Getting ready for the new year

First off, here's my 2009 graph. I played 270 hours in 2009 and made 8.78/hr before rakeback.

I decided to get a lot of rest and play very little poker these past two weeks. That being said I did get rolled for 25NL in time for the new year which is very nice. I am ready to get going tomorrow and start working up the VPPS.

I am still sticking to my goals I set, but have decided to focus on the number of hands I play instead of monetary goals. I don't want to become results oriented.

So I am going to try and play 3,000,000 hands in 2010 and see what happens. Even if I play a lot less hands due to unforseen circumstances, I can still reach the goals I set. I see nothing wrong with going for something big but settling for just "satisfactory" instead.
So 24-tabling I will need to play about 5 hours a day on average. Considering I have been training myself to wakeup early, I hope to knock out 3-4 hours in the morning before the kids wakeup and my real job starts.

Just so everyone reading this understands, I work around 60 hours a week in my real job so putting in the kind of poker volume I am talking about would be quiet a feat imo. We'll see how it goes! I'll update things as often as possible.

Beginning bankroll: $766.82

VIP status: Silverstar

Recovering

I spent the last 10 days sick with the flu.. nasty stuff.

I'm grinding 10NL now, BR up to $573. Not really much else to report.. running average lately.

I have been experimenting with how to play ranges near the bottom of A and top of B. I seem to have the most success pot controlling them, however, it all depends on the board. I think this is the area I have improved the most but still need a lot of work. Figuring out which opponents on what boards with what action will likely be the most profitable. Its pretty complicated but I am gaining a knack for it. Currently, pretty much play my A and C ranges identical.. I feel its a pretty unexploitable style.. not that we have to worry about that at micros.

Mixing in some 6-max

24-tabling FR can get old so I am mixing in some 6-max 4-tabling for fun and to actually work on my game a bit. My first session today was donk heaven, I played half an hour and ran 119BB/100. Sustainable obv.

1st day of op

2NL didn't receive me too well, dropped 2.5 buy-ins right off the bat and was like WTF. It did turn around but geez :)

2,075 hands- $8.48- 10.22BB/100

Ran 9/6- Pretty standard for 2NL for me.

2010 Operation

So I made a decision on an op for 2010. I had planned on possibly going for supernova elite, but due to time constraints late this year I did not even make it to 50NL. So setting such a lofty goal when I have never even played at 100nl is unrealistic.

So I decided to go for a pretty lofty goal, one that doesn't include SN elite.

I am going to start with a BR of $50 and grind my way up to 100,000 in 2010. I actually am going to start today since I want to be done well before the holidays next year. So technically its just a 1 year op and won't only take place is 2010. My BR management guidelines are below:

Starting with $50
step 1: 2nl till roll = $150
step 2: 5nl till roll = $300 Go back down if roll hits $125
step 3: 10nl till roll = $750 Go back down if roll hits $250
step 4: 25nl till roll = $1,500 Go back down if roll hits $625
step 5: 50nl till roll = $3,000 Go back down if roll hits $1,250
step 6: 100nl till roll = $100,000 Go back down if roll hits $2,500

I have broken down the time frame for achieving 100k. This is based on past winrates and guesstimated winrates for higher stakes including bonuses along the way. I will update this as I go with what actually occurs during the op.
Getting through each level should take:
2NL- 25hrs
5NL- 20hrs
10NL- 30hrs
25NL- 60hrs
50NL- 60hrs
100NL- 1,300hrs
Overall that's about 1,500 hours or 4hrs per day.

Guidelines
1. I will likely cash out some along the way. My goal is to make 100k during 2010, not have a 100k bankroll in my account.
2. I will play 24-tables of full ring at each stake.
3. I will buy the 100k fpp bonus once and then the 250k fpp bonuses thereafter.

Easy as ABCD

So I was thinking last night about simplification. Back when I played basketball, golf, chess, etc and was in a slump I always backed off and went step by step through the fundamentals and 90% of the time, I would come out and play my best game ever.

So isn't that what getting better is all about? Fundamentals fundamentals then experimentation then back to fundamentals and incorporate a new thing to the mix and then repeat.

So I am back to the fundamentals stage.. I reread a few old forum posts last night and a lightbulb went off. I decided that today I would state (in my head) exactly what my range was and play accordingly. It was like taking candy from a baby. I ran 8BB/100 over 1500 hands and felt in total command of my game. There were only 3 all in hands and I won 2. My red line was slightly in the positive.. which usually takes a nosedive.

Example: I raised 4bbs in mp with AQo and got called by the LAAG bb. The flop was KQ3 rainbow. I am ahead of villain's range so I put my range as top of my B range. He likes to c/r a lot so I want to pot control this a bit so I check for deception. 3 on the turn. He leads out for 3/4 pot on turn, I am still in my B range so I plan to call this and one more bet.. or bet for value on the river if he checks. This plan puts about 20% of my stack in the pot.. perfect for my B range hands. As expected, he checks the river 8.. my guess is he has a middle pocket pair or some kind of Qx hand. I bet 55% of pot and he calls with QJ and I take it down.

On the treadmill

Lately I feel like I have been treading water. Sure, I have been experimenting a lot with my game but come on. Am I really this bad? I started out beating 25NL for like 4BB/100 for the first 50k hands or so and then boom.. it seems like I hit a wall. I am running 1BB/100 since. Just variance? I guess time will tell.

For now its back to basics. I have been rereading everything. We'll see how it goes.

November Review

Winnings: $526.04
Rakeback: $204.80 FPP value (6,400 VPPs * 2.0 FPPs/VPP * 1.6c/FPP)
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$730.84 profit

I cashed out $1,000 during the month so my BR is now $1,313.

So I ended up averaging about $15/hr for the month. I run bad.

Less hands but more hours?

So I start December needing around 160k hands to hit my goal for the rest of 2009. That's around 5k hands per day, or 3 hrs per day playing nothing but fast tables.

Reasons to stick with the plan:
1. I tend to never give up on anything.
2. Fulfilling self promises.
3. Prove that I can play that kind of volume.

Reasons to abandon the plan and make a new one:
1. Since I started going for more hands per hour my win-rate has dropped from 3.5BB/100 down to 1.0BB/100.
2. This is December, more time needs to be spent with my family.
3. In January I can start anew with the grind with my sanity intact.
4. I will likely make more money playing less hands per hour due to more time for decisions.
5. Fooling yourself into not caring about results by hiding them in PT is just a bandaid. (more on this another time)

Having listed the above.. which do you think is smarter to do?

I think I am going with less hands, more quality play for now. Maybe when I am going for SNE or something one day its worth it to sacrifice the win-rate for awhile. Right now, getting the BR up to where I can go for such endeavors seems paramount atm.

Poker is about making adjustment right? Doing things come hell or high water can lead to burnout/busto.

Onward we go.

BR= $1,313