The end of an 8 year journey

All good things must come to an end, and poker is no exception. It's been a lot of hard work and effort, and it has paid off well over the years. Unfortunately, real life, namely graduate studies and my career, have simply become too time-consuming for me to dedicate the proper amount of time poker requires. Also, despite having a nice hourly playing cards, my real-life career hourly is now higher with much less effort and much more long-term benefits; thus, the opportunity cost of poker has now become too high for me.

I started playing casually in 2004, and more seriously in 2009 up until now, and poker has been a great teacher for many life lessons. Discipline, mental toughness, work ethic, emotional roller coasters, psychological tests of strength, poker has honed me in all those things and more over the years. It also allowed me to never work a "real" student job all the way through college, which was a very nice perk.

Perhaps one day when i'm much more established in real life I will come back as a casual player; but as of now, my online bankroll is 0$ for the first time in 8 years. Almost 2,000,000 hands later, this chapter of my life comes to an end. It's been a lot of frustration, sweat and effort, but overall i'd say poker has brought more good than bad in my life, even discounting the financial benefits. Thus, to all the grinders still playing out there, I say one final good luck at the tables!

- Zapatos80

Zooming to victory!

Zoom poker has been very good to me lately. I've been modifying my game quite a bit lately and it has brought great success. Not only is my winrate better (10% less rake than before is not bad at all!) but i'm actually getting more VPP/hand than with the dealt method! Best of both worlds! Of course, running hot is always a plus (brag graph inc)

Tiny sample of course but hey, it sure beats a downswing! The number of times people stacked off top pair vs my sets in this sample is also pretty sweet, and the amount of random spew i've seen on Zoom makes for very healthy games. Interestingly enough, i'm doing better without my HUD. Maybe i'm just too ADD, but i've found that the amount of additional concentration required to analyze HUD stats was just too draining for the actual gain I was getting, especially in Zoom where you're constantly changing opponents.

Of course, free info is always better but in this case, I found myself actually making better decisions and being able to play longer without a HUD. I guess having a lot of experience helps in that regard. I may try it back on at a later time but what i'm doing now is working quite well, so i'd rather not fix something that isn't broken. If things continue to go this well, 2012 should be quite a good year. Good luck at the tables grinders!

God do I love Zoom Poker

I can finally take a break when I want to, I can go to the bathroom like a decent human being! I can play for an hour without wasting 15mins starting & shutting down 24 tables. Plus, Zoom attracted a lot of fish so might as well take advantage while it lasts. With school/life taking up a lot of my time I almost gave up the grind for Supernova, but with Zoom poker things flow so smoothly, and I can fit 1 hour here and there much more easily than before, making the whole grind a pleasure. Thanks Pokerstars for making mass-grinding humane!

Back in the games after a 2 month poker vacation!

And it's good to be back! I've been very busy with RL these past 2 months, with my master's degree taking most of my time. A lot has a changed on Pokerstars lately, and that meant some good news and bad news for me personally.

Of course, the worse news is the very significant VPP/hand drop. I'm down to about 0.18VPP/hand at 100NL, about 25% less than before. However, there have been a lot of significant benefits to these changes. First of all, they gave me an extra month to focus on getting started with school, so thanks Pokerstars! I realize the extra month you can take off is insignificant for most Supernovas but for me it was quite a nice boon. 

They also reduced the monthly VPP requirement to 6500, so about 14% less. Doesn't quite make up for the VPP loss per hand so i'll still have to grind more than before per month to keep Supernova, but it's not that bad. You also don't need to reach 100,000VPP this year if you're already a Supernova, so I can basically grind only 6500VPP/month until the end of the year and still keep it going into 2013. I may or may not need this but as a mostly "casual" player now, it's always nice to have the option.

But the two major benefits i've noticed are these ; first of all, a significant rake reduction (roughly 10% across the board with a slightly dropped rake cap at 100NL, not bad at all!). This should help my small winrate which is always nice, especially since i'll need to play more hands/month. The other thing i've noticed is that the number of shortstack leechers has dramatically dropped. I only played a quick 2500 hands session today so take it for what it's worth, but that's still amazing news for game quality!

