March has begun in an all round unspectacular fashion. My overall volume hasn't been particularly great and reg heavy games (likely due to the points and Vegas promos) have left me feeling less inclined to grind. The general feeling of malaise probably wasn't helped by having a bit of a mare of a session on Saturday either and 6max cash has ended up showing a small loss for March thus far. On the plus side, I have been dabbling in some heads up cash again which has gone a little better and pushed me into a bit of overall for profit for cash games. My natural inclination in poker has always been towards the nitty end of the spectrum so it's a good challenge for me to play in a format where I'm playing 70%+ of hands. Total cash game profits came to +£119.65.
MTT's have seen their usual low levels of volume but there has been a modicum of success. I played the weekends mega stacks and the mini on Sunday which all resulted in mid-stage exits. Freerolls however have proved a different story and a 4th place in the rewards freeroll plus a 7th in the road to Manchester tourney pulled in a combined £72. Finally, I had my best overall showing yet in last nights Triple Takedown series. A 7th and a 14th place don't necessarily equate to much by way of profit, but they do give me a really good start to my target of a top 10 league finish for the month. This also meant I came third in the weekly league so I'll be getting a free £5 MTT ticket. Total tournament profits came to +£51.96.
Finally, there's a bit more rakeback to add from Mondays rewards payments. 2,029 points brought in £40.58.
This is probably a pointless update as very little has changed over the last 8 days, but I feel compelled to write something given the time that has passed. Poker has generally been break-even and enthusiasm levels have been suffering as a result, which has ended up with me taking a few nights off. Things were also not helped by revisiting something I hadn't done for a couple of years - playing Football Manager. I'm not much of a gamer at all really but find Football Manager akin to a virtual version of crack cocaine. However, having been 'sacked' as Aston Villa manager for the umpteenth time, I can now hopefully get back to doing something more profitable. I'm certainly well off the pace for March's targets so will need a healthy combo of run-good and hard work for the second half of the month to stand any chance hitting my profit and priority goals.
What poker I did manage to play was, as per usual, mostly done in cash games. It's probably been an equal split in volume between 6max and heads up with neither format providing much to cheer about. There weren't any huge swings in either direction but I'm currently sitting on a small loss of -£30.06 since the last update.
It's all been rather quiet on the MTT front too. I played the mini on Sunday (whiffed), the Saturday mega stack (min cashed), one rewards freeroll (cashed for £2) and the Triple Takedown series (one 5th place for a small cash). This totted up to a small loss overall of -£3.23. On the plus side, I did have another decent overall showing in the Triple Takedown events, so at least one of my monthly targets is looking in good shape. One more good week from the remaining two rounds will hopefully be enough to put me in the top ten for the month.
Lower overall volume levels meant a drop in weekly rakeback and 1,470 points from the previous week brought in £18.37 in rewards payments. This got boosted slightly by winning £10 in the vegas giveaway.
Fingers crossed for a malaise killing heater over the coming days!
Just switch to MTTs and play more of them, you know you want to
At some point you'll bink the Sunday mini and think "flippin' heck that was 30bi for 20nl in 5/6 hours". And then the rational part of your brain that understands ROI will be taken over by the Football Manager loving side telling you "just think how much you could make if you win the mini every Sunday!!" And then you'll ditch cash games and just play tournaments and become hooked.
And then your transition to MTTer will be complete
Just switch to MTTs and play more of them, you know you want to
At some point you'll bink the Sunday mini and think "flippin' heck that was 30bi for 20nl in 5/6 hours". And then the rational part of your brain that understands ROI will be taken over by the Football Manager loving side telling you "just think how much you could make if you win the mini every Sunday!!" And then you'll ditch cash games and just play tournaments and become hooked.
And then your transition to MTTer will be complete
I can only assume this is some next level bumhunting and a cynical attempt to draw more dead money into your games Angmar .
On a more serious note, I'll probably jump into a few of the ukops events at the end of this month which (bink permitting!) may just light a fire under the MTT dabbling side of me.
The best way to kill poker malaise, dude, is with a malaise-killing heater. Good luck.
Thanks bud.
Although it's the complete reverse of how things should be done, I actually find a a nice big downswing the best motivator of all for some hardcore volume. I suffer from results orientated weakness and will all too easily quit a session early if it means booking a nice win. I think I need to beat myself round the head with the mental game of poker book I so readily recommend to others!
