Played really bad today

Everything went left. I guess it's because I haven't played very much this year, but my swing has no groove at the moment, and I'm standing up/coming out of just about every shot. It really sucks because my preshot routine seems very solid to me. For the most part, it feels like I'm getting a decent backswing, but I know a couple of them, I kind of stopped short...one problem have is when I'm trying to relax during the swing, I just get really lazy in the backswing. Anyway, most of the problems are on my downswing, as I feel myself coming out of the shot for some reason. I compensate by lunging with my right shoulder, and the shot just gets screwed. If there was a greenside bunker on the left, I was in it today (luckily, my sand game was actually pretty good).

My short game was maddeningly inconsistent. I had a bunker shot and a chip both lip out and a couple more chips burn the edge of the cup. But I also chunked a ball into the bunker trying to flop it, and left another short pitch short of the green. I did drain one clutch putt to halve a hole, but I also 3-putted two holes in a row, one of which was really costly. My reads really sucked hard. But hey, at least I got out there, which has definitely not been happening much for me lately.

And unfortunately probably won't for the near future, as basketball winds up and baseball is already in gear (coaching, not playing). This will be the first year I've formally coached baseball, having only really helped out on game day the last couple years...and mostly then just keeping things organized. It's kind of interesting to start learning about baseball fundamentals, which if I ever knew them as a kid, I forgot over the years. For one thing, as I've been researching drills for the kids, I realized that I have been throwing a baseball wrong. Not radically, but there are some things we are going to teach the kids that I didn't know myself. LOL.

I don't have much of an update for poker. I *think* I got in about 7,000 hands this month, but I've lost a bunch switching between PT2 and PT3, upgrading to PostgreSQL 8.3 (from 8.0!), and re-installing PT3. Although PT3 now shows me basically even for the month, I'm pretty sure that I'm about $200 down. The beginning of the month was pretty bad (running and some bad play), then I got it back to even, then went through a quick but massive down spike where I played OK but got coolered more than anything else...and at the same time didn't cooler anyone else myself...I think I had like 2,000 hands where the biggest profit I made on a hand was 40BB, and in the same time lost a lot of big pots, but in a reasonable way KK into AA type of hands. The last little bit of the month, I came out of that a little and kind of won as many coolers as lost, and even had AK suck out on KK once!

I have not done a great job reviewing my hands, worst that I've done in quite a while. It's mostly like 10 or 15 minutes at the end of about half my sessions. I blogged earlier in the month about not believing I study that effectively, and that had something to do with it. Also, work has gotten a whole lot busier, and my usual pattern had been to play until I had to stop in the evening, waiting until the next day to diligently review the prior night's session. That worked well when I had time the next day. I haven't worried about it too much, as I think I might have been overstudying, if that is possible. By that I mean going into study autopilot, much like you can go into autopilot at the tables.

When I did have some time, I finally got PT3 up and running, along with a couple different HUDs. I did a beta test for a new HUD called Poker Observer, and also used the AHK HUD that "comes with" PT3, meaning you can get it on the PT3 forum. Both have some good points to them, and both forced me to think about some new stats available in PT3 compared to PT2. Seeing how often someone 3-bets -- if the sample size is decent -- is pretty helpful. There were a couple times I 4-bet as a semi-bluff with a lot of confidence But for the most part, poker is still poker, and the main things I was looking for were VPIP, preflop raise, and aggression. Not that my tables don't look like Christmas trees with all the stats on them, but I just don't have enough hands for them to be completely reliable a lot of the time.

More valuable was that I looked through my own stats at the same time, using the SQL that the AHK HUD uses, and thought about what those stats were telling me about my game. The good news is that I think my stats...not just VPIP, PFR, and AF, but even some more obscure ones...paint a pretty solid picture. I have some that border on too tight for sure, and maybe a tad weak in other cases, but nothing that looks glaringly wrong. I really believe that stats are only part of the story, and in a lot of ways, not even that important...but they can at least indicate that you have some really bad problems. In other words, if you have a lot of poor stats, you are really likely to be a poor player. You can still be a poor player with good stats, but you can also be a good player. And at least my stats are good.

