Off to (not so) Sunny California
I don't have much to write about today. I did have a winning night last night, but nothing stellar. Still, a win is a win. I played in 8-10 sit and gos and cashed in half of them. I also played in two limit tournaments on a lark. I have to say, quite honestly, that I did not play my best game in either of them.
I posted last week about how I was getting concerned that my sit and go stats were improving for making the money, but deteriorating when it came to finishing in first. As I looked over my stats last night, I realized that this problem is getting worse and not better. I have now cashed in almost 43% of SNGs for the year, but my win rate is just over 10%. I am very disturbed by this. Last night I got down to heads-up with a huge chip lead twice, and got second place twice. If you want to make any kind of money playing sit and gos, you need to take down a substantial number of first place finishes.
Another alarming reality of my spreadsheet is my poor multi-table tournament performance. I am down over $1K for the year, which is substantial, although not overwhelming. I know that large tournaments are high in variance-one win can make up for many losses, but I still think that there must be a reason for my poor showing. One of two things seem to lead to my downfall in every tournaments:
If there is one thing I think I need to focus on, it's calling less when I have a big stack. I think when you have a small stack in a tournament, you need to start playing more aggressively, and seek out "steal/double up/go home" situations before your stack dwindles to the point where you have no power. When you have a decent stack, you should just maintain your game, playing the same way you played to get yourself there (at least through the mid-stages). I think I'm calling too much, smelling desperation on players where there is none. I vow that after my vacation, I will put the effort into examining my play on this particular issue, and adjusting my game if it needs adjustment.
I strongly believe most of a good player's play in ANY no limit game (tourney or cash) should involve two moves: raising and folding. This is theory, and as everyone knows it is easier to talk theory than to play by it. I'm very good at analyzing a hand if it's described to me-I just need to blur the line between the way I would analyze a hand and the way I would actually play it.
I just got the call for the job I interviewed for yesterday. They are offering and I am accepting. Yahoo!
I'm not sure if this will have an impact on the amount of time I can spend on poker or blogging. One of the main reasons I have had so much time to write is that my current job doesn't keep me very busy. Of course, that all changed two days ago when the fascists started blocking me from LiveJournal.
And my final bit of news is that I am now in the PokerStars affiliate program. All that means is that if you sign up through the links to PokerStars that I post, I will get paid a bit of money by PokerStars. I will not become any more of a shill for PokerStars than I was before I affiliated with PokerStars. However, I will say (as I have many times in the past) that PokerStars has the best software, PokerStars has the best customer service, and PokerStars runs the best tournaments of all the sites I play at.
Seriously, download their software through one of the above links, make a deposit, and play in 100 raked hands, and I will get a bit of cash. And I'll be your best friend.
Have a great weekend.
Weekend forecast for Chicago: High in the low 80's.
Weekend forecast for San Francisco: High in the low 60's.
I posted last week about how I was getting concerned that my sit and go stats were improving for making the money, but deteriorating when it came to finishing in first. As I looked over my stats last night, I realized that this problem is getting worse and not better. I have now cashed in almost 43% of SNGs for the year, but my win rate is just over 10%. I am very disturbed by this. Last night I got down to heads-up with a huge chip lead twice, and got second place twice. If you want to make any kind of money playing sit and gos, you need to take down a substantial number of first place finishes.
Another alarming reality of my spreadsheet is my poor multi-table tournament performance. I am down over $1K for the year, which is substantial, although not overwhelming. I know that large tournaments are high in variance-one win can make up for many losses, but I still think that there must be a reason for my poor showing. One of two things seem to lead to my downfall in every tournaments:
- I get no cards until I am forced to make a move with a marginal hand (I see no remedy for this).
- I get a good stack going and end up losing it little by little to smaller stacks.
If there is one thing I think I need to focus on, it's calling less when I have a big stack. I think when you have a small stack in a tournament, you need to start playing more aggressively, and seek out "steal/double up/go home" situations before your stack dwindles to the point where you have no power. When you have a decent stack, you should just maintain your game, playing the same way you played to get yourself there (at least through the mid-stages). I think I'm calling too much, smelling desperation on players where there is none. I vow that after my vacation, I will put the effort into examining my play on this particular issue, and adjusting my game if it needs adjustment.
I strongly believe most of a good player's play in ANY no limit game (tourney or cash) should involve two moves: raising and folding. This is theory, and as everyone knows it is easier to talk theory than to play by it. I'm very good at analyzing a hand if it's described to me-I just need to blur the line between the way I would analyze a hand and the way I would actually play it.
I just got the call for the job I interviewed for yesterday. They are offering and I am accepting. Yahoo!
I'm not sure if this will have an impact on the amount of time I can spend on poker or blogging. One of the main reasons I have had so much time to write is that my current job doesn't keep me very busy. Of course, that all changed two days ago when the fascists started blocking me from LiveJournal.
And my final bit of news is that I am now in the PokerStars affiliate program. All that means is that if you sign up through the links to PokerStars that I post, I will get paid a bit of money by PokerStars. I will not become any more of a shill for PokerStars than I was before I affiliated with PokerStars. However, I will say (as I have many times in the past) that PokerStars has the best software, PokerStars has the best customer service, and PokerStars runs the best tournaments of all the sites I play at.
Seriously, download their software through one of the above links, make a deposit, and play in 100 raked hands, and I will get a bit of cash. And I'll be your best friend.
Have a great weekend.
Weekend forecast for Chicago: High in the low 80's.
Weekend forecast for San Francisco: High in the low 60's.