January Results (1/31/2012)

It’s quite unfortunate that January must end tonight.  It’s been my best live month ever.  I finished up +$9027.00 in 138 hours.  I added about 15 buy-ins to my bankroll in January.  Off to a nice start this year.

As I talked about before it means very little, but it’s nice to run above average for a month.  I expect to average around 4k per month, but I blew that away in January.  This isn’t the time to be cocky or lose focus, it really just balances out December where I started the first half of the month down -2k.  I ended the month of December only making +$500.00 total.  That’s right $500 in 140 hours, CAUSE I’M PRO.

I was fortunate to find some really profitable cash tables this month (thank you Borgata winter open donkament fest).  It feels more logical to have the best month now after really working hard all year.  It would be strange if my best results fell on one of my first few months as a pro.  I’d like to think I’m at least improving and it’s not all pure run good.  I really have improved a lot.  It’s not from a raw skill standpoint like I thought it would be when I started out.  It’s more about how I’ve improved controlling myself.  I tilt less than I ever did in my life.  I play mistake free more consistently.  I rarely force sessions.  I'm more aware of my image at all times.  When I build up a stack it's all about going out of my way to abuse people until they adapt.  These are just a few examples.

Tonight I took off.  Tuesday is normally a natural day to take off.  It is generally the least profitable night to play live poker in my experience (The second least is actually Friday in my experience).  I’m normally better off resting; Wednesday and Thursday are two of my favorite nights to play.  Also it feels good to end the month above 9k, I know it sounds stupid, but not going to lie.  Hell I did one thing right in my life, I crushed January 2012!

-bag

Great Saturday (1/30/2012)

My last session played was on Saturday. I had the best session of the month, up +$2335 in 8 hours. My second best session was +$1715 on the first. It's a rare day in hell that I run that good.

I played mistake free, but yes I ran very good. After building my $500 buy-in up to about $750 I got it all in on a K 5 3 flop with KK against pocket 33 and held up. Now I was up +$1000. Surprisingly that was the biggest pot I won all night.

The majority of my winnings came from non-showdown pots after I luck-boxed the set over set. The next 5 hours pretty much consisted of me just me running over the table and winning a lot of moderate, yet decent sized pots. Eventually someone would try to play back at me at the worst possible time and I would win another few hundred dollar pot. My c-bet and double barrel success percentage was through the roof, which resulted in printing money. I was in total control. Once I had an invincible image people were generally scared to put in money against me unless they flopped the nuts.

There were plenty of pots where I would iso $25 get 3-4 callers, c-bet and get 3-4 snap folds. This obviously isn't something that will happen very often, but when it happens it is enjoyable. So many factors went my way to have such a session. Here are a few of those factors:

1) I didn't take a suck-out.

2) I picked up a huge set hand and got paid off by bottom set.

3) There was only one other good regular on the table. And he really did nothing to make my life miserable. But in his mind there really wasn't any need, he was content sitting back and carving up the fish. It eventually worked for him as well, I think he finished up around +1500.

4) I was surrounded by very exploitable casual players for over 6 hours

5) When the game got reggy/bad around 3 a.m I immediately left.

Good session, but really it means close to nothing..... What does mean something is producing consistently above average months over a LONG period of time. Playing mistake free for a stretch longer than you can imagine is important as well. I'm planning to play tonight (Monday) and Tuesday. Barring some sort of catastrophic down-swing during the next two nights of play I should finish with a great January.

-bag

Updates (1/25/2012)

Quick update here...

I'm going to push to finish the month strong. 

By strong I mean decent volume while playing 100% mistake free of course.

Last week I lost a buy-in in only 25 hours played.  The volume was down because I was sick much of the week.

This week I'm up 2 buy-ins in the first 14 hours.

The stock of Baglife corp continues to fluctuate, but the month as a whole has been above average.  When running slightly above average I think it's extremely important to not get confident or over-cocky.  The way you control your emotions when up-swinging is just as important as the way you control yourself during down-swings (at least for me).  If I win 1k in a night in means next to nothing at this point.  Just two more buy-ins added to the bankroll...

Anything below 35 hours of play this week would be beyond unacceptable.  I'll be back to post a monthly update after January 2012 expires..

-bag

January Updates (1/18/2012)

I'm off to a very strong start in January.  This is a bit of a suprise because my volume has been seriously slashed.  Playing less and winning more is always fun, yet feels somewhat strange.  The lowered volume has had nothing to do with how much I've won.  It just worked out that way.  Last week I only played 24 hours and won over $1700.  My younger brother was visiting during the weekend so I just wasn't planning to play over 25 hours either way.

I want to really aim to play at least 35 hours during each of the next two weeks.  This would result in at least 140 hours played for January which isn't terrible.  My win-rate seems to take a hit when I put in over 160 hours.

Borgata's winter poker open is now in town which always makes for increased action on the cash tables during every day of the week.  I've decided to not even enter one tournament this time around.  No lottery tickets for me this time....

I'd normally at least play the first event, but screw it.  I'm doing so well on the cash tables right now that I don't want to screw anything up.  This could be my best month ever, now is not the time to lose focus on the real grind because I want to try to bink a tournament.

-bag

Goals for the new year (high rambling)

That was some great weed... Here are some goals this week regardless of volume. I used to be so goal oriented, what the hell happened? It made you a more determined person in the past. More hard working, more dedicated as a person So dear baglife, For the next year you will do the following: 1). Make goals again weekly. You can't control results true, but you can at least control your drive and determination which directly correlates to VOLUME. And you as a poker are nothing without Volume logged weekly average of over 35 hours minimum. Don't for one second be as stupid as to trick yourself into thinking you are like the other pros you meet out here. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All pros are different. And for you... You aren't a natural You do need to keep logging 35+ hours per week to even have a chance to continue surviving at the start of year 3. There are pros that don't need to do this but unfortunately this is not you. Work ethic of logging 35 hours + study per week keeps you improving. Your work ethic is all powerful You would be no where without your work ethic that you managed to build at your start as a pro. You need to get it back. To enjoy learning and studying about the game again. If you aren't studying cash be mixing it up by studying PLO and tournaments. Remember you aren't just a professional 2/5 NL full ring live cash game player. YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER Wow holy shit that took a long to type caps from my phone.. Where were we... Oh right I am a professional poker player. How are you not studying more than 3 hours per week. It should be 8 hours per week but in the real world a minimum 5 . No excuses 5 hours+ minimum... 35 hours per week staring next week minimum 5 hours of study minimum Yes 40 hours minimum Weekly journal posts Back to corporate right? Well no my life still doesn't quite suck as much as corpoirate.