End of June

Its pretty much the end of the month since I merely have a single HUST to play tomorrow (for the one-a-day freeroll on FTP) so we can close the book on a really volitile month of poker. I don't think I've even been so up and down before, especially if you throw May into the mix.

Funny how a week or so can really change the way everything looks. About 10 days ago I was getting crushed. Just crushed. You've seen the posts I've made here. I've stayed positive for the most part but I'm human too. I was fearing the worst was happening. I had lost nearly 30% of my bankroll after hitting my all-time high and I felt like I had no answer for it.

Then all of the sudden it turned around. I was making the same type of decisions but suddenly I was either winning the flip or holding as a favorite. I started to actually catch a few timely breaks when I needed it. Sure, I still found the bad beats and the coolers, but they didn't seem so devestating once I actually saw that it wasn't happening EVERY game. Before I knew it I had my bankroll back to where I started after closing out another solid week of play, ending with a very satisfying $26 turbo knockout SNG win on Sunday and a pair of wins in the home game on Monday night.

So, what happened? Why did things change so quickly? Did I find some karma? Perhaps, but not likely. I think the biggest thing I did was simple. I did nothing. I didn't change what I was doing because I hadn't found any evidence that what I was doing was wrong. I played the best I could every time. I reviewed any hands I felt were troubling and sought out opinions on them. In short, I believed in myself and what I was doing and just accepted the short-term results. As long as I continue to play my best the long-term picture will be just fine and I'll continue to do so whether July ends up as feast or famine.

This wasn't the first time I've dropped 25-30% of my bankroll... just the first time the dollars were this noticeable. As I always have before I've come back from it as a player better able to handle the adversity... at least I'd like to think that's the truth. I've picked up a couple more tricks along the way and have already seen the dividends from them. Hopefully I'll keep picking up a few more.

The first half of 2010 is deemed a success, even though The Plan was pretty much rewritten (or even discarded!) over that time. Reality set in and it was that simple. I am happy with the results to this point and I feel that I like the direction I'm heading in. I'm hoping I'll be able to build on these last six months and have an even bigger second half of the year, starting July 1st. Wish me luck.

Father's Day Update

Despite my blog absence I have been continuing to try my luck with poker during that time. Things have been rough since May but at least the last week or so hasn't been too bad (if breaking even qualifies as such). With this weekend being Father's Day I thought I might try to get some good volume in and see if I couldn't make something happen.

With that in mind I started out on Saturday afternoon for a couple hours since the family came up with the idea of going to see "The A-Team" at around 6pm. Probably was a great idea as the afternoon set was a disaster. I did everything right from what I could tell, just can't seem to hold when I get in as the favorite. Going to the movie at this point might have been a great idea since I was pretty much lost for ideas on what to do at that point. Granted, looking back, there wasn't anything to do different... except for building a time machine or creating an alternate reality.

After the movie (which was fun) I decided to try my luck again. Sometimes you just have to get right back on the horse and just play your game. A few things went my way early, nothing huge, but at least I wasn't getting killed. I got deep in a few things and even had a short final table appearance in the $33 turbo on Cake, so things were going in a positive direction.

Finally, I started getting a few breaks. Winning a flip, a suckout on a 3-outter, overpairs holding to draws, and a few timely resteals here and there helped me win the $22 turbo MTT on UB for $1022! Suddenly I found myself feeling the rush again. I also won a seat to the $215 on UB in a $22 turbo satty right before going to bed... at 4am Sunday morning. I didn't care, I finally had something to be happy about.

I couldn't sleep. Well, not like "sleep", I took what seemed like 50 naps for the next 4 hours. Finally I just laid there like an idiot and eventually got up in time to talk a morning walk with my wife. The sun felt foreign to me and I felt like shit, but I somehow didn't really care. When we got back we went out for a nice lunch and returned in time to sit down for a couple hours of poker.

Things continued to go well. I hit a $320 score with a 4th in a $26 turbo rush MTT and won a $13 turbo knockout 90-man SNG for about $300 more. Throw in a min-cash in another game and some good fun in a private game and I found myself up about $1400 or so for the weekend. What a relief! I'm now suddenly up for June and at least feeling as if I might have an idea of what I'm doing again.

I'm still a good chuck off of my high point and I still have some work to do in that regard but at least I was able to stop the bleeding for a day or so. All this really proves is that you just never know when things might go your way. I've continued to study and work on things with my game and I've tried to make sure I've always played my best... and I really feel like I have. I've felt really comfortable with what I'm doing, its just nice to see a couple results once in a while.

