Practice makes perfect

Today my day started with two lessons and a plan to play a full session after. Midway through my first lesson PxF encountered some problems and had me shaking my head. This made things tricky because I use their replayer to view HHs. The whole ordeal cost me about 30 minutes on my first lesson but I was able to do the second lesson from Universal Replayer which is a handy free program and then after I finished up with the first guy and I think we were all happy. Lessons are very satisfying and I really enjoy starting off my day teaching optimal poker, it really gets me in the zone.

After the lessons I went for some lunch and then came home to start my session. As far as results go I was able to cash in 1 out of 18 MTTs and 1 out of 3 satellites. I did make one final table but went out in 4th place just shy of the top 3. It was a decent day but I think I could have done better. There was a few spots I will be reviewing to make sure my line optimal. I did play some .50nl HU as my last MTT was winding down and beat a guy out of 3 buy-ins pretty quickly. HU can be swing at times but the best player can win often. I think it's smart for MTT players to practice HU because when you get there it's the most important time of the whole MTT and it should be important that you are comfortable. I personally play HU cash and HU sit-n-gos fairly often to stay sharp with my HU game. You know what they say, "Practice makes perfect."

As far as me accomplishing the few little fixes I have been trying to implement I can say that it is going good, bad and then good. All I mean by that is that it's a work in progress and I think I am getting better every day but there is always little slips and tough spots. I am currently working on building a very strong optimal play foundation, finding ways to increase aggression, increasing my focus and decreasing distractions while I play, ranging players, seeing more +EV spots and then taking advantage of them, and trying to make sure I stick to the buy-in parameters I set for myself. Poker is an ever evolving game of skill and to be successful you have to stay hungry and constantly work at getting better. In my opinion I have a solid understanding of the list of things I said I am working on but that doesn't stop me from wanting to keep working to get better and to keep up with the all the changes as poker evolves.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

If interested in taking lessons or need any info email me at variance101@gmail.com

Addicted to improving

Today I cashed in 2 out of 19 MTTs and 1 out of 4 satellites. I was able to get a better start than yesterday and followed through with my ideas of tightening up the strictness in which I follow my buy-in parameters and I played a few less tables through some of the day. I was able to make one final table in the $11 1k but went out ninth after losing a race. I also had a 10th place finish when I bubbled the final table of the $22 3k in the same fashion.

As my session was winding down I let one of my students watch the end of my session. This gave me a chance to help him some but its also good practice for me to explain my thinking during the hand. My results weren't great day but I believe I am continuing to grow and that is something positive. I am not sure exactly how far I will be able to take it, but I love teaching poker. Don't get me wrong I am a player first. I give lessons for a couple hours a day and then play for 6-12. My main focus is playing and becoming the best player I can be, but to me a big part of that process is teaching. I enjoy teaching very much and find myself trying harder and harder to provide the absolute best coaching experience to my students. I am trying to build Variance101 into a respected source for online poker coaching and the only way to do that is by providing a quality product and that is my number one goal.

I have two lessons tomorrow and I am very excited to get to work helping these players. I have prepared for my lessons and I know tomorrow will be a good day. It is so cool giving a lesson and feeling the confidence coming from the student that the knowledge brings. I get a real since of pride after a good lesson. For me it's not about imparting my own thoughts on the student, but more about helping them understand how to think for themselves and work through any situation. The lessons usually start with leak finding to get to an optimal play style while learning to range players and find the equity in any given hand. It may sound complex but it is actually pretty simple once someone shows you the steps. 

I think one of my friends that is also taking lessons with me is going to be playing like a beast soon. He really does so many things right and after fixing a few leaks and showing him the things mentioned above he is understanding things so much better. Is their truly anything better than improving? I have been addicted to improving since the age of 15 when I started playing pool. I would practice or play for money everyday in an effort to keep getting better. I truly felt the best about myself when I knew I was improving something in my life. It didn't always have to be pool, if I improved my car, apartment, wardrobe, bankroll, or just myself in any way it was a good day. In a way that is one of the reasons I love online poker so much, there is so many ways to improve your game and lots of tools to help.

If anyone is interesting in taking lessons or has any questions please email me at  variance101@gmail.com. Along with the lessons I place all my students in a poker chat group filled with other committed grinders to help continue the daily learning. I also stay available to answer questions and review single hands daily. Please contact me and we can get you started at fixing your leaks and improving your game.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Know how you play

Tuesday I cashed in 2 out of 18 MTTs and 1 out of 2 satellites. I made one final table in the $11 2.5k but did not crack the top three. Overall it was a decent day but I felt myself slipping just a bit. I had been on a pretty nice heater for a few days and Tuesday things started to even out. After my session I went for food and movies and veged out when I got home.

Wednesday I cashed in 2 out of 20 MTTs and 2 out of 7 satellites. I made a few deep runs but had most of them cut short right before the money. I think the momentum of a few good days may have taken me out of the zone I was in. I have only been back grinding a little over two months and this last week was filled with my best results since coming back. It is so easy to book a few good scores and get a little over confident or possibly just lose a little focus that you had when you were hungrier for a score.

To be completely honest I think I may have encountered these two leaks but on a small scale. I think I was a little to willing to stray mildly outside my buy-in range. I think I also took a couple risks at the table that I am not very happy with and it could have come from having more buy-ins. I will say that I have still been giving almost a lesson a day, going over HHs daily, and talking over lots of single hands in poker chat. I have been thinking and playing very optimal. I feel good about how much I have grown over the last two weeks but believe I took a small step backwards the last two days and will be leaping back forward starting now.

I just noticed the last two days I was more comfortable than I want to be and I didn't even win very much. The only thing I did was increased my BR to a point where I can play the levels I was already playing with a comfortable roll instead of a risky roll. All I mean by that is with a 100 buy-in roll there is still some risk and the ability to adjust your buy-ins as your BR swings is very important. With a 200 buy-in roll you can stay at the level you are rolled for longer without having to adjust your buy-ins after a few day downswing. The bottom line is that a 200 buy-in roll is way better and less risk adverse but a 100 buy-in roll could work as long as a person could make great decisions as the roll goes up and down.

I think I let the small upswing get me a little to comfortable and I want to notice this, admit, and get past it as fast as possible. Basically just by admitting this to myself and sharing it with y'all I am getting past it. Tomorrow I will play a few less tables and increase my focus on every decision. I will also stick closer to the buy-in parameters I have set for myself. I think some of y'all would laugh if you knew the severity of the mistakes I had made. Honestly it's not like I played the DHR with a $215 buy-in. The mistakes were not huge and I was also able to still get some cashes and broke about even the last two days but I know I can do better. I was playing between $11-$22 and under and $3 rebuy and under with a 100 buy-ins then basically doubled my roll. I decided I would stay at $22 and under and $5 rebuy and under but actually be rolled for it with 200 buy-ins. The leaks I am talking about was me playing a few 33s and $11 rebuys. I also played a $60 MTT on Monday. To be honest some of these shots can even be justified as long as your average stays where you need. I just felt I was a little to lax when making the decision to buy-in to those MTTs, like all of the sudden I had all the money in the world. I can't let a couple small scores affect me in any way and I should be very hungry to keep reaching my goals.

