Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

#April#Month End Review#May Goals#Thoughts

#April#Month End Review#
Thank God for Rakeback

Not too much to say except, I ran extremely well throughout the majority of the month. Just goes to show how much variance can play into your win-rate and results. 

Throughout the whole month my game was all over the place; which usually was a result in over-adjusting to tendencies of opponents. I frequently found myself 3-betting 8-10% at the full-ring zoom games; which is certainly high by most standards. 

Easter weekend- gave me a huge upswing; shots at 200nl-zoom went extremely well and I believe that I've fixed a few leaks in my 6-max game. 

Typically speaking my full-ring zoom game is much stronger than my 6-max game, however for this month be it variance or just my style of play my winrate has been much higher in the 6-max games than usual. 

I'm not too sure why many players who post results are keen to hide their "VPIP/PFR/3bet" stat as those numbers tend to converge within 2-3k hands of playing and will give very little information as to how you play.  

Over-adjusting to "anomalies" was a huge leak of mine nearing the end of this month which I found. Rather than considering my entire range as well as opponent's entire range I found myself justifying plays by "feel". 

Not that I personally berate the idea of playing by "feel" or whether or not I "believe" that opponent will look me up light, or what my image was; I think those aspects are secondary to range-construction, pot odds, implied odds, position, relative hand strength. 

For the entire month I ended up playing roughly 183 hours; with around 7-10 hours of "off-table work" which almost entirely consisted of me browsing forums; watching old videos, and reviewing my own hands. 

Thoughts and Reflections


For the upcoming month a lot of factors will end up affecting the goals in which I have in mind. 

SCOOP is coming around the corner as everyone in the online poker world should be fairly acquainted with, and Pokerstars has given me the option of splitting up my 5200$- WCOOP main event ticket into smaller chunks. With that in mind; one of my goals is certainly to play in a handful of these events and hopefully cash in a few.

The weather is also starting to clear up with many more sunny days are predictable weather, and due to the nature of only 3-4 months of "sunny season" in Vancouver I'm inclined to drop my volume down a bit in order to enjoy the beautiful beaches. 

As regarding to moving up stakes; I use a fairly conservative bankroll- management, as well as regularly cash-out. I'm an avid believer of having multiple streams of income from different sources and have been actively putting away some money and riding the US.Bull market for the last year, as money sitting in my bankroll isn't doing much to increase my hourly.

Since I'm also looking into purchasing an apartment in Vancouver in the foreseeable future it will be awhile before I start building my roll large enough to handle the swings.  

There has been some scepticism that the current market is due for a correction in response to the last 30 or so of "boom". My guess is that the shift of money from the real estate market into stocks resulted in declining of real estate and interest rates. Immigration policy being tightened up is also a likely cause for the result in Vancouver however doesn't entirely explain the mortgage rates throughout Canada. Because of the speculation, I'm convinced that it's likely a good time to purchase property with the notion of either "rental income" or a rebound due to a shift of money from stocks into real-estate. 

Variance, psychology, confidence. 

I've gotten a few questions regarding whether as to why I'm not playing any higher than 100nl. The answer is quite simple and segregated into 2 parts. 
1)- It's all about the hourly, 2) The mental side.

I'm a big proponent of the ZooM games, for reasons which I will discuss in a future post. Since 200nl- Fullring zoom doesn't run, or hardly runs at all; my only remaining option is the 200nl-6max games. 

My 6-max results historically have not been my best and would much prefer to see a solid winrate at 100nl-6max over a large sample size (500k hands) before attempting to make the jump fully. With a higher stake, smaller edges, a increase in variance of "downswings" will occur. I don't think I've personally matured to the point of being apathetic towards the temporary loss of money as a 4-8k downswing at 200nl will certainly affect my mental game. 

So hypothetically speaking; if my "A-game" results in a "3-4bb/100 winner at 200nl", a variance induced downswing may result in a prolonged downswing via playing a "C-game" of "-5-6bb/100".  At 100nl-zoom on the other hand; I've yet to experience any down-swing of that nature in the last 8-10 months and am fairly confident that my B-game is still profitable enough to justify grinding. 

I will eventually make the jump after; 
A) Showing extremely solid results at 100nl-6 max over an extended period of time
B) Getting over the habit of constantly checking my results and losses/ letting it affect my game.