We'll keep on keeping on tonight, I've got four more nights of grinding on Full Tilt to quality for Iron Man (so I can get the mid-year bonus) and I'd like to keep the mo on my side while I can. Wish me luck.

Weekend Report, June 5-6th, 2010

In a word... crushed. I wasn't outplayed though, that's for sure. Because of that fact times like this can be very frustrating without the proper mindset going in. When you repeatedly see your opponents doing fundamentally poor things time after time yet beat you to a pulp its tempting to either give up or try the same bad plays they are making. I'm not sure which option would be worse.

I came close to a couple things but nothing that really stands out. I placed 7th in a $13 turbo 6-max MTT on Cake for $42 and picked up a few other middling cashes here and there. Overall this was my worst weekend results-wise that I've ever had. The highlight? I won a bracelet event in the WSOPokerology Stud Hi freeroll, luckboxing my way thru 16 others to a big $12.50 freeroll win, LOL. I had never played 7-card stud in a tournament before and if I have played it at all it was a looooooong time ago, probably as part of a dealer's choice night with friends and I certainly didn't know how to play then.

Last night I did chop the first home game at Robin and Phil's so I was up $30 for the evening. I made a huge fold in the second game with AKo preflop and after checking ICM/Nash I confirmed it was correct to do so, given what I knew of my opponents ranges. I keep making great decisions but getting horrible results as I still bubbled it. Oh well.

Tonight I'm back at it on Full Tilt, maybe with a little bit from other sites thrown in for fun. We just can't give up now.

Can I Start June Over, Please?

Wow, horrid start to June so far as I've managed to cash 1 of 24 games so far (not counting KOs). I think I might have played one hand that I regretted the line I took, other than that its just a case of the run bads/ugly variance. At least I hope so. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win with KK vs. QJ more often than not however.

I did win the main tournament at Gator's Wednesday night and actually got a couple decent breaks there. Perhaps I just have bad timing since I'd much rather get the breaks when playing for money. Eh, maybe I ask too much.

Still, its been fun playing a mix of 90-man turbo KOs and those Rush MTTs and SNGs. I've run awful in the Rush games ever since they started but eventually my hands are gonna hold often enough to win a few.

I also think the latest tweak to my game is going to eventually pay off big time. After talking about some game theory with Jen earlier this week I've become a bit more aggressive with my opening hand selection once antes come into play as well as picking spots to open raise as opposed to shoving certain hands with certain short-but-not-too-short stack sizes. I've seen a difference in how I've maintained/accumulated chips in these spots and I can just imagine how it might help if I actually win a hand at showdown once in a while.

We'll have a full weekend coming up to try to get this thing turned around. All I know is its a good thing I'm practice good bankroll management... no panic here. While I can't play ant $55 MTTs at the moment I've seen enough to know I can play them well. I just have to earn my way back into them.

On To June

May sucked overall. I was down more this month than any other month in my career. However, I'm not concerned. I understand the reasons why it happened so no panic will enter my mind.

The reasons? There are a couple. One, my volume was down so that gives me less opportunity to hit a big score. Two, I didn't play any single table SNGs again, those tend to flatten out the variance a bit. Three, since I'm playing all MTTs and larger-field games, large gaps between those nice scores can get pretty wide if you don't run well.

With all that in mind I understand how some online pros could start pulling their hair out when this goes on for a few weeks or months, espeically at the volume those guys might play. This is why having a cashout system makes it a bit easier to deal with. While those guys complain about not being able to pay for things if they don't hit a score, I could just keep plugging along. If I ever do play for a living I'm sure I could handle it... I think.

As I've said before, the only way to break out of a downswing is to keep playing. These next couple of months I'll be playing a good bit on Full Tilt so I can cash in on the mid-year Iron Man Bonus. It'll be tougher without the HUSTs but I should be able to pull it off. Assuming I make it I'll have a $300 or so bonus to clear in July... that'll mean a lotta poker for the next 60 days.

Seeing that my wife managed to convince me to book a short cruise for the end of October I'll need that extra money to pay for it. Naturally I was able to parlay this fact into the "need" to play that much more poker until then. Unlike May, where I had quite a few things impeding my play, this summer should now be wide open since I have a goal... and my wife knows it. Lets just hope I make something from it.