Coming from a pool background where game selection and handicapping, also called giving some weight or taking weight, is so important you should be able to understand that truly knowing how you play would be very valuable. Imagine a guy coming into the pool hall with a giant ego and an idea that he plays way better than he does. This guy is liable to walk up to the best player in the room and get in a game way over his head. The guy with the ego is probably not ever thinking about the chance of him losing and even as it happens he is liable to find reasons to believe its a fluke. The only way to make money in a pool hall is to know exactly how you play and what you can expect of yourself. This also helps you improve along the way because you know what to work on. All the best gamblers I knew didn't even necessarily have to play good, they just needed to know how they played and match up accordingly.

I think this all relates to poker in so many ways. There are so many players that have no idea what their leaks are or what they could do about them. Several of them don't even know what the right plays are and these players are easy to spot. You know the guys that get real short and shove and then when someone calls them optimally they type in "how do you call with that". Another example is when a decent player that is following a shove chart gets his chips in optimally and is called by a better hand, then somehow gets there and then is berated with a "why are you getting it in with that hand". Obviously if the whiner in these examples knew anything about optimal play they would understand but I am sure these type guys truly believe they play well and that the optimal plays where awful. The point I am most trying to make is about being honest with yourself about your abilities and what you need to work on. I think being honest with yourself is the fastest way to improve. No ego, no emotion, just poker.

I think now I will make a steak and relax a bit before going over a few hands and doing a small review. I think I would like to end my evening by working on my game as a way to prepare for better things to come tomorrow. My mistakes over the last couple days were small but fixing them and adding more focus and desire can only help. I really am trying to communicate some of the ways I try and help myself and lead by example for all my students. This game is beatable if you can play optimally and more importantly control yourself. Hard work does pay off, so get to work.

If anyone is interested in getting poker lessons please contact me at variance101@gmail.com. My lessons are $50 an hour with a minimum of 3 hours. With the lessons I also place all my students in a poker chat on skype to help with the daily learning and improving between lessons. I also keep myself available daily for answering questions and for review of a single hands. If this sounds good to you please email me to book lessons or have any of your questions answered.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

#TEAMVARIANCE101

Good Evening 109

Today was excellent, the day started off with me giving a lesson to a new student that is also a friend and the lesson went great. We were able to cover a lot of hands and address several important things. After the lesson I took off after some food and then got back home and began my session. I was really hoping to win a 109 ticket in the 4pm satellite so I could play the Evening 109 and go for my fourth cash in a row and was lucky enough to do just that. I won my seat and late registered the Evening 109 42 minutes late and began to go to work. I actually got really short twice and was able to claw my way back until taking a cooler to get 10th and bubble the FT. I think I have found me new favorite MTT.

Today I was able to cash in 5 out of 22 MTTs and 3 out of 4 satellites. I made three final tables and ended up in 1st, 3rd, and 5th. All the recent HH review of my own play and my students has me playing very well. I will tell you that hard work does pay off. I was very comfortable and confident and it really feel as if I have recently taken a big step forward. I plan on continuing to work hard and I will definitely be giving more lessons, so onward and upward from here.

If anyone is looking for poker lessons please contact me at variance101@gmail.com. My lessons are $50 an hour with a minimum of three hours booked. With the lessons I also place all students in a poker chat filled with other committed grinders trying to improve to help keep the daily learning on point. I also stay available to answer questions and for review of single hands through skype and the added benefit of contact with the students outside the lessons is going over well. Please contact me to get lessons booked or if you have any questions.

It's been a long day so I am going to keep it short and simple tonight. I would like to wish a big GOOD LUCK to all the grinders at the WSOP and an equally big GOOD LUCK to all the online grinders wearing out the virtual felt.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Lets gooooooooooo

Did you have a marvelous Sunday? Mine was okay, I cashed in 3 out of 22 MTTs and 1 out of 3 satellites. I was able to cash in the Evening $109 for the third day in a row but fell short of the final table at 19th. I made one final table today in the $3 rebuy 2.5k but was in push/fold for most of the last two tables and went into the final table short. I managed to make some headway but then lost a few races when going in ahead to get knocked out.

All in all it was a good day and I believe my play is continuing to improve. I was very confident at the tables today and made several great laydowns. I think that is the biggest difference between my game today is I am ranging players better and every decision doesn't seem standard. I am finding the fold button way more often and avoiding so many marginal flips. I am way more aware of the equity I have in the hand and trying to take advantage of all my +EV spots. I was in so many flips the first week back online and it felt lie every situation was standard. I think the year away from online was good for me in several ways but I regret the fact that I spent the majority of my time playing and really wasn't ever studying. I also wasn't getting the chance to talk enough poker with other committed players to stay sharp. I definitely think a lack of good study habits after Black Friday contributed to me being a little behind on my game. I was a little rusty at ranging players and avoiding some leaky spots. I caught myself making silly out of practice type mistakes like calling out of position and playing distracted. It also took a little bit of time to adjust to the stacks on Merge, they are shallow in some of the later structures.

Every week that I have been back has gone better than the previous as far as my play is concerned. Don't get me wrong I was playing okay and got 3rd in a MTT my first day back. But I was rusty and have been able to really clean up my game since and I now have so much more confidence that I am making solid decisions and playing well. When playing live it can be harder to work on your game in some of the ways you can when playing online. Online you can play an MT and review the entire HH after. Live you would have to simply remember things the best you could and then talk t over with someone or maybe write out a few hands and post them on a forum. The ability to review a HH and screenshare with another player to work on things is so beneficial. I really think I was starting to take off and get where I wanted to be pre BF and definitely leveled out a bit in my year away. But now that I am back online I am working harder than ever and seeing the results. I have been doing lots of HH reviews of my own play and of my students. All of the nonstop talk about poker has my head in a great place and I am thinking so well. I have also been active in the forums answering hands and really feel confident that I am posting helpful things.

As most of y'all probably know I am trying hard to get my coaching business Variance 101 going. I have been actively talking about it in my blog and trying to let everyone know how its been going. I have been lucky enough to pick up several new students and things have been going really well. I have gained some students but more importantly also some friends. I am trying to offer more than just lessons with my coaching. I have been placing all my students in a poker strategy chat group to keep the daily learning going strong and have also been keeping myself available for hand discussion and chat. I think when a player goes after coaching they are happiest when they feel they are improving. I am hoping that giving them a poker chat to participate in daily with other committed grinders and their coach, along with the lessons will make sure that they will have the tools to be improving.

If you would like more information about Variance101 Training or to book lessons please email me at variance101@gmail.com. You can also like my facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/Variance101?bookmark_t=page

I have another pool story from the time I went to Tulsa, OK from Springdale, AR with no car and little money to try and play pool for a living. I was 17 years old and had a mildly unstable home thanks to a stepdad that I caught cheating on my mom. Once caught he decided to leave her right after they got a house and a new car. The whole ordeal left my mom financially screwed and I am sure pissed off. I for some dumb reason started acting up in school and ended up getting expelled for some dumb shit and getting my GED. So obviously I started playing pool and ended up in Tulsa. This story takes place in 94 or 95 after I had been in Tulsa for a few months and just a month or so before giving up and calling my sister.

