYS has positions wrong at this point. I am definitely not the guy labeled HERO on most hands.

I did alright in the single table SNGs, and then I won a two table tourney.

All in all it was a nice night for me. I made some goals and I started towards them. Off we go.

January wrap up and February.

So, here is my take on January. By and large, the things I have always been good at, I am still good at.

1) Straightforward limit play.
2) No limit preflop and on straightforward flops.
3) Sit n goes.

Here are a few things I need to improve, primarily in NLH, which killed me.
1) Recognizing when to take a non-standard line.
2) Recognizing when a villain is adjusting correctly OR over adjusting and making counter adjustments.
3) Positional strategy. I need to widen the "positional gap" against most of my opponents. I should be playing less hands upfront.
4) Making BETTER plays on the turn and the river.
5) Better bet sizing in 3 bet pots.
6) Better game and seat selection.
7) Consider more aggressive lines in deep situations.

Here are some hands I posted for my brother to look at. Anyone who wants to may comment on them as well.

1. Limit hold 'em 6max. Thin spots.
2. Bigger NLH pots.
3. 3 bet preflop pots.
4. More 3 bet pots.

Here are my study goals:
1) Watch more session videos.
2) Post one hand per 1k in my HEM.
3) Two more sessions with PES.
4) Read the last two parts of "YBPF".
5) Reread "Ace on the River"
6) Reread "The Theory of Poker".

Here are my poker play goals for February.
1) SNG games more of them, destroy them. I'm stupid not to play at 20/hr.
2) NLH- get up to beating 25 and 50 NL.
3) Try for 15k hands/wk (15 hours!).