Looking forward, the big thing I need to change is watching videos. I have gotten very very little out of Cardrunners the last several months, and it's no one's fault but my own. I have replaced the videos with blogs (reading and writing), talking poker with some other guys, and the odd sweat here and there, so it's not like I'm ignoring the videos for no good reason -- those other things are really good, and really important. But I think that there's still some great stuff to be gleaned from the vids, and I need to start getting back into them.

It's been a while since I've had anything other than a lackluster month, results-wise. I just kind of keep treading water, breaking even playing more or less, profiting from rakeback. I need to find the best way to study, and also tie in videos and sweats, with limited time. I've reconciled myself to the fact that I just don't have as much time as most of you to devote to poker. The fact that I've reconciled myself to it is good, because I'm not putting a needless load of frustration on myself about it -- which I've done in the past. And I'm not complaining about it either because the things that take me away from poker (and golf) are mostly family related, which in the long run is as +EV as you can get. So that part is all good. But it doesn't excuse me from doing the best with what limited time I do have. I guess that part of it...the how to do the best with what you have...is where I'd really love to have a mentor/someone who has been through it and figured it out. On the flip side, I'm not that far away from figuring it out, and perhaps I'll be able to kind of guide someone else later :).

Man...I need to figure out how to do more frequent shorter posts. All right guys, thanks for reading. Good luck, talk to you later.

Not much poker, maybe that's OK

Life isn't leaving a lot of time for poker this month, either playing or studying. I'm bouncing all around over only 4400 hands, and the results have not been there for me. The first 1900 hands were pretty brutal, and I think my play sucked, plus I was getting cold-decked. I was running about as nitty and passive as I ever have. In the past, whenever I have played poorly, it hasn't been so scared throughout all streets...more like spewing on the early streets and paying off like a fish on the big streets. But for the first 1900 hands this month, it was 16/12, stealing on 24% of the time. Some of that was just running cold over a somewhat small sample, but still there were spots that dictated more aggressive play based on the game texture, and also that's a pretty big gap between VPIP and PFR for such a low VPIP. I then quickly climbed out of a 4 BI hole for the month, and even though I wasn't the paragon of aggression in that stretch, it still picked up a bit.

Since then, over a paltry 2100 hands, I gave it right back, and then some, dropping 6 BI over that short time. It has been interesting as I've been going through my big losses. For the most part, I actually feel my play has kind of snapped back to solid play from where it was the last month and a half. I will be interested to maybe do a full PT review of those 2100 hands with someone...get in touch with me if you feel like dissecting a downwards spike with me.

There have been relatively few really big losing hands...but a crap ton of medium pots. But in going through those, I see mostly that things just aren't working out, and I'm actually making reasonable bets...then just getting played back at and giving people credit. Since one of my bad habits is not giving people credit, if I am letting myself get pushed off marginal best hands, I don't think it's the worst thing in the world...and that's what I think a good PT review will confirm -- or maybe deny.

On a related note, I've begun to really question how effective I am at my own self reviews. For the last several months, I've been really good about reviewing them, OK about getting some feedback on tough hands, but poor in using those reviews to actually plug holes. Maybe my expectations of what I'll get out of my own reviews are flawed. I asked my coach for some pointers, and if any of you have some ideas about how to translate self review into better play, I'm all ears. It's one thing to make the time to study, but it needs to lead to different play, at least over time, and I'm not sure that's happening for me.

On the personal front, there is some sort of flu raging through my kids' school and now through our house. I had it last week for a couple days (Friday and Saturday of a holiday weekend >:( ). That's another reason I didn't play, as I was totally wiped out and mentally fuzzy. Instead, I slept a lot and kept myself loaded up on liquids and Advil. Today my son is laid up with an even worse fever. It spiked over 104 today, and is now a little under 102. Pediatricians confirmed it's going around, and we shouldn't be worried, but we'll bring him in to the doctor's office tomorrow if he still has a fever. Sorry for the downer ending, but I'm sure he'll be better tomorrow after sleeping it off a ton today and tonight.

