July and Some Goals

I'm making some (a lot) of changes with regards to poker this month. Since I went back to playing for a living things have been ticking over nicely and I've been making a steady income but my shortcomings as a player have been made apparent as I moved up in stakes. I'm going to take a more professional approach to poker and try to follow the example of other people.

First of all I'm going to play HUSNG's. I've developed some leaks in my game which are going to take a bit of fixing. I think the best way for me to do this is to take a month out of my normal games and learn something new. I can then go back (if i want to) with a clear head and analise my game better. Basically my options were plo or hu - plo can wait.

The main benefit of learning something new is that I'll get back in to the habit of study and review, something I used to do religeously but has fallen way down on my list of priorities. It's very east to get stuck in a rut with poker and before you know it the games have evolved and your win rate slowly dwindles to nothing. With the absolute wealth of poker kowledge out there you need to take advantage of it just to stay ahead of the fish.

I've played a couple of hundred HUSNG's over the past few days and the great thing I've discovered is that there are games going 24 hours. I woke up at 4am the other day and managed to get a game no problem. There seems to be bad players at all hours too.

The Plan

Play $11 HU with 50 buy ins - move up when i hit 50 buy ins for the next level. I'm going to be using rakeback and bonuses as part of my bankroll this month - this is something I never ever do but it'll help me move up pretty fast. The reason I'm doing this is to help me find a level where I'm not quite comfortable - again encouraging me to review my play and seek out answers for tough situations.

Volume

I don't know if I can sustain 100 or more matches in a day as i find them quite mentally draining. I'm going to aim for 50 as a minimum but think I'll get into the swing of things in a week or so.

Tilt

None. Ever. Step away from the computer. Play no poker. This is going to be a big factor this month. I'm only going to be 2 tabling and I'll be paying close attention so those runner runner straights and rivered sets are going to sting a little. I need to stay positive.

Study

I'm renewing my subscriptions for Stoxpoker and Deucescracked and will use them on a daily basis. I've also got the book I'll plough through a couple of times. I'm going to post hands and try to contribute to forums. It might be time to dust off Theory of Poker too.

Take Notes

I'm really lazy when it comes to taking notes on opponents but I NEED to start doing this.

Money

Make some. I don't have a clear money goal as that would be pretty silly given I'm totally new to HU games. I'll be trying to move up so I won't have the comfort of rakeback to fall back on.


In addition to the poker challenges, I have to stop my wife spending all of my bankroll which is winging it's way to my bank account as we speak. She's already said "if you can make money with a $500 bankroll what do you need the rest for?"

Alarm bell are ringing.