Feeling great despite my 1st down month in a while

After running well over the last few months I could get down on myself after having a slightly down month. However, I actually feel good about my game. I played quite a bit more multi’s last month due to vacation time and I landed 3 final tables with unfortunate coinflips going the wrong way missing the big money payouts. I was running white hot on sng’s until this month and finally got hammered. Even with the bad luck I think after later review I probably got a little too loose and made the problem worse. I can usually tell if it’s partially my fault if I bust out of alot of tourneys too early. I keep records on how long each game takes my and if I have a large number of 5-20 min finishes in sng’s or less than 60 min multi’s, I’m probably not concetrating and/or playing too reckless. If you try and go by overall money results it can be deceiving if a couple wins disguise numerous other poor performances. I find if I focus on avoiding risky plays early, the results tend to take care of themselves.

Another great story this month, my friend Steve Frasure, who won a seat to Aruba last year, at the last minute, won another seat, went to Aruba and made the final 10 players/500+ and is taking home over $30,000!! https://pokerdiy.comlive_updates/16189/21564 All being said it was a good month with solid potential going into October to have one of my best months this year.

Near the end of the month, I quickly picked up and focused on a new game on a smaller site. After 60 hours of play it has shown to be very profitable so far. I’m on vacation again this week and will continue to see how things pan out. I would say it takes at least 100-500 hours of play to really get a semi-reliable statistics, which depending on how your play can still change.

My rule of thumb for trying to improve on my game is to try and focus on one game and try to use the same playbook while changing one thing at a time. This way, if your results dramatically improve or fail, it is much easier to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t. If you try make make multiple changes to your game it makes it hard to figure out which changes have worked out for the better. Alot of players tend to get bored playing the same game over and over, but let me try and break it down. If I went to school and studied all subjects equally it would take me 10 years to graduate. I might know a fair amount about everything, but if I tried to debate a professional in any one particular field, I would be way out of my class. Another example might be if I had 10 new video games. If I played each game 10% of the time I would be an average player at 10 games. If I played 1 game 90% of the time I would probably be able to master the game in a very short period of time and be able to move on to trying my success in other games much quicker. If you play poker strictly for fun and recreation then by all means play whatever you enjoy most,but if you really care more about making money you might want to specialize.

I would like to try and start leaving poker book reviews. I probably have about 90% of the books you’ll find at the bookstore and while I don’t think a book will necessarily transform your game, for a $20-30 investment if you pick up just one idea or plug one leak the small investment will pay for itself probably multiple times over. I think just the act of reading the book and dedicating yourself to focusing on your game and learning is what pays the real dividends. To the new or casual players, it seems like so much work and so far-fetched, but as with most hobbies or skills you start small and continue to build, until before you know it you’ve gone from a skinny stick boy to a buffed out poker body builder.

The current book I’m reading at the moment is “Poker Essays”, by Mason Malmuth.
Most of his books I’ve read tend to be basic strategy books which can be a bit dry even for the greatest of poker enthusiast. “Poker Essays”, however, while probably written many years ago and revised, is geared towards all the other things that have to do with poker, other than how to play pocket 77 from UTG+2 with a TAG or your right and LAG on your left, blah, blah, blah. It gets a variety of issues: Money management, Image, taking notes, structure, psychology, etc. Not a bad read so far to kill some time while waiting around. It primarily focuses on live poker and does use some refrences to Stud games (which used to be more popular years ago until No Limit Holdem took over the world). All in all I would say it’s worth a look especially when you’re bored with the same-old strategy books. It retails for about $24.95 in the U.S. I’m giving it a DonkeyHerding rank of 7 out of 10.

Here’s this weeks dose of Chinese war master “Sun-Tzu” : “If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant”.

Good luck grinders, please keep the comments and questions coming. I look forward to reporting on a already great October. Donkeyherder.

Here is a link to the “Poker Players Alliance” website which posts the latest poker legislation news and is the largest lobbying group supporting our right to play poker. https://pokerdiy.com>

Comments

  • Avatar of support@pokerdiy.com
    [email protected]
    October 26, 2008 at 12:17 am

    I been working on a article reviewing some of the major online poker sites from my point of view. If you’re looking to play online it should posted soon.

    In this day and age of hyper aggressive play, there is definately an advantage to cautious play. I would recomend trying on occasion to play outside your comfort zone to work on playing the part of the super aggessor and finding the best games which fit your particular style of play. Maybe limit cash games and full table non-turbo tournaments might be your niche? Thanks for the feedback, GL, Donkeyherder

  • Avatar of suzannej@tnt21.com
    [email protected]
    October 22, 2008 at 12:38 am

    I am not in your league. Actually – I am just starting out in the world of poker. But i love reading your story. I spent so long thinking the only poker sites were ‘advertisements’ in disquies.

    I thought I had ‘skills’ but after reading your second last paragraph, (pretend you are weak) I think that my natural, non aggressive, tendancy is what gives me an advantage. Something I’ll have to tell my hubby, as he tells me to suck it up and be tough

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