bigstealer turns bigblogger
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Maximizing Value Out of Position
PokerStars Hand #81911003875: Tournament #574130835, $27.58+$2.42 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2012/06/13 20:37:35 WET [2012/06/13 15:37:35 ET]
Table '574130835 1' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Player 1 (2336 in chips)
Seat 2: Player 2 (824 in chips)
Seat 3: Player 3 (1600 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero (1440 in chips)
Seat 5: Villain (1730 in chips)
Seat 6: Player 6 (1070 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind 15
Villain: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ad As]
Player 6: folds
Player 1: folds
Player 2: folds
Player 3: folds
Hero: raises 60 to 90
Villain: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [9s 5h 8c]
Hero: bets 100
Villain: raises 100 to 200
Hero: calls 100
*** TURN *** [9s 5h 8c] [3d]
Hero: checks
Villain: bets 120
Hero: calls 120
*** RIVER *** [9s 5h 8c 3d] [Th]
Hero: checks
Villain: bets 90
Hero: raises 390 to 480
Villain: calls 390
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Ad As] (a pair of Aces)
Villain: mucks hand [9d Jc]
Hero collected 1780 from pot
This hand is played against a tricky regular opponent who likes to see a lot of flops both in and out of position. This particular time I'm in the worst possible place to be playing a player of this nature, the small blind which will lead to me playing all postflop streets out of position therefore meaning I will be acting first and therefore have less information to work with. To top this off he very rarely folds flops which, whilst it means getting value for strong made hands on flops, it makes for trickier decisions for more marginal hands or indeed maximizing value from the aforementioned strong hands as you are unable to define a players range with ease. So, in this particular occasion I took an unusual line with a strong hand in order to maximize value.
So, I'm in the small blind and the action is folded round to me and I have the absolute best hand possible and as this is a blind defending regular I make it the full 3 times the big blind confident that I will be called a large percentage of the time. The villain plays to the script and invests the extra 60 chips required to see the flop. The flop comes a rather wet board with a possible straight out there and a reasonable amount of 2 pairs are faesable too but there are also copius amounts of draws and 1 pair hands that I will be looking to extract value from(as well as a few floats from overcards etc) so I bet 100 into a pot of 180 and I immediately get raised. I'm not particularly surprised or concerned by this as I know he was unlikely to fold, especially on a board like this. But what does he have? It's easy to think he could have top pair but the number of 9s in his range vs the amount of times he could bluff or have me beat here is rather small. That combined with the fact that he's a regular and is good enough to throw away 1 pair to a shove all in here means I elect to call and let him continue his story as I know he's not one to turn down the chance to bluff despite the vulnerability of my hand. The turn is a beautiful 3 of diamonds completing the rainbow board so no flushes are possible. I continue my passive line and check call the Villains rather small bet of 120 chips. The river is the 10 of hearts which only improves a couple of hands that I was ahead of (9T with an outside shot of QJ as his flop raise doesn't make sense) that took this line. This could possibly be a spot to value bet but would chase away the bluffs from before (a series of gutshot straight draws and small pairs he'd turn into a bluff...this boy loves to bluff) so I check. The Villain bets a minute 90 chips into a pot of 910. This is clearly a value bet looking for value from an A8, 77, 66...but to name a few hands. So, the tricky reg has finally defined his range for me to either a weak 10 (possibly J10) or some sort of 9 that wasnt helped by the river. As my line is so passive this is a fantastic spot to polarise MY range by making an unorthodox play to maximize the value of my hand. I check-raise the river to 480 representing a very strong hand like QJ making a straight on the river, or a stone cold bluff. Giving him pot odds of almost 5 to 1 he instantly calls and shows 2nd pair with J9 off suit.