Goals for May

  1. Obtain a subscription to training site.
  2. Enjoy the weather, eat well and exercise.
  3. Maintain 50k VPPs for Supernova Elite
  4. Constantly work on bringing a solid A-game and A-Mental Game to the table.

Cheers~ Best of luck to everyone else on the tables~ =)

Good luck in May ! 


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

#Final Week of April#Best Month Ever#April Heat

#Final Week of April#Best Month Ever#April Heat

It's been about a week and a bit since I did an update. If you look carefully at the graph enough there's a ton of 5-10bi downswings including a 30-35bi downswing around hand 155-165k. 

Easter weekend was quite good and fishy allowing me to make a full recovery and then some. I'm thoroughly surprised at my results this month as it broke my previous record for best month


I figure as long as I put in decent amount of volume and don't get into a major down-swing I'll end the month in the 20-25k profit range.  Made 66,206.83 VPPs this month and 58% of the way to my 200k milestone which would be an awesome boost. 

The volume has been coming at a much more natural rate this year, without the "pressure" of having to make Supernova elite pace. This allows me to take much more frequent break, days off, all in all not pressured to grind excess volume when I'm not playing my best.

Took a few shots at 200nl- this month and ran extremely well all around. 

Since I took a complete month off in January and didn't play in mid-February I'm going to try and really kick up the grind a little bit more than usual. 

I probably should have taken shots at 200nl during the weekends, however I ended up grinding there only when the full-ring-zoom games are dead midweek 1am--4am PST. 

Hopefully I continue to improve my game better and add a little bit more 200nl-zoom next month. I'm almost exclusively 6-tabling whether it be (3 200nl-6max, or 3 -100nl-fr zoom) alongside the 6-max zoom tables. 

I experimented with dropping to 4 tables of zoom, and oddly enough those were one of my biggest losing nights. Having more time and energy to focus on 4-tables made me level and overplay/overadjust/fancy play a ton. . . 

7-more Days Left in April! 

Good luck to everyone on the tables ! =)~ 




Monday, December 16, 2013

MID MONTH UPDATE #DECEMBER#SUPERNOVA ELITE#HEAT#HOLIDAY

MID MONTH UPDATE #DECEMBER#SUPERNOVA ELITE#HEAT#SLACK 

11902.44 VPP left before I hit Supernova Elite.This month has been a very slow and relaxing month for me. Unlike my usual months that are filled with all-nighter and marathon sessions I've been relatively sticking to a very relaxed schedule with about 2-3 days off each week. I think this month will be the least amount of volume as I think I'll probably be cutting my grind off at about 200k or so hands; or when I hit SNE whichever one is sooner!

I ended up taking both yesterday and today off to just relax. Since final-exams for University are coming to an end; it's been real nice to catch up with a lot of my friends that are currently in University and pig out for the winter! 

On the left here is Duck Meat with Egg Yolk inside. . . that is just awesome. Of course Asian food . . . all the strangeness , to be honest it really wasn't all that bad. 

On a latter note. . . I can't believe that the liquor store near by completely sold-out of Tree-Brewing Winter Ale


This month was much better than last month. . . by miles. After my first large downswing in November that completely killed my confidence and morale it was pretty much a train-wreck for me the whole way. I've been constantly revisiting a lot of the blog posts/articles I've written and found benefit in swallowing my own advice

I've still been regularly hitting the gym;~ and the results will be posted shortly once I've hit my Supernova Elite Challenge. I've worked a ton on not checking my results mid-session. . sometimes only once every day or two. Given that it was the Holiday season and I've been taking a ton of time off the tables to relax and hang with friends/family this naturally prevented me from playing a ton of extended B-Game/C-Game sessions and resulting in a much better Mid-Month than usual. 

It's quite unlikely that I'll be playing the last week of December so hope everyone's looking forward to my possible last and final post for this challenge in a week. 

As for my original Goal of 3evbb/100 and 200k hands. . . ~ we're actually right on the dot ! =) Quite pleased with running above Ev as well for the month. 

Hopefully will be ending the following week with a total of 10-15k after rakeback.


As Always Keep Positive ! 
Enjoy the Holidays!
and Good Luck on the Tables! =]





Saturday, December 14, 2013

Friday the 13th- Update- Count down to SNE- 12170VPPs

Friday the 13th- Update- Count down to SNE- 12170VPPs

Not exactly the greatest day, actually I think had one of the worst sessions/days this month. . . which in itself is both brag as well as a beat =P. Thought Fridays were particularly . . . "soft" so decided to fire up 200nl-Zoom which didn't go too well. Also busted 900/2000 in a Big 55$ MTT ; AJ vs AT 12bb deep. What can you expect. . . 

