Thursday, January 01, 2009

Year review and... blah, blah, blah.

Everyone else seems to be doing one so I might as well divulge my thoughts on my poker year 2008.

Maybe a huge flaw I have in my overall poker stratgy is not setting a goal for last year. I just looked back through the blog and it appears that I couldn't bothered and just plodded along from the off. I think I set a general goal of making $1000 profit for the year which I failed to do - I made $650 according to the manual money tracker I use. The manner in which I made the money didn't please me as more than a third of that was through rakeback rather than winnings.

So with no goals set I just played the same games throughout the first six months. After going on a monster heater in June I picked up a staking deal and went up to 20NL which is pretty much where my year ends in terms of poker progress.

Here were my stats leading prior to 20NL





And then here there are after going up to 20NL - maybe a couple of weeks old.











There are far from perfect of course but I think they are more inline with what they should be - less limping/calling, more three betting and more aggression but it's actually led me to a loss rather than a profit.
I've talked about the particulars before so I'm not going to go on about it. The net result of the last six months has been regression. A lack of results has seen me question my confidence, ability and skills to the point where I don't know if I'm doing the right things anymore. I have forgotten how to play poker.
With that being said I'm throwing myself at your mercy. I need help to improve my game. I need a tutor/mentor rather than a backer. I have watched tons of videos and read endless amounts of articles but I just don't seem to find them helpful. In the infinite world of poker situations, I never seem to be able to relate the situations I'm in to the situations I've looked at on videos unless they're really obvious or I've perfected how to deal with the situation myself. My biggest holes seem to be:

Not playing enough hands in position to raises - should I be calling with KQs from the cut-off to a raiser. Probably, but how do I play when that flop comes or this flop comes etc.

I'm really poor at playing single pairs - I don't call, bet, raise enough, with mid pair or top pair no kicker. You could say, then just do what you're writing here. But when I do I inevitably get the sitatuation wrong, spunk off a chunk off my stack bluffing or calling and then decide never to do it again so I don't learn how to play the hand.

Not getting value - This might be because people aren't as shit as they are in 10NL but can the difference between the levels surely be as big as to suggest that in 20NL people run for the hills when you flop a set and bet out even though you do the same with, junk, draws etc? It's probably just an excuse I'm trying to find like every player does during bad times, but betting for value just doesn't work at the moment.

I can't be bothered writing about any more leaks I have, it's boring. Plus I don't know if I am right with these concepts. I need an objective opinion and forums just don't seem to work for me in that respect.

If poker has been good for one thing this year is has been Raise the River. I've met a lot of good people on the site and I've learned a lot of new things about making videos, podcasts and supporting a website in general. Maybe that's where my future lies in poker. Not playing it, but selling it to the masses and encouraging people to play it.

Whatever, here's to the next year of poker..... give me strength lord.

3 comments:

poker outings for a confused mind said...

sweet blog. looking for poker friends, so check me out/add me and ill add you too!
poker outings for a confused mind:
http://pokeroutings.blogspot.com/

also i just started using pioker traker 3. fuking amazing

Empty The Movie said...

Hey Rob,

I know you joined a training site already, but this place is only $20 per month and i think learning sitngo theory may be a bit easier and formulaic than cash games...

http://www.thesngacademy.com/

It was reviewed highly at 2+2. Go to coaching advice forums to see the thread.

Aaron

gniz said...

Hey Rob,

You might also want to check out this thread, see if you can get in early, looks like great value...most coaches are charging WAY, WAY more than this guy....

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/101/coaching-advice/if-you-looking-beat-ssnl-quickly-make-100k-year-read-thread-385742/