Hey there friends

Week 5 is over and we are moving into the second month of the #2012rungood campaign. I'm playing exclusively 10nl 6max in February and will reevaluate at the end of the month on whether to move up to 25nl or not. The week 5 graph will have a bit of 25nl and 50nl from the last couple days of January but all the 10nl is from February.

Week 5 Graph


Week 5 Stats


Until next time

First month of 2012 is in the books and it feels good to be playing regularly and enjoying it. I definitely felt discouraged and uninterested during parts of last year about poker. Now, I feel like I'm coming from a place that is hungry to learn, get better, experiment with lines and plays, and just have fun. It is a game after all and I'm not playing to put food on the table so why get stressed out? I think I put a lot of pressure on myself in the past when it came to poker and I'm a competitive person by nature so losing and being result oriented bothered me more than it should have. It's definitely a fine line to walk, since being competitive and hungry to win is a great motivator to get better at the game.

Though there is a difference between being hungry to win and being hungry to learn. Focusing on winning in poker is such a double edged sword, when you're winning you definitely feel invincible and can really play your "A" game when you're rolling. Though, when deviation hits and you run into a bad stretch, you can really beat yourself up and allow your negative results at the tables spill over into the rest of your life. I want to be someone that is driven by the desire to learn. Where the results in the short term do not affect my attitude and every mistake is an opportunity to learn something. Sure, results matter in the sense of validating what we've learned but it's only in the long run that we can acquire validation of our play. Being a part-time player, its easy for me to look at the short-term and question everything I think I know and make drastic changes. I tend to define the "long run" in terms of calender time instead of hands played because I don't get the volume that others achieve. That's a view that needs to change for me personally when thinking about the long run and how to measure my own growth and understanding.

Cool story bro....

January Graph


January Stats


2012 Goals
[ ] 125k Hands of 6max = 9,030 Hands Through January
[ ] 25k Hands of Heads Up = 1,249 Hands Through January
[ ] At minimum, taking shots at 100nl by the end of the year = Not yet
[ ] Make top 50 on the UGL leaderboard @ PTR at least 1 month at 25nl or 50nl = Not yet

Until next time

Back again internets.

So, I didn't listen to my own post from last week to play only 10nl and sort of got bailed out by running ok at 50nl. Don't worry, I made this mistake today and got punished but that wont show until next weeks post. I'm going to set myself a goal for real this time and play 10nl exclusively in February since I failed to do so the past week or so. I don't think its chasing losses or anything of that nature when it comes to my mindset, its simply me believing I should be at least 25nl if not 50nl and winning. How did I come to that conclusion? I don't know, which probably means its not a smart idea. I still feel like I'm playing well in 90% of spots but still need to improve and do more away from the table study.

Week 4 Graph


Week 4 Stats


Until next time.

Another week and another post. Week 3 was a very "meh" week on the poker front. I decided to move down to 10nl for the foreseeable future (at least the next week or two) in order to correct some pot odds mistakes and try to stay on pace with my hand goals. Its interesting that for this week's graph my redline took a nose dive. I think that may have to do with more with the player base at 10nl on Merge and that I'm having to go to showdown far more often compared to 25nl. I'm not going to worry about it too much for the time being.

Week 3 Graph


Week 3 Stats


Until next time

Going to post these real quick since I have a full day of Ohio State v. Indiana basketball and spending some quality time with the wifey later.


"REVENGE AT THE SCHOTT!"

Week 2 Graph


Week 2 Stats


Definitely a more positive week than the first week of 2012. I'm trying to focus on being more aggressive in the right spots and against villains that don't adjust well. I definitely see improvements in my game right now and feeling comfortable in spots that would have scared me to death or left me stumped a year ago. Obviously, I can't settle or plateau here and need to keep putting the time in both on and away from the tables.

Until next time

So, for 2012 I made some goals for the year and want to update this blog more instead of 12 monthly recap posts and the occasional banter post. So, I'm starting to really like twitter (I know...I know...I'm late to the party) and want to use the inspiration from the mighty hashtag to make a weekly recap post in this blog. Then at the end of the year I'll have a nice and more concise look at how the year went instead of 12 macro-ish monthly recaps.

So here's the first one

Week 1 Graph


Week 1 Stats


More or less a false start in the 2012 race. I still feel confident going forward and obviously need to be more disciplined in my note taking on other regs at Merge. I feel that the small nature of the Merge player pool is going to make note taking and being able to exploit a particular regs lines and tendencies is going to be the key to crushing the micro limits on Merge for the near future.

I know that some will say that you should avoid the regs and table select better and while I agree in principal with that statement, its not practical on Merge at the moment. There are not enough fish or tables going and the regs that are there are doing things that are exploitable and will help my win rate. I will take some short terms hits and bumps deciphering their lines, but I feel like the long term value is worth it.