Played about 6.5 hours today; 3.3k VPPs, bit of a downswing. 

Though I'm not down a ton; I felt like I was outplayed in a ton of pots and got owned in a lot of cooler/bad situations.

Not exactly the healthiest of nutrition choices. . but I figured I need a treat now and then =)~ It is after all the holidays!

Very likely taking half or whole day off tomorrow to hang with friend. ~


As always Best of luck to everyone else on the tables !


Happy Holidays ! =)! 11-days till Christmas !

Monday, December 9, 2013

Dec 9 Update #Ride the Heat#Holiday#Snow#On Pace to $24,000 Month

#Ride the Heat#Snow in Vancouver! 


For the last 2 days I really haven't been putting in much volume that is to say. . . compared to what I'm usually putting in. Nonetheless . . . I'm still on pace to Supernova Elite which makes me pretty happy since I'm taking it easy.

I'm ecstatic to see some of my losses from last month in both $$ and ev$$ are slowly being caught back. 

sushi = +ev
Hit'd up the gym today; got some fish and proceeded to eat some more fish on the tables ;).  It was the first day of the season that I saw snow here in Vancouver! On the bright side, it's much better than the cold-wet sleety rain that dominates the weather. . . . that being said; the snow is usually quite short-lived :(. Hopefully I can get some good pictures of it tomorrow. . . =]






Since I figured I'm already relatively on pace/ ahead of pace to SNE chase I took an early day off yesterday to knock back a few brews with Dad and watch a movie. 

As far as Bruce Willis movies go. . . the general tempo of the movie is same and I was quite pleased about the "relative-originality" of the plot; since most Action movies so heavily lack a decent story line and just abuse the "chase scenes". *Ahem(Bourne Legacy)*

Vertical Winter Ale
If anyone is here in Vancouver or nearby and can access this; I highly suggest it. It's by far one of if not my favorite beers in the world : "Tree Brewing- Winter Ale". . . 

Due to the fact that it's only around for 2ish months of the year. . there's a likelihood that some of my outrageous plays on the tables will be attributed to this delicious beverage. 

Only about 21.7k VPPs left ! Not too bad considering that's about 50-55 hours of (6 tabling zoom 100nl). . . or if I'm a little frisky; 35-40h of (200/100nl 6m zoom).


It's actually been awhile since I've gone to see a movie in theaters. . . and probably will go to see "Catching Fire" tomorrow. Considering it's a Tuesday. . . and mid-week games aren't exactly "drooling", it's a reasonable trade off =)~.

So far so good just riding the First Week Heat like back in October. It would be pretty amazing to set a new personal record considering I've already taken a few days/half-days off this month. . . and plan on taking another week or 2 off. . . but who knows! 

I think hitting 8k- Profits, Supernova Elite will more than qualified in my book for a "decent month".  So in reality. . . even if I continue to run as well as I do for another 100-200k hands; I probably won't hit 20k month since I plan on cutting my grind short and taking holidays off~ =( 

I've already put in nearly 55-60 hours this month. . . but feeling pretty good about it so far. Since there are 1 or 2 days where I went into "Degen-Watch How I met your mother+grind all nighter mode" and the remainder chill 3-5h days which I feel are really relaxing. 











Hand of the Day

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2377447
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $56.28 Fish
Hero (SB): $292.08 Reg Fish
BB: $354.73 Loose Aggrotard
UTG: $115.50 Tag
MP: $197.77 AggroReg- thinks I'm full of SH** reg
CO: $109.50 Always Nuts Nit-Reg

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with K of spades K of hearts
UTG raises to $3, MP calls $3, 2 folds, Hero calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($10.00) 9 of clubs 7 of spades 8 of clubs (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, MP bets $7, Hero calls $7, UTG folds

Turn: ($24.00) 8 of hearts (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($54.00) K of clubs (2 players)
Hero bets $24MP raises to $114Hero raises to $267.08 all in, MP calls $58.77 all in




Final Pot: $399.54










Hero shows K of spades K of hearts (a full house, Kings full of Eights)
MP shows 8 of diamonds 8 of spades (four of a kind, Eights)
MP wins $396.74
(Rake: $2.80)







Good luck To Everyone Else on the tables ! 