Overall I think the changes were necessary, especially considering Zoom poker is just around the corner. To have the Zoom pool polluted with 8/6s and leeching shortstackers would have made for some unfun/bad games all around, so overall this was a much needed change by Pokerstars. With all that they've given to make up for it, i'd say things are looking good for 2012, and i'm pretty psyched to be back in the games. Best of luck to you sicko grinders that are still going for Supernova Elite, and see you at the tables!

Take a stand for Internet freedom!

I don't want to use this blog as a soap box for political issues, but this is so big, and threatens the very core of the internet, that it deserves attention. If you are a US citizen, please take a moment to help protect internet freedom and see how you can contribute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_317237&feature=iv&src_vid=_6Ye21JEOOo&v=JhwuXNv8fJM

If you have a website, join the Internet blackout movement on January 18th! See more here : http://sopastrike.com/strike

Together we can stop this thing. Together to the top!

Merry Christmas to all!

Best wishes to all the grinders out there, and best of luck to those still grinding Supernova/Supernova Elite!

The softest games i've ever seen!

This is a new site that opened Tuesday the 15th, High Pulse poker. They have a great deposit bonus, a ton of freerolls to build your roll and up to 50% rakeback from day one, but this isn't the reason i'm so amazed by this site. The goldmine is that it has the fishiest games i've ever seen, even at the NL25, NL50 and NL100 levels.

We're talking 2005 Partypoker fish, never folding an ace, calling reraises out of position with KTo and stacking off any pair, all that good stuff. I've played a couple thousands hands so far and I just can't believe it. I was playing 5-handed yesterday and it was me, 2 fish and 2 whales. After playing the tough games on Stars for the past 2 years, this is just a walk in the park.

I think one of the reason the site is so fishy at the moment is that they gave over 1 million euros in freerolls during the beta, money which was only released on Tuesday when the site went gold. This means all the fish that won a part of that million euro is now spending it on the site (and then some!). Perhaps their marketing has found a nice pond of euro-fish as well. Either way, it's all good :)

If you guys decide to take advantage of this opportunity, i'd appreciate it if you use this link to register, as I get a bonus for referrals. Simply use referal code "HTWOTF" when you sign up.Thanks and happy fishing!

http://highpulsepoker.com/cgi-bin/sc.pl?hpaffcode=HTWOTF

M-m-m-m-m-m-m-monster year end session!

Another year, another Supernova. Lost it briefly in October (was at 93k VPPs when September ended) but after a few weeks of on-and-off, it was time to finish this Athene Grindmode Style!




YEAAAA!




My longest session yet, by far! My head is still spinning, but i'm really happy to get Supernova for the second year in a row. I'm even more amazed that I managed to finish the session with a positive winrate! (screw all-in EV, lol). Pretty happy I did it at 50NL instead of 100NL, or I would have most likely ended up losing quite a bit of money in the process.

I'm starting my master's degree in January so I won't have as much time for poker, but after a session like this, I know I can always get some monster sessions crunch-time near the end of the month if I need a little extra boost to keep Supernova going, so i'm not too concerned about maintaining it next year.

This pretty much closes the year for me. I still have about 28k hands to go to get my first 4,000$ FPP bonus (which was delayed over and over all year long!). It feels like i've been running after that one for so long, i'm very happy to have it as my year-end trophy for 2011. This year has brought a lot of ups and downs but i'm still pretty happy with how it all went down. Good luck to grinders still finishing the year, and here's to a pokeriffic 2012!

Still in da gaimz!

Whew, feels like it's been a while since i've been here. After a pretty busy month life-wise, i'm ready to get back into DA GAIMZ! Starting my master's degree in January and i'm pretty psyched about it! This will mean poker will return to part-time, although it's not like I was getting that much more volume in playing "full-time".

I finished reading up Dynamic Full-Ring Poker : http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Full-Ring-Poker-Beyond/dp/0982402295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320681808&sr=8-1 and it is well worth the price tag. I feel much more solid now, and i'm playing great, but we'll see for sure after a healthy sample.