Against a more straight forward player, raising the flop to 600 would almost always be the best move. However, with a player who has a combination of low fold % and a high propensity to bluff, it is important to let them define their range for you especially with very strong hands so you can maximize your value.
bigstealer
Friday, 1 June 2012
April and May 2012
So, the end of May has come and summer has arrived. With my Pokerstars account being frozen in mid April and only getting reopened in the 2nd week of May, I've only been playing for just under 3 weeks on Stars. However, I broke even on iPoker with significant amounts of rakeback making my stint on there worthwhile. As I returned to Stars I decided to try out a new piece of software called Table of Interest allowing me to play more tables more efficiently my compartmentalising the tables to different parts of my screen for me. This has allowed me to play up to 18 tables at a time whilst retaining the ability to make good decisions without missing the intricate spots that typical mass tabling regs tend to get exploited in. Consequently, I have increased my volume and my daily VPPs have increased to almost double my previous daily rate which obviously boosts my rakeback on Pokerstars too. I have made a decision to play fewer MTTs but have still hit 3 final tables in the last 2 weeks despite only playing 1 or 2 a day. I have been running a bit better in general but not as well in the high stakes games ($200-$500 games) resulting in this last week being break even despite my 'In the Money' percentage increasing greatly. I do enjoy the flexibility that reducing the number of MTTs brings me. It also gives me a good idea about whether going for Supernova Elite in 2013 would be achievable/worth the commitment. Obviously the commitment to it would be significant (40+ hours a week as opposed to the 25-30 I'm used to) but whilst it has been fun lying in til whenever I want I think the time has come to work hard with an aim to save some money up for some long term stability (so wise....).
I'm thinking this blog will also become a port for interesting hands I've experienced much like md261 and Pezrez's blog but I'm yet to really decide on that.
I will update this again soon once I've decided upon putting certain hands here.
bigstealer
I'm thinking this blog will also become a port for interesting hands I've experienced much like md261 and Pezrez's blog but I'm yet to really decide on that.
I will update this again soon once I've decided upon putting certain hands here.
bigstealer
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
March and 1st half of April 2012
This post is a little late due to the hectic nature of the 1st week of April which includes my birthday.
Anyway, March was a successful month, I retained Supernova as well as got into the black for the year cancelling out my downswing completely. I hit 7 or 8 final tables and finally hit a big score when I came 3rd out of 4000 players in the Big 22 on April 9th/10th. Admittedly I was kinda running in God-mode getting lucky over and over but I feel after the shower of crap I've been in for the last 3 months that it was deserved. This is a massive lift and has left me feeling more positive about everything. I have felt I was due for a while but I still hope this is the start rather than the end as I have been playing excellently especially in my MTTs picking my spots well but ultimately not winning the crucial 50 50 situations.
But with good news comes the bad news that followed the day after my most successful day in my short poker career. On April 10th, my Pokerstars account got frozen by the site. This is due to an investigation into my account involving my trip to the US around and after Black Friday when the FBI seized Pokerstars, Fulltilt and the Cereus Network thus making online poker (for the most part) illegal for US based players. I've been very cooperative with Pokerstars and hope the matter is resolved soon but am being careful what I say about the matter until a decision has been made. Obviously, I hope a positive outcome can come of this as there is a significant amount of money on the account that could be confiscated if Pokerstars see fit.
In the meantime I've been playing on the myBet skin of iPoker under the screen name 'MaxRoflz'. Its amazing the difference in standard of players. Most regs on the site have little to no finesse moves, no concept of ICM and its rare to find a high stakes reg with an ROI of over -1%. Essentially, they are very exploitable (giving me very little need to table select and with me getting 50% rakeback, that is awesome). I find myself usually with stats of 33/30 by the end of each sit and go. Needless to say the MTTs aren't too tough as well although occasionally you find a bunch of good regs.
So, whilst I feel positive about my game, I hope I wont have to grind iPoker for much longer. It's nice to be over that swing I hope I dont have anything like it again, although inevitably when variance hits you negatively, you just have to keep your head and plough through.
bigstealer
Anyway, March was a successful month, I retained Supernova as well as got into the black for the year cancelling out my downswing completely. I hit 7 or 8 final tables and finally hit a big score when I came 3rd out of 4000 players in the Big 22 on April 9th/10th. Admittedly I was kinda running in God-mode getting lucky over and over but I feel after the shower of crap I've been in for the last 3 months that it was deserved. This is a massive lift and has left me feeling more positive about everything. I have felt I was due for a while but I still hope this is the start rather than the end as I have been playing excellently especially in my MTTs picking my spots well but ultimately not winning the crucial 50 50 situations.
