A Couple of Weeks Away is Good For the Soul

The burden of having a job has beaten me down like a rented mule. I have been inundated with work for the last couple of months with the culmination coming to a head today. I write this as I wait for the ISO auditor to come and finish the second day of audits for my company’s re-registration…a necessity to do for so many corporate businesses now days. Anyway, I will be glad when it is over and I can go back to reading blogs at my desk.

They other day I sat back and evaluated my year as a poker player. Let me tell you, I was not impressed with my results. I had losing months for the first 7 months of the year and even though I have not had to re-load, I got to the point where I was lower than any time previously in the history of my online game. So from there I dug a little deeper and found one big thing that stood out. I played three tourneys this year for the cost of $966, which I never have been able to do in the past. Now I made the choice to play in these events so I must take the consequences of my actions. But if you take them out of the picture, I have had a solid year. I’m still down a little overall but am lose to getting unstuck…and that is a good thing.

My typical summer swoon hit again this year but I had a play to lesson the affect this time around. During early August I went on hiatus and actually went into the client software and forced a mandatory leave from the game. I think it allowed me to refocus but more importantly, it allowed me get away from playing while life’s distraction interfered with my decision making. I know that my work life was intruding on my game and I came to the realization that I have to separate the two if I want to have success.

Now this wasn’t a new revelation for me but something that I have to remind my self of from time to time. But I can see it in my patience at the table and my results as of late have indicated such. Overall, I looked at my life time results that indicate that I cash in 20% of the tourneys I play. I truly think this is a little high because it means I might be trying to slip into the money instead of doing what I have to do to get deep. Anyway, the number I like is the percentage of final tables I have reached. I’m at 11.5 % during the last two years of my play with almost half of those being top 3 finishes. This is more of an indication of how I have been playing overall. The breakdown of the top three spots show me getting 1st place 33% of the time, 2nd 42% of the time and 3rd 25% of the time. Not bad but I would like a few more first place finishes.

So when I look back I realize that variance plays a part in my results and that 2 years of data show that I can make money playing the game. Does that mean I wont go broke? No it doesn’t. If I don’t maintain my bankroll management skills I could go broke at any time. I have a few friends who think I play to small and don’t take enough shots but I think they are wrong. I think playing above my bankroll will lead to more frustration if I go to the wrong side of variance for a short time while taking those shots. I am happy grinding it out until I get to a level that won’t deplete my bankroll if I lose a couple of tourneys.

Along these lines, I had a talk with a friend the other day. He was complaining, again, about the beats he has been taking and the frustrations he has been feeling about the game poker. This gave me the idea to look at his results and I found something very interesting. He has been cashing in 19% of the tourneys he plays. Sounds like a great number but when you dig a little deeper you will see the problem. He final tables about 8% of the tourneys he plays, which isn’t bad but he has had very few top 3 finishes…more specifically, he only reaches top 3 about 1% of the time. This is a glaring weakness in my mind so I took this information to him over the weekend. We spent about an hour going over the details and the biggest suggestion I had for him was to spend some time playing SNGs. I told him to challenge him self to play x number of SNGs and to track his results over time to see if he can improve his results in a final table situation. I know that my history of SNG play helps me when I get to the final table so I think it can help him. Anyway, I also told him to evaluate the payout structure when he gets to the final table and compare his place equity to the payout. Basically I told him that he needs to quit folding to the final table for en extra few bucks and try to get into a position to get deep.

So there you have how things are going for me…have a great day.