Tough Week So Far (11/3/2010)

Since my last post things have gone pretty badly on the poker tables.  I put in live sessions Thursday-Sunday and finished with around $200 in 27 hours.  That's simply not going to cut it obviously.  That was the worst run of live sessions I've had in the past three months.  It was unreal, there was action all around me, I just could NOT get a piece.

I also flopped 0 sets in 27 hours somehow.  However, I did turn one with 88, of course the opponent already flopped the set of aces.  I still got away from the hand because there was a flush draw out.  If it wasn't for the draw he would have stacked me.

There was a huge hand I lost on Sunday afternoon that would have turned things around.  I was dealt AJo and raised $12 or so.  There were literally five callers.  Flop comes:

Ad Js 3d

So I put in a close to pot size  bet around $50.  Two callers (wow).  I always get myself in these stupid situations.  I had been running bad enough all weekend, I should have just pushed and tried to take down the fucking pot right there.  I was thinking to myself OK I'm all in on the turn.  I'm absolutely fine unless there is a KING or QUEEN.  These are the last two fucking cards I want to see:

TURN  Ks

MOTHER FUCK.  That's great just the card someone needs to two pair there misplayed AK and take this pot down.  Action on me and I have about $100 left.  After thinking some I concluded that I have to shove.  The pot is already massive and one of the guys in is going to stack off with anything.  The other guy has a draw, AK, or AQ.

I go all in.  BOTH CALL

River:  Blank

Villian 1:  AKo

Villain 2:  ATo

I could seriously punch villain one in his face for misplaying AK that badly and getting rewarded.  Found out in the next hour villain one was a complete nit.  So he was capable of playing about 5% of the dealt to him and incorrectly for that matter.  I was really steamed after I lost this pot.  So there went any chance of salvaging a respectable weekend.

Going Forward

Last week I made more online then I did live which I did not expect.  This week online has been going terribly as well.  I can't dodge a two outer no matter what the fuck I do.  I'm down around -$24 in my first 18 hours of 8 tabling this week, so about break even.  Tonight I will resume the online grind.  I'm also turning off my chat because I said a few stupid things last night.  I'm removing my chat privledges at least a week.  Maybe if I can handle variance like a real man I'll turn it back on.

If online goes REALLY bad during the first 4 hours tonight I might just check out the live scene.  I'm commited to doing whatever it takes to turn the start of this month around and get back on track.  I'll easily end up with over 50 hours played this week (around 25 online, 25-30 live).

I also have a Supernova elite freeroll quarterly tournament I have to play Saturday at 2p.m.  So that should ensure that I play slightly more online this week.  I haven't played a big tournament in a while, I've really been all cash this year, but it is free.  It is worth it with the last payout spot being around $200 something.  So that's not bad for 1,000th place.  If I bust I'll just resume live play earlier on Saturday.

Keeping Things in Perspective

The last 40 hours combined of live and online have been REALLY stupid.  However, I'm trying to keep my development and long term results in mind.  Last month I played a combined 120 hours online and live.  I ended up making double what I would have made in corporate during the same amount of hours.  And take away the commute and bull-shit sounds about right.  Since the end of August I have played 150 hours live and gone up over $3,500 so I shouldn't reallyc are that I lost one $150 buy in because a jack-ass turned his 3 outer king.

I have sometimes have around zero control when it comes to short-term results, that is something that it may take me a long time to truly grasp.  I really am still working on it.  Hell I may NEVER fully grasp it, some people never do.

It's a constant war between variance, discipline, volume, and skill.

Variance I can't control, it is my biggest adversary.

However, discipline I can control.  It can help me temporarily chase away variance.  But if I slip on discipline it may very well join variance and help destroy me.

Volume, I can also control.  How much volume I put in each weak ties directly into my level of dedication and commitment to the game.  However it has to be correctly placed volume.  My health also has to be kept in mind.  If I over-work myself volume can quickly become my enemy.  For example, don't chase a game until 8:00 a.m, that's almost always stupid.  Great you got in an extra two hours of play and ruined your schedule for the next three days!

Skill is my ace in the hole.  It is an X factor that I can always improve and develop further.  Skill is as permenant as variance.  Just as variance can ruin me, skill is always there to save me.

Comments

[Lucypher]

Bags,

You are right. Discipline, Skill, and Volume you control completely. And, you have honed your skills and discipline so that they easily exceed that of your opponents. You recognize variance as your adversary but you also realize the best you can never eliminate it, only contain it. You are thinking like a pro. That's good. I also like the reduction and maybe elimination of chat. It doesn't pay anything at all but it could cost you. That's negative EV you don't need.
Don't sweat the bad beats, it means you got your money in good and in the long run, that's what it's all about. Keep living the dream. Don't stress out too much over the short term fluctuations. Focus on the long run. Good luck.

[baglife]

Thanks for the comment. It's funny I wrote this, then I go out and drink half a bottle of wine before I play and make a really stupid play. Oh well as long as I learned a lesson I guess. In my recent post I think a topic should have been my discipline has SLIPPED some during the past 30 hours. Then again this is a very short period of time we are talking about. Hard to not slip on discipline when you literally get NOTHING in a span that long. You literally can't hit a set. You raise TT-QQ the board has an over-card every time in a mult-way pot. Your KK-AA gets cracked and you have to bail on it. So in your mind you think, SHIT this top pair top kicker looks like fucking gold!

-bag