It's about 7am in the pool hall and several of my pool playing friends and I have been gambling all night. I had a rough night and ended up going broke. But to be honest I don't remember starting out with much either. Daylight rolls around and my friends were talking about going to this cheap little breakfast place across the street. They had a breakfast special for like $3 and my friends offered to pay. I couldn't have asked for a funnier group of pool players. Every time we huddled up and started talking it was straight up laughter for hours.

We all go eat and it was pretty good. As we are finishing up I go to the restroom to wash up and when I come out I don't see my friends. I look out the window and see them in the car backing up. When they get backed up they stop and open the back door to the car and wave at me to come on. I start heading for the door and out to the car when the little Chinese lady starts yelling at me to pay. I didn't have a dollar to my name. I looked at her, then looked back at the car and all of them were waving me on with a hurry behind it. I shot out the door and dove into a moving car that then sped away. My friends somehow came up with the stiff the breakfast lady idea while I was in the bathroom but didn't bother to tell me. The worst part of their plan was the fact that they paid all the tabs but mine. I was truly the only one stiffing the breakfast lady. The whole thing caught me by surprise and I just took off running and dove into the car like we just robbed a bank. I still get to hear this story almost every time I get to see my old pool buddy Jarrid and we get a laugh every time. I miss the good lo days sometimes, we had a lot of fun.

Back to back

Today I cashed in 3 out of 23 MTTs and 0 out of 3 satellites. I was able to use another one of my $109 tickets successfully as I final tabled the Evening 109 10k again. I was only able to get 3rd tonight but back to back final tables in the Evening 109 is a fun accomplishment. I have been profitable but grinding, the uptick the back to back 109 FTs will give me is going to be comforting and allow me to expand my schedule a little bit. There will be no drastic changes though. I will simply take a few of the smaller buy-ins out and add a couple in that are more near the top of my range around 22. But I will definitely keep playing satellites and try to get into the 109s.

Today was truly an incredible day. I woke up earlier than normal due to a lesson scheduled at 1pm. The lesson went well and the I went for food and started my session. As I started my session the poker chat was livening up and I was able to get in a couple good hand discussions with two good friend/students. We then all proceeded to have good nights filled with deep runs and a few final tables. There was good discussion, good rail, and good friends it was great. My friend Will gave us a good sweat by getting 3rd in the $11 3.75k. He played very well and battled through the peaks and valleys of his chip stack. At one point he took a rough beat four handed but was able to claw back and make it to 3rd. It still took a cooler to get him. You did a great job tonight Will (AK47jAcK9oFF). There was also deep runs by Myles (thehoodedace) but one of his biggest sweats ended in a cooler and he came up a little short. All in all it was a really fun day with everyone going deep and gaining valuable experience I hope the deep runs continue tomorrow.

Variance101 is going good and if you are interested in getting some great value on lessons please contact me. Along with the lessons I place you in a chat group with other committed grinders trying to improve and this really helps on the day to day improvement. All you really need is skype which has a built in screen share so no other purchases are needed. My lessons are $50 and hour with a minimum of 3 hours and payment is taken through paypal. You can contact me at variance101@gmail.com if you have any questions or to book lessons.

I have had a few friends run deep at the WSOP. My buddy Garret got like 20th in the 3k 6max and then 5th in a Venetian DS. My buddy AP has had some big chip stacks and a few cashes and I think is on his way to a bracelet soon. I really hope all my friends out there grinding get a deep run and a shot at some jewelry. I am sad that I wasn't able to go this year but I am in a rebuilding mode and have been doing just that, it won't be long until I am back where I need to be. I still have a couple feelers out for possible stakes into the Main Event and I haven't given up hope yet.

This week I have learned more about using a HUD and a few more stats that can be useful. I also worked more on my ranges and it's getting easier and easier to range players in the heat of the moment. I am constantly working with Sheets charts off of PxF and its' also constantly helping my game. The charts include Open Shove, Reshove, Chop, Optimal Push, Optimal Call, and his Optimal Push/Call Calculator. In my opinion Sheets is a poker genius and I really appreciate everything he does for poker. I have uploaded one deep run from each of the last two days and will be reviewing them Monday. I also have a lesson planned for Monday and one for Tuesday and I am so excited to get to work. Teaching poker is so awesome and there is not many things more fulfilling than helping people.

Best of luck to all the online grinders tomorrow lest take advantage of these big fields that Sunday brings.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Hit a score, and a hella funny story

Today I cashed in 5 out of 16 MTTs and 0 out of 3 satellites. I was able to get a win in the $11 1.75k and a second in the $109 10k. I decided to use on of my satellite tickets in the Friday Evening 109 and had a great run. The heads up battle was brutal and after some back and forth I lost most of my chips in two hands.

The first hand I had AQdd and 3b his open, he flatted and the flop came 532dd, I cbet and got called, turn a Tc and I check/call, river is a Ts and I check/folded to a 80k bet with me holding 125k. I thought his river bet was either sized to force a fold or to level me into calling in that he wanted it to look weak. The villain was a very solid reg so I decided on the level.

The next hand I flatted Q4s from the bb and the flop was QT7 I check and he checked behind, the turn was a J and I led for 12k and he called, the river was a 4 board QT7J4 and I bet 30k out of 120k and he shoved. I tank called thinking there were lots of 1 pr and smaller 2 pr combos in his range with how the hand played, but he had AK for the nuts. The dynamic of the last half of dozens hands really worked in his favor as to me not believing his line.

All in all it was an amazing day. I adjusted my schedule a little bit and played a fewer MTTs through out the day. I kept around 6 tables up for most of the session but had the majority of my focus pinpointed at the 109 10k. I got several players looked up in OPR and was able to take several notes throughout the day a well. I also had about half a dozen really interesting spots come up and was able to get some valuable input from a coupe great players. Thanks for the help tford219 and naughtyeskimo. For the most part I was happy with my play in the tough spots, I made some good reads and decisions today. All the extra work is definitely paying off.

I have a lesson at 1pm tomorrow and picked up two new students today. I am very excited that Variance101 is starting to get positive reviews and I have students coming in. So far the added benefits of daily communication with them and adding the students into a poker chat with other grinders is going over very well. When I took lessons with three different guys in 2010 and 2011one of the things I noticed was the minimal communication when there was no lesson. Don't get me wrong they did a great job and helped me immensely but I think they could have been more available for a pm now and then. Who knows maybe they were and I didn't try hard enough but I remember getting the feeling that they wanted me to save questions for during the lessons. I can understand time being valuable and being paid for your efforts, but I think the availability to send a question to your coach whenever you want will make the students happier and be worth the time. In a way that is a good reason to start lessons with me as soon as possible because I will help as long as I have free time, but the more students I get the more my free time will probably decrease. But thanks to some great blog posts from Assassinato I have worked on scheduling my time and feel I will be on skype plenty enough to help. Contact me for lessons at variance101@gmail.com.

