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.