Unfortunately I lost Supernova (why it doesn't extend all the way to December if you maintain pace is beyond me) but I will get it back shortly (about 5k VPPs short atm). I'm very happy to get Supernova a second year in a row. This may not be a huge accomplishment for some of the mega grinders but I still think it's a status that differentiates the "serious" players from the amateurs so i'm very satisfied with my game in that regards.

So far the games at 50NL seem a lot softer than 100NL, with very solid regs far and few in-between. Things are looking great both in life and poker, and i'm looking forward to finishing the year strong. Happy grinding!

Willpower is a finite resource

I just finished reading a quick Q&A with the author of "Willpower" over at the Freakonomics blog : http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/22/the-authors-of-willpower-answer-your-questions/ and one interesting question jumped out for me :

Q.Is willpower a single commodity (so to speak), or is there, as I suspect, a one type of willpower for, say, dieting, another one for academic study, another for this, another for that? -AaronS

A.No, there’s just one single resource (or commodity). There’s one source of mental energy for resisting temptation and performing other acts of self-control, and this willpower is also depleted by making decisions. What you experience may reflect the fact that willpower is limited and so people have to allocate it: they use it at the office to work effectively and diligently, but have messy homes and are short-tempered in the evening. Or people who show wonderful self-control at dealing with personal relationships but can’t seem to meet their deadlines.

This got me thinking about my own situation. As the year went by (and still goes by), i've noticed something rather stunning about my poker habits ; I played about the same volume this year, with literally no other work-related obligations, as I did last year, when I studied full time.

With my current pace, I should finish the year at about 120k VPPs, quite a bit less than I initially planned. Thus, it's time for a little introspection. After all, poker is all about playing the hand we're dealt as best we can, not the hand we wish we had. After two years of data, the conclusion I have to draw is that mass grinding isn't for me.

The good news is that I can still make poker work for me as a great second job, maintaining Supernova with relative ease playing 40-50k hands a month. Even by dropping from 24 to 12-16 tables, this is a pace that's fairly easy for me to maintain. This will free up energy I can dedicate elsewhere in life ; starting in January i'm going back to college and starting my Master's degree.

That little Q&A gave me some insight as to probably why my poker volume evolved this way. Although willpower is a finite resource, i've come to realize that different tasks drain it in different ways. Add/bpd certainly don't help, in that managing my mood drains a significant amount of energy, and poker only makes it that much more taxing. On the other hand, i'm very happy with myself in a lot of other vital areas of my life ; relationships, fitness and eating habits being the most important to me.

However I still believe I can do quite well with poker in the long run, since players like Mike Matusow have overcome these obstacles and went on to be very succesful. Thus, it's time to change my attack plan ; reduce the number of tables, play a bit less volume/month, but focus much harder on playing well. When you can't play more, the only way to make more money is to play better. I spent the last few weeks off the tables completely and going through Dynamic Full Ring poker, an excellent book.

Armed with extensive note-taking and study material, I should be back at the tables, sharper than ever, in about a week. I'm pretty psyched and looking forward to it! So take this for what it's worth, and realize that whatever your situation is, there's always hope for your game if you're always willing to get back up, no matter how many times you fall. Good luck at the tables (and in life)!

Always nice to have a little refresher

As poker adepts, we go over so much material, concepts and study that sometimes, we forget some of the stuff that helped us out in the beginning. With this in mind, here's a couple things that I had not touched in years that I went over recently and I felt helped me out.

