The Good Doctor


It's an honor to have been bestowed a link on Dr Pauly's poker blog! Now there's an actual chance others may read this drivel.

Playing a lot of NL100 Rush Poker on FTP...after an initial boost, it's been a slow, rollercoaster of a grind. Win $300, lose $250...lose $200, win $175. It wears on the mind, especially when work is sucking the proverbial fat one and all I can think about is "I wish I could play poker for a living, but how will that ever happen if my online bankroll hardly grows?"

I take beats, I play bad, I think about having to go to work the next day, and I get real mad/depressed. Reading the Elements of Performance section of Tommy Angelo's book has been helpful; I feel so calm & relaxed after reading those pages. Breathing is the best cure for tilt, and for avoiding tilt. I must make it part of my routine to read/breathe before every session.

Time to go play some more Rush, then the For Anna benefit tourney on Full Tilt at 10.

Also, if anyone wants to trade blog links, just leave me yours in the comments...thanks!

I Mean It This Time!

New Year's Resolution season is here! First let me take a look at my 2009 list of goals:

- Lose 30 pounds by June 1st...didn't make the 30, but I am down about 20 pounds from my high in January...I'm proud of my progress.
- Become a winning player at $5/10NL by December 31st...yeah, not so much! Still at $.50/1NL, but running at about 3BB/100 over my last 4,500 hands or so...more work to be done here.
- Qualify to play in a major live tournament, no later than the WPT at Foxwoods in November...this one didn't happen, but I did cash in a $300 buy-in tourney at Mohegan Sun last month.
- Post at least once per week...lol...but it looks like I didn't post any less this year, either.
- Improve my position at work (or find a new job) by June 1st...10% unemployment rates didn't help me here, but I'm always looking around, keeping my ears open at work, etc.

And now for the 2010 goal checklist:

- Weigh 220 lbs or less by our next trip to Vegas (sometime this summer)
- Become a winning player at $5/$10NL by December 31st (not giving up on this one)
- Qualify to play in a major live tournament, no later than the WPT at Foxwoods in November (...or this one!)
- Grow our monthly live tournaments at the Lounge (we're averaging around 12-15 entries, I'd like to see this up to at least 20 by year-end)
- Plan three major vacations (Las Vegas, Ocean City (MD), and To Be Determined)

What I'm already doing to accomplish these goals:

- Reducing my carb intake by eating less bread, pasta, potatoes, sweets, etc.
- Reading poker books, blogs, and articles (already 75 pages into Elements of Poker, which I got from my brother-in-law Steve for Christmas...thanks!)
- Reviewing prior poker sessions, talking over hands with Todd, sweat sessions, etc.
- Collecting cell phone numbers & e-mail addresses from new players, and sending out messages reminding everyone of the next tournament.

What else I need to do to accomplish these goals:

- Get back on the low-carb horse after New Year's...I behaved during Thanksgiving, but there was just too much good, starchy, sugar-laden food around me these last couple weeks for me to pass up!
- Get back to the gym...it's at the end of our driveway...c'mon man!
- Buy and read Treat Your Poker Like a Business...and then another poker book, and then another.
- Look into buying a membership to a poker training site...I've got tons of FPP's on Full Tilt I can use to pay for one.
- Play more "main event" qualifiers...Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, maybe even the EPT stop in my dad's birthplace of Dortmund, Germany.
- Send out e-mail recaps of the Lounge tournaments...I used to do this for the private tournaments we ran online, and I think it kept everyone interested...numbers went down when I stopped the recaps.
- Don't waste my sick/vacation days on so many Mental Health Days...plan days off & use them to play in live tournaments and for vacations.

OK now, let me hear a big 'Whoa Bundy' on three!