But with good news comes the bad news that followed the day after my most successful day in my short poker career. On April 10th, my Pokerstars account got frozen by the site. This is due to an investigation into my account involving my trip to the US around and after Black Friday when the FBI seized Pokerstars, Fulltilt and the Cereus Network thus making online poker (for the most part) illegal for US based players. I've been very cooperative with Pokerstars and hope the matter is resolved soon but am being careful what I say about the matter until a decision has been made. Obviously, I hope a positive outcome can come of this as there is a significant amount of money on the account that could be confiscated if Pokerstars see fit.
In the meantime I've been playing on the myBet skin of iPoker under the screen name 'MaxRoflz'. Its amazing the difference in standard of players. Most regs on the site have little to no finesse moves, no concept of ICM and its rare to find a high stakes reg with an ROI of over -1%. Essentially, they are very exploitable (giving me very little need to table select and with me getting 50% rakeback, that is awesome). I find myself usually with stats of 33/30 by the end of each sit and go. Needless to say the MTTs aren't too tough as well although occasionally you find a bunch of good regs.
So, whilst I feel positive about my game, I hope I wont have to grind iPoker for much longer. It's nice to be over that swing I hope I dont have anything like it again, although inevitably when variance hits you negatively, you just have to keep your head and plough through.
bigstealer
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
February 2012
Well what a month it has been, and not in the good way...it is safe to say that February has tested me to the very limit several times as it just seemed to get worse and worse with the brutality of misfortune being utterly relentless. Pre-rakeback my downswing extended to almost $18,000 which is 3 times the size of my biggest downswing before then. However, with rakeback (around $7,000) the amount is reduced significantly to just over $10k. Most of the misfortune seems to have been more focused in MTTs although I managed to go on a 3,500 game losing streak in sit and gos too which according to Noah Stephen-Davidowitz, (who did extensive research on the % chance of success/loss playing sit and gos for a living and posted it in a blog-http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/03/stt-pro/), there was less than a 0.5% chance of a player with my Return On Investment (ROI) going on a downward streak like that. That combined with my MTTs misfortune (which is more common due to the higher variance (Noah writes about MTT variance too -http://www.nsdpoker.com/2011/02/mtt_pros_2/ and my ROI for those of you who are interested is just under 50% despite sharkscope saying 112% which stemmed mainly from me doing well a few years back in micro tournaments)) made life pretty tough.
To combat this I've tried to put as much volume in as I can usually making around 9,000VPPs a week which would come from around 5 weekdays of play. Subsequently it is now March 7th and I have 80k VPPs so I should make the 100k mark this month retaining Supernova a full 5 months before I did last year. This puts me firmly on pace for my new goal of 420k VPPs which would include six $4,000 FPP bonuses as well as the 4 milestone bonuses which provides a healthy year from rakeback alone (assuming I don't lose it all at the tables). Anyway, if I hadn't increased my volume I'd probably be boring you about run bad in my next blog post too.
So, that was pretty draining but over the last 3 days things have picked up a fair bit gaining my 1st significant top 3 finish this year and running better in the sit and gos. Subsequently I'm feeling a bit better about myself but also cautious because although I feel I'm due a big upswing ($50k would be nice :-D) I know it isn't my right to have one. Because of this swing I've had to postpone my goals for now and once I get back towards the black for the year I will return to playing live cash as well as looking into my trip to Dublin. One thing I will say is that when things got really tough for me, and I was at breaking point a few times, I did complain on occasion. I think it's natural but I guess it was a little ill disciplined. However, I didn't complain before I crossed the $11k mark so there's positives to be taken from that too. I hope I never have to go through anything like this again, I have re-evaluated which tournaments I should and do play and limit the amount of money I invest in MTTs per day just so I know what I can expect to lose from them etc in a future bad run.
I spoke to a Russian player who's screen name is Kedrila, who had a similar run to me, he said the key was to continue to play with confidence something that I used to struggle with on occasion in the past but lately not so much. He has made $30k pre-rakeback since then and is a good role model for me to follow not only because he's an excellent player but his behaviour at the table is impressive too.
I'm on 4 leaderboards for the year despite this swing which is encouraging so with hard work, plenty of volume and a little luck I hope to report on a successful March.
