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!

March 2009 online results

Quick update

Well I felt like I was due a quick update.

Been settling back into my daily routine after the storm we had a few weeks ago. This means getting back into job hunting and (more interesting to my readers I assume) back to the grind.

Been doing OK so far, and despite all that happened, March is going pretty well so far. I am a slight winner, and on pace to play close to 15K hands. I should also be able to finish clearing the Cake Poker deposit bonus before the end of the month. Which means that I'll move back to the shitty iPoker client to clear more bonuses.

I have quite a few bonuses I want to clear still. Mostly on the iPoker network from bonus whores. Then there are also a few from poker source online including a year long Stox membership.

After months playing 8 tables and never really trying to add some, I finally decided to move up to 10. Even though I can't play with a HUD on Cake, it's been going pretty well. Pretty sure I could play 12 relatively easily with a HUD. This should definitly help a ton for clearing bonuses and just logging tons of hands.

Fuck cancer

My girlfriend's sister died last week at age 38 following a 4 year long fight with breast cancer. Needless to say that this kind of events puts things into perspective. Also needless to say that I have not been playing much poker...

No recaps for last month, no goals for this one. Just a weird numbness and fatigue. The last week was long and with little sleep (I can only imagine how it must be for my gf and her and parents and other sister). Right now we are all struggling to try to find some semblance of a normal daily life. Me mostly trying to be present and helpful, the family being over their heads with the preparation of the ceremony and stuff like that... all while coping with their loss.

I am not too sure why I am making this post is. Not too sure what the point of it is either to be honest. But I felt like this was an event that I had to leave some trace of, somewhere, in some silly way.

RIP Sandra...

February 2009 online results

New challenges all around.

February is almost over, and a good friend made me realize I was way overdue for an update.

So where am I at? Well I lost my job a few weeks ago. As much as this suck, I still see this as a positive thing overall. Sure this means the money is a bit short, but it was time I left this place. On to new challenges on that way!

So does that mean that I'm playing poker non stop? Not really. I've invested a lot of time into finding a job and more importantly deciding what exactly I want to do long term.

That said, I HAVE been playing a bit more poker. Finally moving up to NL50. Right now I'm mixing NL20 and NL50 tables on Cake since at times it's tough to find lots of good tables. The results are not too bad so far and barring any catastrophic event, I will reach all my monthly goals.

I can't say I'm completely comfortable at NL50 yet but I could not really explain why. The stakes already don't bother me anymore and the play does not seem all that different from NL20 although it IS a bit tighter and more aggressive. Maybe I just have not been getting much cards at NL50 so far... we'll see.

Finally the Montreal Casino is opening a poker room with dealers, chips and cards on March 30th! For those who don't know, so far this casino only had electronic pokertek tables.



Playing on these is not all bad but there are quite a few things that annoy me.

After the novelty factor wears out, they seem more intimidating to casual players.

The first few weeks, the games were really juicy. But after a few months it became full of regs and shortstacking nits. The feeling of the people I talked to is that the lack of a person in place to explain rules and clarify what's happening made it intimidating to a lot of casual folks.

No authority figure at the table

I have seen many regulars show their hands to each other after hands are over or even sometimes while playing. There is no one to enforce rules like "show one show all" and "one player to a hand". THIS I hated.

Call me old fashioned

When I play live, I want to hears chips being shuffled, I want to throw real cards in the muck. If I want to play in front of a screen, I might as well stay home and multitable.

Well that's it for today, I swear I'll try to update this blog more often!

January thoughts and February goals

My January goals were :
- Play 15,000 hands of online poker
- Have a winning month
- Review my play in depth once a week

Well I fell a bit short on the volume side of things and definitely did NOT post a winning month. That said I have managed to review my game somewhat regularly. Probably not as much as I wanted, and not enough. But it's still a start.

It's really weird, since my automn hiatus, I feel my game being somewhat off and I've been working on bringing it back to what it was (and even better). That said, I'm still struggling a bit. I also have a feeling that variance has been pretty nasty towards me for the past month and a half. That's not to say that my "bad" results are just due to variance. Trust me, I have made some bonehead plays! Anyway, I have been thinking about maybe getting a coaching session or two in to help spot what makes me a spewtard lately.

Anyway, more on that later I guess. For now, here are my February goals.
- Play 15,000 hands of online poker
- Have a winning month
- Review my play in depth once a week

That's right. Same exact thing as in January!

January 2009 online results

Ain't variance great ?!?

I'm in the middle of a very rough streak. I seem to have been on the wrong side of variance for quite a while. I make second best hands a lot, my sets are cracked at an absurd rate and I can't hit a draw to save my life. And all that and the frustration that comes with it makes me play way worse than I should.

The good point is that I am definitly playing a lot of hands and should hit my volume goal for January. the bad point is that I stuck being slightly in the red.

