Taking It Seriously

Todd & I talk about poker every day at work, exchanging stories about our hands from the night before. We win some, we lose some, but neither of us have been making any solid headway. No progress.

We bemoan our bad luck, talk about the hands we should've raised or folded, but for me it always comes back to the same point...it's easy to see now - after the fact - that I made the wrong play, but why can't I recognize that and make the RIGHT play while I'm in the hand? No focus.

I'm finally willing to admit this: I know I'm intelligent enough to be a winning poker player, but I haven't played with enough consistent focus to realize that potential. There have been times when I've done some studying/reading/coaching sessions, but it's been in spurts and usually ends after I've lost a few buy-ins. Sometimes I'll bring the laptop upstairs and play in the spare room without any distractions, but it's so much easier (and more comfortable) to plop down on the couch and fire up a couple tables with the game on in the background. No discipline.

While driving home from work today, I thought to myself, "OK, you're in your late 30's...you work full time...you don't have the time to really dedicate the time needed to become a better player...college kids in their 20's have the time & lack of responsibility, they're the ones that can make the big money playing poker...are you ready to admit that this isn't going to work out for you?"

I didn't like what I had just thought.

If I quit on this, then what dreams/goals do I have to achieve? I don't bowl competitively anymore, I'm pretty much locked into this career I've had for the past 10 years. Forty is around the corner, and who knows what the future will bring? Longer hours at work? Children? Nope, can't stop now. I quit my bowling leagues a few years ago to spend more time on poker..this is it, bro.

Day One of the new routine is over. After I got home from work, I chilled on the couch for a bit, watching TV, checking emails & whatnot. Had dinner, little more TV...then switched over to poker mode. Hopped on Jen's desktop & printed out some poker blog strategy posts I read before from Ed Miller and citizenwind, printed them out & put them in a three-ring binder. I then took the binder & laptop up to the spare room, read & highlighted key points from the blog posts, and then fired up PokerTracker. I scanned my last session hands and focused on three "tough spot" hand histories. Cut & pasted those suckers into a Word file, added notes where I made good/bad decisions, and e-mailed it to Todd for his feedback...like we used to during our group coaching sessions.

Only after all that did I finally start playing some poker. Table selected (looking for high % of players seeing a flop, large avg pot sizes, and no shortstackers to my immediate left), found three decent tables, and started playing. No TV, no Internet Explorer...just poker. I told myself to stay calm, don't tilt, and keep thinking. I acknowledged that even though I had taken all of these steps and even hit the books, it wouldn't guarantee I'd have a winning session.

Fortunately, I did have a winning session:



Nothing spectacular, but a win is a win...and I decided to lock up the win after about an hour...good for the psyche. There were a couple of spots (which I'll review in depth tomorrow) where I actually took a couple of seconds, thought about if the villian's bet made sense, and made two profitable decisions. One was just a turn call in position with 7-7...we checked the river and I was good vs just two overcards. The second was a big check-raise from a fishy player when I flopped TPTK with the nut diamond draw...it seemed an easy enough decision - I'm definitely not folding the hand - but I took the time to check his stats...and sure enough, my man's check-raise flop stat is three outta four.

I figured his raise of half my stack had committed him, so I shoved hoping to get called by something like top pair with the Kd or Ax-Kd...if he actually flopped big (two pair/set/flush) then I'm still drawing live. Unfortunately he tanked & folded, but I still took down a nice pot. Maybe I should've just called & let him shove the turn? I guess we'll talk about that at work in the morning.

Now I just have to do this again tomorrow...and the next day...and the next...nope, that's Christmas Eve. But the trick will be to follow these same steps again on Saturday, or whenever the next time I'm able to study, THEN play some poker.