Parting Ways and Staking...

I'm no longer with imawhale staking. Overall it was a great experience and over the ten months I was with them I met some great people and learned a lot. If feel my game has improved significantly over this time. Basically I want to be with a staking group that can provide more player development, mentoring, coaching and support. While Shane has a good staking group none of those things are really provided for the players. 

Poker is so tough these days and players need every edge they can get. I really hope to find a backing group that really does what's necessary to help their horses be the best they can be. 

One thing I learned while being with imawhale and while looking for a new backer is how haphazardly so many people apply for staking. Shane would get applications with tons of spelling and grammar mistakes. I read threads from backers on Two Plus Two and Pocket 5s stating exactly how to apply and then see people posting doing completely the opposite. 

Applying for staking is the same as applying for a job. If you write a resume you always make sure it's properly formatted and grammatically correct with no spelling errors, why would you not do the same when applying for staking. Since so many people don't seem to get this I thought I give some advice here:

Most backers post threads on popular poker forums like those linked above. They will state the information they need from you and ask you to send this to them in a private message. Most staking groups also have websites with staking applications. When you fill out the application or message the backer make sure you provide all the information asked for in a organized manner. Be sure you double check your spelling and grammar. Be sure you give them all the information they need to check your poker statistics and results. 

Stakers get numerous applicants and if they get messages and applications that are a disorganized mess they aren't going to bother to read more than the first sentence or two. If you can't follow simple directions how are you going to keep spreadsheets or data for them to keep up with your play and results if they back you. 

Do something to make your application stand out or make your results easy to access. I created a Google presentation document with information about my playing history, links to all my stats and screenshots of my tracked SharkScope results and graphs. I set it to share with anyone who has the link. I can use it to link in private messages or applications and on Twitter or forums if I'm selling live action. You can view it here for an example. 

Most importantly make sure you have good references and don't do things to hurt or destroy your reputation in the poker community. If you roll on a stake or play things you aren't cleared to play or other sketchy things you're going to have trouble ever getting backing again and these days serious players need backing. 

If you're new to the poker world get active on either of the above linked forums and post and be active. When it comes time to take your game to the next level and apply for staking or sell live action if you haven't been active on the forums you're going to have a problem. 

As for me I have one offer on the table and possibly one or two other good possibilities. I'm trying to take my time and be sure I go with the right group. For now I'm playing on my own dime, which is actually no fun. I hate having to worry about bankroll management and those things playing on your own dime require. I'll be so happy when I have another backing group in place.

Procrastination

I'm so awful at updating this blog. It's not that I have nothing to write about because I do. Lots of things have happened since my last blog. So much that it'll probably take 3 blogs to write about it all. So why do I never write in this blog. Well it's obviously because I'm such a huge procrastinator. Why do today what we can put off until tomorrow.

Maybe it's because I have several things to write about and I can't decide where to start. Maybe there is so much in my head that I can't sort it out enough to get it written down. Maybe I'm ridiculously unorganized. Maybe other things are more fun to do than writing a blog. I mean really, had you rather write a blog or get sucked out on a minimum of three hundred and fiddy times in under two hours. Now that's just too fun to miss. If that's not good enough I can rail the assclowns who got it in horribly bad when they make the final table of the tournament they busted me out of. I mean nothing is more fun than watching a completely incompetent moron win lots of money with the chips he won off you when he called your 21BB reshove with 67o and hit trips, right?

No seriously, I've just been on a pretty brutal downswing and haven't really been motivated to write. Especially since I vowed not to write whinny blogs. Tonight however, I was pretty down and disgusted after another particularly brutal Sunday grind. I was on Skype talking to a friend and said I was beginning to wonder if I was even capable of beating these games. He's coached me a good bit and knows my game better than anyone and we had a session the other day. That session was really enlightening because I saw so many things I had reverted back to doing. I had basically gone back to many of my old nitty ways. I ask him if he thought I was capable of being a winning player. His response was if you'll get back to way you were playing a few months ago and not the way you're playing now, yes you are. That's when it dawned me...