I'm Back

Had a lot of fun on a ski trip with my dad. Crappy internet was actually a blessing, as it left me with no conflicts just kind of hanging out with Dad, which we don't get to do much. He goes to bed a couple hours before I do, and I would have liked to have logged some hands, etc. then, but whatever. There was a decent storm the couple days before we went, and the first couple days were winter skiing...then the rest of the time was like spring skiing. Lake Tahoe at its best, IMO....but you have to know how to get through "Sierra cement" if you want to have the most fun. Fat skis or a snowboard make that a lot easier than when I was growing up, too many years ago.

I've got a crapload of stuff to get caught up on, having been out of it for a week. Hundreds of emails from work, a lot of which actually need thoughtful response. New deliverables I need to create plans and progress tracking against. Tons of personal email, blog entries, forum posts, etc. Oh yeah, and a couple basketball teams to resume coaching.

I'll try to start checking back in on blogs, but probably not until closer to the end of the week. Sorry about that! But I will at least get caught up on posts so I know what's going on.

Also, to the study group, I'll be back in that loop later this week or early next week...looking forward to some PT reviews or sweat sessions, but again I've got to get unburied.

As far as poker, I have actually played 2,400 hands, and am up a whopping .85! I won 4BI in my last 421-hand session, so it could be worse. I need to go back through my notes from a couple weeks ago. I'm sure my next session will be pretty rusty. My stats suck...very weak/nitty, so maybe "rusty" won't be all bad...but anyway, I've been much more worried about postflop than preflop lately.

Going skiing / January results

I am going to be out of town for about a week, up in the mountains on a ski trip with my dad. Really really looking forward to it, but I don't know what the internet access will be like, so might not see you. Things have been really busy this week and last wrapping up as many loose ends as I can before taking off. I'm able to jump into some IM and sweat sessions pretty easily, but the work doesn't go away, so I make up for it by staying later, working from home, or getting into the office early. That flexibility is something I really enjoy about my job, but it can cause things to pile up and for me to go dark for a while.

But back to happier thoughts. Lake Tahoe has been getting absolutely hammered by storm after storm; the conditions are awesome. Up until I met my wife, I skied 20-30 days a year. She doesn't care that much for skiing, so we didn't really go, and now with kids, it's pretty expensive to take the whole family. She and the kids would rather go to Disneyland or Palm Springs (and that's cool with me...I just golf instead of ski). So I'm down to like 5 days a year, and this is the big chunk. The last couple years, we've been really unlucky with the snow cover in Tahoe, but this year looks to make up for it. So, yeah, think snow.

Results for the month:


I love swongs. I ran absolutely terrible in the beginning of the month...the initial downwards motion. I feel like I ran neutral overall the rest of the month (some improbable hands, but split between going my way and against me). One thing is for sure: I suck at flips! If I have a combo draw, it does not get there, if I am against a good draw, it does get there. Pretty predictably. That said, I am not satisfied with the state of my game, either, and a lot of the down spikes after the initial one were at least as much due to my poor play. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I really need to learn.

In one group session, we were talking about those days when you were totally clueless, running well, and thinking that you had it all figured out. Now that I have learned more, and more importantly started to discuss things and sweat/be sweated, it is readily apparent that I have a long way to go, and it's totally appropriate for me to be at low stakes. I don't yet have the game for higher stakes. I'm not saying I totally suck -- I don't -- but although I am solid in a number of areas, I am not strong across the board. And I'm only talking about playing a fairly TAG game, not trying to get really fancy.

You can read a lot of posts by more accomplished players saying how easy it is to play ABC TAG (but that you can't keep doing it). It is pretty easy to play that style well enough to beat the lowest limits -- a lot of your competition is simply dreadful -- but I guess I'm still noob enough to think that it's not super easy to play ABC TAG to something approaching perfection. It's attainable, not easy. I believe (maybe because I haven't gotten to my potential) that even the guys with natural aptitude who have moved past simply ABC TAG actually had to work a decent amount to get to a rock solid ABC TAG mode. Realistic, yes. Easy, no. Anyway...