Take care and good luck
bigstealer
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
January 2012
So the end of January has come and as I've had my biggest downswing in my life you'd think I'd want to forget this month. However, I think I've learnt a lot from it. It has taught me to review my play more and evaluate how I could have played certain situations better and if I feel I've played optimally, then it is important to remain confident which can drain away after a while.
This month I've made 32k VPPs so my volume has been good and puts me well on course for around $30k of rakeback for the year which would be an excellent basic 'salary' so to speak which doesn't take into consideration the money that should and could be made at the tables. My swing has generally been down to very poor card distribution mainly giving me holdings that are good but not quite as good as my opponents making it difficult because the optimal (and percentage play) has often been crushed by their hand. Nevertheless, as I posted before I continue to make deep runs in MTTs but just cannot catch a break late on with countless top 50 bust outs, several bust outs in the top 20 and usually the 1st person to bust on a final table mean I'm not quite making the top 3 where the real money is at.
I feel I'm on the cusp of a turnaround, but I don't like to tempt fate. My game is solid, I've reviewed my play and I feel I'm playing players as well as I have in a long time. I think it will take a very small change in fortune to see some drastic results, looking at my play and results this month.
Due to this swing, I've stayed away from playing live cash as I know the variance there is higher. This is disappointing as far as my goals are concerned but once I put some more money in the bank I'll be sure to get back into that as the profitability of the games in Empire is enormous.
I think I've been professional about all of this too. Whilst I've been tempted to just sack off 'work' I figured it important to put in the volume so that the variance evens out quickly. Admittedly there have been occasions where I've uttered a word here or there but on the whole I'm quite pleased with my demeanour at the tables.
Times like these are the toughest part of being a pro. Like the saying goes 'it's a tough way to make an easy living' contrary to people's belief that it's just a life of dossing around 12 months of the year. There's a reason they call it a grind and when you play as regularly as I and many others do it can become tedious like many other office jobs.
Hopefully I can move on in the next few weeks and really kick start my 2012.
bigstealer
This month I've made 32k VPPs so my volume has been good and puts me well on course for around $30k of rakeback for the year which would be an excellent basic 'salary' so to speak which doesn't take into consideration the money that should and could be made at the tables. My swing has generally been down to very poor card distribution mainly giving me holdings that are good but not quite as good as my opponents making it difficult because the optimal (and percentage play) has often been crushed by their hand. Nevertheless, as I posted before I continue to make deep runs in MTTs but just cannot catch a break late on with countless top 50 bust outs, several bust outs in the top 20 and usually the 1st person to bust on a final table mean I'm not quite making the top 3 where the real money is at.
I feel I'm on the cusp of a turnaround, but I don't like to tempt fate. My game is solid, I've reviewed my play and I feel I'm playing players as well as I have in a long time. I think it will take a very small change in fortune to see some drastic results, looking at my play and results this month.
Due to this swing, I've stayed away from playing live cash as I know the variance there is higher. This is disappointing as far as my goals are concerned but once I put some more money in the bank I'll be sure to get back into that as the profitability of the games in Empire is enormous.
I think I've been professional about all of this too. Whilst I've been tempted to just sack off 'work' I figured it important to put in the volume so that the variance evens out quickly. Admittedly there have been occasions where I've uttered a word here or there but on the whole I'm quite pleased with my demeanour at the tables.
Times like these are the toughest part of being a pro. Like the saying goes 'it's a tough way to make an easy living' contrary to people's belief that it's just a life of dossing around 12 months of the year. There's a reason they call it a grind and when you play as regularly as I and many others do it can become tedious like many other office jobs.
Hopefully I can move on in the next few weeks and really kick start my 2012.
bigstealer
Sunday, 8 January 2012
A frustrating first week of 2012
Well, this week has certainly been frustrating and achieving goal 5 has been especially challenging in some circumstances but for the main part I cannot complain too much as its part of poker and I know that's just how it is, especially considering I had a very good 6 week spell through the end of October, November and beginning of December. I'm aware I've made mistakes during this week but something that will always bug you in poker is when you make the percentage play and you run into the top of that player's range costing you your tournament life. I've become very acquainted with a lot of relatively loose players top few % of hands this week whilst my MTT luck doesn't seem to have changed. However, I am still making some decent runs in the tournaments I enter and just need a hint of luck in the later stages of the tournaments to really nail some decent money. In sit and gos I've been breaking even for around 2000 games so I'd hope I catch a bit of heater soon. If not then I will plough on through with the volume as I'm close to the next $4k bonus which I should unlock in the first couple of days of next week. That will be very welcome and should allow me to upgrade my set up (laptop with two 21inch screens) which I'm finding very frustrating (lags when it gets to 12 tables).