First of all, "Playing to Win", basically Sun Tzu's Art of War for modern day gamers. I first read this and applied it to FPS & MMOs back in the days and going over it again sharpened my blade, so to speak. A very good book for focus, discipline and the proper mindset you need to develop to become a dedicated winner at your game : http://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Becoming-David-Sirlin/dp/1411666798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312830810&sr=8-1

What can a 2NL player teach you? Probably not how to balance your river check-raise range, but i've seen adepts lose sight of the more fundamental insights that serious beginning players have. Some of you may scoff at the simplicity of these clips, but getting this stuff right is so important (and to be honest, there's some days where I still misapply this stuff) that I feel it deserves mention :

Playing poker to learn, not to make money. Despite making good money, I still think that even after almost 2 years and a million hands later, seeing every single session as a learning experience is VERY important to keep improving (at least to me!). Even though I feel my game is the highest it's ever been, playing to learn is probably one of the most important point that keeps me going in every session as energized and focused on getting better as I can be  : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-play?id=2437628%3AVideo%3A42299&page=2#comments

Accept the realities of poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-for-poker-noobs

Poker is not about how you win, it's about how you lose : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/inner-game-4-poker-nubs-3

Keeping your brain healthy for poker : http://friendlyp.ning.com/video/how-to-take-care-of-your-brain

Last but not least is a classic and has been one of the pivotal tools in my poker journey : the concept of the week series in the micro FR forum. Every so often I like to browse a couple of those threads, just to make sure I didn't forget anything. I feel like I have a solid grasp on most of the stuff there, but every so often I find a gem I missed or that I had forgotten : http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78/micro-stakes-full-ring/concept-week-schedule-table-contents-397190/

Sometimes I get a little discouraged when I look at how much I still have to learn, but when I look back and see just how far i've gotten, it makes me pretty proud of my achievements. Finally, results-wise I should hit Supernova again near the end of month and finally cash in on my first 4k bonus, FTW! (should have been waaaay before but I blew a lot of FPPs on 650$'s and 1500$'s in the past). Currently behind pace for 200K VPP this year but I think there's still hope. Keep working hard, grinders, and good luck at the tables!

Even Steven

Poker can be a humbling experience at times, and it certainly felt that way when I looked back on my year so far :



Fortunately, by 24-tabling I was able to maintain a decent hourly as a rakeback pro, which is certainly better than losing. I wish I could blame this on bad luck but over 300k+ hands, poker is a fair mistress and you get what you deserve. Laziness and wishful thinking brought me to this, and if I want it to change, there's only one thing to do.

I've had much better results in the past and looking back it's pretty easy to see what went wrong. I pretty much stopped studying altogheter, sat on my laurels and hoped the good times would still roll. Fortunately, with a simple decision, and a solid commitment to improving, one can change his poker results dramatically, and this is exactly what I plan to do going forward.

Even though i've faced this issue time and time again, it seems I have trouble accepting the fact that in poker, if you stop improving, you decline. I see now (and hope I will remember) that nothing is ever truly acquired in poker and you are never due anything. Nothing but constant hard work on and off the tables will bring success, up to the very last day you play poker.

Thus I post this now to remind myself of this simple poker truth. One of the things I love most about poker (unlike many "real" jobs) is that you get exactly what you deserve. Going forward, I will make sure I do absolutely everything I can to reach the level of success I know I can achieve. Good luck at the tables everyone, and stay hungry!

Quick update

Quick poker update, as i've not played or posted a lot lately. I've mostly been dealing with RL stuff, as well as spending more time pokering "off the tables", working on my game, my routine, optimizing my days, etc. In April I was logging in and playing 5k hands straight, which was burning me out pretty quickly. Spent most of May tinkering with that and I think i've found a pretty optimal setting (for me anyway).

I ended up dividing my play in 1h40 chunks, so I usually start playing at about 10am, play 1h40, 10mins break for walking around/exercice, another 1h40, about 45mins off for lunch, and another 1h40. (Optional additional 10mins break and 1h40 after if I have time/energy). Nowadays I can pull off days like that and still have solid energy for the rest of my day so i'm pretty happy with it.

The only thing I still have to stabilize for peak performance is sleep and food. I used to be a big night owl so going to bed at 10h30-11h still feels annoying but any later than that and my alertness & energy suffer the next day, which is terrible for poker. Food is also a big deal on game days and I have to make sure I eat a big enough breakfast with constant snacking/drinking during play & on breaks.

Even though i'm not playing a lot lately, when I do pull it all off though it works pretty awesome, and i've gotten to a point where i'm really happy with my game as well, although that's a never ending process. Coaching helped, but the amount of homework I need to do to truly get the most out of it is pretty staggering to say the least!

