Busy, busy, busy

With other stuff, not poker so much. I think I've only played about 500 hands this week in two (really) short sessions. From today (Friday) through Sunday, I've got 5 different holiday functions, so that's a big part of it. One today for work, and then 4 different ones on the weekend! Being social is one thing -- and Jennifer makes sure we keep our friends :) -- but I'm honestly not looking forward to so many different parties. At least I'm still able to get a round of golf in tomorrow....the weather is holding out other than being cold enough for a frost delay.

I'm trying to arrange my first one on one session with Pawel, and excited about that...although I've only got like a 3 hour window on the weekend that I can fit it in. But if not this weekend, then hopefully next week some time...work should slow down a bit as people start taking vacations. It's a good time for me to start with some coaching. I'm essentially playing break-even over my first 15k hands at 100NL (will have to pay Pawel w/my rakeback ;)).

My confidence, while still positive, could use a boost, too. I still feel at the table like I am better than most (not all) of the players, and when I review sessions later, I don't change my mind. I see some clear mistakes I made...some due to poor play, and some due to not thinking through ranges and tendencies all the way at game time. Some of that particular gap I think just closes with experience, and there's a multi-table effect as well. I only play 4 tables and I don't feel taxed by it for the most part, but there are a couple situations every session where if I were on less tables, I might have played differently...but overall, I remain pretty comfortable with 4 tables. So, that's where my confidence is good...I feel like I have a decent handle on the games that I play, including where I make mistakes.

The negative confidence is the fact that I'm not positive I've spotted enough mistakes, or really more importantly, enough flaws in my thought processes. I am pretty sure that I don't have the experience to ask myself all the correct questions. This is where I'm hoping that Pawel can help the most. Not so much pointing out leaks (that would of course be great), but more like noticing that I've got a tendency to play a certain way that may or may not make sense, and do I have a good reason for it. There's not a single absolutely correct way to play -- even at low stakes, IMO -- but for everything you do, you should have a justification, and your game should be integrated so that your actions in a hand are consistent with prior actions...that you've got a plan.

My game appears to me to be in decent shape that way...I can see the plans I'm trying to execute, and for the most part, the plans seem reasonable to me. But perhaps I'm operating with an incomplete or incorrect set of assumptions. Perhaps what I see to be a logical implementation of the correct plan is in fact not a logical implementation. And of course there are times when I've got no clue at game time, but can usually figure out what I would have been happy with after the fact....to me that happens an acceptable amount of the time (to be non-zero, I would need to be able to pause the game), but it could always be something where a guy who's been there done that would think that I'm giving up too much by not having a clue at game time.

These aren't things I think you can address by posting even lots of hands. And I don't think they can be addressed in coaching session or two, either, but over time working with a good coach, they can be addressed more quickly than they would on their own as I play more and go through all the study.

Anyway, I didn't mean to write so much about confidence issues (again, although it really is pretty interesting to me) or coaching (since I haven't even started), but what the heck.

The several hundred hands I did play this week were on Poker Stars. I still like FT's software better, but wanted a change of scenery after having several losing sessions in a row. I think I was getting too impatient and just thinking negatively as I went through a mix of running like crap and playing probably a B- game. On Stars, I don't have quite the roll that I do on FT, so I dropped to 50NL. I've got like 1650 now, and I think that when I get to 1800, I'll play 100NL there a little short, with a stop-loss at 1500. The play seemed a lot more passive than FT, but it was also a level down. Definitely some kooks, too. One guy pushed like every third hand, but ran like a god when he got looked up (he tilted the crap out of one guy)...he stacked my QQ with A2s hitting an ace on the river. I stacked him when my AQs held up against K8o...lol.