I started playing a couple hands in September and since that time I have played about 45k hands of 50NL and 100NL with breakeven results.
I am really happy with the results so far - after about 2+ years without a single hand played and the fact that games have significantly changed, breakeven EV/bb for the rest of the year will keep a smile on my face.
The purpose of this thread is to monitor my progress for the rest of the year and record my goals. I have very slowly been easing myself back in (as evidenced by only 45k hands in 2 months) but will be ramping up volume considerably for the rest of the year to put me in good standing for 2014 (or put me off the grind all together).
My goals are below, for each area of improvement I have a goal and then a
GREAT SUCCESS! goal.
The goal for each area is what I want to achieve where the GREAT SUCCESS! goal is a stretch target to help motivate and represents a realistic ideal.
GOALS FOR NOVEMBER
"A" GAME
GREAT SUCCESS - "A" GAME
"A" or "B" Game mental state in 90% of playing time for the month of November.
This has intentionally been chosen as the first goal (most important goals first) - this is effectively a "do not play C game" goal but I wanted to frame it in a positive manner.
As I work full time and suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome it can be very easy to lapse into button clicking mode and I want to minimise this as much as possible due to massive impact this can have winrate.
At the end of each session I record a number of variables into a spreadsheet, two of which will be total playing time and duration played in "C" game state which will be used to track this goal.
SUCCESS - "A" GAME
"A" or "B" Game mental state in 75% of playing time for the month of November.
VOLUME
GREAT SUCCESS - VOLUME
7500 hands per week
30,000 hands for November
This is a drop in the ocean for some but I will be very happy if I can achieve this goal, it works out to approximately 15 hours a week (6 hours during the week and 9 hours on weekends).
For the purposes of this goal I will only be counting 100NL and 200NL hands and my "weeks" are Monday to Sunday.
As I am going to lose about 8 days this month I am cheating a little on this goal and have started the "month" as of Monday this week to even things out a little.
SUCCESS - VOLUME
5000 hands per week
20,000 hands for November
Volume is very important to me as it has always been a massive issue for me - so I will be very happy to even hit 20k.
Secretly I think I will smash this goal (and it is only a "baby steps" target) but my availability to play may be a little out of my hands so we will wait and see.
RESULTS
I initially had a GREAT SUCCESS! goal of 2 EVbb/100 and a SUCCESS goal of breakeven EVbb but as a general rule results rules are ******ed, especially over such a small sample size so I do not think I will use them.
As suggested by my coach I am going to use:
WINNING PLAYER
GREAT SUCCESS - WINNING PLAYER
Play like a winning player in more than 90% of sessions.
After every session I will make an assessment on my play and determine whether I played like a winning player or not. Just about every player after a session has that little voice at the back of the head telling them whether they played well or not.
SUCCESS - WINNING PLAYER
Play like a winning player in more than 70% of sessions.
WARMUP
GREAT SUCCESS - WARMUP
Warmup performed prior to more than 75% of sessions
This goal is a direct reaction to a tendency I have noted where I tend to play badly and lose money at the start of every session. While it is only 10-25bb's that I tend to spew off I think it sets a bad theme for the session and can sometimes allow some "gotta win it back" type of tilt into my play.
To combat this I have implemented a warmup process that eases me into the session and also allows me to identify if I am in an acceptable game state. My warmup is a two step process which first involves a short 10-15 minute review of my previous session (this gets my mind thinking about poker and ensures I am always doing at least a minimum of review and study) followed by 5-10+ minutes of 2 tabling one stake lower than my current limit.
SUCCESS - WARMUP
Warmup performed prior to more than 50% of sessions
STUDY
By the end of November I want to:
- Have a standard opening range for every position and a clear reason for why it is my opening range
- Have a "perfect" HUD with clear reasons for every stat and popup with no noise
- Have a standard strategy for blind stealing and blind defence with clear reasoning
Similar to short term results goals I think study goals along the lines of "watch X videos a week" are generally a waste of time. Instead I am going to nominate a handful of topics with clear indications of success to ensure I am focusing on specific areas of poker development.
RESULTS PERVERT
By the end of November I do not want to have intentionally looked at my results a single time.
This should be pretty self explanatory - for the vast majority of players looking at results on a regular basis is never a good decision. To assist with this I have removed winrate and EV winrate stats from the main tab in HEM2.
For the purposes of moving up and down I may have to look at my results but I have marked my Cashier so I just need to look very quickly and will only have a ballpark result as to how much I have won/lost.
MOVIN' ON UP
Play 2000 hands of 200NL
Regardless of whether I meet my criteria for moving up I will still want to play at least 2000 hands of 200NL. There are a number of reasons for this that I will not bore you with them here.
Aside from this, my criteria for moving up/down in stakes are as follows:
To Move Up
Win 10 EV buyins at current limit
AND
Bankroll contains >30 buyins for next limit
To Move Down
Lose 10 EV buyins at current limit
OR
Bankroll contains <20 buyins at current limit)
These rules for moving up/down are purely just for this months play and will be reviewed at the end of November. The purpose for these rules is to allow me to move to 200NL relatively quickly if things go well while at the same time not allowing me to sun run to 1k NL. Additionally if the wheels have completely fallen off my game I can move down quickly and regroup before I sabotage myself for the longer terms.