Its crazy how the last few days I was getting ITM less than 10% but then was able to get ITM around 30% today. Variance is real and it takes a large sample size for our numbers to level out. Over any short sample the numbers could be very skewed in one direction or the other. This is why BRM and emotional control is so important. We must be able to put in volume through the good and the bad while playing our A game if we want to see good results. The last few days as my BR withered and I came out a little loser each session was frustrating, but I knew if I stuck with my BRM and kept grinding the results would come. It's important we believe in ourselves and stay strong so we can reach our goals.

I was convinced I was going to be a pool player. I had been to Tulsa for 8 months with no car or place to live and had to run back to AR. Now I had a car and was ready to try again. I went and grinded for a while through all kinds of ups and downs. I lived in the pool hall and met all kinds of characters. One of my friends was a ticket scalper and spent half his time in Michigan and half in Tulsa. I had been struggling for a while but staying a live when he offered to take me with him to scalp tickets. The only problem was I needed some money to go, so I sold my car. We went to a few events and I worked my butt off scalping. All you have to do is talk to people and sell. Buy for cheap and sell for more, simple. We went to a few Nascar races, and an NFL game. We spent a lot of our downtime in pool halls across the country where I would gamble and try to add some money to our bankrolls too. The first trip we didn't get in a lot of action and most of the income was from scalping. I turned my few hundred into a couple thousand and while at the Texas 500 Nascar race I found a Dodge Van in the paper. I was eager to get a vehicle seeing how I sold mine to take the trip. I bought the van after the race weekend and we headed back to Tulsa. It was a productive trip, I made some money and replaced my vehicle.
The next year when the Daytona 500 was rolling around which was like the start of the scalping season my buddy asked if I wanted to go. We also invited another friend of mine and decided the three of us would take my van, so off to Florida we went. We were in Florida and I was driving and it was mid afternoon. It had been lightly raining and the roads had a little bit of rain on them. I was in the outside lane and came up behind a car I wanted to pass so I looked and didn't see anyone and starting to go around them. When I did at the last moment I saw a car right in my blind-spot that was now up by my window. I went to jerk the wheel to get back in my lane and I ripped the steering wheel off my van going 70 down the highway in Florida. Right when I did it I made eye contact with the passenger of the car and she looked as scared as I was. I yelled "what do I do, what do I do" in the loudest screechiest little bitch voice you ever heard. I had one friend in the passneger seat and the other behind us in the middle seat of the van. When I asked "what do I do, what do I do" my friend in the passenger seat was kind of froze but from the back I hear "PUT IT BACK ON", but it wasn't the normal "put it back on" it was more like if the Devil himself was in your van and screaming at you, it was treacherous. Needless to say I tried but the little jagged back of the wheel was like putting two clock gears together a male and a female. It was crazy with a hundred grooves are whatever. I kept trying to get it n but it wouldn't go. Luckily as I kept trying to get the steering wheel back on I also had put the brakes on and thanks to a good alignment we came to stop on the shoulder with no accident. My heart was racing but once I calmed down all we could do was laugh. The look on the lady's face and my friend being possessed by the devil to tell me to "PUT IT BACK ON", hahahaha. After the events and we were  heading back home there was a small argument and I was power driving through the night to get home. Pissed off and unhappy I drove straight through and had some tired moments. Every time I fell asleep at the wheel when I would wake up I would jerk and the steering wheel would come off. It came off like four more times on the way back but all were on straightway where we were only one on the road and nothing happened. I guess I was running good that night, ha.

What do I do, what do I do? .....PUT IT BACK ON! hahahahaha

Persistance, grinding, and lessons

Today I cashed in 2 out of 28 MTTs and 2 out of 4 satellites. It was another day with a small ITM percentage but I did manage a top three finish in the $11r deepstack. Overall I think I am playing well, and I know I am working hard so I will just keep grinding. Poker can be extremely streaky at times and I have found that it helps to stay focused and keep grinding no matter the streak. Hard work and persistence will pay off in poker as long as we can play our A game. I will keep working and making small tweaks and I am sure the results will come.

I think persistence and determination are important if poker is something you want to do. I have seen many a guy get amped up about poker but not stay the course. Often they will have a game plan based on what they will do as they build their BR, but surprisingly they don't have a game plan ready for if things go bad. What will they do during downswings? How will they handle the one outer that gets spiked on them at the final table of a MTT? I think it is important to understand that no matter how good you play, downswings are likely to occur from time to time. When they occur it's brutal and can be hard to handle but it's part of the game. Often you will see MTT players thinking of playing cash games if they are on a downswing. But whats funny is that they are obviously more profitable in MTTs, but during a downswing your mind tries to figure a way out. One of my friends who is a MTT beast recently had a downswing and was just about to switch to cash, but right before he did he shipped a big MTT. After he binked the score everything was back to normal. I think he is probably profitable at cash, but his edge is definitely biggest in MTTs. Even knowing that won't stop him or us from thinking about whether or not we should play cash during a downswing. In my opinion I think it's important we stick to our guns and play what we are most profitable at. If we get caught in a downswing I think lowering buy-ins and reducing tables is better than switching disciplines. Poker is full of good times and bad, the best of us will handle them both with grace and as little emotion as possible.

Grind, grind, grind, I got grind on my mind. I plan on putting in full sessions this weekend and hopefully seeing some good results. I will be taking some shots with my tickets on Sunday and would be stoked to get something going.

On the lessons front I have been receiving several emails and getting some lessons booked. I really think I am offering great value and would be excited to help, so please contact me. To give some information, I charge $50 an hour, with a minimum of 3 hours. I also provide you with my skype and email and I stay available for questions even when not in a lesson (within reason). I also add all my students to a poker chat strategy group to help further their learning and get them talking poker with other committed players. If this sounds good to any of y'all please email me at variance101@gmail.com

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Good luck to all the players at WSOP and good luck to the guys grinding online like me.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and a story

Tuesday I cashed in 2 out of 29 MTTs and 1 out of 2 satellites. I made one final table in the $11 2k deepstack turbo but only was able to pull out an 8th place finish. I had several deep runs come up short of the money but know that if I keep working hard and putting in volume good things will come.

Wednesday I cashed in 2 out of 24 MTTs with a win in the $5 1k. It felt really good to get a win after struggling the last few days. One thing that did go really good today was satellites. I cashed in 5 out of 8 and secured 3 109 tickets and a 215 ticket. Looks like there will be some shots taken very soon.

As you can see my ITM percentage in MTTs has been lacking the past few days. I went a combined 4 out of 54 the last two days but plan on getting that number up immediately. I will say that I have had my share of bubbles too. I think variance is real and the only way to get what you deserve is to play lots of volume with strict BRM and a positive attitude. It is also very important to be talking a lot of poker and doing HH reviews.