Run HOT! and may the Odds be ever in your favor ;) 




Wednesday, October 16, 2013

MID MONTH UPDATE #OCTOBER#Pace to $20,000 month!

MID MONTH UPDATE #OCTOBER#

This month started off much better than last month's mid month review. Though it wasn't always smooth. . there were some terrible terrible downswings this month that's just been overshadowed by volume of course. My volume has been a little bit behind pace due to the fact that I decided to drop my tables from 8-tabling to 6 instead; this also resulted in an increase in win rate which is always a nice bonus. 

The Chase #mistakes

Depending way too much on eye drops, coffee , energy drinks to help me stay awake. The important thing to remember about shooting SNE @100nl is that it is a very tight chase. If I even fall behind schedule a day or two, couple days; It takes several extended 10-12 hour days to overcompensate for the time that I lost.  

This month however is a major exception as with the holiday of Thanksgiving, and lots of family dinners followed by karaoke and beer. . it wasn't exactly the best scenario for me to grind afterwards.






The Review

This month has been quite nice so far as I've taken several seperate shots at 200nl-zoom games. The first was at 200nl-zoom 6max, the others were at 200nl-zoom-full ring. Given that 200nl-zoom-full ring rarely runs I was ecstatic to find out it was quite fun and profitable when it did. There were several sessions when full-ring-zoom-100nl did not run (which is usually a huge pain in the butt for me); I compensated by adding 6-12 6-max/fr tables. . however needless to say either I ran terrible in them or just plain am bad in them. Perhaps it may be the change of environment being "regular tables that is getting to my nerves but I find myself always struggling to play as well as I do in the zoom games. 

50nl-6max went well this month when I 8-tabled (50/100)-6max for an all nighter session chasing losses. . . which probably was not the smartest idea but at least I'm in the green at 50! =)

Notes to Keep in Mind

  • Avoid playing extended days. This applies especially if there's a lack of sleep involved in this process
  • Avoid playing a very high variance game even if it means sacrificing marginal +ev spots
  • Keep to a healthy diet
  • Workout 5-6x a week 
  • Drop down from 4lbs 
  • Take small shots at 200-zoom when I'm neither tired, nor when the pool's nearly empty
  • Have positive win rate at 200-zoom-6 max.


[  ] 200k more hands for month 
[  ] Hit that 800k Milestone
[  ] Some table profits 

Currently Sitting @ 47k VPPs for the month; and Ideally I'd like to make about 100k VPPs this month or so. 

Last month although I did 130k VPPs it was at the expense of a 60bi downswing ; losing a ton at 200-zoom, and 8-tabling the majority of the month.

The benefit of hitting 130k VPPs this month and next is that I'd finish SNE approximately 1 Month ahead of schedule giving me the entire December free to nurse my burning eyes and wrist. 

However due to me being 30k VPPs ahead of my own pace due to last month; even if I make only 100k VPPs this month and next I will still hit SNE with about 10-days left to spare. Sounds good to me =)~


And always~ 

Good luck Everyone ! =] 
See you on the tables! 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Mid Month Update #September #Pace to $10,000+ month

Mid Month Update #September

Half Month Graph #September
For the last couple of days I had a 20 bi downswing that occurred in the span of only 4 hours. After thoroughly reviewing over same hand histories I have realized that I have to take the blame fully. 

This month has been quite well for me and the majority of my huge downswings occurred when I was playing very poorly. I'm quite positive if that I don't engage in massive pots super frequently this will help lower the deviation and variance in my game overall. It has become 


The Chase #mistakes

16 hour Grind Session
Last Thursday I decided to myself to put in a little bit extra volume than usual, and that it would behoove me to have some leeway while the year comes to a close and the holidays come around. So instead of a usual 8 hour grind; I ended up putting in 14-16 hours on that unfortunate day.
As you can clearly see after approximately 8-10h sweet spot of my mental game(hand 18k).

Then without a notice between hands 24k-27k (3000 hands) I dropped 16-17 bi's back to back, as a result of calling down much too lightly and bluffing much to frequently. Although chasing Supernova Elite has its' perks and definitely worth going for; there is something to be said about balancing and managing time well.

