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.