Haven't played live in a while, but snuck out for a couple long lunches this week (work's been pretty slow). The closest places to the office run 5-200 spread limit with a $5 rake if the pot has been raised, even if there is no flop (this means that stealing the blinds without a good hand, and maybe even with a good hand) is totally not worth it. The $5 rake sucks, but there are enough decent sized pots that it's not too painful. The players were pretty bad, but the action was totally slow. I have hardly played any live poker this year...back when I used to play live more, I also only single-tabled online, so it wasn't like there was a massive difference. Not that I play huge volumes online now, but 4 tables online means I'm probably seeing 8x more hands an hour at least (not really sure).
In addition to the whole rake implications, the play is a lot more passive and loose/speculative, so that takes some adjusting as well. No draw that gets there is too inconceivable. I only played about 3 hours total over the 2 days, but had a decent profit. I got AK two hands in a row, once from the BB and next time from the SB. In the BB hand, a guy UTG+1 on a full ring table limp/called with an $80 stack with QJo, and hit trips on the flop to double up (actually more because another guy limp/called me). Lucky for me, I bought right back in (although I only bought in to about $175 because I didn't have change). The second AK hand in a row I also squeezed from the blinds (SB this time) and again got 2 callers. I was suited, and the flop came 3 of my suit. Yahtzee. I ended up all in on the flop against 2 guys! One of them flopped a baby flush, and the other guy was on a one-card draw to the queen-high flush with either 2nd or 3rd pair. My hand held up, thankfully.
Online, I haven't played that much over the holidays. I've been running well at 50nl on Stars, but had yet to book a winning 100NL session the whole month until last night. I've been playing pretty well, but certainly not perfect. And the thing that I really need to work on is to not let my mistakes compound themselves (well, and not make them in the first place, of course).
I've been reading quite a bit more blogs and some other stuff, and thinking a bit deeper and better (IMO) about the game and what I need to do. I would capture it here, but I need to go pretty soon. Gotta get home to the family, and that's one of the other things I'm doing well.
For a while, especially after starting up with the study group and then with Pawel's group, I was really moaning to myself about how I didn't have enough time for it all. But, I think that there is a huge positive to not having a lot of time, too. There are other meaningful things in my life outside of poker, so I'm not totally dependent on how things are going poker-wise...a lot easier to ride out difficult patches with other stuff to turn to. Also, it's rare that I am playing hands without enthusiasm for the game, whether my session is long or short.
True, from a poker development point of view, the fact that I am not 100% dedicated to it hurts, but I think not so much as I used to believe. I mean, from a learning standpoint, there is only so much you can learn effectively anyway in a short amount of time. And I'm getting enough experience to reinforce some ideas and to try out new ones. Is it optimal considering only poker and nothing else? No. But is it way short of optimal? Not at all, I'm beginning to think. And the more that I think that I'm not completely sacrificing my poker development, the less stressed I am about it. And the less stressed you are about something, the better you perform.
I feel like writing
7 years ago
5 comments:
My thoughts are pretty congruent with yours I think.
Sometimes I feel that I destroy my development just through plain laziness. I have a lot more free time being a student and at times I wonder if I just put away a small amount of time each day if it would be optimal.
I think it can be with some small habit changes like. I'm starting to build a habit of more hand analysis. Even a lot of things I do myself I know are helping my game.
Get into a habit updating your blog after each session with 2-3 hands. Just paste in the raw HH with some of your thoughts and I'll check it out to give you another perspective.
I dont think you can be 100% dedicated when you have work , family to deal with. But with it being your main hobby i think a little work here and therewill pay off. Ive said before about you, that you know all the strategy pretty well just from your posts and answers, i think that sometimes you think so much you get messed up instead of thinking i have X he has X which is better?
Have a good newyears
As Willie said, Family, work etc are always going to restrict the amount that any of us can play what is essentially a hobby especially at this time of year. I'm starting to think that I have played too much at times mainly for the wrong reasons - chasing bonuses and my game has suffered as a result. I agree with you you don't have to play to develop as a player in fact the times when you are thinking about or studying the game are probably more important at times than when you are actually playing.
All the very best for the New Year.
Happy New Year man!
Yep, the family guys here won't be able to dedicate 100% to poker, and even for the non-family guys, if you're not a pro, there should be a lot of other things in your life that take you away from poker. I was trying to get across that rather than fighting that -- which I used to do -- I should embrace the fact that there are so many "distractions," as it actually can help keeping the poker world grounded for us.
Willie, I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that I overthink things too much, btw!
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