I did read an interesting blog post on P5's from "pocketts" about how he thought variance wasn't the main cause of downswings. Click on his name to read the blog. He thought it was more on us for probably starting to play bad and lose confidence in ourselves as we experience downswings. I give some merit to what he is saying because so many players don't control their emotions well and this makes sense. I do think that there is probably some skilled players that are in control of their emotions that this wouldn't necessarily apply to though. But no matter who you are if you are experiencing the downside of variance I think a loss of confidence and a few misguided plays could help put you in the wrong place if you aren't real careful. It takes supreme awareness, confidence, and control to stay emotionally detached while playing but it is a goal we should all strive for. Poker decisions should be made analytically not emotionally.

I have been working hard at getting my name out for poker lessons and am starting to see some results. I had a lesson Tuesday and have more scheduled for next week. I also have three new students that are currently deciding when to start. I am extremely happy that I am able to help people and all the added work preparing and giving the lessons is helping me too. If anyone is needing any lessons please contact me at variance101@gmail.com I  will be glad to help.

I have been really enjoying the WSOP live streams. David Tuchman the live stream commentator has been doing a tremendous job. He always has some high profile player's n the booth with him and the color commentary has been excellent. If you haven't had the chance to watch any go to wsop.com and check it out.

I have a few friends that have gone out to WSOP this year and are back at home. A few of them didn't do so well and had a few struggles adjusting from online to live. It is hard to go from multi-tabling several MTTs with plenty to register, to playing one MTT all day. It is common with the decent structures to play 8-10 hrs and bust before the money. If these players are ever in an online MTT for 8 hours you can be pretty sure they made the top 3. Live is so much more about survival and patience. I mean obviously chip accumulation is very important but the pace is so much different from online that I think you have to take a stay alive type of mentality to an extent. To give an example live MTTs are a lot like the 10/20 level in an online MTT with 3k starting stacks. At this level it pays to take it easy because the chance to lose a big pot is greater than the chances to win a big pot. I do think that a good player will adjust pretty well after a few mtts and that is what seemed to happen for my friends.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Back in the day before poker I used to pay pool for a living. Pool is a great game but there is no money in it. I will tell you that didn't stop me. I saw a real good player play when I was 15 almost 16 and knew after watching him that I wanted to be good at pool. At 17 after playing locally in Springdale, AR for about a year I went to Tulsa, OK to the Billiard Palace with some friends. At the time Tulsa was a hotspot for pool and every good player that traveled came through. I went for a monthly rated tournament and managed to get a tie for 5th-6th. I was so happy to do well in my first tournament outside of AR. It wasn't long after that I started to get bored with the AR pool scene and got a ride to Tulsa and stayed 8 months with no car or place to live. I would hustle everyday and try and grind up enough money to get a room at about 6am, sleep till about 2pm, go to the pool hall for about 12 hours and then get one more sleep out of the hotel room. We called it the ol double dip, ha. After about 8 months and all kinds of experiences I found myself broke sitting around the pool room with some friends. They knew I was broke and started giving me a hard time. They had decided they were going to order a pizza and quickly said that I wasn't getting any. I was proud and didn't plan on asking or begging and just told them to "Fuck off, I'll go over to Albertson's and steal a pack of crackers". I am sure they got a nice kick out of that but I was just kidding and was not a thief. I was about at wits end though and soon after called my sister who lived in Arkansas and asked her to come get me. SHe came through and I went back to Arkansas for a while. It took a few weeks or so to get back going but ended up getting a job and reuniting with an old friend and things weren't bad. I had been back a few months and finally got a little money in my pocket so my friend and I took a trip to Tulsa for the weekend. As soon as we walked in the door one of the young up and coming pool talents saw me and yelled "Cracker John". I immediately knew what he was referring to and started to giggle. Obviously John is one of the most common and simplest names in the english language so you probably won't be surprised to know they always had a nickname for me. It started as Springdale Johnny, or Johnny Arkansas, but once people heard Cracker John it was all over. That day I had a friend from AR with me so when we got back he kept it going as well. Then about two years later I actually got a tattoo on my arm of a shark holding a pool cue and my nickname under it. I have been Cracker ever since.

Haha, I had a few friends find out I used to play pool and they said I probably had lots of stories. I told them I would try to start adding an occasional old pool story to the bog, I hope you enjoy.

The last two

Sunday I played a full schedule but a few less MTTs and a few higher buy-ins. I cashed in 2 out of 17 MTTs with no final tables. Overall it was a decent session but it could have definitely been better. In one of the bigger MTTs I played the $109 25k I built up a pretty nice stack fairly early and slowly withered some as we got further along. I was able to cash but got short near the money bubble and was kind of handcuffed as far as play selection. I was able to cash but plan on reviewing the HH later.

After my session I made myself the T-bone I had planned as hard work paying off present. I have really stepped it up recently by reviewing a lot more HHs, working with pokerstove, posting in forums, and preparing for lessons and wanted to treat myself. Once I was done eating I went back to my computer to check on a few friends I new were deep and to watch the WSOP live stream. While I was watching poker a friend started chatting with me about Feltstars a skin on merge. I went to their website and was doing some reading when I noticed something about the software that struck my eye. I opened Carbon and went to pull up a couple tables to see what the "multiple windows" option was. I thought it could just be referring to the option to tile, stack, or cascade but wanted to check. As I went into the cash lobbies most of the tables had no empty seats  but I did find a seat at to 25nl fr tables and a 100nl sh table. My plan was to play less than a round to check the software and go. Unluckily for me I got a big hand cracked and misplayed one other in a very short span of a few hands and lost a buy-in. It was truly no big deal, but after I decided to just watch television and chill.

Today I woke up tired and went back to sleep due to staying up to late watching movies. I was still able to get a decent session in after a late start. I cashed in 2 out of 13 MTTs with one final table and a 5th place finish. Today I struggled a little bit and was unhappy with the way a few hands played out but we won't improve by playing perfect. Overall it was a decent session and I pulled it together well after a couple bad hands. After my session I did three full HH reviews of MTTs that a new student played. All three combined only equaled about 300 hands so its not as much as it sounds. I was able to take plenty of notes and work more with pokerstove while preparing for his lesson and all the work is helping me too. There were several spots that came up that I would play differently and I am excited to fix some of his leaks tomorrow.

I want to wish everyone at WSOP a big GOOD LUCK and I hope my friends have good trips. I would also like to wish all the online grinders good luck and I will see you at the table.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

oi poker

Why do players torture themselves by getting frustrated a decent percentage of the time they lose a flip or get sucked out on? They get frustrated and claim to be sick of poker, or MTTs a little to often but, we all know that they will be playing more MTTs later or the next day. I have seen so many players getting frustrated lately. Most of these players have a solid edge in the game but seem to not be grasping the fact that everyone is going to take beats. I mean obviously these guys are smart and very capable and understand they are going to take some beats, but it doesn't always seem like it. In my opinion all you need to do is understand variance and then expect to lose some hands. I am not saying you should plan on getting drawn out on, but you should know it is going to happen some and be prepared.

So many common spots like shoving over the top of an opener with a common opening range of 20% of hands with AKo is only 60/40. In this very common scenario you should now that you are liable to lose 40% of the time so no reason to get upset if it happens.