Only thing left to figure out is how many days/week I want to play and how to split them up. Other than that i'm really happy with my progress (should hit Supernova again in early July). The most important thing for me is to keep poker fresh, stay hungry and always being eager to play and play at my best when I do log in, and so far those goals have been going great and i'm looking forward for more!

Poker can be a frustrating game, post-february results

My goal going forward this year is to hit 300k VPP with a >0.5ptBB/100 winrate at 100NL. If I can manage only that, I will consider the year satisfactory as far as monies accumulated. Fortunately, i'm currently on pace for that :



However, it just feels like I could be doing so much better. I obviously have some big leaks, but I just can't seem to put my finger on the exact spot. With 2 downswings of 20+ BIs over this stretch, I feel like it's not just bad luck (obviously some variance, but still). One thing i've neglected a lot this year is poker study. With enough hands under my belt to analyze my play so far, a very solid database analysis is very much overdue.

Thus, i'll be taking a week off from the tables to focus hard on studying. Going back through most CoTWs, doing a serious digging in my database, along with a complete review with Leakbuster, watching videos, etc. I'm also looking for some coaching from serious, successful >2ptBB/100 over a ton of hands 100NL players, simply because I know where some of my big leaks are, but I just don't know exactly how to fix them properly, so I need a new perspective on my game.

Poker can be a frustrating game at times, but overall, i'm still very happy with my choice. I still enjoy the game a lot, even though it's a lot of hard work. To have real success, one must not neglect any aspect of poker & life : health (nutrition, exercice), knowledge (study, leak busting) and execution (applying knowledge properly, able to apply it well over long periods of time/many hands). I feel confident going forward!

My highest volume month yet

While it's not much compared to sick grinders, 85k hands is my highest volume month since I started playing on Stars in Nov 09. Most of my months hovered around 30-50k, with the exception of December which was at 84k with the end of year Supernova chase. The big difference however is that in this case, there was no 20k sessions marathons (with horrible losses at the tables).



This month has also been an interesting learning experience. I started the first 15k playing extremely laggy both pre and post. This resulted in a very big redline (and poor blue line) but allowed me to learn many spots where my game was lacking. I then cut most of the spew and started playing a very solid/aggressive game, with the results that go with it.

However, as is usually the case when I play solid for awhile, I try to fix imaginary leaks. While leak fixing is not bad in itself, whenever I start to read too many pro threads, I start trying to fix what's not broken. While I may be a little too tight in some spots, and some pros may be able to ecke out a small profit in those spots, in most cases these players are just a lot better than me so when I try to emulate them, I end up spewing massively.

Not only am I not actually fixing any leaks, i'm creating big ones by trying to be a playmaster. Another major pitfall for me is complacency at the tables. It's so easy to drift into weak-tight play if you're not vigilant (with big hits to redline & overall results, as in month's end). Staying very aggressive, especially in position, is so important that letting those small edges go can end up having a huge impact on your winrate.

Thus, I sat down and went through my month, thinking about what I did well and what I shouldn't have changed. I came to the conclusion that my results started declining when I lost sight of the basics in poker. Play very aggressive in position, tighten up out of position. Sounds dumb, but I was starting to do the opposite and it showed badly (becoming weak-tight in position and trying to playmaster out of position. leaking + spewing = sad bankroll).

It's pretty obvious when you think about it. What are the three edges in poker?
1) Hand strength
2) Skill
3) Position

One of my big leaks was overplaying marginal hands OOP against tough villains (even worse in 3b pots). While I like my progress and i'm fairly happy with my game, I know full well that there are many stronger villains than me at the tables. So if i'm playing a marginal hand out of position, i'm already out 2 fundamental edges, which means I need a very big skill edge to compensate. Against tough regs, my edge is at best slim and at worse crushed.

