Its been quite some time since my last blog post, so I apologize for that. I often go through stretches where I neglect certain things that I shouldn't. I think some of that is from the mindset of a poker player and having a natural disposition to think of things in terms of EV, so that little things like spending 30 minutes to write a blog or email a friend to catch up get continually put off to do other things, very often poker related, as that gives the "best" hourly return for our time. Playing poker for so many hours a day does sometimes make poker take over my thoughts, as even when I'm not playing I often think about hands I've played and whether I could have played them better.

In one sense I do think most players drastically overstate how much their hourly rate with poker is, since there is so much more time dedicated to the game, even subconsciously, than time spent actually at the tables playing. Studying, reviewing hands, watching videos, reading forums, or even just having your mind occupied by a hand you played instead of focusing on whatever you are doing is all time given to poker that most don't account for.

Poker players, for how logical they are overall as a group, still have many flaws in their way of looking at the game. The biggest flaw I think is an overconfidence in one's own game. See someone else at the tables make a bad play? Man they are terrible. Make a bad play yourself? Oh I was just tilting, I normally play better than that. See someone with a 100k breakeven stretch? Meh, they're just a mediocre reg. Have one yourself? I can't believe how badly I've been running. While having confidence in your own game is certainly an asset, I do find it funny how often people criticize other players over one or two observed bad plays or a relatively short run of bad results.

Sure many of you have seen something like this, but visual representation of how much luck can play into results over what most would consider a large sample size:








It definitely can be daunting to think that as a 2BB/100 winner there will be times where you break even over 250k hands if you're running in the bottom 1 or 2%. And as much as you might like to think you are a 3 or 4 BB/100 winner because you've won that much over a 100k hand sample, I hate to break it to you but there's a pretty good chance you've just been running hot.

I'm probably no different than most in having an inflated view of my own game. I've had results I'm pleased with in the midstakes games and have been playing them for almost 6 years now, but I should realize that if I don't make an effort to stay active in the poker community most of you won't even recognize me if you're not somebody I play with on a day to day basis. Heck, I look at some of the pros on other training sites and I have no idea who they are, although I'm sure a lot of them are very good players. So I think as a Leggo coach I will have to try harder to keep you all up to date on how I'm doing because obviously its important to you to watch videos made by people who are having success in today's games.

I'll try to get a graph up at the end of the month, but don't wanna jinx the good start I'm off to so far (clearly more logical thinking). I think I'm up something like 30-35 buyins so far, probably like 70% at 2/4 and 30% 1/2. I've been playing with Aaron every now and then at 2/4, which is fun especially when I get AA vs his KK, which has happened twice in probably the 1k or less hands I've played with him. It'd be nice though if he stopped being so nitty and just moved up.

I've managed to get 40k hands in so far which is pretty good for me, especially since I'm studying to take the CFA exam Level 1 this December which has taken up a lot of my time. Despite that I'm still getting in way more hands/month than I ever did pre Black Friday (not counting the few months I played rush poker at least). Looking back I guess its kinda unfortunate it took something like Black Friday to really get my ass in gear and put in consistent 100k hand months. 60k/month was good volume for me a year ago.

I've got a little more than a month left here in Toronto before my 6 month stay is up. As of now, my wife and I are uncertain where our next move will be. We are definitely going back and forth on what our best options are. As of now, we are considering Thailand, Malta, or perhaps just choosing a few different places in mainland Europe and trying to do a one month stay in each. Its definitely a stressful situation trying to find a place that is the best fit for us. Any suggestions are welcome...

Thats it from here. Enjoy 11/11/11.