New Poker Mindset

I played about 80k hands last month. I played a mix of $50 and $100 NLHE FR Regular and Rush Poker. I"m probably up around $1500 with rakeback but I'm not exactly sure because I haven't looked at my HEM results or FTP cashier. I got the idea after I read Bazclef's blog about resetting your poker bankroll mentally and accepting for what it is. Tommy Angelo also talks about it in his Deuces Crack video about not getting attach to your peak bankroll. I'm starting to realize that it leads to me tilting and chasing losses because I want to get even all the time.

I chased losts twice last month at $1-2 NLHE FR Rush. It could of led to disaster but I was lucky that I ran well up there.

I haven't looked at my HEM results or FTP cashier for over 1 week now. I'm probably up a little but I'm not exactly sure. I like this approach and don't plan to look at my results until the end of the month. We'll see how long I can last because I might accidentally see it.

Once I look, I'll post a graph of my last 100k plus hands.

I'm also trying to get Tilt Demon Software to work. It's a neat program that will shut down your poker client if you reach your stop loss, stop win, hand or time limit. You set it before hand and it will keep track for you with HEM. I haven't got it to work yet but I emailed support. I'm hoping to get it running so I can test it out. If I like it, I will buy it. There is a 14 day free trial. Check it out and let me know what you think. Here's the link.

Tilt Demon Software


He also has a Tilt Demon Savings Calculator. It will calculate how much you won/lost after a hand min, cash won or lost min or time min. For example, if you put in 1 hour. The savings calculator will calculate your win rate after one hour. So if your session lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes. The software will show you how much you won/lost for the last 30 minutes over your whole or range of data in HEM. It's pretty neat. and it's free too!

As for this month, I'm focusing on playing 4 tables of $100 nlhe FR Rush. I never thought I would get hook but I'm starting to like Rush Poker. I'll try to limit my sessions for 1-2 hours. After 2 hours, I notice I'm not playing my A game anymore because I'm probably chasing losses.

Good luck

April Summary and Goals

I played about 22k hands of $50 nlhe FR, 2k hands of $50 nlhe FR Rush Poker, and 600 hands of $100 nlhe HU. I know I said I wasn't going to play $100 nlhe but I think that was before I made my last post. It's strange, I have a little degen in me that always wants to play higher and chase losses. I gotta fix this leak or I will never reach my poker goals.

Overall, I won about $500 plus $200 in rakeback so it was a successful month in my book. I read Vizer's blog and he wrote about eventually playing 4 tables of Rush Poker and 12 regular tables. I tried 2 tables of Rush and 14 regular but it was too fast pace for me. I dropped it down to 1 table of Rush and 15 regular tables and it was perfect. I use Table Ninja and Hotkeys so I don't have to click as much so I can play about 1200 hands/hour.

I use to hate Rush Poker but I've accepted it for what it is. A total nit fest with some players who love to spew off stacks. I don't think I could ever just focus on Rush but I'll play one table of it.

As for the fitness goals, I only lost about 5 pounds so I'm halfway there. If I stick to my diet and gym plan, I should lose another 5 pounds this month and start to play $100 nlhe FR again.

I'm at around 70k hands since my last graph. I will post the 100k hand graph when I get there.

March Summary and Goals

I've been playing alot more $50 nlhe FR because I went on a 8 bi downswing at $100 nlhe FR and lost some confidence. It feels good to play a little lower because the competition is softer. I played a little over 20k hands losing about $100. With rake back, I must of won around $200 for the month of March. I'll take it, much nicer than losing.

I cashed out some money and I plan to play $50 nlhe FR to regain some confidence. My plan is to keep playing $50 nlhe FR until I lose about 10 pounds. I want to feel better mentally and physically before I jump back up to $100 nlhe FR. It'll be a win win situation. I'll be healthier physically and get to challenge myself at a higher level. I think it'll take me a little over a month to do this if I watch my diet and go to the gym.

Good Luck

February Summary and $100 NLHE FR

I started off playing 1k hands of $50 nlhe FR and won 1 bi. I then jumped up to $100 nlhe FR and played about 19k hands and won 8 bi. At first, I was def scared money but I quickly adjusted to the bigger pots and started winning.

