technical difficulties

Well, the internet at my home is being wonky at the moment. The repair man can't come until tommorrow so the 30 day challenge faced an early obstacle. Fortunately Cafe Felix has internet, and not a lot of customers so I went out for a soup, sandwich and coffee with my grind thank you very much. Unfortunately their connection wasn't the best but I got in some hands and ran well. Current bankroll is at 64.12.

I tried to make the best of a difficult situation. I watched two videos from the "Coaching Kristy" series that Baluga Whale did. It is the holy grail of poker videos for micro/small stakes players IMO. I also read several chapters of Baluga Whale's book EZ Game.

The biggest thing that I am trying to implement into my game is opening up my preflop range so that I can play more hands against the bad players. Doing this means that I have to play much better post flop. What this means is that I am forced to become a better player. In the short term I am spewing some money but in the long run I think it is very +EV.

Baluga doesn't do what a lot of authors do and give you a starting hand chart. Instead he discusses what type of hands play well post flop. Pocket pairs, suited high cards, unsuited high cards suited connectors and unsuited connectors in that order basically. It is up to the student to determine a specific range. How dare he make me think for myself. :)

Of course I got a good idea of his pre flop range by studying the Kristy videos and watching what she was playing. What I found out is that it changes a great deal depending on who else is at your table. The more good players you are playing against, the tighter that you should play, especially when out of position. The more bad players are on the table, the wider range that you can open.

For example, if you have some tight regs to your left and a super fish in the big blind, K7 suited is potentially okay to open under the gun. The tight regs to your right will likely fold to your preceived strength while the fish will want to call and you can play a hand in position against a bad player that is suited and has high card strength. On the other hand if their is a player to your left who is likely to 3 bet your isolation raises than you need to tighten up and then make a plan to deal with him.

Its a cliche to say it perhaps, but Baluga Whale doesn't give you answers to how to play poker as much as he teaches you how to think about poker.

A rough start

Bankroll is at 59.26. I feel as though I played well but I didn't hit any big hands and took a few losses. The worst hand that I played was when I was 200+ buyins deep in position against a reg. I raised KK got 3 bet and called. I do think this was better than shipping it 200 deep but I might be wrong. An Ace came on the river that also completed a flush draw. I felt that I had to fold.

Over all I maintained discipline and focus. I followed the thought process taught by Baluga whale when playing post flop.

I think one thing that may help is for me to reduce the number of tables that I am playing. Currently I am mostly playing 5 tables. I will try just playing 4 tables tommorrow. I need to make sure that I am making good decisions. Also, I think that I will insta-leave any table where I have doubled up. If I am uncomfortable playing deep than it is -EV to do so.

The plan for day 3 of the 30 day challenge is as follows: Play 4 tables maximum and sit out on any tables where I have doubled up. Maintain focus and discipline.

Quick update and new goal

Long story short: I switched to 6 max NL and built a bankroll up to ~300. When Black Friday hit I cashed out the money and spent it on stupid stuff. I deposited 50 dollars on Merge and have struggled mightily. Currently my bankroll sits at 62.60 after losing 2.80 playing 4NL today.

On a positive note, this is the first day of my 30 day challenge. I have really struggled to put in consistent volume. This combined with my bad/tilty play has led to the horribly slow bankroll growth. Honestly, if it weren't for rakeback (35/% FTW) I would probably be busto right now. I have committed to playing one session of approximately 2 hours every day for 30 days. I believe that when I play my A game I am a +EV player. Therefore, after 30 days my bankroll should show substantial growth.

The overall key to this challenge will be discipline. First the discipline to put in the volume even on the days when I don't feel like it or something unexpected comes up. Second, the discipline to play the game that I have developed that has won for me in the past. No more unleashing the inner lag. No more calling down bad passive players with mediocre hands. No more focusing on short term results.

I will use this blog to track my progress. Tommorrow I will cover what metrics that I will be using to measure my performance.