I don't fully understand the compulsion of sharing or posting bust-out hands. I suppose the guys that do this a lot are seeking some kind of comfort, but for the most part these type of posts don't get replies and  not many players want to hear a bad beat story. I also think that these guys are wasting so much energy and focus posting the hand. I bet the time it takes to post a bust-out hand is similar to the amount of time it takes to look up a player on OPR. Which do you think will help you more in game?

I think I take beats better than most players but I still have that feeling of wanting someone to share my pain occasionally. I just don't act on it often, if at all. Every time I take a beat and don't let it affect me I grow stronger. With practice and the building of better habits this has become second nature to me. I just know that most poker players don't handle beats well and if I can, I am increasing my edge in the game.

I do know that everyone is different. Some players aren't the least bit concerned about looking into a chat room and seeing a bunch of bust-out hands. To some chats are more laid back and used for conversation, beats, and brags. While others may want to be surrounded with more positivity and hope to avoid all the bust-out hands and want the chat to be more for strategy, hand discussion, and railing. I don't think there is necessarily a right or wrong way to do it, I just know I prefer a more positive environment. I suppose its important to not let chats filled with bust-out hands bother me, and to get as much good out of the chat as I can and ignore the negative.

Today I cashed in 5 out of 23 MTTs with two final tables. I also played 3 satellites with no cashes. All in all it was a decent day. I finished in 3rd and 6th on my two final tables, but was only a hold away from going deeper in both. I somehow managed to forget the final table picture for the $11c 4k so instead I took a pic of the hand that got me short. I was in the BB with 22bbs and ATs and the SB shoved 11bbs with A6s. I called and he made the nuts on the turn. It was a little unlucky but a completely standard spot.

Tomorrow is the best day for online poker and I plan on attacking it. I have been working hard and studying and will do everything in my power to have a great day. Good luck to all the grinders at the WSOP and good luck to all of us grinding online.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

You better work, turn to the left.

Friday I woke up a little late and jumped in the shower and started my day. I decided to not go after food and instead planned on having a banana to start and soup and a sandwich a break or two in. As long as I have a plan for food I am fine and I feel as if I am ready for my session. What I try to avoid is just diving into a session and then while very busy and multi-tablng start feeling hungry with no plan. The showering and treating my sessions like a job that I clean up and get dressed for helps to. I don't like to be mid-session and want a shower, it's simply a distraction I can avoid by being prepared.

The day started off great. I was building chips on all tables and won the first couple races I had. The first MTT I joined I 30+ min late registered for. It was the $16.50 1k and it had 68 players. I was also in a 109 ticket satellite and a couple others. I think when I joined the $16.50 1k about a third of the field had already been knocked out and I doubled the first hand I played. I went onto win the $16.50 1k and the $109 ticket satellite and was done with both less than three hours into my session. I played very well in my opinion. I made a few big lay-downs and overcame a 4 to 1 disadvantage HU to win. It was a wonderful start to my session.

Overall for the day I cashed in 4 out of 26 MTTs and 1 out of 3 satellites. I was able to make three final tables and secure one win. The other two final tables ended in a 4th and an 8th. I really feel that I am a good player and that I have been playing solid since late 2010, but since coming back to online a month ago I have really strengthened my game. I have been doing more HH reviews and practicing ranges in pokerstove. I have also been frequenting the forums to and talking hands in poker chat. And for those of you that read that and think, "All I need is a poker chat group and I would be so much better", you are right to an extent, but you must realize that the poker chat has not made me better. The reason I am better is because I post hands often and persuade players to give opinions. I also try and comment on others hands when I see them. And most importantly I have had the drive to do HH reviews after sessions and managed to fix a few important leaks and improve my lines and ranges.

The moral of the story is that everyone wants some type of quick fix or always feels that there is one or two things missing and if they had it, like a chat group, they would be light years ahead of where they are. But the truth is the only way to get better is work hard. A poker chat can help but they are 90% filled with chat and bust out hands. It takes work to get people talking about hands and staying positive. So for anyone wanting to improve, don't expect a miracle cure just work really hard. If you're in a poker chat work harder to get your friends talking hands and staying positive, and if you're not, start one or take lessons with me and I will place you in one, but know that it takes work. Lessons are the same way, they won't just fix you. Usually they will expose your leaks then it is up to you to take that information and apply it. If you are constantly paying bad prices for set-mining for example and the lesson exposed that. Then it would be up to you to use the information of the correct price you can pay and not pay and prices higher than that. Basically I am saying that when a person decides to put in the work, that is when they will see results. I will say once you reach that point, poker chat and lessons are very valuable.

I myself am a hard worker and have been seeing the results. After my session I uploaded the HH of the MTT I won and reviewed it. I had stove out and every hand that caught my eye was discussed in the poker chat. I'll be honest it wasn't easy I had to twist a couple arms but after some small persuading I got lots of helpful discussion from my friends. It really wasn't to bad I am lucky to be in a good chat group with solid players. But I will tell you that complacency can run wild and it helps to have someone pushing the discussions or it can just be chat and bust-out hands. When I say that I don't mean this chat but chats in general. Again my point comes down to work hard and you see results.

I have had several recent emails about lessons and I am very excited to take on some new students. I have been putting extra time in on working on my game and preparing for lessons. I want to make sure I can give the players all the help they need.

Contact me for lessons at variance101@gmail.com

Fishing

Thursday I cashed in 3 out of 27 MTTs with all three cashed being final table runs but short exits. I finished the final tables in 6th, 8th, and 9th but feel I was playing really well and I have plenty more deep runs left in me. I also cashed in 1 out of 4 satellites but that cash was not for the ticket I was after it was more of a min cash. All in all it was a good day full of deep runs and my schedule, focus, and ranging of players are all improving daily. I was in such the zone yesterday I didn't even know the OKC/Miami game was on until there was less than a minute left and I missed the whole thing. That may not sound like much, but I am a huge sports fan living in Oklahoma and I think most sports fans tuned in.

The last couple days were filled with some deep runs and final tables but I came out a little bit loser both days. With Merge and Revolution splitting the American player pool the sites have had to reduce some of the guarantees which makes winning money a little tougher but not impossible. I think increased awareness and better game selection is a necessity and will help you find the right MTTs to play. I do think that the biggest guarantee drops were in high stakes and that low and mid stakes grinders still have plenty of options. There is still plenty of soft spots and lots of money to be made so please don't be discouraged just keep battling if you have noticed the same thing. Also part of the reason has to be because so many players are playing live at WSOP instead of online and their business should return after the series. I personally believe I can still be profitable the way it is now, but truly believe that online poker is going to start making a comeback and although the Lock/Merge split has temporarily felt like a setback, it will be good for USA poker in the end.

This last week has been really good for Variance101 Training. I have picked up about half a dozen new students and got lots of great compliments on my blog. When I started this blog is was all with a plan of giving lessons later on and being able to show the path I took to get where I am. It's been over a year since I started it and things are going exactly as planned. I am truly excited about teaching and really enjoy helping people. Over the years I have spent lots of time teaching pool, and when I was at the casino I was training people to deal poker. All of this previous experience taught me a lot about myself and about getting through to people.  I am now using that experience to help me teach poker players step to improve and reduce mistakes.