I'm a huge fan of Jared Tendler's The Poker Mindset, in the book he talks a lot about conscious and unconscious competence. Being that unconscious competence are things we know so well they are second nature like folding 72o and things like that. We don't really have to think about a lot of plays we make because they are very basic and we've made them so often we just do them without thinking. Conscious competence are skills we've learned but we have to think to utilize these skills. When our emotions reach a certain level it becomes really hard to make our brain function properly and we tend to revert to the things we do without much thought. This is what happens when we tilt really bad, our brains go on some kind of overload and all we can manage are the things we just do but don't have to think through. What I think is going on with me is while I'm not tilted in the obvious sense of the word, the emotions from a prolonged downswing have accumulated and cause me to have trouble doing the things that I've learned but haven't mastered and I've reverted back to the those things I don't have to think about. So I'm going to have a couple of poker free days and get my head straightened out and come back and do some reviewing and studying for a day or so and then get back to poker with a clear head and better attitude.

...and in my next blog update, which I promise will be soon, I will talk about my first WSOP circuit event and my first tracked live cash. Until then remember "You will eventually run worse than you ever thought possible, but the difference in winner and a loser is the loser thinks he doesn't deserve it". No idea who said this but it's all too true.

"Tied To The Whipping Post"

I guess you can tell by the title of this blog that March hasn't been so marvelous so far. I have 9 days left this month and after sending the most stupid email ever to my backer and getting his quite to the point reply I've had a long talk with myself and pulled my fish brain back to reality. I thank him for his "you're being a fish reply" because he was right I was totally being a fish and I'm embarrassed by stooping to sending the email I sent him. No, I'm too embarrassed to tell you what it said but believe me it was total fish thinking. 

Runbad sucks but it happens! When we're dumb enough in the first place to choose to play MTTs we have to learn to deal with variance and playing mid-stakes in the US just makes it worse. I've hit a rather rough patch of runbad but honestly I've been through a lot worse and come out of it so I'm not sure why this time had such an affect on me as it did. I think it's a combination of a few things, I had a really nasty flu a couple of weeks ago and I'm having trouble getting over it and I've let some silly things bother me that I should have been able to just blow off and deal with. I also have been pretty slack about getting in any decent volume and the combination of those things are a recipe for disaster.

So hopefully now that I've dealt with my attitude and stupid fishy thinking and embarrassed myself royally it's time to move on and win some money. So here's hoping to a much better end of March! 

March is without a doubt my favorite poker month. All of my very best cashes have happen in March. Every March since I started playing has been better than the last one. So I have high hopes and great expectations for this March. Maybe March is always so good for me because I expect it to be. Positive attitude does go a long way but I really have no idea why I've always seemed to do so well every March for the last four. Below are my best March moments.

March 2009 - My first real money cash for $645 on Players Only in the $250K guarantee where I finished 49th out of 909. I was such a huge fish back then. I went through this hand history awhile back and found it hilarious.

March 2010 - My first MTT win on PokerStars in the 1000 cap $4.40 4 max 2K guarantee. I talked about this one a bit in this post. Again I was still quite the fish but not quite as big of one as the previous year. I made some more money this month and made my first withdrawal in early April.

March 2011 - My first 4 figure cash and large MTT final table on PokerStars in the $11r $50K guarantee for $1541. It was all uphill from there and finished the month with my biggest profit ever which I believe was at least $4K. Unfortunately two weeks later Black Friday happened :(

March 2012 - My biggest cash and most profitable month to date. I finished 3rd out of over 2600 runners in the Poker Maximus Event 23 for $6,600 and had a profit of over $8K by the end of the month. 

March 2013 - TBD, stay tuned but I'm really hoping for that first 5 figure cash...

It ain't about how hard ya hit...

It's been awhile since my last blog, quite awhile but I'm going to start trying to update this blog at least every other week. I've always been bad about only blogging when I had something brag about or whine about. Right now I really have neither. 

Things have been better and they've been worse. I just finished my second positive set over the last 600 games (300 games per set). The one before this, set 5, was pretty decent for a low to mid stakes tournament player with over $4K in gross profit. The last one started slow, picked up nicely in the middle and the last week was murder so finishing up at all was an achievement, at least that's what I'm telling myself.  

