Wow, so I’m writing this blog in my holiday lodge, away from everything... Not got any internets, so no pokers! And it feels great to be having a break. A break from my job, but also a break from playing poker, although it won’t stop me thinking about poker hands, and I’ve just watched a 6table 6-max 1-2NL video from BFP which was pretty interesting.
I can’t be 100% sure yet but I feel having this break and relaxing / enjoying myself will help me develop a better mindset to play great poker once I do play again.

It’s only being forced not to play that can stop me from playing, as if there was internets here I’m sure I’d be hitting up some kind of online card-room right now. But the break from it has already given me better perspective on life and made me realise that most importantly, if I want to have success with poker I have to stop playing without the right mindset & if I’m not ready or fully relaxed / un-distracted / awake enough –

SIPMLY DO NOT PLAY

It sounds easy doesn’t it!? But until now its one thing I have battled with and, until now, it’s been a losing battle. Maybe i can work on this by finding something else to do with my time instead when i feel like this but want to play, like write blogs, watch videos, or whatever...

I believe in myself that I have the necessary ability to be a winning poker player and make some money. When I do focus and play A+/A Game I can confidently take on players at stakes up to about 200 or 400 NL, but only if I am properly bankrolled. If I’m not rolled for these levels i should not be playing them, and right now I simply am not L
Damnit; I’m not even rolled for 50NL. So this is it:

STOP TILT

CUT OUT C-GAME

CUT OFF B GAME

PLAY WITH ENOUGH BANKROLL – MINIMIMUM 20 BUYINS – Preferably at least 30-40

FOCUS & CONCENTRATE

The difficult thing in this is that I struggle to take the money side seriously when playing 10NL or 30NL and can get bored. I don’t like to play 25NL as that level has never worked for me. And, despite numerous attempts and pretending to, I do not have a roll for cash games at any level higher than this right now.

I’m not stupid. I make a decent amount of money training some intelligent people in consultancy for a living; I have a degree level education, and have been successful at most things I’ve put real effort into. SO WHY do I keep making the same fucking bankroll management and tilt / tired mistakes with poker, when know what I should be doing?

Because until now I’ve been lying to myself, pretending that I’m different, and i can go on a little run at the 200NL tables, then quit a bit ahead, move down and play lower with my winnings, or that I’m good enough and have enough edge to play these levels under-rolled / short stacked.

 

Well this will never work and I have now accepted that and understand much more clearly after several months, and some very painful lessons - Exactly what all those bankroll management advice articles were saying.

 

From the slightly detached perspective I have right now I’ve broken my bankroll building plan for the next couple of months into 3 possible choices:

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  1. 1. Go back to what I know (and love!), and grind some tournaments to win money and build my bankroll like this.

I feel like I have a decent edge in some of the full tilt donkaments so I would play:

o   The $5+1 daily doubles         

o   The $3 rebuy on Fri / Sat night if I can afford to be up all night J 

·         Steps 1 & 2 to win Step 3 $24+2 seats, with as much volume as possible (4-8 tables) to hopefully get some scores in:

o   The 8pm knockout ($24+2)

o   The $24+2 rush 135mans

o   The 10pm 6max rush turbo ($24+2)

o   Or maybe the $24+2 HU MTT

·         I may also play any other MTT on Full Tilt that falls at $10+1 buy-in or less, including the rush 135 man SNG’s.

This is how I got started with online poker. I love tourneys, enjoy playing them, and most importantly I have made money with these. If I do tilt (which is less likely) then the worst that can happen is that I bust a few tourney stacks, or in the worst case, enter the $55+4 11.35pm Super Turbo / an FTOPS event or something.

It would take discipline to stick with this and the time commitment requires some discipline, but I’m confident I can be profitable, and a win in one of the 24’s or the $3 rebuy would be a massive BR boost.

The other important thing with this would be to NOT CASH OUT, just keep building, of if I do cash out, to keep the money is a ‘special poker place’ and not spew it in cash games until i am 100% properly rolled for the game I play. Also to start with a decent amount.. Will have to work out a starting amount I believe is enough for this, but guess $300-$500 (any suggestions?)

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  1. 2. Play micro-stakes and try to build up with cash games from the bottom (Like 10NL).
    I’ve tried this before, a few times, on different sites, without success, but when i have tried the reason I failed (I believe) is because of terrible BR management.