When you think about it this way, you have a very easy fold preflop, or check/fold postflop, even though the hand could be playable against a weaker opponent (bigger skill edge to make up for low hand strength and lack of position). Better to give up a couple additional tiny pots here and there than to spew massively by making huge blunders in big ones. The lesson here is to focus on what you do right. Do keep studying and do learn advanced moves. But if you lose sight of the basics, and especially if you overestimate your skill edge, your results will very rapidly decline. Thus, be honest with yourself and play according to the way things are, not as you wish they would be. Good luck at the tables!

Finally getting some good volume in

It's been a while since my last update, lots going on lately but I have several new ideas for future blogs so fear not dear readers! (yes both of you!) The most important recent change has been my schedule. Ironically, I did the complete opposite of my last post and basically set up a fairly rigid routine for my sessions. Get up, have some breakfast, 5-10mins of breathing/meditation, load up tables and play until I reach 1500VPP (5-6k hands depending on days).

My pace used to be so abysmal that I had only setup a mere 200k VPP as a goal for the year (and was already behind pace at the end of March). Now i'm up to 5 days/week with this routine, on pace for the month, and aiming at 300k for the year! I'm very happy to finally have the motivation, discipline and mood to play seriously. To be honest, what made all the difference was an increase in medication (I suffer from type 2 bipolar disorder, mostly depression with mild mania. Funny coincidence, I just learned today that Catherine Zeta Jones struggles with the same problem).

The boost in energy, motivation and most importantly the massive reduction in mood swings (which really don't mix well with poker) have had a major impact on my poker schedule. To top it all off, I feel my game has reached a new peak. I tried a super-lag approach early in the month, not worrying too much about spew, just to test new things.

While I did spew quite a bit in there, I also picked up a lot of insight in the game, as well as a few new tricks. After that, I watched many videos, spent a lot of time going through my database to keep all the good stuff I learned while also cutting out the spew. Overall, I feel my hand reading and my game have never been better. To make things even sweeter, i've had my sickest day ever at the tables. I'll have more to add on this at month's end.

Until then, my condolences to all the US players, especially those who were full-time players and are now out of a job. Really feels like someone in the family just died. Hopefully things will work out quickly. Best of luck to all people affected by this and to those who fight for our rights as poker players. Keep your head up!

Adding flexibility to your sessions

March has been a pretty busy month IRL and i'm now playing catch up to finish up the month with a half decent hand count, despite a bad cold. My less than stellar state got me thinking about a few important issues that, if changed, could really add value to my game.

Up until now, i've always played with a very rigid structure. I'd get up, eat some breakfast, do some pre-session warm-up, load up 24 tables and play for about 5-6k hands. I've stuck to that because I knew it worked for me, and back in the days when confidence in my game was shaky, sticking to a rigid structure provided a nice safety blanket.

But much like opening hand ranges, if you stick to a static chart, you're really limiting your potential earn at the tables, so once you're comfortable with the basics, it's time to get dynamic and switch it up depending on game conditions. What does this mean in practical terms? Simply that i've started toying around with new ways to play my sessions.

Instead of a strict 24-tables 5-6k hand grind or nothing, i've started adjusting the number of tables based on my current energy state. For example, I might only play 12 tables, or shorter sessions, depending on my concentration. This way I can get more sessions in a day and bb/100 only gets better the less tables you play (although i'm not expecting a huge increase).

Even though there's nothing inherently wrong with marathon sessions, I think the benefits of shorter grinds are pretty obvious : less energy required to start, higher concentration (I usually play my best during the first 1h30 of a session), less mental fatigue after a session, etc. Much like anything in poker, it's important to keep things dynamic and fluid to maximize performances, both on and off the tables. These small changes could end up having a big effect on my bottom line, and i'm psyched to try them out in the coming weeks!

A tip guarenteed to improve your results

Athene has recently made a comeback to poker (www.chirenlive.com) and in his streams he talked about some of the core poker skills one needs to succeed. At first I thought he would speak of actual poker strategy, but I was pleased to hear that he wanted to go more in-depth about the one true poker skill ; controlling your mind.

