Road to Recovery

The politicians call it gambling, the gamblers call it bad luck, the regulars call it bad beats, and the pros call it a cooler. Whatever your notion, I've been experiencing it and it hurts... bad. My bankroll has suffered from third-degree burns in the last few months with some of the most amazing draw outs I've ever experienced in my poker career.

Many bloggers will talk about their incredible run of good luck, or their unbelievable run of bad luck. When they are running bad they will point fingers at other players (the Donkeys) and blame it on them. Some players will actually go the lengths to blame conspiracy; claiming that the poker sites are purposely busting them out of the game and taking their money. While all this may be true, I rather look at a more realistic reason and blame myself.

I am not going to fill this blog up with my bad beats and turn it into a Phil Hellmuth session, instead I was to look at the situation as a "what now"? Currently I have lost almost 40% of my bankroll and I do not want to lose anymore and become a statistic. Instead I want to focus on what I am doing, why I am losing, and what has been different in my game recently. I point out recently because before my terrible swing of misfortune I was a profitable player. Unfortunately lately this hasn't seemed to be the case.

What Now?

I put a lot of thought into what I need to do and how to move forward without risking any more damage to my bankroll. I have decided that I will start out with $100 on Full Tilt and attempt to work it up to $500 in the next couple months. This puts my current bankroll at minimal risk and allows me to focus on some goals. Once I reach $500 I will set a new goal; so forth and so on. During this process I will report any major victories (or huge losses) while I work towards the goal. I will also share with everyone the way I go about reaching the goal (i.e., what limits I played, how much I won at those limits, tools used to analyze myself, books read, concepts understood, etc). When I (hopefully) reach my goal I am hoping that you, the reader, will have a series of good, informative blogs to read. With these post, I always encourage feedback and comments. I definitely want to hear your opinions on theories and concepts that I will discuss, so don't be shy - please reply!

Current Plan of Action

It's important to me that I accomplish my goal without having to reload on Full Tilt. I never once had to reload on a site for busting out and I really do not want to start now. I want to ensure that my bankroll will last through all the variations of the ups and downs this beloved game can bring you. To do so, I will follow the bankroll rules of Chris Ferguson. For those who do not want to read through Chris' post I will sum it up for you:

1. Never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of your total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).


2. Never buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of your total bankroll. You are allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.


3. If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of your total bankroll, you must leave the game when the blinds reach you.

The next step is analyzing myself and really digging deep to figure out where and why I am losing my money. I have always been a player who done self reviews the old fashion way. I reviewed my hand history one hand at a time and used a composition book to make notes about my play. I have always heard and read about programs that can do a lot of this for you like PokerTracker and PokerOffice, but I never put much thought into them. My opinion on the matter has always been that when you play at a live game you will not have a computer telling you what you need to do. Today's players rely on applications to tell them what they need to do in certain situations. Instead of playing poker and trying to get into the heads of their follow opponents, they follow push-shove calculations reported from a third party program and base all their plays on what the computer tells them. Lately my opinion is starting to change. I've heard PokerTracker mentioned a few times in some of the more recent books I've read. It's been noted as great tool to analyze your hands, fix leaks in your game, find leaks in your opponent's game, and use the information to capitalize on potential profitable situations. When I read such verbiage in books from Sklansky and others, I always held it with a grain of salt. I would tell myself that those programs are all well and good, but at a real table your not going to have those tools telling you what you need to do. It wasn't until I was watching a recent video on PokerXFactor when Eric Haber mentioned the use of PokerTracker. During his commentary he mentioned something on the lines of "if your not using such a program your operating at a huge disadvantage because it's very likely that your opponents are tracking you". Then it dawned on me. Whether I disagree with the use of such programs or not, it doesn't really matter. My opponents are using such programs against me, so not only do I need to fight them - but also their computer. When I win a sit-and-go or a tournament, I had to triumph the player and his odds calculator. To me it's a greater accomplishment, but a silly one at that. It's silly because I too can be mining for information to use against my opponent which would make that part of the game even. Now all I need to be able to do is out think my opponent and I should be able to win.

I've always considered poker as an "equal" game. Every player is dealt the same amount of good cards and bad cards and every player is offered the same amount of information about each other while they are at the table. It's the players who know what to do with the good cards, and know how to read their opponents that end up profitable at the year's end. With the hype of the Internet, poker oods are even more important - and players are using any tool in the world to provide them with information about their table and their opponents. If everyone at my table is mining for data, and I am not, then poker is no longer an "equal" game. I am operating at a disadvantage as soon as I sit down.

Disadvantage no more, I have purchased PokerTracker and I am currently analyzing my play. I have been focusing on where I lose the most chips and why. I believe that after some thorough studying I will be able to plug some of my leaks and hopefully make me a more solid/consistant player. I am also messing around with Poker HUD. I never checked out such a program before and I must admit it does seem overwhelming at first. I really need to figure out what numbers I should watch for and how exactly I can use this information against my opponents. (If anyone is savvy in Poker HUD and willing to spend some time to teach me, I would be grateful).

The third and final step I want to talk about in the god-forsakingly long post is taking notes while reading. I have a tendency to read books and assume I will remember all the information I've read. This is obviously false since I am not gifted enough to remember something after I've only read it once. Moving forward, I will reread my current book when I am finished it. This time I will take notes on everything I find important. I will do this on every new book I read and will eventually reread all my books so I can take notes on them. When I am done with a book I should have a healthy amount of notes that I can organize and put in a format much like the one's used in Cliff notes. Such notes I am considering sharing in my blog. I feel the more I go over the notes (writing them on paper, transferring them to computer, then blogging about them) the more I will understand and remember the concepts from the book. Hopefully through a repetitive process I can retain the lessons longer which will force me to have a better understanding of the game. It will also enrich the content of this blog, hopefully giving current readers some greater insights and maybe capturing a few new readers.