These are some pretty borderline stats, a little out of kilter with how I historically play. Could be sample size/bad stretch of cards, but it also looks like I'm playing a bit scared in some situations. Another possibility, and this is much more true for the 50NL hands, is that I'm table selecting better (I'll explain later). My overall VPIP is a couple points lower than it has been, and is on the very bottom of where I think I should be. It's OK, but barely. I think if I am table selecting well, my VPIP should be a tad higher than normal, not lower.

I may be folding to steals a little much in the BB, but maybe not. On the one hand, people are stealing wider and wider, and I'm trying to 3-bet wider too....so I should not be giving up the BB as much. On the other hand, I'm trying to get more loose-passive players with bigger stacks on my right and more tight players with smaller stacks on my left. If I've got a really passive button who does not steal a lot, I need to tighten up my defending range some. But this will bear watching.

I'm not stealing enough. True, if I'm trying to put shorter stacks to my left, I need to be careful because they'll be looking to get it in wider against a button steal. But still, 30% here should be an absolute floor, IMO. Also, my W$WSF is borderline low, but anything over 40% is acceptable to me. I'd like it to be closer to 45%, but this is not the worst of my problems. My W$SD is the same level it has been. This is somewhat out of my control, but I may still be making too many hero calls on the river. My river AF at 100NL specifically is too low. However, it's pretty good at 50NL where my W$SD is actually lower, so by stats anyway I'm not paying off on the river a ton.

Preflop raise is just a little low compared to my VPIP. I think this one is a result of some focus on table selection...if I'm able to get a couple limpers to me on the button or in the SB, I'm widening up my calling/completing range. I think I do a decent job distinguishing when to raise versus limp when I enter pots...the biggest thing I need to work on preflop is just which pots to enter at all, and make sure to look for some more spots, especially at 50NL when I have a better relative postflop advantage. I guess any win rate in the green is good, but I'd like mine to be higher :P.



Well, I don't have any problems sticking to tight UTG range, obviously. I'm pretty close to 3x looser on the button than UTG, so that's good. I probably need to loosen up throughout, as I alluded to above. But at least if I'm sticking to a tight style, I feel like the VPIP progression as I move towards the button is good. I always wonder what I limp UTG. This month, it was 86s when two people already posted. I guess that's not a huge leak.

Goals for the month:
10,000 hands
Easily beat this goal this month. After a bit of thought, getting through Elements of Poker, and discussing the implications of volume goals, I'm no longer going to set one. Crap, I play every chance I get, so if I fail a # of hands goal, it's not from lack of trying. Better to focus on quitting well and maintaining focus rather than sheer number of hands.

Review hands
I reviewed just about every session I played. I'm like two behind for the month, but I did a solid job reviewing hands. In addition, I spent some coaching time and some group discussion time going over my PT. I think that this is a super learning vehicle for me, actually, in some ways better than getting sweated. My plan with my coach is to have a healthy alternating rotation between sweats and PT reviews.

Actively study 5 videos
I sucked at video review. I made it through two. I am going to focus on this much more next month, even if it means giving up some other stuff like blogs and forums. I watched a few more than 2, but when I talk about active study, it's like treating the video as a potential sweat session, but pausing the action so I can vocalize what I would do (and why). I need to do more of that in general, because that's an area I don't do well enough in my own game. Might as well practice it with someone else's.

Raise W$SD
Got this one up a few points, but it's still too low. Yeah, not a lot of this is in my control, but making hero (or just plain dumb) calls is, and that's really what I want to eliminate.

One poker book
Finished Elements of Poker. Great book. Will probably read it again this month!

Regular sweat sessions
Been able to get in severals sweat and review sessions. As I mentioned above, it has been instrumental in showing me that for every part of the game I've got down pretty well, there's another area lurking that probably hurts me. Also, even though I am dropping one or two tables, I find that I cannot vocalize my thoughts about my opponents' ranges quickly enough. Guys that I am watching...notably Noel, but not only him...are able to vocalize their thoughts on villains' ranges much better than I am. I think I am accounting for a range or a type of hand at least, but not good enough yet, and it shows in some of the lines that I take periodically. So, just the act of forcing me to get them on a range and then act off it is pretty helpful. I notice that guys who go through lots of sweats get better at doing this.