chopping wood

Okay, so Its been a week since I started the great poker drive. I'm down a little over a dollar and I've played almost 600 hands. What have I learned? Two things: 1. When I stop playing middle pair on the flop I do much better and 2. 600 or so hands isn't really enough hands to tell anything. Variance is a bitch. In order to account for wild luck swings where I play like a lobotomized chicken and win anyways and those other times when my pocket aces get cracked by some Rhodes Scholar who thinks its a great idea to call three raises preflop with 6-5 suited and then back doors his flush you have to play many hands. According to the guys and gals at the 2+2 forums after around 30,000 hands I will begin to have an idea of whether or not I am playing with a positive expected value i.e. Am I the sucker at the table or not?

By the way, I suppose I should mention that the games I play are Texas hold'em limit and no limit. I am also learning Razz but I have yet to play it for money.

Anyways, I am trying to focus on the big picture. I am trying to ignore individual ups and downs and focus on continuing to work on my game and get in lots of hands. The more practice and study the better. I am trying to just put blinders on and keep chopping wood so to speak.

One thing I am doing to keep my focus where it belongs is, I am just recording the number of hands dealt each day. I will update my bankroll figures at the end of the week and figure my wins and losses per 100 hands rather than per hour. I don't want to fall into the trap of planning my WSOP bracelet fitting every time I am up a few big bets or drowning my sorrows in Cuervo every time I don't book a winner.

Over all I am focusing on things I can control:

Play good starting hands

make good post flop decisions

play as much as possible. My current target is to be dealt 200 hands per day.

Next post I'll discuss rather or not to play multiple tables.