So, regarding my goals, in terms of taking it seriously I feel I've done that in the sense that my volume has been good. I've not been fooling around during the day time and been up really late doing nothing. I played 415 games this week in 39.2 hours and amassed 10k VPPs which is a really good rate for someone who's average buy in is just over $52 and made 10k VPPs in the entirety of January last year. This puts me well ahead of schedule for my (quite low) goal of 300k VPPs but obviously one week isn't a good barometer on which to say I'm 'on pace' for anything. It's quite funny to think that in 2009 I made 64k VPPs in the entire year.
My MTT volume has been okay with 46 games completed around my sit and gos. This is compared to the 25-30 a week I used to do so if I keep that rate I should play ~2000 mtts this year and I'd make a low expectation to final table around 5% of those. 100 final tables would, could and should produce some decent results for 2012 IF I maintain this volume.
Regarding goal 3 I played my first bout of live cash in London on Thursday and as predicted the players sucked. Luckily there was only one decent player there and he was to my right so I didn't have to worry too much about how I acted and for the main part stayed out of his way. He final tabled a UKIPT last year so it was interesting to talk to him about that and it's likely I will bump into him in Dublin or Newcastle depending on when I set aside enough money for the buy in. As for the live poker itself it started a bit ropey as I was stuck about 150 playing 1,2 having tried to bluff a guy who played a baby flush very passively. At the time I thought he played it well to induce the bluff but it turned out that he was just a very passive player and didn't ever bet and people didn't give him action after that. Anyway, I clawed it back and ended up up 240, not bad for 4 hours 'work'. This was a cool experience and I'll return for sure next Wed as I'm meeting a friend in central London that day.
I feel this week has been balanced well, I've seen plenty of friends, been out, exercised and actually had a really good week outside of poker. I am glad I set these goals as I can easily and seamlessly move out from a horrible session of bad beats and coolers into doing something else without letting it get to me. Only once during the week did I feel like I was tilting which obviously was a sign to stop because when I'm not on my game I'm such a terrible player.
So, in terms of poker that is a week I'm quite glad to see the back of it. My EV (expected value) wasn't high, due to high proportion of big hands I ran into, and my profit was lower still. However, overall, I quite liked how it went. Poker ebbs and flows, but life is too short not to enjoy it in the meantime.
Finally, a big good luck to my friend Chauncey Monk who's playing the main event of the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure as I write this.
Take care and good luck
bigstealer
So, regarding my goals, in terms of taking it seriously I feel I've done that in the sense that my volume has been good. I've not been fooling around during the day time and been up really late doing nothing. I played 415 games this week in 39.2 hours and amassed 10k VPPs which is a really good rate for someone who's average buy in is just over $52 and made 10k VPPs in the entirety of January last year. This puts me well ahead of schedule for my (quite low) goal of 300k VPPs but obviously one week isn't a good barometer on which to say I'm 'on pace' for anything. It's quite funny to think that in 2009 I made 64k VPPs in the entire year.
My MTT volume has been okay with 46 games completed around my sit and gos. This is compared to the 25-30 a week I used to do so if I keep that rate I should play ~2000 mtts this year and I'd make a low expectation to final table around 5% of those. 100 final tables would, could and should produce some decent results for 2012 IF I maintain this volume.
Regarding goal 3 I played my first bout of live cash in London on Thursday and as predicted the players sucked. Luckily there was only one decent player there and he was to my right so I didn't have to worry too much about how I acted and for the main part stayed out of his way. He final tabled a UKIPT last year so it was interesting to talk to him about that and it's likely I will bump into him in Dublin or Newcastle depending on when I set aside enough money for the buy in. As for the live poker itself it started a bit ropey as I was stuck about 150 playing 1,2 having tried to bluff a guy who played a baby flush very passively. At the time I thought he played it well to induce the bluff but it turned out that he was just a very passive player and didn't ever bet and people didn't give him action after that. Anyway, I clawed it back and ended up up 240, not bad for 4 hours 'work'. This was a cool experience and I'll return for sure next Wed as I'm meeting a friend in central London that day.