Conclusion

This has been a fairly long post. But I think it's important that I speak publicly about where I stand. I do not want to become a blogger who only blogs about their accomplishments. When I first started this blog I wrote that this blog will track my poker career moving forward, through both the ups and downs. I want to keep honest to that part, and I hope that the information here can someday aid another player who experiencing the same problems in their career. Maybe this and future post will inspire them, help them get back on track, and get them winning again. If anything, I hope it helps me do the same.

Borgata & the SJPC

Tournament Prize List

Yesterday was a decent day for an SJPC member as Sana and myself both played "hooke" from work for a chance to play in the $10,000 Guarantee Tournament ($50 + 10) at the Borgata in Atlantic City. This tournament is one that Sana and I have talked about playing for a long time, but never both have been off on a Wednesday to take a drive to AC and give it a go. One of the reasons we were so interested in playing in this tournament was that we felt the tournament would be an easy field being that it's hosted on a Wednesday at 11AM. Unfortunately for us, the day we decided to go was one of their largest fields ever, seating 481 players and 333 of them opted for the Add-on. The grand total prize pool over $40,000 paying down to 45th place.

For most of the tournament both myself and Sana sat around the same amount of chips. During the third break we met up and talked about our stacks and what we needed to do to keep alive in this tournament. Unfortunately for us we were both short stacked and close to being down to the felt. Sana was desperate, not able to survive another orbit; while I needed to make a move with in two orbits. It became a situation for both of us that we needed to take some chances and try to accumulate chips else we would be gobbled up by the blinds.

I sat back at my table and waited for my spot to go. Every time I was dealt a holding that would have worked for an open shove, two-three players went all-in before me and I reluctantly folded. A few times I would have been victor, winning a massive pot - but instead I just sat there trying to be patient, waiting for the opportunity of "first in vigorous". Finally I was UTG with the magic hand, pocket Aces and I tried to figure out how I could maximize my profit from the hand. The action at my table had been brutal, several players were going all-in on almost every hand. I decided to limp in hoping for some shove action figuring it would be the best way to entice a shove. Unfortunately for me it folded to the Big Blind (even SB folded) and he went all in for 2000 more (his BB was 4000). He showed down AJ and I won a small pot. A few hands later I open shove with JT suited and K8 calls. I flop four to a flush and get no love on the turn or river and was sent to the rail finishing 87th.

At this point in time I was searching for Sana. What shape was he in? Was he busted out? Still small stacked? Double through? Finally I found him sitting at a couple tables down from were I was busted. When I approached him he had a mound of chips in front of him and I was a little shocked. The the break he had 7k in chips (2K/4K, 500 ante) and now sat with a wealthy amount of chips. Catching me sort of dumbfounded, he leans over and tells me he was all in on the blinds and won that race then later got pocket Kings and took a massive pot - he's been on a roll ever since.

As timed ticked by Sana was in the top 45, guaranteeing himself that he will at least walk away with his money back. But such results were not good enough for him. He knocked several players out on his table with pocket-Queens followed by back-to-back Ace-Tens. This allowed Sana to build a massive chip stack, 3-4 times the amount than any one else at the table. When Sana had to move to Table #3, it took two tournament directors to assist him in relocating his chips. That must have been a good feeling.

Tournament Director Helping Sana Stack His Chips

As the tournament went on Sana remained at a healthy stack, only taking one huge hit when his AK suited lost to Pocket-Nines; Sana hit all types of Royalty on the flop and Turn, but a 4th diamond came on the river giving the Pocket-Nines a miracle flush. Time ticked by, and one-by-one players stood and walked away from the tables.

I railed for Sana all the way down to third place when he ended up doubling a short stack and taking a prize chop. For his efforts, Sana took home approx $5,300 minus dealer tip and his buy-in. Not bad for a 9 1/2 hour day. Congrats for a well played game goes out to him. I hope that next time we play "hooke" we both can face off at the final table.

Sana Playing at One of the final few tables

In other events: I have now took the SJPC Donkey Time! Tournament Crown for the Fourth time; leaving me as the only player to win the event four times, and the first player to win it back-to-back. I hope that my luck continues in the tournament that the field can continue to grow. All readers please feel free to join us Monday nights at 7:30 PM EST.

If you're wondering how Sana doubled the small stack up, Sana open shoved all-in with AJ suited and the BB called with A-2. The BB hit a 2 on the river leaving Sana the low stack on the table.

Third Time Champion, SJPC

Tonight was a good night. Not because it's the first night I am finishing in the positive in which seems to be one of my longest loosing streaks in my poker career, but the fact that those wins come from two interesting tournaments.

The first victory is another take-down in the WPEX MTT Gaurantee. The second victory I am really excited about is the third win in the SJPC Donkey Time! Tournament. The field was the smallest it's ever been (since the first tournament), and the competition was strong. But it's not the strong-small field, or the prize of winning the tournament (the WPEX paided a lot better), it's the fact that I am the first one to ever win it three times, making me the King of Donkey's again!

I am really satisfied with the strong heads-up game I played in the SJPC Tournament. It lasted for 114 hands and I had multiple times to go bust (i.e., opponent shoving all in when I have open-ended draw, or middle pair-top kicker.) The heads-up game is definately one I'd like to review in the future. I believe there are a few interesting decisions and plays that could be a lot of fun to discuss. As always I am very curious on what some of you might have done in my situation. Unfortunately until I can gather all the information and put it together for a blog, I must call it a night and book my win for the day.

To read a summary of my third win, go here.