Just switch to MTTs and play more of them, you know you want to
At some point you'll bink the Sunday mini and think "flippin' heck that was 30bi for 20nl in 5/6 hours". And then the rational part of your brain that understands ROI will be taken over by the Football Manager loving side telling you "just think how much you could make if you win the mini every Sunday!!" And then you'll ditch cash games and just play tournaments and become hooked.
And then your transition to MTTer will be complete
Whisper it quietly but word on the MTT streets is... @Duesenberg is going for it Bates/loolo style tonight
I'm having a generally rubbish month and March's targets are nicely on course to be epic fails. I'm not necessarily having too much of a mare at the tables, but I am struggling to get myself motivated to play - if procrastination were an art I could well be Picasso!
In an attempt to bink my way back on track I decided to put in a full MTT grind on Saturday night. I played 12 events of varying buy-ins and formats (including the main event because us baller types just don't care ) for a total outlay of £108.90. The good news is I actually managed to win one. The not so good news is that victory came in one of the weeny events - a £5.50 deepstack with just 50 runners. A few other min-cashes and the odd bounty or two picked up along the way meant that the session as a whole just about finished in the green with a profit of £21.31. Of course it was nice not to record a loss, but it was hardly the jump start I was hoping for. I'm still struggling to find the love for MTT's, but I guess that'll only come with a significant score of some kind. They sure know how to kick you in the mental nether regions though - exiting both the main and the mini with AA vs junk being typical examples. Besides Saturday, the only other tourney played was the Mega Satck on Friday, which was a bit of a damp squib. On the plus side it only cost me 50p to enter as I had a free £5 ticket to use up. Total tourney profits came to +£20.81.
There has been a little bit of cash play mixed in too but my current generally inexplicable sense of poker pessimism has meant that far too much of it has been spent at 10nl (although certainly not exclusively). Despite all the doom-tinted malaise, it's actually gone ok really (especially considering the mix of stakes/volume) and total cash profits came to +£125.06.
As it's Monday, there will also be a smattering of rakeback landing in my account later. An unimpressive 1,137 points works out as £14.22.
Hey Dues, without wanting to stray too far into grandma-sucking-eggs territory, have you been doing much studying/implementing new stuff into your game during this poker malaise? I've found that during periods of bankroll stagnation/depletion, if I'm learning new things and focusing on being a bit spicier/better on the tables then that kind of takes over and the financial aspect takes more of a back seat.
I find this approach helps because there still feels like some progression is going on, even if it's not reflected in a bigger bankroll. Plus, if you're getting better, then when the inevitable upswing does come you're in a better position to milk the **** out of it.
Just an idea and hopefully not a patronising one - you're a far more talented player than I am and seem to have much better b/r management and more experience; it's just that in the past if I shifted my perspective from 'making money' to 'getting better' during downswings then they were that bit more bearable.
Comments
March has begun in an all round unspectacular fashion. My overall volume hasn't been particularly great and reg heavy games (likely due to the points and Vegas promos) have left me feeling less inclined to grind. The general feeling of malaise probably wasn't helped by having a bit of a mare of a session on Saturday either and 6max cash has ended up showing a small loss for March thus far. On the plus side, I have been dabbling in some heads up cash again which has gone a little better and pushed me into a bit of overall for profit for cash games. My natural inclination in poker has always been towards the nitty end of the spectrum so it's a good challenge for me to play in a format where I'm playing 70%+ of hands. Total cash game profits came to +£119.65.
MTT's have seen their usual low levels of volume but there has been a modicum of success. I played the weekends mega stacks and the mini on Sunday which all resulted in mid-stage exits. Freerolls however have proved a different story and a 4th place in the rewards freeroll plus a 7th in the road to Manchester tourney pulled in a combined £72. Finally, I had my best overall showing yet in last nights Triple Takedown series. A 7th and a 14th place don't necessarily equate to much by way of profit, but they do give me a really good start to my target of a top 10 league finish for the month. This also meant I came third in the weekly league so I'll be getting a free £5 MTT ticket. Total tournament profits came to +£51.96.
Finally, there's a bit more rakeback to add from Mondays rewards payments. 2,029 points brought in £40.58.