One of the reasons Athene is one of the poker player I look up to the most is not his actual skill at the table (even though he is a solid player). What really makes Athene a pro is his work ethic, his stamina and mental skills, and the way he applies them in poker, gaming and life. This control is what makes him a truly amazing player in all games, poker included. 

It sounds like the simple stuff we hear over and over again, and it is, yet why do we keep screwing it up? I know this is the area I need to work on the most at the moment : practicing that mental sharpness to the point where I can apply it often and well.

Athene touched some nice subjects in the stream. One of the most important point that stood out for me is the importance of acknowledging your imperfections. We are not perfectly rational creatures and various situations that come up can alter our emotions, introducing subtle (or not so subtle) tilt.

Not looking at your results for a month was also a major tip that hit close to home. I firmly believe that looking at your results every session (or worse, during a session) can be a big leak. Unless you are a complete robot, the money will affect you emotionally (one way or the other), yet the actual money is completely meaningless. Not looking at your results for a month (or even a week is fine if you play significant volume) is one of the best tip for mental stability as a poker pro and it cannot be overstated.

While we can only go so far in controlling the actual emotional reaction, we do have absolute control over one thing : recognizing the emotion and acting accordingly. What this means is if you get stacked, if you get caught running a huge bluff, if you're on a losing/winning streak and it affects you in any way that you are no longer playing optimally, simply stop.

This is one the skill I feel I have really improved over the last month, and I have gotten significantly better at recognizing the early signs of poor concentration, and then stopping the session. Thus, what is one of the most important tips to improve your results? Know when to stop ; without this skill, top pros have gone busto, and ordinary players that possess it have built up nice little fortunes. Stay sharp and gl at the tables!

First two months recap, always keep improving

This year has been quite a rollercoaster to far, but in a good way. I'm glad I learned some valuable lessons the hard way in my first month so I could quickly kick myself and get my game back on track. I don't even know how my play degenerated so much in January. I started by running a bit bad, then I played more weak-tight, which worsened my results, which made me play even more weak-tight. The last session was a total trainwreck, enough that I had to take a break and figure out how my solid game had devolved to such a mess. Kids, don't let this happen to you :





This was mostly 100NL, with about 15k hands of 50NL in the middle. Ugh. I knew I could do so much better, but I guess I was still stuck in year-end Supernova-grind mode where I played like a nitty zombie. Fortunately, I picked up my copy of Small Stakes Hold'em and suddenly remembered what solid poker was all about ; controlled aggression. Coupled with what I learned about mid-February on my preflop leaks & new techniques on focus & flow-state, I was able to completely turn my game around and get some solid results :



This month started with about 15k hands at 50NL and the rest at 100NL. Notice the difference in redline alone, which is such a huge part of poker at the small stakes & beyond. Even though the redline isn't the be-all end-all, I think it's a good indicator of your reading skills/aggression and generally solid poker. It's funny how everytime I play well, I magically run good and when I play bad, I run bad. I think this is even more evident in my last 1k hand which I mentionned in my last post. That last 1k my concentration was gone but I still played it to "finish the session".

Did I run bad? I went all-in with KK and lost to AA, I lost 2 40bb stacks 4betting AI with mid pairs to a higher pair. But was that really bad luck or bad play? The KK was 150bb deep with a nit reraising my UTG raise, something I could have easily avoided by flatting PF to setmine. And while both 40bb stacks were against aggressive re-raisers, those were players whom I had 4b pretty aggressively over the session (and them always folding), making it that much more likely they were 3-betting tighter against me. These are the situations which look like bad luck but in reality, a lot of these spots can be avoided with solid reading skills/understand table dynamics, small things you don't pickup when playing half-heartedly.

Thus I came to a very important conclusion ; volume will never be my primary focus (which means I will never try for SNE). I've always been happier as a poker player when I felt I was playing solid, but this month I learned some key skills to playing great poker with peak concentration. While I do want to play more in the future (44k hands in a month as a pro is pretty abysmal volume), I don't want to make hand count a priority. Just as I don't look at my results often (usually every 15-20k hands), I don't want to get concerned over how many hands I play over a session.