Until next time

Want to get these down and on the virtual paper for motivation. Since my situation is probably a little different than the typical online player in terms of working full time, having a wife (no kids....yet), and other responsibilities and I don't want to fall into a trap of expecting myself to have the same amount of free time as a early twenties single college student. So here's the goals for 2012.

[ ] 125k Hands of 6max
[ ] 25k Hands of Heads Up
[ ] At minimum, taking shots at 100nl by the end of the year
[ ] Make the top 50 on the UGL leaderboard at PTR at least 1 month at 25nl or 50nl

I feel like these are both a challenge for me but also realistic and achievable.

As always, thoughts and comments are welcome about my goals, your goals, or the idea of goal setting in general.

Also, thanks for everyone that has contacted me and encouraged me about my 2011 recap post, I appreciate it.

Until next time.

Its 2012 and you know what that means?!.....Mayan Doomsday is upon us! Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, because these Mayans are raping us all with their superior lunar calender and stone tools out here.

Well, 2011 was an interesting year for the me in the poker world. I played bad, ran bad, but hopefully grew and learned through the experience. I definitely didn't have the same level of interest in poker after Black Friday and didn't put in volume that was anywhere near what I was capable of. I took multiple months off (Black Friday and Skyrim) and only really in December with 2012 closing in did I start to think about what I wanted to achieve in poker in the upcoming year. I haven't solidified my goals but I'm going to do another blog post with 2012 goals hopefully in the next few days.

I want to keep up my track record of being completely honest (within reason) in this blog and that means showing graphs and results that I'm particularly proud of but that's what you get when you do an online diary.

2011 Graph


2011 Stats


2011 Expanded Stats


So yeah.....that was fun.

Anyways, I still have confidence that 2012 will be a breakthrough year for me and I do think that suffering and setbacks lead to future success if you approach it with an attitude that is humble and willing to learn from it.

Happy 2012 to you and yours and I'll be back soon with some goals in my next post.

Until next time.

Hey blogheads

Its Christmas Eve day and I wanted to get back to regularly posting in this blog and prepare for a productive 2012. I'll do a post probably next weekend after the New Year and put up a graph and some poker goals for 2012 but I wanted to post a couple random pics and the like.


"Rafter life is how I roll"

Went to the Ohio State/Duke game a few weeks ago and it was hands down the best basketball game (both in terms of result and crowd atmosphere) that I've ever been to at the Schott. Growing up in Columbus, with a major university and a rabid fan base for football, basketball was always seen as the ugly stepsister in Ohio State sports. They only have one national title (1960) and a track record of being pretty inconsistent as a program until current coach Matta arrived. The recruiting is really reaching an elite level and the fan base is starting to catch up to the talent they are putting on the floor. Really excited to see how this team progresses through the season and if they have a deep run in March.


"Santa horde crossing the Brooklyn Bridge"

The wifey and I went to NYC for Santacon (which is a bar crawl but don't call it a bar crawl) and had a fun time drinking, caroling, etc.. for a whole day. Started in Brooklyn but ended up in Manhattan with a few thousand other Santas, elfs, and a zombie Abe Lincoln. My wife is a three year veteran of Santacon but I was a virgin and just let the Yule tide take me for most of the day. Definitely a strange event.


"Santas converge in Manhattan down by the river"

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the holiday season with friends and family and looking forward to 2012.

Until next time

Hey There Internet

Haven't been on here for an update, but I wanted to update so here we are. I had an ok October poker wise, played about 5k hands and maybe a small profit. Nothing that earth shattering just trying to play my A game when I sit down and focus on having a plan. I haven't played much at all so far in November due to school and Skyrim coming out and sucking up all my free time. Jesus, that game is sooooooo good and I recommend it for anyone that likes well-done, epic RPG's or just good video games in general.

Went to the Ohio State/Penn State game yesterday with my mother (brag or beat?) and had a good time even though my Buckeyes lost. Kind of the theme of the season for them and I thought the game was a coin flip going in. Luckily, the rumor mill is kicking into high gear regarding Urban Meyer (former Ohio State assistant coach, Florida coach and a native Ohioian) being a near lock for the job next year. No offense to Fickell who was put in a shitty position this year but he is in no way experienced enough for the job and was a stop-gap for the future coach.

Also, got my season tickets for OSU hoops (ranked #3 as of this writing) and went to the Florida game. Team looks young and hungry, and should be even better come March. Looking forward to the Duke/OSU game which should be a battle.

Hopefully Skyrim fatigue will set in soon and maybe I'll actually want to play some poker.

Until Next Time