Started last Sunday off good with a win in the $27.50 turbo sat with 116 runners (paid 5) to get a $700 seat in the PCA qualifier.  Decided to unreg the sat because I had so many MTT tables open and thought it'd be better to reg that tournament when I could focus on it since it's well out of my bankroll.  Grinded all day Sunday and had a min cash or 2, but no other deep runs. Showed a small profit for the day with the $700 in T$, but that puts a delay on trying to qualify for the PCA.  I'll take a shot at some more sats and probably not unregister the next time I win a seat 🙂  Also think I might reduce the ABI on Sunday until I build up the roll further.  It's pretty easy to eat into the roll playing the Sunday Million, Big $109 and Big $55.  There's probably more value in playing all of the lower buy in stuff, increasing volume and then just taking shots at the Sunday Million.

Most disappointing result was approaching the money of the Big $11 or $27 with 40bb and losing KK < 55 for an 83bb pot with 10 to go. It wasn't a disappointment because of not cashing, it was just that I had grinded a short stack for most of that tournament and it's so much fun to have a stack that late, especially approaching the bubble.  I think the more and more that I get used to building stacks it won't be such a let down when I lose one.

Played one night this week, bricked 10 or so tournaments.  Don't think I played particularly well and didn't run great.

About to put the kids to bed and then fire up a small session, been wanting to play all week 🙂

Things have not been great the last week, but I've been putting in the time, playing at night, reviewing hand histories, taking notes and discussing with my poker friends. The hand reviews have been a mixed bag, some I'm playing my A game and others are like a C game, so need to work on consistency.  I asked a successful friend of mine a bunch of theory type questions and many of his responses surprised me, going to try and incorporate some of it into my game and close up what are likely some early leaks.  It's pretty fun, re-learning the game and getting out of my comfort zone.  I made several river players that I wouldn't normally and success has been decent.  HEM would suggest that my I'm running below expectation in some key spots so I'm trying to keep that in mind when reviewing the bankroll, but I'm not using it as an excuse because I know there are plenty of things I could do better.

Took some pretty gross beats that really pissed me off on Saturday and Sunday (was definitely tilting), so I re-centered myself and played calm last night and took the beats well.  Made a couple of runs, but no FT's.  Busted in 56/1450 in the Big 27.50.  Had a good stack with about 100 left, then induced with A9o on the button (sb had me covered and bb was at 12bb), bb reshoved with KT and won the flip. Passed on a meh spot with QTo for a 15bb rejam against a new player to the table and then blinded down to the point where I had no FE and busted 87s to AKs.

I've also made contact with a coach and we are going to do HH reviews over the holidays and then when I move to Costa Rica next month we'll get some skype sessions going.  Pretty excited about the coach, he's been a poker friend for a couple of years and has great results, both live and online.  He's always been pretty reserved when talking poker strategy openly, but thinks on a high level.  Another friend received coaching from him and had nothing but good things to say, so we'll see how that goes, it can't hurt that's for sure.

Take it easy.

Great article about being mentally strong:

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After reading it realized I'm failing in the mental toughness category not only in poker, but in my work life too.  Time to start working on this aspect.

Made a run in a couple tournaments tonight, busted 35/1100 in the Hot 22.  44 < KK aipf to bust.  FT and a win coming soon.

It's been quite awhile since I've posted in this thread, turns out it's not as fun or exciting to talk about not playing your best or being on a continued downswing.

The last 6 months have been a difficult ride, but I think I've turned the corner on the mental side and that's freeing up room to play better and continue to improve.  Despite many friends encouraging me to play on other sites or in smaller fields (aka lower variance) I've been charging ahead with playing the low-mid stakes big fields on stars.  I'm stubborn, too a fault some times and I feel like a win, even in these high variance games is within reach.  In fact I know it's within reach because the deep runs keep coming, just need to not make mistakes late and run on the right side of variance late.  I will be back to playing on US sites in about a month when we return to the US.  I'm actually a bit excited to play in some smaller fields with less regs.

The biggest improvement I've made has come from reading The Mental Game of Poker 1 and listening to 2 on audiobook.  I'm working both books, doing the exercises before/during/after all my sessions and the clarity is eye opening.  Being able to notice before it happens that I'm about to start getting heated about some bad luck just allows me to get back to play good.  You really need to work at it though, just reading won't do it.  Putting it into action is the key.  I've made tactical and mental goals my priority in each session and it's working.  My game is improving in the areas I've focused on and I'm feeling confident despite the lack of wins. 

When I last posted I talked about working with a poker coach.  I actually put that on the back burner because I determined tilt was the bigger issue.  When I tilt I turn into a really weak player, playing too tight, not inducing, etc and that was having a negative effect on the results.  It only took review of one HH with a close friend and all of the spots he pointed out, some that I normally take and new ones that I should consider, to realize the problem wasn't really in my game it was in how I was tilting and not playing at the level I was used too.

In the last week I've made several deep runs:

35/1190 in $8 turbo

22/560 in $3 cubed

3/362 $11 Omania

4/158 $7 NL08

Also won some shots into the 109, 162 and 55.  Haven't had any results satt'ing into the Sunday Million which has been dissappointing, but have to practice some bankroll management before the WSOP where it will be easy to fire off the 10 days I'm there.

I've spent a lot of time watching vids and reading hands, but in prep for the WSOP I'm going to spend more time working specifically on my game instead of looking for new things to learn.  The tools are there I just need to execute and clear my head of too many competing priorities.

Enjoyed Ben Warrington's pre-flop video.  Also look forward to future Ben Reason videos.

Just going to keep improving,  working on the mental game and putting in the time.  Thanks for listening.

Things have been going well this week, continue to make deep runs, good decisions and keeping the tilt in check.  A couple times I resorted to my old ways, but I'm noticing it quicker and rolling things back.  Funny enough I've been helping a friend with his tilt, he's been on a long live downswing.

Runs this week:

6/980 $2 cubed

29/1201 Big $27.50

Tonight:

7/650 8.80 Zoom

5/1219 Hot 22 for $1206

3/224 Omania 22 for $506

The run in the Hot 22 was fun.  With 40 people left I got crippled when 95o shoved into my Ax, I then somehow got it back to 10bb, got crippled again with 30 left when T6s shoved into my Ax.  Ran it back up, including folding Q9s where the math might say to call, but something was odd about a limp utg, and then a shove.  The limper ended up having AA and I survived with some crazy 5bb stack and ran it up to a high of 25bb and the CL with 10 left.  At the FT I was unable to find many spots, AQ < A3, and 88 < AJs.

From the practice of the 18/45/180 I'm finding good spots to raise fold, that I would normally just open pile, steals are getting through even when stacks are shallow and I'm giving myself more of a chance to find a hand where as before if I had 20bb I was always reshoving and with 15bb was always open piling.  I'm figuring out how to get value from a short stack more, and cooling down the steals some.

Been putting in the time playing PLO and PLO8 too, want to take a shot at some smaller events in Vegas and try to sat into the PLO bracelet event before the monster stack.  Finding myself getting deep in the Omania's nightly, but need to figure out how to better build a stack late.  Today I did win a 5 way all in with AA66 against AA47, that was nice 🙂