I can definitely understand how people that are going for SNE the first-time underestimate the difficulty and end up putting in excessive volume as they fall behind only to see they pay for it on the tables. At the same time I think the biggest mistake for me is understanding at what point during my session is my mental game just going down the drain; and the answer for that personally is around the 10h mark.

The Review

50nl too hard; no money in micros
After spending both July and August almost 50k VPP behind pace (per month) it became quite clear to me that the only way to achieve this standing is to play both a mixture of the Full-Ring and 6-Max tables if I were to achieve this goal at 100nl.

This month in that sense was a testing period to see whether or not I could conjure up a winning game for 6-max 100nl - zoom.

 Being as previously I have not have great success with 6-max zoom I was rather reluctant to attempt, but after thorough consideration that this would be the only way to hit SNE this year this attempt was made.

After the downswing from mid last month leading towards this month I decided to jump into 50nl to regain confidence. *Regain Confidence not Losses*.  Hopefully I can maintain similar win rates throughout the remainder of the year.

Notes to Keep in Mind


  • Avoid playing extended days. This applies especially if there's a lack of sleep involved in this process
  • Avoid playing a very high variance game even if it means sacrificing marginal +ev spots
  • Keep to a healthy diet
  • Workout 5-6x a week 
[  ] 200k more hands for month 
[  ] Hit that 700k Milestone
[  ] Some table profits 









Saturday, August 3, 2013

August Goals- July Reflections

Poker



After filtering for just 7-9 players the downswing near hand 120k- seems less steep as well as the break-even stretch.

This was due to a spew session where I lost 6 bi's in a period of 1k hands at 6max zoom - 100nl; as well as playing poorly when starting tables and short-handed at the full-ring tables.

I was very satisfied with the overall results however both the volume as well as the


The Numbers
51828.96 VPP's
215,954 hands played
2948.83$ table winnings
1650 hands/ hr

Since I'm calculating SNE (1mil VPP's as a worth of averaged 100k)- 5182.96 VPP's would average out to approximately $5182 in RB.

$5182.96
$2847.83
________
$8030.72  - Net Profit for the Month ; the graph calculation is based off of 47% rakeback which is more or less 500-600k VPP mark.

The Game

The main reason why my graph would've been better but isn't is simplified through one phrase; The Pareto Principle.

Given that I'm playing close to 24 tables of just regular speed; or 4 tables zoom 12 tables regular; It's very difficult to try and squeeze the marginal value out of every situations.

The Mind is an exhaustible source of energy, and by using the majority of my energy constructing on where 80% of the profits come from ; "the big decisions" and 20% of the decisions on the "little decisions" not only would game-play be sped up but so would mistakes.

Very frequently I would tire myself out and fancy play in 'attempts' to get the marginal value out of a specific hand; whilst not seeing the obvious 'Fat Value' situation in front of me.





Life , because a  balance nourishes the mind. 

This month not only have I started on the nicotine patches; but have worked through the 'Habitrol' 3- step program to slowly reduce the dosage of nicotine which I am receiving.

Living on campus in university led to a huge diet comprised of McDonalds, Soft-Drinks, Coffee, and sour-keys. . . and complete lack of exercise.

Started on a relatively stricter diet comprised of high protein and lower amounts of fat, as well as regular workout routine throughout the week.

A side project was also started by myself in order to get closer to the less fortunate community of the beautiful city I live in; Vancouver. Interviewing homeless people, visiting the shelters, and handing out some food the homeless.


Goals For August
- Enforce better time management skills
- Interview few more homeless people
- Update blog more regularly to increase accountability
- Workout 3-4x a week
- Continue playing as much of my 'A' Game as possible
- Aim for 250k+ hands.
- 180h
















Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Month End Review- July

Month Summary

Goal: 200/345k hands reached 
Hours: 121 hours put in                                         Money: ~7k          
Peak of the month was about half way through the month, at which point I encountered a downswing.

Took half a week off, and slowly climbed back up a tad bit.



Started the month on Nicotine Patches as a method of trying to quit smoking.

Worked out 4-5x a week with heavy weights. 

Ate "relatively" clean, with the exception of 

Wings night out
Gelato 3-4x a week at most.
All you can eat sushi


A 'July Reflection; August Goals post will be posted tomorrow with in-depth' short comings will be discussed more thoroughly.

Time Management. Tilt Management. Table Selection. Self-Control.