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.