I feel this week has been balanced well, I've seen plenty of friends, been out, exercised and actually had a really good week outside of poker. I am glad I set these goals as I can easily and seamlessly move out from a horrible session of bad beats and coolers into doing something else without letting it get to me. Only once during the week did I feel like I was tilting which obviously was a sign to stop because when I'm not on my game I'm such a terrible player.
So, in terms of poker that is a week I'm quite glad to see the back of it. My EV (expected value) wasn't high, due to high proportion of big hands I ran into, and my profit was lower still. However, overall, I quite liked how it went. Poker ebbs and flows, but life is too short not to enjoy it in the meantime.
Finally, a big good luck to my friend Chauncey Monk who's playing the main event of the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure as I write this.
Take care and good luck
bigstealer
Sunday, 1 January 2012
2012 Goals
Happy New Year, I hope 2011 was kind to you.
Moving swiftly on, this post is being written by a hungover bigstealer trying to work out his goals for the year. Subsequently, this may not be the final edition of this but a few things spring to mind.
1. Take it seriously - I aim to put in at least 30-35 hours of online poker per week. There will be weeks where I do not attain this as I do plan on occasionally having time off with the prospect of specific events, holidays and festivals etc. Anyway, 2011 was a fairly good year volume wise, with just over 10,000 games played, but I was travelling for 3 months and my volume pre-September sucked (as I rarely played more than 8 tables before then) so I think I should attain 300k VPPs. 2011 brought $12k in rakeback with 235k VPPs so 300k VPPs would equate to around $20k from rakeback. So, 2012 - time to get serious.
2. Improve MTT volume - I did mention in the previous post that I may increase MTTs played but I've decided that whilst the focus will remain on Sit 'n' Gos there is simply too much money to be made in MTTs. I may well avoid the Sunday Majors because the variance of the big buy ins is ridiculous (currently my MTT top buy in is $162) so my focus will remain on the mid stakes MTTs during the week. However, regarding the Sunday Majors, I could change my stance. If I have a repeat of 2011's income from MTTs(~$30k), I'll be happy but obviously I believe there is more to be made from that.
3. Play Live once a week - I think it is important to break up the grind where you can, but where I live (Fulham, London) there is the Empire Casino less than half an hour away on the Underground. To say the games/players here are bad is a gross understatement. I'm sure it isn't exclusive to London as when I've played live before (in LA and Vegas) it was like playing on a table of 8 Monk532s all at once...it was just that good. Anyway, I hope this will improve my live game too as this links in well to my 4th goal.
4. Play a UKIPT - I don't care which one specifically. I think it'd be a great experience but it would most likely be one towards the end of the year as I'll have set aside money for it. Having said that, I'd love to go to Dublin in May so that could be the specific goal but if not, Newcastle would be good fun too as I have friends who are up there. Obviously if I do well there it'd be fantastic for my reputation but it's not something I'm pinning my hopes on. Although the softness of the fields make it +EV for me to enter, the key is enjoying it there and playing my best. This will be one of the weeks where goal #1 will likely not be achievable.
5. Don't spew in the chatbox - sometimes it's incredibly hard to contain your frustrations at a table when things aren't going your way, but telling someone they're shit when they've made a mistake that you didn't profit from, is quite close to the most stupid thing a player can do. Added to that, I can't think of one poker player who enjoys listening/reading about how bad someone is running or specific hand histories about bad luck. So, whilst I've not been perfect in this particular part of poker, a lot of reputation in poker comes from being a decent bloke/girl, as well as a good player and whilst my game has its faults and is likely never to be perfect, good behaviour at the tables is something that doesn't require much effort to achieve. This isn't just a goal, but also (I hope) good reasoning that might encourage other players who read this and like to use the chatbox to pipe down a bit too. I don't mind talking and joking, but this links with goal #1 - if I'm going to take this seriously this should be part of it.
