For a while now, I've been meaning to produce a instructional poker video to post on 2+2, to give back to the community, and also to give potential students a chance to preview my thought process and style of play to determine if we'd be a good fit. I've finally worked up the ambition and produced one.
Having never really done any voice recording or recording of my play, I was of course, a bit nervous to start, and hope people aren't too critical. As per most full ring sessions, I didn't really encounter too many tough spots, and its seemed like the 50nl regs mostly stayed out of my way when I showed aggression. As such I'm afraid it might not be overly interesting for the more experienced grinders at that level.
Video is available for download here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2OE0ZNP9
Hope you enjoy it.
Juggernaut
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Getting Things Back on Track
I'm going to be honest, I'm more than a little bit frustrated right now. Last week, and this month for that matter have been the toughest I've had since I started playing.
Part of it is outside of my control. When Ive seen huge downswings in the past, Ive always been skeptical as to whether or not these things were possible for good player who was playing well. I think my understanding of the true amount of variance involved in this game has improved significantly.
A lot of it is within my control. I've always thought I had fairly good tilt control, and even attributed a lot of my good and consistent results to it. I believed in my ability to look past the short run, and overcome even the toughest runs of cards while still staying on my "A" game. What I failed to realise is that in reality all it was, was that I hadn't really reached my threshold yet. Perhaps I have better control that average, but Ive now admitted to myself that I'm far from perfect.
The next step is to put it in the past and move forward. There's no guarantee that the cards will be any kinder this week, or that things will rapidly turn around for me, but I need to look at the week, and each day and session for that matter as an independent event. If I play poorly or expect to run hot because I feel like I'm "owed" something, it going to impair my progress. Would it help my confidence a lot to have a huge winning session today? Of course, but I don't think that can be my goal.
My goal for today and the rest of the month is to play with as little tilt as humanly possible, to take my time with decisions when its necessary, to continue to attack even the high variance edges, and to game select well to put myself in the most +EV spots possible.
Wish me luck.
Juggernaut
Part of it is outside of my control. When Ive seen huge downswings in the past, Ive always been skeptical as to whether or not these things were possible for good player who was playing well. I think my understanding of the true amount of variance involved in this game has improved significantly.
A lot of it is within my control. I've always thought I had fairly good tilt control, and even attributed a lot of my good and consistent results to it. I believed in my ability to look past the short run, and overcome even the toughest runs of cards while still staying on my "A" game. What I failed to realise is that in reality all it was, was that I hadn't really reached my threshold yet. Perhaps I have better control that average, but Ive now admitted to myself that I'm far from perfect.
The next step is to put it in the past and move forward. There's no guarantee that the cards will be any kinder this week, or that things will rapidly turn around for me, but I need to look at the week, and each day and session for that matter as an independent event. If I play poorly or expect to run hot because I feel like I'm "owed" something, it going to impair my progress. Would it help my confidence a lot to have a huge winning session today? Of course, but I don't think that can be my goal.
My goal for today and the rest of the month is to play with as little tilt as humanly possible, to take my time with decisions when its necessary, to continue to attack even the high variance edges, and to game select well to put myself in the most +EV spots possible.
Wish me luck.
Juggernaut
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Review of February Goals/Ending a downswing
I think most people would look at my results for february would say my month went pretty well.
That said, I'm not most people, and Im in no way satisfied. There were too many swings, there were too many tilt sessions, and I didnt work on my game near enough. I fell short of my profit goal, and didnt put near enough time into studying the game.
February Goals:
[x] 90k+ Hands
[x]10k+ Hands of 200NL
[ ]7k Profit After Rakeback and bonuses
[x]1500ftp pts/day rolling average
[ ]Sign at least one more horse
[x]7+ hours of coaching (either for profit or helping Unl players)
[ ]A minimum of 1 hour/day of villian or session review
To add to my misery, I started off march with a massive downswing, mostly at 200NL. Due to my obssession with ending sessions at even or better, I've put in record volume to start the month fighting through this, and am happy to be finally back in the positive. That said my play throughout it definetly left something to be desired. I usually never tilt, but i'll admit I had some weak moments at the low points of the downswing that served to drag it out far more than necessary.