I have a few things planned to get my focus back, while I can't control variance, I know for a fact that I am making things worse by being frustrated, playing a bit impatiently or scared. So what's the plan?

- More game studying. I need to start to study my own play and the other regs play more regularly. About 6 months ago, when I was in my best poker period, I was doing that a lot. That includes session reviews, posting hands on 2+2, discussing specific hands a lot with Alex, Joff and whoever else wants to discuss poker.

- Spend time just "focusing". I realised a few days ago that if I take time to just close my eyes, try to relax and take a few deep breath (even if only for a few seconds) it helps putting me back in a calm and positive state of mind. Gotta do more of that, especially when I feel myself becoming frustrated at the tables.

- Keep on playing. I cannot let that rough patch sidetrack me. If I do the two other things I've mentionned and just keep on playing I know the results will come back.

January goals

Well now that we're halfway through January, it's about damn time I post my goals for the month don't you think?

So here they are :
- Play 15,000 hands of online poker
- Have a winning month
- Review my play in depth once a week

2009 goals

We're almost at the halfway point of January and I still haven't posted my yearly and monthly so I figure I'm way overdue. I'll start off by the goals for the year, goals for January will come up shortly...

Move up to NL100 before the end of the year

But, Nic, you're not even at NL50 yet?

I know but since my goal for NL50 is ASAP I didn't think it was worth mentioning. So NL100 before the end of the year it is! To move up to NL100 I want to have 30 buy ins. This might seem like a lot, but I put a bigger guideline than usual for 2 reasons.

First, I think bonus clearing might make me increase my bankroll a lot faster than it has in the past. Second, NL100 kinda intimidates me. So I now need a $3000 bankroll before the end of the year.

Play 250,000 hands of online poker

I did some math and this would be a pretty big increase in volume. I know a lot of people put this kind of volume in just a few months, but for me it is a realistic yet challenging goal to achieve. In my wildest dreams I'll crush this one...

Start playing more PLO and add it in my regular playing time

A few reasons for this. One, I think Omaha is a really fun game. Two, the fields in Omaha are much softer than in No Limit Hold'Em. Three, when I started focusing on Omaha a bit last year, it also forced me to think about poker outside of the Hold'Em frame, which in turn improved my play even at hold'em tables.

Visit the Charlevoix casino and go to Atlantic City at least once

There is only one casino in the province I have not visited and I plan on changing this. I also think it's ridiculous that I have not paid Atlantic City a visit yet.

Keep updating that blog even more frequently

I want more posts at the end of 2009 than I had at the end of 2008.

So there you have it. This is where I will stand at the end of 2009.

2008 recap : falling short

Well 2008 has come and passed, it had it's big ups and down both in poker and in life and now is the time to take a good hard look at the year and think about the future.

At the beginning of 2008 I set a few goals for myself.

Move to NL25 before this summer and to NL50 before the end of 2008

Well I did manage to move up to NL25 around May, but as the clock hit midnight and 2008 was a thing of the past, I am still an NL20/NL25 player, my bankroll being a few buy ins short of moving up. Part of me is telling me that I should cut myself some slack. My father's sickness, moving to a new condo and having my laptop stolen sure took their toll on my playing time and who knows if I would have made it if not for these events.

I still managed to take a few shots at NL50, and bonus whoring combined with the renewed motivation I have should put me back there pretty soon.

Play live games on a more regular basis

That one I just let go. Went to the casino a few times and quickly grew tired of the electronic tables the Montreal and Gatineau casino spread (yeah, I know, the Gatineau casino is now spreading real tables and the Montreal one should be doing so soon too). I frequented a few poker rooms in Montreal and had fun, but it's my feeling that "poker rooms" attract poker players, while casinos attract, well, anybody. Hence I don't feel that playing in poker room is as +EV as playing at the casino.

So with all this I just decided to let that one go.

Develop a game studying routine

Did I manage to do that? Yes and no. For quite a while I was participating in frequent session reviews, posting hands on forums, reviewing my own play and the play of the regulars I meet often. Then I just stopped. Right now I'm trying to get back into it all but I have to list that one as a fail.

Put more serious time in another game than NL Hold'Em

Again that's a mixed one. I spent some time on the Pot Limit Omaha tables and read a great book on that game. I still love that game and I'm pretty sure I'll keep going back to it from time to time. That said, if I want to be honest with myself, I did not play as much as I intended when I stated that goal. I guess that's one of the good things about setting goals, with hindsight it helps reassess your priorities and where you're really at.

So, what to make of all that? 2008 was mostly a good year for me poker-wise. Reading back my archives I see how far I've come (and how far I still have to go!). Sure I fell short a bit, but one year ago I was barely playing NL10, now I'm on the verge of playing NL50 and that is despite everything that life threw at me.

I am proud of what I've achieved, thrilled about what's to come and ready to face the challenges of 2009.

December 2008 online results