6. Balance - I stole this goal from bigbluffzinc, but I'm sure he won't mind. Poker can be stressful, frustrating, a grind etc but those times are grossly outweighed by the quality of life you can attain. Those regs who grind 12-14 hours a day every day(including weekends), in my opinion, really are not getting the most out of what poker offers you - the chance to make more than your fair share on fewer, more flexible hours, than in almost any other niche. So whilst I've mentioned improving volume, exercising around 5 times a week is very important to me for example, and balancing work and play is key. So, whilst obviously you want to make a decent living, happiness should be your primary goal...and for me a balanced life will achieve that.
Ok, 2012 has begun-the working week begins tomorrow. Take care and good luck.
bigstealer
Moving swiftly on, this post is being written by a hungover bigstealer trying to work out his goals for the year. Subsequently, this may not be the final edition of this but a few things spring to mind.
1. Take it seriously - I aim to put in at least 30-35 hours of online poker per week. There will be weeks where I do not attain this as I do plan on occasionally having time off with the prospect of specific events, holidays and festivals etc. Anyway, 2011 was a fairly good year volume wise, with just over 10,000 games played, but I was travelling for 3 months and my volume pre-September sucked (as I rarely played more than 8 tables before then) so I think I should attain 300k VPPs. 2011 brought $12k in rakeback with 235k VPPs so 300k VPPs would equate to around $20k from rakeback. So, 2012 - time to get serious.
2. Improve MTT volume - I did mention in the previous post that I may increase MTTs played but I've decided that whilst the focus will remain on Sit 'n' Gos there is simply too much money to be made in MTTs. I may well avoid the Sunday Majors because the variance of the big buy ins is ridiculous (currently my MTT top buy in is $162) so my focus will remain on the mid stakes MTTs during the week. However, regarding the Sunday Majors, I could change my stance. If I have a repeat of 2011's income from MTTs(~$30k), I'll be happy but obviously I believe there is more to be made from that.
3. Play Live once a week - I think it is important to break up the grind where you can, but where I live (Fulham, London) there is the Empire Casino less than half an hour away on the Underground. To say the games/players here are bad is a gross understatement. I'm sure it isn't exclusive to London as when I've played live before (in LA and Vegas) it was like playing on a table of 8 Monk532s all at once...it was just that good. Anyway, I hope this will improve my live game too as this links in well to my 4th goal.
4. Play a UKIPT - I don't care which one specifically. I think it'd be a great experience but it would most likely be one towards the end of the year as I'll have set aside money for it. Having said that, I'd love to go to Dublin in May so that could be the specific goal but if not, Newcastle would be good fun too as I have friends who are up there. Obviously if I do well there it'd be fantastic for my reputation but it's not something I'm pinning my hopes on. Although the softness of the fields make it +EV for me to enter, the key is enjoying it there and playing my best. This will be one of the weeks where goal #1 will likely not be achievable.
5. Don't spew in the chatbox - sometimes it's incredibly hard to contain your frustrations at a table when things aren't going your way, but telling someone they're shit when they've made a mistake that you didn't profit from, is quite close to the most stupid thing a player can do. Added to that, I can't think of one poker player who enjoys listening/reading about how bad someone is running or specific hand histories about bad luck. So, whilst I've not been perfect in this particular part of poker, a lot of reputation in poker comes from being a decent bloke/girl, as well as a good player and whilst my game has its faults and is likely never to be perfect, good behaviour at the tables is something that doesn't require much effort to achieve. This isn't just a goal, but also (I hope) good reasoning that might encourage other players who read this and like to use the chatbox to pipe down a bit too. I don't mind talking and joking, but this links with goal #1 - if I'm going to take this seriously this should be part of it.
6. Balance - I stole this goal from bigbluffzinc, but I'm sure he won't mind. Poker can be stressful, frustrating, a grind etc but those times are grossly outweighed by the quality of life you can attain. Those regs who grind 12-14 hours a day every day(including weekends), in my opinion, really are not getting the most out of what poker offers you - the chance to make more than your fair share on fewer, more flexible hours, than in almost any other niche. So whilst I've mentioned improving volume, exercising around 5 times a week is very important to me for example, and balancing work and play is key. So, whilst obviously you want to make a decent living, happiness should be your primary goal...and for me a balanced life will achieve that.
Ok, 2012 has begun-the working week begins tomorrow. Take care and good luck.
bigstealer
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