100K hands

Now up to 100,000 hands since I lost my PT database last summer. Thought it was a somewhat cool milestone, so here's my "lifetime" graph!

2nd coaching session

Got my second coaching session yesterday. It's crazy how sometimes being told something you already know just helps you grasp it. And by that I don't mean that SplitSuit didn't tell me anything I did no know! We went over some stuff that I had read about, but somehow failed to really integrate in my game. Just hearing him talk about it and asking him a few questions made everything so much clearer! Don't get me wrong, I still need to work a lot on those things, but after that session I feel like I have the tools to do so.

August is going pretty well so far although I'm behind pace for my 15K hands (I blame the Olympics). A good sprint at the end of the month might bring me close though. At least the hands I am actually playing, I feel I play pretty well. My results have been really good so far and while that is partly due to what I call the "SplitSuit trainee karma", I think it is encouraging.

My bankroll growth has been slowed a bit lately due to me actually spending a bit of it on coaching and some datamining/table selection software. Still, I feel pretty confident about my year goal of reaching NL50 before 2009. A few easily clearable bonuses and rakeback should make this relatively easy. Feels good to finally get closer to what seems like meaningful stakes. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about all the time I've invested in playing and beating NL10 and then NL25. But for some reasons, I always kinda felt that it all really started at NL50.

As for the rest of my life, I guess things are pretty good. Been coming back to my guitar more and more lately. Guitar has been a weird mistress for me over the year. I get super hyper motivated for a while and play a lot, and for some reasons then I stop and don't even touch it for months. The weird thing is that it's pretty easy for me to play music. I'm by no mean a pro, but I seem to learn faster than most and don't struggle as much. Guess it would be a waste not to use that and to let my guitar gather dust!

Taking the next step

Well it's done. I've hired a poker coach. It's something I had been thinking about a lot for a while, so when I stumbled upon SplitSuit's website and watched his videos, I decided to hire him. I've had my first session last sunday and while I have to admit that I probably did not get as much out of it as I could have (my fault, not his! my head was just spinning trying to integrate all the small things he told me), it got me to question my approach to the game, how I play some hands and react to some situations and in general why I do some things. The main things he got me working on was bet sizing. It's a part of the game I had never really paid enough attention to. He gave me some rough guidelines that got me to think back about it and change my approach. It's still early, but I feel like it's all starting to click and I feel much more solid about my game already.

I can't wait for our next session.

As much as coaching helps, it ain't free. So how does that affect my overall yearly goal of moving up to NL50 by the end of the year? Well, I actually think it's going to help me. I definitly feel more comfortable with my game and even though I've only played a few thousdand hands since our first session, I have a feeling my winrate will be better than it was. (I know, I know... not tough to have a better winrate than the breakeven stretch I was in!). Also, I got a nice rakeback deal and a few bonuses that I'm looking to clear in the next few months. So I'm pretty confident that I'll be playing NL50 in 2009 and hopefully even before that!

Back from vacations : July recap and August goals

Well I have not been updating this blog nearly enough recently. I just came back from vacations and I guess it's time to go back to work and focus on poker once again.

Goals for July were :
- Play 10,000 hands of NL Hold'Em
- Post a winning month
- Start reviewing sessions at least once a week.
- Start getting a healthier lifestyle.

I definitly played enough hands. More than I expected. As for a winning month... well... I can't put my finger on what's wrong, but I am in this long breakeven stretch that's annoying the shit out of me. Anyway, there are a few things I will do pretty soon that should help with that. I won't say more about these for now but rest assured, I will in a few weeks. I did review my own play a bit more this month... but again, not nearly enough. As for the big "healthier lifestyle" thingy well I started riding a bike to work, started eating better at home... next step is to eat better at work.

So overall mixed results for July... I'm not entirely unhappy with it though. On the positive side I moved a big chunk of my bankroll to an iPoker skin where I got a nice deal. So this should help.

Now the goals for August :
- Play 15,000 hands of online NLHE. Back with an vengance!
- Start dabbling a bit in PLO again.
- Post a winning month. (ldo)
- Come back to post here more regularly
- Start the thingy that I don't want to tell you guys more about... yet
- Go on with more exercise & healthier food.

July 2008 online results