i'm still alive -- 4 figure session!

been a bit since my last blog, i've meant to write another but just haven't got around to it. there were a few things i wanted to go on about that i touched on over at the forums, i'll go more in depth and indulge my OCD personality over here.

first off, new favorite song is 'time to pretend' by MGMT. i'm into the electronic rock crap right now, if anyone knows any good stuff like that let me know.

about poker, i guess i'll start with the last question in chappers thread over on CP, "what would you like to improve on in the 6 months of poker?". i think to always have a plan as far as what you work on is very important because with out goals it's very easy to become unmotivated and just not care that much. when i really thought about this here's what i came up with.

the most important thing i believe i need to work on is losing my ego as far as poker goes. nobody cares that i'm good at poker. i don't get some special medal if everyone hears about my greatness and how i own people's souls online. honestly, staying under the radar is preferable. i would very much like to not be known as a reg. it was cool to be on the 2p2 list that one week, but when you think about it i'd much rather just not be listed and have people think i'm just some random gambler.

if i truly want to take on this game as my profession for any portion of my life i have to treat it like one. it's not just some holiday from reality where i get to play around with lots of money, it's what i do. don't get me wrong, i still want to enjoy what i do. i love poker and i don't see that changing for a long time, that's why i really want to make this work. isn't that what everyone wants, to do what they love? i just need to realize that i'm very lucky to have found something i'm so passionate about and that i'm actually good at and have a chance at pursuing for a career.

this somewhat leads into my next little thing which has to do with staying motivated. i set up a (rather small) prob bet with someone over at CP for winrate over the next 10k hands. i'll be playing these hands at 200NL which i think will help me to focus a lot on my game because i want to win that bet strictly from a completive stand point, i could care less about the 25 dollars. if i just run fairly standard, which i consdider ~1 BI / 1k hands, i would be rolled for 2/4 at the end of these 10k hands (i don't think i'd take a shot right away though).

my choice to jump up to 200NL was based on two things. the first reason is i like making more money, obviously. i know i'm +EV at 200NL, why not play it? my bankroll is plenty big enough, if i run bad i can just jump down to 100NL again and crush the hell out of it. as long as i don't start taking shots with like 15BI like i did between 25NL-50NL and 50NL-100NL i should be fine. from what i've read around different forums the jump from 100NL to 200NL is the most significant change as far as evolving play. the jump from 200NL-400NL is more aggressive, but really not THAT much different.

the second reason to this was that, even though i have nothing but time and don't need to rush things, this doesn't also mean that i need to hinder things simply for the sake of taking my time. yea, it doesn't matter if i'm not playing 5/10 for another year. i would be fine with that and the world would keep revolving. there's also nothing wrong with putting in a lot of hands, continuing to move up stakes rapidly, and be playing 1KNL in a few months as a regular. as long as i'm taking money out monthly to help pay for expenses and to remind me why i play poker and not just bloating my bankroll and i'm strict to staying with the 20 BI take a shot method and dropping down if i lose 5 BI nothing bad can happen.

that said, my 200NL shot went extremely well. i stayed up all night and played a 5 hr session logging just under 3k hands. this resulted in a +5BI session, or $1,006. this is officially my first 4 figure session (and day even!) online and it just seems like a nice little milestone for me. here's my results for the month of august so far:



i should get the 10k hands down from the prop bet fairly quickly. it'll probably take less than a week, but we'll see. i'll probably wait until after that to post again. hopefully nobody flips the doomswitch over at FT, i enjoy running like this.

i feel like i'm forgetting to write about something, but whatever. if it's that important i'll remember it and write about it in a few days after my 10k hands.

-geoff