I seriously need to learn how to bet/fold at this level. I have not caught too many unknowns who are capable of bluffing in beginning of sessions or when I have no reads. The only time I can make a hero call/or be happy about it is when I actually have a read that they don't bet thin for value or their tilting after getting bad beated. I guess my thought process is, "I'm about breakeven or down for this session. If I catch him bluffing, I'll be up for this session. I call." I need to get that out of my system because I'll never be able to beat $100 nlhe FR over a significant sample if I keep doing that.

Overall, I'm happy that I played relatively well enough to win at $100 nlhe FR this month. I'm hoping to plug my leaks and win at a higher clip.

I'll post another graph at 100 k hands.

Graph of 101k Hands of $50 nlhe FR at FTP since Nov 2009

I basically fought the urge to play higher and stuck with this stake since November. It kinda of feels good that I have the discipline to stick with a plan. I give credit to my online alarm clock system and the willingness to just quit when I don't feel like playing my A game. It's still tough to get up when stuck but it's best for my long term edge.

Toward the end of my 100k hand run, I tried Rush Poker and dropped 2 bi at $50 and 2 bi at $100 nlhe FR over 5k hands. Kinda of sucks to drop that cash when I hate Rush Poker. I hate that game, no read and history. I def plan to never play it again for anything significant. I might play it if I feel like messing around but nothing serious.

I also love the fact that FTP increased the min buyin for the regular tables from 20bb to 35bb. It has made a tremendous difference in table selection and dynamics. I'm hoping this will actually increase my win rate because it was tough to extract value from donkeys when short stackers kept shoving over my open raises. The donkey would limp, i iso r and sstacker shoves. They def ruined the game and made everyone's win rate go down.

I probably tilted around 3-5 times during this 100k hand stretch. I notice that I tend to call alot when I'm on tilt and push draws. It's kinda of weird way to tilt because villain's range is already tight and they tend to hero call with medium strength hands or better. If I can turn it down a notch and pick the right spots to semibluff or bet thin for value, it would def increase my win rate.

To tell you the truth, I don't know what I want to do right now. I didn't crush $50 nlhe FR like I wanted to. I played and ran terrible in the beginning but made a nice comeback toward the end. I'll probably just continue to play $50 nlhe FR during the week and play $100 nlhe FR toward the weekends. Once I feel very confident, I'll step it up and play alot of $100 nlhe FR.

Good luck at the Tables

80k hands of $50 nlhe FR and counting

I finally had the urge to move up to play $100 nlhe FR yesterday but I fought that urge when I saw that I had around 80k of $50 nlhe FR hands since November 1st, 2009. I'll stick out the 100k hands at $50 nlhe FR and I'll post my graph when I complete that challenge. Overall, I didn't run so good but I probably only tilted about 2-3 times. Nothing major because I set my online alarm for 1 hour and then check my mental status when it beeps. I've gotten strong enough mentally to go 2-3 hours without tilt now, which is nice.

I've also been watching alot of CR, Leggo, and Bluefire Poker Videos. My favorites are Niman Kenkre, Aejones, Leatherass, Brian Towsend, and Boywonder's videos. Boywonder is a new instructor at Leggopoker and his first video was amazing. I particular like his mental approach to the game. He has a cool thread at 2plus2 where he answers lots of questions about his approach to the game of poker. Check it out if you haven't , u won't be dissapointed.

I've also been analyzing my hand histories. I've been in contact with Damnringer, Peterpjames, and Jason (LuckySOB). I Aimed Jason but somehow he wasn't able to view weaktight. I'll have to resend him those hand history in text form because he's played millions of FR hands. I've also been talking with QQ-Q u a d s-QQ who plays $100 nlhe FR at FTP. He's been crushing it for over a year now and I was able to get in contact with him at 2plus2. He's agreed to coach me even though he has no experience coaching. I've sweated him a few times and I like his game. He does alot of things well and is very confident about his poker game.

As for 2010 goals. I just want to play my A game at all times and eventually just beat $100 nlhe FR. I'm just going to set my goals low and realistic because I want to reach my goal this year. My real longterm goal is to beat $200 nlhe FR. Who knows when that will take place because of my tilt issues.

Good luck

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I just wanted to wish everyone who reads my blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I've got many things to be happy about and I'm looking forward to 2010.