Best of luck to all the grinders at the WSOP and to all the grinders still plating online.
LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Contact me for lessons at variance101@gmail.com

Here is a quote from Chinese proverb.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Fulfilling

Today I cashed in 5 out of 21 MTTs and won 2 out of 4 satellites. Two of my cashes are somewhat skewed in a way depending on how you look at it. I was playing two MTTs on Lock when the site had trouble and they shut down all the MTTs and refunded the money. I was sitting 4th in chips out of 20 remaining players in the $3r 1.25k and they do a type of chip chop so I made money but would much rather have finished out the MTT. Overall it was a decent day, I am happy with my play and managed a few results. I secured a $109 ticket to use this Sunday in the 125k guaranteed, and won a $60 ticket that I used in the Mid-week Monster. I made a deep run in the Mid-week Monster but lost a race with about 3 tables left, but did manage a cash.

After my session, which ended a little sooner than usual due to two deep runs that persuaded me to register in a few less MTTs, I went to the grocery store to get some things for dinner and the next few days. I was in the mood for a steak and my favorite is a strip steak, but being it was midnight the pickings were a little slim. I went with a bone-in ribeye and it was great. I prefer the strip steaks because they have the most consistent meat texture and I like that. A ribeye can have different textures and colors of meat in different parts and although it's usually pretty good, I prefer the consistency of a strip steak. With that being said though I picked a two pack of bone-in ribeyes that looked great and consistent. Well, that's enough about dinner but I will tell you, I cook a mean steak.

After eating I migrated back towards my computer where I have been spending a lot of time lately. If I am not playing poker I am watching WSOP live streams, reviewing HHs, blogging, reading poker forums, or preparing for upcoming lessons. I am mentally in a great place regarding poker right now and have really enjoyed giving it a huge percentage of my time. I am not sure how may people get to find something in their life they really enjoy but I have. I played pool for many years and gave myself to the sport and never thought I could ever want to do anything like I wanted to play pool. But poker has taken pools place and taken that, "Love for the Game", to even bigger heights. I really enjoy playing and improving daily, but have also always loved teaching. I am just starting to do more poker lessons and I enjoy it very much. Poker can be very challenging, demanding, and time consuming but at the end of it all the adjective I would like to use is, fulfilling.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Contact me for lessons at variance101@gmail.com

Improve daily

Today I cashed in 5 out of 29 MTTs with three final tables. I was not able to close any of them out but there is always tomorrow. I also cashed in 1 out of 2 satellites, but the cash was just for the buy-in back.

Over all it was a pretty good day that will lead to many more good days. I followed through with several things I have been planning and trying to work on. I lowered my buy-ins a little by taking out a couple of the highest buy-ins and replacing them with a smaller buy-in MTTs. I also continued to work on ranging players and finding good equity spots. All the recent hand reviews and work with pokerstove is paying off. I did manage to make a few plays I am not to sure about, but I am sure, that I will be going over them later.

It has taken me a few weeks to get to where I feel like I am in control of my BR and my play after a long break from online. At first I was in to big of a hurry and expected to get rich the first night. I will say I did only deposit $200 and for a couple reasons. One of the reasons being I wasn't sure what to expect, I hadn't played in about 13 months and my last experience left me owed a bunch of money I will possibly never see. The other reason is because my BR just wasn't very big and I couldn't afford to deposit a lot. After BF I played a ton of live poker and did great for a while but had a horrid run at the end of 2011 that included several live MTT bubbles and the live expenses got me hella short when running below EV. I wasn't careful enough. So even though the $200 I deposited was important, I hadn't quite adopted a $200 bankroll mentality. I mean I had been playing MTTs live ranging from $135 to $2k and before Black Friday hit I had been playing highstakes MTTs online for about a month. Dropping down to $11 and under MTTs was a bit of a jump. Even though my BR was saying "hey, I'm low" my stubbornness was saying "hey, let's win a few thousand tonight".

Luckily for me the first night back I got 3rd in a $11 cube, a 1 rebuy 1 add-on MTT. The 3rd place was for 1k and gave me a little more money to get started. But, to be honest, just the fact that I was in a $11c with a $200 roll should say enough. I will say that on the first day back I did not look at it like that was a $200 roll and I would build. I was so unsure what playing online would be like after 13 months but was ready to do something. I just decided I would put some money on and try to play. I had been playing a lot of Tiger Woods 13 on PS3 and I was getting bored. I do enjoy video games but the reason I was playing so much is because my BR wasn't big enough to even grind 1/2 live in the local casinos. I have had my share of struggles recently and really wished I would have thought to come back to online poker sooner. The DOJ and BF really put online poker on its heels. I am just not the same person when I'm lounging around playing games as I am when I am a poker grinder trying to make money. I need to feel like I am earning money and improving daily, poker is the perfect outlet.

So as I was saying the first $200 didn't start with the "build this up" mentality, but after getting up over 1k on the first night, along with reconnecting with several of my old poker chat buddies, I was ready to go. To bad for me my desire out weighed my preparation and it took a few days for me to figure out the best value MTTs to play. I took my 1k to 2k and then just as quickly back to $200. It was at this time that I finally started trying to get my head around where I was financially and what I need to do to build my BR back up. I have been constantly working on my MTT schedule sense and am very close to where I need to be now with risk verses reward.

 The only thing that playing outside your roll will guarantee, is emotion. To play poker at its highest levels a player needs play with emotional detachment, but playing outside your bankroll with have you more attached to your emotions than ever. To give an example on my second Sunday back I was playing in the $109 150k on Carbon and went out 5 spots from the money. When I went out, I yelled "Fuck You" right at the screen as if the guy that just sucked out on me could hear it. The min cash that I was 5 spots away from was $210. The $210 would have covered 90% of my buy-ins for the day and would have been at least a 10-15% increase to my bankroll. That is still no reason to let your emotions come into play. The point I am trying to make is if that MTT had been within my buy-in range I would never  have gotten upset over a min cash, but because the min cash was for so much I got tilted. Granted I don't think this is the best example because I won a satellite into the 150k and was only in for $11 but when comparing the amount of the min cash to my BR it was substantial, so it seemed to hurt way worse. This sheds some light on the fact that staying within the proper buy-in range for your BR per proper BRM will help you maintain emotional detachment, and emotional detachment is key for high volume grinders. 

I'll be honest that yelling occurrence was rare because I have trained myself to know that any one MTT does not mean much in the whole scheme of things. A decent MTT grinder is going to cash in 15% of their MTTs, that leaves 85% that you do not. You just learn that when you bust a MTT you register in another and keep going.

I was just starting to see some of my potential in 2011. I was in a poker chat daily, I was a lot of training videos, and I had taken some poker lessons and it was all paying off. January 2011 I had the best poker month of my life and really felt I was starting to get somewhere. Then the DOJ brought about Black Friday and really put a damper on my progress. I was okay with going back to the live grind where I started but was naive and didn't quite realize that the substantial online BR I had built up was pocket change to the live community. On top of all that I only got half my bankroll because AP and Full Tilt didn't pay us our money. So 1/2 my substantial online BR was definitely pocket change to the live world. Looking back I would rather have been playing online the whole time and kept improving but I did pick up some very valuable experience going to the WSOP for 32 days and playing the Main Event. I had improved so much over the course of 6 months or so before Black Friday, but I think I mostly just maintained after. My improvements were more just fine tuning along with adapting the things I learned online to live. Since being back about 3 weeks I have removed almost all the rust off my game, have plugged a few leaks, and I am back to learning and improving daily. This is where I belong, I am an online grinder.