My month so far:
Goals for March:
I'd like to try to use the disaapointing first week of march to motivate me to grind harder the rest of the month and try to get back on track.
My Goals for March Are:
-100k+ Hands
-35k+ Hands at 200NL+
-7+ hours of Coaching (either for profit or with Unl Players)
-7k profit after rakeback+bonuses
-Save for and purchase 2k cash bonus
-20hours of session or villian review
-Continue looking for more horses
GL at the tables
Juggernaut
Monday, January 31, 2011
Review of January Goals
After failing a volume prop in early january, I set a fairly tough set of goals for myself for the remainder of the month to get back on track. I stuck to these goals and as a result I achieved a new career best month.
Goals
[x] 5k month after bonuses and rakeback
[x] 80k+ Hands
[x] 5+ hours of coaching
[.5] 1 hour a day of session and villian reviews
My month:
Goals
[x] 5k month after bonuses and rakeback
[x] 80k+ Hands
[x] 5+ hours of coaching
[.5] 1 hour a day of session and villian reviews
My month:
+$600 Year End Bonus
+$300 coaching/staking
+$250 cash bonus from FTP
In addition to this, I also think my game has come a long way this month. I've put more work into poker recently than I ever have before, and its starting to show. That said, I need to remain unsatisfied with my play and my results to force constant improvement.
Goals For February:
-90k+ Hands
-10k+ Hands of 200NL
-7k Profit After Rakeback and bonuses
-1500ftp pts/day rolling average
-Sign at least one more horse
-7+ hours of coaching (either for profit or helping Unl players)
-A minimum of 1 hour/day of villian or session review
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Disappointing Finish to Prop: New goals for the Rest of January.
The 72 hours is almost up and I have to say that volume wise this was a complete failure. Ended up realising I wasn't going to make it and giving up really early. Despite FTP server down time and feeling awful throughout, I think I need to avoid making excuses and use my disappointment to motivate myself to make up the volume over the course of the month.
Here are my revised goals for the month:
-80k+ hands
-Minimum one hour per day of session or villain review
-Do a minimum of 5 hours of coaching, either for profit, or helping out Unl players.
-5k profit after bonuses and rakeback.
Graph of Failed Prop:
Fortunately for me, mborg also did not finish, so no loss outside of the fact that I'm extremely competitive, and this will bother me for some time.
I also think that in no way is this unachievable, so I may attempt it again in the near future, with or without any action, simply to reassure myself that I am capable of playing well while putting in this much time.
Here are my revised goals for the month:
-80k+ hands
-Minimum one hour per day of session or villain review
-Do a minimum of 5 hours of coaching, either for profit, or helping out Unl players.
-5k profit after bonuses and rakeback.
Graph of Failed Prop:
Fortunately for me, mborg also did not finish, so no loss outside of the fact that I'm extremely competitive, and this will bother me for some time.
I also think that in no way is this unachievable, so I may attempt it again in the near future, with or without any action, simply to reassure myself that I am capable of playing well while putting in this much time.
Monday, January 10, 2011
25k Hand Challenge: 37 Hours Remaining
What was starting to feel like a cold coming on manifested itself as a blinding headache and sore throat this morning. Attempted to play, but couldnt do it. Ended up going to only one of my classes and sleeping through the afternoon.
Woke up around 6pm feeling much better. Made myself some dinner(breakfast?) and coffee while browsing 2+2 for a bit until I became completely alert. Started the grind around 8pm, and besides a short break to go take a look at a house I'm considering renting in April, I played straight through until 1am. Not quite back on pace yet, but getting close.