Progress so far:
Cash: +£1,277.52
MTT's: +£299.80
Rakeback: +£284.24
Total: +£1,861.56
This is probably a pointless update as very little has changed over the last 8 days, but I feel compelled to write something given the time that has passed. Poker has generally been break-even and enthusiasm levels have been suffering as a result, which has ended up with me taking a few nights off. Things were also not helped by revisiting something I hadn't done for a couple of years - playing Football Manager. I'm not much of a gamer at all really but find Football Manager akin to a virtual version of crack cocaine. However, having been 'sacked' as Aston Villa manager for the umpteenth time, I can now hopefully get back to doing something more profitable. I'm certainly well off the pace for March's targets so will need a healthy combo of run-good and hard work for the second half of the month to stand any chance hitting my profit and priority goals.
What poker I did manage to play was, as per usual, mostly done in cash games. It's probably been an equal split in volume between 6max and heads up with neither format providing much to cheer about. There weren't any huge swings in either direction but I'm currently sitting on a small loss of -£30.06 since the last update.
It's all been rather quiet on the MTT front too. I played the mini on Sunday (whiffed), the Saturday mega stack (min cashed), one rewards freeroll (cashed for £2) and the Triple Takedown series (one 5th place for a small cash). This totted up to a small loss overall of -£3.23. On the plus side, I did have another decent overall showing in the Triple Takedown events, so at least one of my monthly targets is looking in good shape. One more good week from the remaining two rounds will hopefully be enough to put me in the top ten for the month.
Lower overall volume levels meant a drop in weekly rakeback and 1,470 points from the previous week brought in £18.37 in rewards payments. This got boosted slightly by winning £10 in the vegas giveaway.
Fingers crossed for a malaise killing heater over the coming days!
Progress so far:
Cash: +£1,247.46
MTT's: +£296.57
Rakeback: +£312.61
Total: +£1,856.64
At some point you'll bink the Sunday mini and think "flippin' heck that was 30bi for 20nl in 5/6 hours". And then the rational part of your brain that understands ROI will be taken over by the Football Manager loving side telling you "just think how much you could make if you win the mini every Sunday!!" And then you'll ditch cash games and just play tournaments and become hooked.
And then your transition to MTTer will be complete
On a more serious note, I'll probably jump into a few of the ukops events at the end of this month which (bink permitting!) may just light a fire under the MTT dabbling side of me.
Although it's the complete reverse of how things should be done, I actually find a a nice big downswing the best motivator of all for some hardcore volume. I suffer from results orientated weakness and will all too easily quit a session early if it means booking a nice win. I think I need to beat myself round the head with the mental game of poker book I so readily recommend to others!
Whisper it quietly but word on the MTT streets is...
@Duesenberg is going for it Bates/loolo style tonight
I'm still lacking a bit of enthusiasm so thought I'd give myself a reminder of why I like cash games so much
scrutisupport youI'm having a generally rubbish month and March's targets are nicely on course to be epic fails. I'm not necessarily having too much of a mare at the tables, but I am struggling to get myself motivated to play - if procrastination were an art I could well be Picasso!
In an attempt to bink my way back on track I decided to put in a full MTT grind on Saturday night. I played 12 events of varying buy-ins and formats (including the main event because us baller types just don't care
There has been a little bit of cash play mixed in too but my current generally inexplicable sense of poker pessimism has meant that far too much of it has been spent at 10nl (although certainly not exclusively). Despite all the doom-tinted malaise, it's actually gone ok really (especially considering the mix of stakes/volume) and total cash profits came to +£125.06.
As it's Monday, there will also be a smattering of rakeback landing in my account later. An unimpressive 1,137 points works out as £14.22.
Thanks for all the nice messages guys
Progress so far:
Cash: +£1,372.52
MTT's: +£317.38
Rakeback: +£326.83
Total: +£2,016.73
"doom-laden malaise" & "poker pessimism" may be true, but the bottom line - which cuts out the seriously short-termism, tells another story;
Cash: +£1,372.52
MTT's: +£317.38
Rakeback: +£326.83
Total: +£2,016.73
Nothing to be pessimistic or doom-laden about that.
Well done, keep it up.
Short-term is completely irrelevant, think of the long term. The results that matter are long-term.
I should have added "usually", as anyone who is familiar with these people might have noted;
For those interested in Wall Street, derivatives & financial engineering, this book about LCTM is an absolutely cracking read;
I find this approach helps because there still feels like some progression is going on, even if it's not reflected in a bigger bankroll. Plus, if you're getting better, then when the inevitable upswing does come you're in a better position to milk the **** out of it.
Just an idea and hopefully not a patronising one - you're a far more talented player than I am and seem to have much better b/r management and more experience; it's just that in the past if I shifted my perspective from 'making money' to 'getting better' during downswings then they were that bit more bearable.