Private Coaching Sessions Revisited

If you remember, I won a private coaching session at PSO back before Christmas. The videos are now available in the PSO library if you are interested in watching...

I learned a ton. Perhaps you will too.

Coaching Roland GTX Part I

Coaching Roland GTX Part II

GL and have fun at the tables!

Roland GTX

January Update

My $500 monthly profit goal is already met, and we still have a week left to play. I’ve been profitable at tourneys and cash games. Good stuff, but still plenty of room for improvement.

Here are my January results to date (Jan 24th):

Improvement
 * I learned the implications of a polarized board
 * My cash gaming experience is finally showing results in my tournament postflop play
 * It seems like I’m improving as a hand analyzer at PSO

Tourneys 
Played 12 tourneys in January to date and have cashed in 7 for a nice 302% ROI
Notable finishes were:
 * 2nd place in two $4 Rush tourneys
 * Cashed in the $27 6-Max TCOOP Event 1

I sure can’t complain about my tourney results. Imagine running +300% ROI for a year LOL! Nonetheless, I am very dissatisfied that I ended both of my heads up battles in 2nd place. I don’t like losing and I don’t like wasting opportunities.

I also wasted another great opportunity in a 12K Guar Rush tourney at Full Tilt. 300 players remaining (top 90 ITM) and I am in the top 20 with a big stack. I get dealt KK on the btn. I Raise and get called by the big blind who has an even larger stack than mine. 88Q on the flop, I c-bet and get called again. K on the turn giving me the nuts, I raise and get reraised – Jackpot!

I’m going to be the tourney chipleader after this hand. I am 100% focused on sizing my bet properly in order to get all in on the river and don’t notice the FullTilt warning sound (it is not the Stars beep beep beep). Before I manage to write in my raise amount, I get autofolded from the hand for using too much time! Rather than doubling up and becoming chipleader, I spewed a large part of my stack and finished outside the bubble. Not my best moment...

Cash Games
Played 18 000 hands total
 * Profitable at all stakes played: 10NL Zoom, 25NL Zoom, 50NL FR and 100FR
 * Avg Daily Profit. $13 (below my daily goal)

All good... but my goal was to average 17 bucks a day running six zoom tables. I have been well under my 17 dollar mark. After a close look at my stats, it is clear that my BB/100 is significantly better when I play fewer tables. So, for February I will cut down to playing only 3 Zoom tables. This gives me time to think rather than running on autopilot.

Apparently I still don’t let go of AA when I’m running on autopilot either. I had 6 hands that weren’t bad beats, but rather simply really bad play on my part. In all six, it was fairly clear on the flop that my TPTK or AA was in trouble, and it was crystal clear on the turn. Yet, I ignored the obvious and gave away my remaining stack. These few hands ate a third of my profit and kept me from my 17 dollar a day mark. 6 hands out of 18 000 cost me nearly 200 dollars...

VIP Status
 * Earned 1100 VPPs in January
 * Earned first $ 10 Stellar Reward
 * Earned Silverstar Status for February

Weekly Plans for February 

Five sessions multitabling Full Ring Zoom
 I have cut down from 6 tables to 3 tables, and play only 25NL Zoom now. This seems to give me better quality, more profit and plenty of FPPs.

1 session single tabling Regular Full Ring 
This is a repeat from January. I’ll be playing either 50NL or 100NL. Also, once I have ensured Silverstar status for March, I will play a bit more here rather than multitabling zoom.

1 session for Tourneys
Hopefully with a 300% ROI again

My game is steadily improving, but I really need to focus on minimizing my losses with ”just a pair” hands. My main improvement goal for February is to have zero spewed stacks from these spots. Getting beat is fine, getting unlucky is fine, but giving it away when I am clearly beat is unacceptable.

All in all january has been a fun month and I am happy with my results. Things are going in the right direction and I have identified a few specific leaks to focus on for February.

I hope you are improving and your bankroll is growing, too!

GL and have fun at the tables!

Roland GTX

Goals for 2013

2012 in Review

In previous years I played mainly for fun and wasn't too concerned with good bankroll management. Typically, I would win at microstakes sngs, then spew my profit taking shots at considerably more expensive MTTs.

This pattern broke last January when I made two important changes. Firstly, I bought HoldemManager and started analyzing my own stats. Secondly, I joined the Pokerstars PokerSchoolOnline (PSO) and got serious about learning. These changes made 2012 a milestone year for me:

• I learned a ton!
• I was profitable!!
• I won my first scheduled MTT!!!
• I became a cash game player!?
• PSO hired me to teach microstakes cash games!??! (That was completely unexpected!)