The plan is to put in another 2-3k session, and pass out around 6am with the intention of waking up around 1pm for a day of hell. (~11k hands)
Currently Totals:
Time Remaining: 37 hours
Hands: 11346
Profit Before RB: $532.65
Might not update now until I'm finished, wont have alot of spare time tommorrow.
Juggernaut
Woke up around 6pm feeling much better. Made myself some dinner(breakfast?) and coffee while browsing 2+2 for a bit until I became completely alert. Started the grind around 8pm, and besides a short break to go take a look at a house I'm considering renting in April, I played straight through until 1am. Not quite back on pace yet, but getting close.
The plan is to put in another 2-3k session, and pass out around 6am with the intention of waking up around 1pm for a day of hell. (~11k hands)
Currently Totals:
Time Remaining: 37 hours
Hands: 11346
Profit Before RB: $532.65
Might not update now until I'm finished, wont have alot of spare time tommorrow.
Juggernaut
25k Hand Challenge 1st Update. 12 hours 5k hands.
Still on pace to make it, but not exactly where I wanted to be right now. Was feeling like crap this afternoon and ended up taking a nap and sleeping through some of the best hours to play.
So far there have been some pretty decent sized swings, including losing 3 buyins in about 30 seconds at 100nl. Overall, I think I've maintained my composure well, avoided tilt and played primarily my "A" game. Tryed mixing a couple of 50nl rush tables into my stack. (two rush, 14 regular tables) I haven't played rush in months, it seems to be largely the way I left it. Was having some trouble getting my HUD to work though so that might be the end of that experiment.
The plan right now is to put in ~2k more, then grab a couple hours of sleep, and still make it to my 8:30 class. (wish me luck)
Totals:
Hands: 4991
Profit: $9.15
Hours Remaining 60.
juggernaut.
So far there have been some pretty decent sized swings, including losing 3 buyins in about 30 seconds at 100nl. Overall, I think I've maintained my composure well, avoided tilt and played primarily my "A" game. Tryed mixing a couple of 50nl rush tables into my stack. (two rush, 14 regular tables) I haven't played rush in months, it seems to be largely the way I left it. Was having some trouble getting my HUD to work though so that might be the end of that experiment.
The plan right now is to put in ~2k more, then grab a couple hours of sleep, and still make it to my 8:30 class. (wish me luck)
Totals:
Hands: 4991
Profit: $9.15
Hours Remaining 60.
juggernaut.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
25k Hands in 72 hours.
My First Entry
I figured since for a change I'm actually doing something somewhat interesting, and would have something to write about now would be an opportune time to start up a poker blog.
I'm completely aware that 25k hands in 3 days is nothing to some people, but this is by far the biggest grind I've ever put in. There's a small amount of prop bet action on this to increase my motivation, but I wont say who or what amount to avoid exposing mborg's degeneracy. ;)
Assuming I don’t get lazy and give up, I’ll try to update here a few times so there’s something to follow. I'm mkus33 on ftp, if you see me at the tables, feel free to donate some money to help keep me going.
To prove I'm not a mega grinder here's my month so far:
Total right now for the prop as of 3pm EST January 11 2011 (start time):
0 hands
0 hours played
$0 earned
gogogo.
Juggernaut
I figured since for a change I'm actually doing something somewhat interesting, and would have something to write about now would be an opportune time to start up a poker blog.
I'm completely aware that 25k hands in 3 days is nothing to some people, but this is by far the biggest grind I've ever put in. There's a small amount of prop bet action on this to increase my motivation, but I wont say who or what amount to avoid exposing mborg's degeneracy. ;)
Assuming I don’t get lazy and give up, I’ll try to update here a few times so there’s something to follow. I'm mkus33 on ftp, if you see me at the tables, feel free to donate some money to help keep me going.
To prove I'm not a mega grinder here's my month so far:
Total right now for the prop as of 3pm EST January 11 2011 (start time):
0 hands
0 hours played
$0 earned
gogogo.
Juggernaut
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