Happy Turkey Day (especially to all the turkeys at the tables today)!

So I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving today; we decided to cook a Turduchen; it was SOO good!  I was with my friends this year, for whom I am Godmother to their daughters.

So what did I do while digesting the turkey/duck/hen I consumed?  Yep you guessed it.  I actually played two sessions today; one in the morning before I left for my friend’s house, and then again this afternoon.  The session this morning was frustrating to say the least.  I think somebody let loose the turkeys because it seemed like I just couldn’t get a hand to hold up.  The worst was when I flopped trip Aces and somebody stuck around all the way to the end with 9-J offsuit, and caught their straight.  I don’t really mind this because I’m playing a very mathematical game; in other words, I know that over the long run I’m playing more quality hands than people who play hands such as that.  In fact, it kind of makes me smile inside, just a little bit, when I see somebody suck out like that.  But after a morning where I just couldn’t get ahead to save my life, it was a little frustrating.  In all, I think I was down about $150 by the end of that session.

So I came home after the feast, and decided that I wanted to play some more.  I logged on and played at one of the 5/10 tables for a while, and ended up folding about 50 hands in a row.  It was something like an hour with absolutely no playable hands whatsoever.  Out of boredom I decided to keep watch on another table, and ended up joining; now playing two tables simultaneously.  Many people do this, and it seems to work really well.  One of the big advantages of playing two (or more) tables at once is that it’s easy to discard the negligible hands without too much thought.  In other words, you don’t have the time to get caught up in any perceived drama at the table.  If somebody wants to steal my big blind and I have a really mediocre hand, I just fold it and don’t get overinvolved with something that might get me into trouble.  Another reason that multiple tables works well is that it’s more interesting.  I’m pretty comfortable with two right now; maybe later I’ll get a bigger monitor and play more tables.

So I really watched my play and tried to work on the things my statistics have told me about my play.  One thing that really makes sense to me; something that really surprised me was that I was losing money on single pairs – a lot of money.  So I decided that I would try to keep from investing a lot of money into hands where I only had a single pair, by quickly dumping medium pairs, and not overplaying top pairs or overpairs.  That doesn’t mean I’m playing overpairs or top pair on the board timidly; I still raise when appropriate, and put as much pressure as I can on my opponents.  But if somebody reraises me, at least representing trips or something, I’ll definitely slow down.  Another thing I’m doing is trying to make sure that if I do have a pair, I’m also drawing to something bigger – maybe a straight if possible.  If all I have is a pair with no hope whatsoever of improving, other than maybe getting trips, I’ll slow down if appropriate.

That being said, I had pocket Aces three times tonight, and every time they held up – and I bet, raised and reraised all the way to the river.

In all, I ended up doing pretty well for the day, as I ended up bringing my bankroll up to $863.18.  That’s a profit for the week of $663.18.  At 18.75 hours, that’s still over $35/hour.  That number seems really great, but again, there’s just not enough data for that to be accurate.  The expectation is about $10-$20 per hour at the 5/10 tables, so this can’t be an accurate reflection of my skill; more accurately a reflection of luck (yes, even the great Ringleader can be humble).  Then again, playing two tables simultaneously would influence that.  I’m not sure if playing two tables would double the expectation.  Time will tell.

Oh, as an aside (but speaking of multitasking), have you listened to the latest TVT (The Vegas Tourist) podcast?  I have to hand it to Mark and Sazzy; they did really – I mean REALLY wear me out!  I really don’t know how they do it, covering multiple events simultaneously while carrying on with day jobs.  Let me tell you – they put a LOT into these podcasts and the websites and everything about TVT.  It has to be a passion.  Anyway, as much as they wore me out, I loved every minute of it.  THANK YOU MARK & SAZZY!!!!!!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled blog.  :)

So this has become quite a mission for me.  I know in my heart that I have what it takes to learn, and become a great poker player.  I know I could become professional if I put the time into it, and decided that it was something I really wanted to make a living at (and it provided enough income for me – I am, after all, very very high maintenance).  :)

So I’ve decided to treat this like a part-time job.  Actually this was a decision I had made a long time ago when still playing at the casinos and card rooms around my home.  My normal schedule is to play about 3-4 hours, 5 days per week – hopefully 20 hours per week.  I used to do that to a lesser extent when I was counting cards, playing Blackjack.  Only at that time I had no hopes of becoming professional; I only wanted to earn some extra money to buy new gadgets.  Anyway, my schedule usually means playing a couple of week nights, and both Saturday & Sunday.  I had been doing that for a few months before Fan Appreciation Weekend.  When I got back from FAW, I remember going back to The Caribbean and making about $60 for 3 hours of play.  Now technically only considering that one session, it was absolutely AWESOME – it amounted to $20/hour at $3/$6 limit poker – technically way more than the expected rate of $6-$12 per hour.  I left the casino just thinking that it had become such a grind!  And I was frustrated that I really didn’t have many options for moving up, and playing at more difficult, higher limit games.  I was lucky to find $4-$8 limit.  Having seen the amount of money available to be won (by very very good players) in Las Vegas, I just figured I wasn’t going to be able to make any real money until I moved there.

At any rate, it was already a job.  I’ve decided that even though I’m online, primarily, I’m still going to treat it like a job.  So that means my environment needs to be conducive to serious play.  I’m used to working at a desk, but felt I needed some chips to play with.  A while ago, I ordered a mouse pad in the shape of a poker table:

This is really cool because I can sit and shuffle my chips with my left hand, and mouse with my right – focused on winning as much money as I can!  (Does it sound really geeky of me that I actually bought two – one for home, and also one for my office/day job?)

