O-Poker

Am I the only one really, really wishing that I was in Las Vegas this past weekend for the WSOP Main Event? This year, I decided to head out to LV during the middle of the series instead of during the ME. I'm wishing that I waited until the Main Event - even if I wasn't going to play in the ME. Oh well, for now I'll just follow all the online coverage.

I am in the poker funk that I seem to fall into every year after the WSOP. Does this happen to anyone reading this? I get all jacked up about poker (both online and live) in the months leading up to the WSOP, head to the WSOP, and have a blast while in LV. A few days after getting home it starts to sink in that my WSOP is over. The motivation to play seems to fade. I find myself donking around in tourneys while watching TV instead of grinding out the cash games. Maybe, it is all the travel that I've done lately. Maybe, it is the long Holiday weekend.

For now, I'm going to catch up on some of the cardrunners vids and spend some much needed review of past cash game sessions. Hopefully, the poker motivation level will kick back into high gear. If not, maybe I'll start some sort of challenge to jump start things.

/End Rant

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TEMPLATE

It appears that my template is still messed up for some people - my current browser included. Can anyone recommend any good poker blog template sites? WillWonka mentioned Blogcrowds.com and I'll see if I can find some there, but I seem to remember running across a bunch of great template sites when I first started blogging.

After being up and down this week, I headed into tonight up about 1/2 a buy-in for the week following a horrible week last week.

Things didn't go well last night.

*****EDIT*****: To answer one of the comments - Yes, I know I played a couple of these hands about as horribly as possible (very weak tight). This is not how I normally play. That is why I posted them - to show how poorly I was playing/tilting. I was playing not to lose instead of to win and was making bad calls. I try not to sugar coat things on the blog. I'm in a much better frame of mind today and know that I will be back on track in no time. ***********

Hand 1 - Early on in the session, I got all in as a 68% favorite with 1 card to come and lost.

Hand 2 - I'm sure that I was tilting after Hand 1 and played this hand horribly on all streets. The guy was 33/25 but his river aggression was pretty low, so it should have been an easy fold.

Hand 3 - I'm thinking the frustration got the better of me again. I got all in on the flop with two overs and a flush draw - only to be really far behind on the flop and dead on the turn.

Hand 4 - I don't think that there was any to get away from this against a shorty. Anyone fold this?

Hand 5 - DQB - The only bright spot of the night.

Overall, I wound up losing four buy-ins on the night. That puts my 2/4nl November total to down 13 buy-ins after being up 33 buy-ins last month for a net Oct-Nov of up 20 buy-ins.

October = Great. +13.5k cash games + 1.8k in rakeback = $15.3k

November to date = Horrible. -5.2k + $600 in rakeback = -$4.6k

October + November = OK +$10.7k

Oh, the joys of cash games!!!

I have looked over most of the November hands and other than the coolers and bad beats, I probably spewed close to 2-3 buy-ins from bad calls and bad timing on bluffs. I don't think that I have been playing anywhere close to my "A" game this week - clearly effected by the 1st week of November.

I have re-read my old "Slump Busting" post and it still all applies. I am going to re-read it each of the next few nights before I start playing. I'll probably stick with 4 tables more often than 6 tables.

My new plan

1. Move down to 1/2NL
2. Regain my confidence.
3. Play my "A" game each session. If I feel like I am playing bad, I'm going to take a break or stop for the night.
4. Play a minimum of 25k hands at 1/2NL before hitting 2/4NL again.
5. Try to mix a few new things into my game.
6. Shoot for a PTBB/100 of 5.0 for the duration of the 25k hands.
7. Re-watch the cardrunner cash game videos that I thought were most helpful and saved.
8. Not play cash games while watching TV and sitting in the recliner.
9. Not play cash games while watching TV and sitting in the recliner.

This shouldn't be taken as a rant or sympathy post. It is more of a self realization. I'm not happy with how I am playing this week after running ridiculously horribly last week. I know that I am a lot better than I have been playing this week and plan to prove it to myself.

What to do? What to do?

After getting back from the Bahamas in January, everything (poker wise) this year seemed to build to up to the WSOP. I was really focusing on winning my way into the WSOP Main Event. I planned the trip - hotel, airfare, etc. The only thing missing was a seat to the WSOP. I was a little bummed with not winning my seat online or live. I had almost taken it for granted that I would win my seat. I think that I was jaded by winning two seats last year and winning a seat to the Pokerstars PCA in the last chance sattelite. I thought I would win my way into the WSOP Main Event and wasn't sweating much as the date got closer and closer. I had forgotten how hard of a task winning a seat is.

The trip wasn't all bad though. It made me realize where my bread and butter is - cash games. At times tourneys feel like a complete waste of time. Sure there is the occasional large score and I've been on the good end of some very nice scores in the past. The times in between can be frustrating.

I am guessing that I would have had an extremely profitable trip to LV if I had just stuck with the cash games. I made $6,100 in the cash games in less than 30 hrs of cash games play over 8 days. In contrast, I lost $5,100 between Super Sats and Tourneys in probably about 25-30 hrs of play. Instead of a nice profit on the trip I managed to squeak out a small profit (before hotel, food, airfare, etc) on the trip.

So, what to do now? Where should I focus my playing time? I think the answer is easy - cash games. I really enjoy playing tourneys (most of the time) and will continue to play them, but will devote a lot more of my playing time to cash games.

I am going to come up with a new cash game challenge to motivate myself and will start August 1st. In the meantime, I will probably mess around with a few tourneys here and there to get it out of my system.