If I wanted to make a steady income I'd have stuck to cash games I guess but I'd be dead from boredom by now. Choosing to play tournaments is such a dumb decision but I just love them. The variance is disgustingly gross and very hard to deal with. Making consistent money is super hard but the thrill of playing against the blinds and having to push all my chips in the middle and pray somewhat makes up for the downside.

The clip above is for my own inspiration and yours and nothing is more true when it comes to tournament poker: "It ain't about hard ya hit, it's about how hard ya can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward, that's how winning is done" 

Let's go do some winning! 

Remember When Poker Was Fun...

... well it still is to be honest :-)

I was just looking through some old screenshots and came upon the one above. This was my very first MTT win on March 19, 2010 in the $4.40 4 max 1000 capped game on Stars. I wasn't very good back then so I have no idea how I won this tournament. Well  I guess that would be luckboxing for sure because I had little skill then. 

What's the funniest thing about this is how excited I was to win $640. Now I bitch and moan if that's all I win in a tournament, and unfortunately with only being able to play on the remaining US facing sites $640 is often 1st and 2nd place money in so many of the tournaments available. So I guess this is the part that's no fun really.  

Poker is just so much more stressful now for several reasons. First not having the big field MTTs that we had on PokerStars or Full Tilt makes the payouts so small it's very hard to win any significant money. Second playing the same real good regs in almost every game is extremely tough. Third playing for my only source of income (well household secondary income to be honest), especially in the current US conditions, is very stressful. So while I still enjoy playing and wouldn't give it up for anything it's just not the fun past-time that it used to be. 

There are some positives to the current situation though. I've had to really work much harder on my game than I ever would have if I were still playing on PokerStars, as I'm sure I've said previously, but all in all poker was just way more fun on Stars and Full Tilt.

On a different, but somewhat similar note, I'm contemplating spending a few weeks in Rosarito, MX playing back on Stars and the soon to relaunch Full Tilt. I don't have enough details to make a decision right now but it is currently an option. It would be so much fun and a great experience, not to mention an opportunity to make much more significant money. Some of the people going are really great players and it would be a great opportunity to learn from some the best, which makes it even more enticing. 

Hoping to finally have a good weekend, especially a good Sunday, this time so I have my fingers crossed. Making lots of money is always fun. 

The Day Off....

I had planned to not take any days off from poker until after Poker Maximus was over but after the last few grueling days I changed my mind and decided to take today off, it is after all Labor Day. I had planned to go to a fine arts festival at Marietta Square but the weather decided not to cooperate with that idea. Instead I slept until I decided to get up then went out for dinner and frozen yogurt. I'm about to watch a couple of movies with my daughter and then go to bed. I have to admit I couldn't help but rail one friend's final table but that was my only transgression for the day. He's been running pretty badly and I really wanted to rail him in hopes that he wins this. He works hard and he's really good at poker but he's been seeing the bad side of variance without much of a break for a too long. I'm actually railing him while writing this and he just suffered a couple of really nasty beats. I guess since technically this is a poker blog this is my second transgression for the day but what can I say. 

I'm really excited about Poker Maximus and I'm planning to spend the next couple of days reviewing, reading and working on leak finding to get ready. I'll play some but I'm going to play a bit of an abbreviated schedule and devote more time to working out some kinks. I've been getting way too frustrated after suffering some too frequent but typical beats over the last few days so I'm going to try to work on that aspect of my mental game as well. 

On another note PokerStars is running WCOOP with guarantees up in the millions while we poor U.S. players get Poker Maximus with a $530 buy in high stakes Main Event with only a $200,000 guarantee and a $60 buy in mid stakes Main Event with only a $150,000 guarantee. Lucky people who don't live here. Last Poker Maximus all the guarantees went up pretty high since the turn out was much higher than expected but with the departure of Lock Poker who knows if that will happen this time. 

I'm going to remember the 6 Ps while trying to get prepared for Poker Maximus: 

Proper 
Planning
Prevents 
Piss 
Poor 
Performance 

So here's to the 6 Ps and Poker Maximus! May the rungood commence!

Update: My friend finished 3rd, he recovered nicely from the first beat but lost a hand with QQ v JJ, the guy hit a set and that hand took most of his stack :(