2013 Goals

My plan for 2013 is to continue improving the strong parts of my game and to continue reducing the leaks. Spesifically, I want to meet the following goals by the end of the year:

• Keep improving
• $6 000 in profit
• Goldstar VIP status

Writing up a list of goals is easy, but achieving them requires sticking to a solid gameplan. Here is mine:

Improving

I am improving my game by working on two fronts. Firstly, I am learning by using all the resourses at PSO. There is a huge video archive, live training, hand analyses and a forum. All the trainers (except me LOL) are scary good pro or semi-pro poker players. And, it is all free...  Secondly, I am analyzing my stats and reviewing my hands. Doing hand analysis for others at PSO also helps improve on my own game. It forces me to review the fundamentals on a daily basis. I have two spesific learning goals for the year.

Minimizing my losses
This is actually more a question of discipline rather than learning. I play pretty ABC poker at the moment. I can play ninety nine hands out of a hundred great with a decent profit.  Then I can make one very costly mistake by overplaying a big pair like AA and KK, or top pair top kicker with AK. One mistake can get me stacked and leave me with a losing session. Learning not only to recognize when my AA is beat, but to actually fold it, will have the geatest impact on my overall profit. Remember "It is just a pair"...

Moving beyond ABC poker
I am decent at straight forward ABC poker. This is good enough to be profitable at 25NL and lower. At these levels the opponents make enough mistakes on their own that I don't need to get tricky. At 50NL and 100NL, players are better and make less mistakes though. At these levels I often need to induce mistakes from opponents. Moreover, I need to be aware that they may be doing the same thing to me. My goal is to take my game up a notch so that I can profitably multitable at these stakes.

Building My Bankroll

In order to reach my yearly profit goal, I need to make $500 a month, or about  $17 a day. Most, if not all, of this should come from cash tables. Based on my results from the past few months this seems achievable. I have averaged 24 bucks a day so far in 2013. The biggest threat to building my bankroll is containing my urge to reg for MTTs like the Sunday Million or to sit down at 200NL cash tables. If I bink a tourney great, but in general I'll be playing cash games to build my bankroll and tourneys for fun.

Goldstar VIP

I have been a Silverstar for the last few months. Now that Pokerstars have reduced the VPPs needed from 750 a month to 500, remaining a Silverstar is easy. Goldstar has been reduced from 3000 to 2500 VPPs. I had 1552 VPPs in December. I won't reach Goldstar until I can multitable 50NL profitably. I don't expect to reach this goal until the fall.

Weekly Goals

Some days I play long sessions, and some days I don't play at all. All in all I average about one hour a day playing poker. Here are my weekly goals:

5 sessions multitabling Full Ring Zoom

I play for one hour exactly in these sessions and have six tables running. This works out to about 1800 hands an hour. The main purpose of these sessions is to make money and generate VPPs. At the moment I run four tables of 10NL Zoom and two 25NL Zoom. As I improve, I will be slowly replacing the lowest buyin tables with the next level up. I never run these sessions for more than an hour or I lose my focus. 1800 hands an hour is a lot of clicking and fast desicion making. Zoom is fun!

*After each session I review the hands where I won and lost the most. Each week I will take a closer look at my stats in general.

1 session single tabling Regular Full Ring at higher buyin level

This session is meant to be a learning session. I sit down at a single table one level above my normal buyin. Currently, I am doing this with 50NL and sometimes 100NL. I focus 100% on this table and bring my A-game. In this way, I gain experience at the next level before tossing it into my multitabling sessions. I also get to work on making all the minor adjustments to my game which will be necessary to take it to the next level. Thus far I have been profitable at both 50NL and 100NL, but I am not able to multitable at these levels.

*After each session I will post problem hands on PSO for review.

1 session for tourney play

I want to play less sngs and more scheduled tourneys. I will be playing Rush tourneys on Full Tilt, especially the multiple entry, rebuy tourneys with a gaurantee. I will be playing Zoom tourneys on Pokerstars as well as other Turbo tourneys that fit my time slot. I am striving to final table a big tourney. However, getting deep requires a fair amount of luck. So, I have not listed it as a goal for the year. I do want to be profitable at tourneys for 2013 though.

That is my plan. I'm sure there will be adjustments in the months to come. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

GL in 2013and have fun at the tables!

Roland GTX