May recap and June goals

My listed goals for May were :
- Play at least 15,000 hands of online poker.
- Post a winning month
- Get a coaching session
- Start reviewing my play more
- Start participating on the 2+2 forums again.
- Update this blog more frequently

With a big losing month and just 10K hands you could easily assume that this month is a massive failure. Trust me, it's not. Sure I missed at least half my goals (did not get a coaching session either), but I did start reviewing my play more and it paid off.

I've finally identified one of the big leaks in my game that was in part responsible for the massive downswing I was in. Since that revelation, my results have been improved already and I am fully confident that June's going to be much better than May and April.

So what are my goals for June?
- 15,000 hands. I need to start focusing again and put up more volume. I'm way behind pace for my yearly volume goal.
- A winning month. Armed with what I spotted I am confident about this.
- Continue to improve on my review/study routine.

Let's get started!

May 2009 online results

WSOP prop bet update : First blood!

The first score has been made! Thanks to Eric Lindgren cashing in Event #3 ($1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or better) I took an early lead.

Sure it's not that big of a cash and thus not a big lead... but hey it's better to take a small lead than not to take the lead at all!

Silly jitters

I am not a big donkament player and I have nowhere near the bankroll to go play in the WSOP in Vegas. Still... that time of the year kinda feels like Christmas to me. The 6 weeks circus that is the WSOP is always entertaining to follow ( and bet on! ).

So here I am, adding poker players I know to my twitter, talking about the WSOP, reading articles and interviews with players and of course finding myself wanting to play more than usually.

I had a pretty nice day of poker last friday. Decided to dedicate that day to playing and studying my game and something clicked. It came to me as a revelation in the middle of a session. I found out what was one of the big leaks I had created in my game and that was in no small part responsible for the downswing I am in. Without going into details, it's something about a kick ass article I read a few months ago that I started applying wrongly.

So here I am, waiting for WSOP results, trying to squeeze as much play as I can and filled with renewed focus and a lot of confidence thanks to what I discovered about my game.

Confidence...

It's crazy how short our memory can be. All in took was a few decent sessions to bring back some confidence in my game.

The results have not been stellar, but I've managed to grind some gains and suddenly I'm not as afraid to play. Actually, dare I say it, I'm starting to enjoy playing once again! All it took was a few good sessions in a row.

Do I think that all is now fine and dandy? Not at all. In fact I still plan on getting a coaching session to help settle everything. That said, I am not at the point where I am afraid of playing anymore.

It's crazy how all it takes sometimes is a little bit of decent results to bring back a load of self-confidence.

April recap and May goals

April was, as you may have guessed by looking at my graph, a pretty rough month.

I did not play much and whatever poker I did play did not go too well. I've started reviewing some sessions, something I definitely don't do nearly enough of. The downswing I'm on seems to be the results of a bit of variance (like for example I seem to hit sets less often than I should, and they don't seem to hold much), and a whole lot of bad play.

This whole thing left me apprehensive and I found myself hesitant to play. That showed in my play volume. That said, I had a good session recently and it was enough to give me back the urge to play.

The good news is that bad play can be corrected. Already since the beginning of May I've posted a few sessions where I felt a lot less "spewy". I will most likely pay myself a coaching session pretty soon to help me spot some stuff that I do that are costly.

Now, what are the goals for May?
- Play at least 15,000 hands of online poker.
- Post a winning month
- Get a coaching session
- Start reviewing my play more
- Start participating on the 2+2 forums again.
- Update this blog more frequently

April 2009 online results... ouch

Rough month... I'll post a recap later on...

WSOP Prop bet : 2009 edition

That's right, our WSOP draft is back this year but with a few changes.

First we are 3 to participate now. Also we each pick 3 players instead of just 2.

We decided to remove the NL Hold'Em 10K main event, the 50K HORSE and the special 40K NLHE event from the list. The big buy ins and/or huge fields of these events make for big cashes that could potentially tilt the odds too much.

We decided on a snake draft and since I suck at winning flips, I had the last pick in the first round.

Joff took a weird but interesting choice with the 1st overall in my opinion drafting Durrr. Durrr is definitly more of a cash game player, that said, I really feel that this year he's all about promoting himself and getting some TV Time. So I have a feeling he could make a big push in the WSOP. Joff's two other choices seem solid to me.

Alex stuck with the two guys he had crushed me with last year and he added Phil Hellmuth. This in my mind is a bad pick. The slower/deeper structures don't seem to favor Hellmuth and the WSOP made this years structure a bit deeper/slower than last year. That said I'm sure Hellmuth would love to prove me wrong here...

As for my choice, I think Greenstein and Lindgren are good all around picks. I'll be lucky if either of them repeats the results they had last year. My wildcard I think is Ivey. He could easily be sidetracked by juicy cash games, but I think he'll make a big push for a bracelet this year again. Hopefully he succeeds better than last year.

So there you have it! The tally is already posted (even though it's quite early) and I can't wait to rail these games from my home!