But on a more serious note, I have really tried to make it as easy as possible to focus.  To that extent there are a couple of rules I’ve set up for myself that help me to ensure I’m on my “A” game:

• Don’t play when I’m tired or frustrated or angry or in any way distracted.
• If I’m on a losing streak (it happens to everyone) maybe use my session time for some reading or practicing instead of playing.  Playing when I expect to lose does not help.  It’s better to come back to the table with some new ideas – basically I want to go to the table with the expectation of winning – not losing.  Another alternative is to spend time doing something else that I know I’m good at, whether that’s coding or anything – as long as it helps me to reinforce my self-image.  Poker can be brutally emotional, and it’s important that a good player remains confident in their abilities.
• If I’m experiencing any financial difficulties at all, don’t play.  In other words, I don’t want to be influenced by other problems, especially because this concerns money.  I do everything I can to ensure I am financially stable, have a good emergency fund, and am debt-free.  I’m actually a pretty financially sensitive person – in other words, I’m obsessive about keeping my financial life in order, so any little hiccup will cause me to lose focus.
• Regarding playing from home – if I have visitors or am expecting any kind of distraction, I don’t play.
• I turn my phone off.  I tell my friends that I’m working a second job – so if I don’t answer the phone, that’s probably why.

So that’s a start.  Basically I want to be focused!  I talked to another poker player once about the effects of being tired and playing, and it seriously degrades your performance.  (Here I am at 2:00am just ending my session.)  Basically when you get tired you become more hopeful.  When you’re more hopeful you take more risks than you would normally, so for a poker player this can be very dangerous.  To a certain extent you want your game to be almost robotic; it’s pretty complicated, but most of your play is almost automatic.  You don’t want to find yourself playing Ace-rag (Ace, 2 or Ace, 5, or any Ace with a small card) hoping to spike an Ace on the board to take the pot.  Over the long run that will cost you too much money.

So now that I’ve finished tonight’s play, I need to look at my stats and learn from them.  According to Poker Prospector, I’m playing about the right number of hands preflop.  Today I ended up playing about 16% of my hands, which is exactly right.  I ended up winning about 62-65% of my showdowns, which is also good – you should win more than 60% of your showdowns.  My stats show that I’m still not aggressive enough preflop, but not by much.  I think more data is needed, but I could be check-raising under certain circumstances.  The data also shows that I’m too aggressive post-flop.  Now I was very intentional this time, by not overplaying pairs or Ace-King.  This did two things – it increased the percentage of showdown wins, and should have decreased my post-flop aggression stats.  With only 1660 hands, I suppose again I need more data.

I would definitely like to see a higher percentage of showdown wins – something more like 70% would make me feel better.  The thing is, when playing live games I don’t get to see this kind of detail into my play, so I’m not sure if 70% is realistic.  Time will tell.  I would like to be better at dumping losing hands post-flop when appropriate.  It’s a difficult balance between being aggressive post-flop, and knowing when to dump a losing hand.  I seem to be too aggressive, and not dumping losing hands fast enough.  One way I thought would help in that respect was to slow down with pairs, as I mentioned before, but also to dump hands like Ace Queen that don’t hit the flop.  I still feel like I should ram & jam Ace King post-flop, both in hopes to drive an opponent off their hand, but also to (hopefully) spike an Ace or a King on the turn or river.  The thing is, I don’t want to do this too consistently or my opponents will begin to understand exactly how I play Ace King.  I actually got in trouble this morning with Ace King when I hit a King on the flop – my opponent bet, I raised, and they reraised.  I capped it at 4 bets.  This happened again on the turn, and then I considered seriously the possibility that my opponent may have pocket Aces – or, even worse, pocket Kings.  I check/called to the river and discovered that my suspicions were correct – he did have pocket Kings.  In that situation, I was going to see it all the way anyway, so by raising and reraising on the flop where the betting was at $5 probably cost me the minimum amount – I slowed down where it mattered, on the turn and river where the betting was in $10 increments, after his behavior on the flop indicated he must have trips.

I also lost another pot with Ace King when I again spiked a King on the flop.  It turned out that my opponent also had Ace King, but they had suited Ace King of Clubs – and ended up making a miracle (runner-runner) flush.  There wasn’t much I could have done to prevent that – we both had exactly the same hand except he also had a flush draw.  When three clubs hit the board I definitely went into check/call mode, but until then we were going to split the pot.

So I really want to learn from my mistakes.  I want to be able to look at my statistics objectively and learn from them, and change my behavior in order to become even better.

Oh – I just looked at my hand-type stats, and as expected, high card is still negative, but my single pair stats are now significantly improved!  Instead of being negative, they are now POSITIVE $298 – this is a huge improvement, and probably due to my willingness to dump pairs that just aren’t working, but pushing overpairs and top pair/top kicker kind of hands.  This is much better as far as I know.  Two pair is also positive, but is now the least earner for me, at $67.  Three-of-a-kind is still my big earner, at $607, followed by straights, then full houses, and then flushes.  These numbers are going to be very interesting to watch as the number of hands increases.

I wonder what I can do to decrease the amount I lose to “high card” hands?  Again, I think it might come down to being more careful with Ace King hands.

So that’s about all I have to say about that…  :)

Good luck at the tables!