LONG LIVE ONLINE POKER!

Go GAR Go

I woke up feeling good after getting plenty of sleep and got going pretty quickly to make sure I could get an errand ran before I started my session. The session got off to slow start very similar to the day before with me bricking almost every MTT. Luckily I did follow through with lowering my buy-ins some so all the MTTs were within my price range. I ended up cashing in 2 out of 29 MTTs with one final table in the $11 3.5k deepstack turbo where I finished fourth. I had one other cash and bubbled three MTTs. I got unlucky in a few spots but I am more concerned with a couple spots that I think I need to go over and have a better plan for next time. All in all I think I am playing very well and the current leaks I am encountering are very fixable.

After my session I went over a few hands but needed to get away from the computer a while and give my eyes a rest. I decided to make a strip steak with some Kansas City seasoning and some whole kernel corn. As I enjoyed my steak, and oh yes I did enjoy it, I watched an episode of one of my favorite shows, AMC's The Killing. It was another great episode and I can't wait till the next one. Once the show was over I took my dog for a run around the apartment complex, well she runs I just kinda roll along behind/beside her. Samantha my 80lb labradoodle pulls me in wheelchair like we are in a dogsled race. I have to constantly be like hey, slow down. She is a great dog and a wonderful friend. I added a pic below, she normally would have longer hair but I try and keep her groomed.

After taking it easy for a bit I found myself back on my computer and decided to play some HU. I wound up playing $21 HU turbo sit-n-gos. I beat the same guy 7 out of 9 and ended up about $100 winner which was exactly what I was stuck for the day after such minimal results. It was nice to log on for some casual play and squeeze out a $100 win.

I have been getting a few more responses about lessons and I am excited to get to work with some more players. One of my new students was really eager to join a skype chat group and I was able to facilitate that for him the first day. We have a lesson planned this weekend and three this month. I am very excited to work with this player who has lots of potential and should be able to show immediate resuts. From what I have seen so far, some of his leaks are simple fixes and will make big differences.

SHOUT OUT
My friend Garret gar2garvin is chipped up going into day 2 of Event 23 $3k 6max at WSOP. Good luck Garrett. I also have a few other friends out there and I will be anxiously awaiting any good news.

Good luck to all the online grinders, hopefully the fact that Merge is slashing all their guarantees won't total kill the site and hopefully Lock will keep improving theirs.

The ONE

I got lots of sleep last night and woke up rip roaring and ready to go. I knew that I was going to do everything in my power to have a good day. I had plans to play a few less tables and increase my focus. I have been slowly adjusting my schedule and now have a good idea of what the best value MTTs are in my current price range. Now I just need to get some volume in while making good decisions.

I scrolled through the lobbies and registered for most of the MTTs I was playing as I scarfed down the lunch I just got home with and began my session. Right from the beginning I got off to a bit of a rough start. On top of the rough start the Carbon and Lock lobbies where lagging. On Carbon poker tables since their new update there is no longer an info button. Now you have to go to the MTT lobby to see where you are in the MTT and how many are left. Needless to say when the lobbies are lagging it is impossible to know where you are in the MTT and that can be tricky. Some spots in the MTT require a different approach like bubble play for example, where you might open up your range and try to exploit the tight players trying to make the money.

I checked the chat to see if I was the only one with lagging lobbies but quickly found out I was not alone. Most of the guys if not all were having the same trouble but it seemed to have different effects on different people. Several guys were tilted and about oi (over it). I know a few guys stopped registering and even unregistered everything that hadn't started. There was also a few guys that had gotten off to bad starts and were quickly falling off into the wrong mindset and posting shortened versions of their bust-out hands like, "I just lost AK

Oddly enough when I am around players that start tilting or getting negative I gain confidence and begin to handle everything even better. It's something about seeing it first hand and not wanting to imitate it.  I had one point in the day where I was knocked out of seven MTTs in about one hour and I was ahead on the turn in all but one. Obviously that would be frustrating for anyone but seeing so many guys tilting, whether it be mild or severe, helped me to handle the beats like it was nothing and just keep right on going.  I know that almost every poker player gets tilted and their plays drops dramatically while tilted. I know that if I can be one of the few that can handle the beats without tilting that I should be able to make more money than the guys tilting. In poker confidence is huge and when I am in control if my emotions and playing with emotional detachment it gives me lots of added confidence.

As far as results for the day, I cashed in 1 out of 22 MTTs and made one final table in the $11 2k. I was trying to maximize my only cash for the day and since it was the last MTT I had left I was able to give it my complete focus. I needed to get 2nd to break even and 1st to make money on the day but went out 5th. I feel as if I played pretty well overall, but I did make a few mistakes today. My HUD programs allows me to easily star hands that I want quick access to for review and have been going over a few daily. I know it is very important to work on your game and truly apply yourself, not just put in volume.

After my MTT session I played some HU sit-n-gos on lock and recouped the $55 dollars I had spent on MTT buy-ins. I only played three MTTs on Lock today but I did find the three of the best value MTTs for my BR, I just wish I could have shipped one. I have been playing a lot of different forms of HU NL be it cash or sit-n-go. I have also played different speeds some turbo, some regular, and different size stacks as well. The HU work is helping me a lot and I am already reaping some benefits. The last couple times I got HU in a MTT I felt very comfortable and was able to close.

I still have work to do on my MTT schedule as I feel my day was still a little to expensive. Strict BRM is very important but takes discipline to follow. It is very easy to come up with reasons to play an MTT outside your BR but honestly its just to risky. After a talk with a friend I think I have a game plan for the next few days that has me lowering my abi just a little but I know its smarter and safer. It would be nice if americans as a society weren't so good at learning everything the hard way. I mean seriously how often do you hear about the guy that did everything right? Usually its more of a story of redemption that comes from several lessons learned the hard way. I know that I have more than my share of lessons learned the hard way. This week is going to be great and I am going to make that happen one step at a time. My plan is to use more strict BRM and spend a decent percentage of my time studying and reviewing. I have been good at building a decent routine and putting in volume now I just need to take everything a step further and commit myself even more.

I really love poker, playing it, talking it, and blogging about it. I hope you enjoy this blog and if you have time please leave a comment and tell me what you think. To all the grinders at WSOP, best of luck and play within yourself. To all the grinders playing online with hopes to go to WSOP next year, step it up and work harder. Be honest with yourself and do what it takes to improve.

Good luck all and get that money!

SHOUT OUT!
Congratulations to my buddy Ron M. for winning the $530 on Merge today. Ron is an online beast that has had his shares of ups and downs recently and I am very happy he shipped a big one. Keep up the great work Ron. Check out his blog on the right, The life of T4.