In practical terms, this means focusing on my health & energy levels (going to bed/getting up at reasonably early hours, eating well and generally having a balanced lifestyles), and making sure that each time I play poker I consciously direct my efforts toward playing in a flow-state. Then I can play and not be concerned by anything but killing the game until I feel my concentration waning (which usually happens around 6k hands).

If I can succeed in doing that, i'm 100% confident that my winrate and results will take care of themselves and I will be a much happier/fulfilled poker player in general. In short, despite my low volume, this has been one of the most important months in my poker career and I look forward to playing the best poker I can in the coming months!

The Most Important Poker Skill

It's funny how it can take a lot of time to really *get* a concept. It's often a process that's different for everybody. Sometimes you only need to read something once and it automatically clicks. Sometimes it might take weeks, months or even years before a concept truly sinks in and becomes a core part of your arsenal. And today, I think I had one of the most significant ah-Ha! moment in my poker career.

What was this big revelation? It's actually really simple, so basic that it's often overlooked, or at the very least is not given nearly enough thought ; poker requires focus. I can already hear you laugh, thinking "did it really take you years to figure that out?". Actually, yes! Now, i'm not talking about basic focus. If you're watching TV and not really paying attention to the game, you're obviously doing it wrong. No, what i'm talking about goes deeper than that.

I always knew that getting complacent with poker can quickly drain, if not outright kill a winrate, but today I realized how quickly this shift can happen. Here's what happened ; it was a typical session and I was doing good. My reads were solid and I was very confident in both my folds and vbets. I wasn't thinking about my results or how many hands I had played and I was intently focused on the game. After awhile I was feeling a little tired and hungry so I decided to take a quick break.

I checked my hand count, saw that I was about 1k short of today's goal so I took a few minutes off, made myself a sandwich and came back... however something had changed. I was now playing to finish off that last 1k (out of 7.5k) instead of playing poker to win. This might seem silly but it's actually a huge difference. My killer instinct was gone, mistakes quickly added up which tilted me because of how stupid some of these mistakes were. Although I did finish my 7.5k, that last 1k hand was almost certainly -EV given how many mistakes were made.

What's the lesson in all this? It sounds so simple yet it's importance cannot be overstated ; to truly own at poker, you must be intently focused on winning and killing the competition. This is not something that's exclusive to poker, athletes often refer to this state as being "in the zone" or being in a "flow-state". This is not a new concept for me but today, the contrast between being "in the zone" and completely losing my edge was so strong, so obvious that it made me realize the true importance of playing only when in that state.

I remember poker genius Boywonder saying the real difference between a 2000NL player and a 200NL player is consistency. This means that in a purely theoritical environment, a 2000NL player is not that different from a 200NL player. However, the 2000NL guy will almost always play "in the zone" and therefore make a lot less "execution" mistakes than his 200NL counterpart. While this is true in any competitive game, it goes double for poker since the penalty for losing focus can be very steep.

So why was today so significant for me? In the end, I think today's events allowed me to analyze myself more accurately, which will allow me to not only know when i'm in the zone, but also to consciously monitor and alter my concentration when needed. Re-reading this, I know it seems really esoteric but I think this particular realization is a cornerstone in any serious poker player's career because it allows you to do three important things :

1) Consciously alter your mind to work in a flow-state
2) Honestly monitor yourself to accurately assess your current state
3) Stop playing as soon as you feel the flow-state slipping

When i'm in the flow-state, my reads are precise, my math decisions are obvious, I always feel 2 steps ahead of everyone and i'm extremely confident. It's funny how often I magically "run good" when I play in this state. However, when i'm not, as in today's last 1k hands, I feel confused, lost and i'm spewing left and right, losing (or not winning) many small & medium bets, not to mention the occasional stack-off blunder, all things which can very quickly make the difference between a big winner and a struggling break-even player.

I honestly think these 3 skills are more important than anything else in poker because if you can't master yourself when it matters, all the theory and strategy in the world can't help you. Thus, if you want to improve your game, remember that while your opponents will change, the one person you will always have to control at the table is yourself. So be honest with yourself, get your game on, get out there and play to win!