The all too familiar scenario is that I do well, gradually build up a BR from say $300 to 5-6-700, and then BANG – a bad beat, a badly played hand, a loss of concentration/focus, and all of a sudden I’m sat there playing 100NL HU VS a decent reg, or 200NL vs. a table of NITS & get owned, tilt off, and within a few hours / days, the bankroll I’ve worked so hard and patiently to build up has disappeared. (And I kick myself) aaarrrrggghhhhh. FUCK

If i decide to take this route it has to be different this time. I have to be better. I MUST have self control, discipline, and a very strict bank roll management strategy which does not allow me to play above a certain level until i have a certain amount, and requires that i move down as soon as i drop below a certain amount..(I don’t think it matters so much exactly what level these drop down limits are set at, just that they exist and that I stick to them... / If they need to be adjusted up a bit that’s fine but i also want to be aggressive with the BR management at these levels...)

If I was to think about these numbers now it would go something like this:

    • $300 start – play 10NL
    • $600 – take shots at 30NL
    • Go straight back to 10NL if drop below $400
    • $1000 – take shots at 50NL
    • Go straight back to 30NL if drop below $800
    • $1500 - play 50NL as reg - both HU & 6max until>
    • $2250 – take shots at 100NL
    • Go straight back to 50NL if drop below $1750
    • $3000 play 100NL as reg
    • $4000 – take shots at 200NL
    • Go straight back to 100NL if drop below $3350

If I was every able to reach the $6k mark I would try to make 100NL and 200NL my regular game for a while and start cashing out some winnings to enjoy / reward for the discipline and hard work to get to that stage. Whether this is correct, I don’t really care, but, as this is my dream / plan I can do what I want! J

If I could get to the stage where I have $6k to work with and stick to the right levels, i believe that for a period I would be content to play at these levels, cash some out, try to build it up to a stage of even being slightly over-rolled for .50/1 or 1/2.

 


Hopefully this period would eventually pass and I would have adjusted to playing these levels, so build up enough confidence to start taking 2/4 or 3/6 shots which I where I would ultimately love to be @.

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  1. 3. Try to get some kind of Backing / Staking agreement so i can play higher, sooner.

This could be more difficult and would take more off the table skills then plan 1 or 2, but could enable me to play at the levels I want to, and win some decent money now.

With the cash game record i have a find it highly unlikely that anyone would want to back me to play cash. If and backer looked at my PTR they would be likely to laugh at me and tell me to GTFO. The only possibility with cash games I can think of is to approach the guy who originally started coaching me and ask if he would stake me something like $4k to play 100NL and build from this, with his help coaching / sweating and going through hand histories to improve my game. I’m not familiar with how a staking agreement would usually work with cash games but I guess I would play at this level and pay him a % of my winnings until the $4k is paid back, then continue to pay him a % after that. The other possible way would be pay out say 50% of profit after 100k hands.

If I had built up to playing $2/4 by this stage the profits could be significant and so this deal could be worth it for both parties and, if successful, could possibly be continued...

My other possibility could be to attempt to get some kind of MTT backing. My OPR shows an ok sample size with ~80%ROI with tourneys, which a backer may consider enough to take some shots on me on some mid-stakes MTT’s?!? I don’t know, it’s not something I’ve looked into a whole lot but it could be worth a try...

There are obvious pros & cons to being backed. I understand it’s quite common in MTTs, not sure about cash-games, and I’m not sure how I would feel about having to answer to someone else. It almost takes away the financial independence element that attracted me to poker in the first place, and I’m not sure how I’d feel about losing someone else’s money (it’s bad enough with my own!), but I’m confident with tourneys and would love to be able to play a bit higher, and have recently been feeling when I’m playing in these 200NL or 100NL games that I could crush if only I was properly rolled,,,

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So there we have it... 3 possible options! Right this second I am leaning towards option 1 for the next few months, and seeing if I can build enough poker$$ so I can play 100NL cash with enough of a roll to not cry when I lose a few buy-ins, not play with scared money, and not get tilted or want to immediately move up and chase losses.

I’ll think about these options some more, maybe take some advice, and keep working on my game and stay positive. Although 2010 has been so far a bad year for poker, hopefully I’ve been laying the foundations for success in 2011 and beyond.

The word on the street is we might see a new poker boom, and if it comes I want to be right here with some nice bankroll, waiting to reap its rewards!!!

If anyone has read this far, thank you very much, & please advise on option 1, 2 or 3!?..

 

As an afterthought another option could be to use some combination of these 3 options... Like for example; allocate some money to donkaments and some to cash, or get some partial backing like putting my own money into cash-games but be backed for tourneys... More to think about I guess!

Good luck^^^ )