- The month of October is off to a bumpy start. I've played a little over 16K hands and am up about $280 due to cash game winnings. Sounds good, right? Uh, yes and no. The good news is the money, the bad news is my ptbb/100 is stuck at 2.3, which is pretty low for me. It's mostly due to some monstrous swings. So far in these first 19 days I've had two $100 and three $80 downswings. Fortunately, I've had some nice upswings to offset the negatives, but there have been a lot of hands under the bridge with little to actually show for it at the end. The majority of the hands played (11K) have been at $25NL FR Rush, but I've also gotten in about 2.6K of $50NL FR Rush, where, happily, my ptbb/100 has been up over 5.1, with a $16.5/hour win rate. The odd thing is that I have actually felt a little more comfortable playing $50NL than $25NL. In both cases I'm two-tabling, but I'm definitely playing a tad more focused at the higher stakes tables, which has led to better play. It's that old poker adage that says if you play at stakes too low, you'll lose because you don't really care and will play too loose and unfocused; if you play too high, in contrast, you're usually playing with scared money and won't make those hero calls and big bluffs on the river. I call it Goldilocks Poker. You have to find the stakes at which you and your bankroll are most comfortable to play optimal poker. For my current bankroll, my GP point seems to be somewhere between $25 and $50NL.
. - Watched a pretty bizarre poker video this morning during my cardio workout. The vid was a hand history review of a player going deep in the 'Stars $100 rebuy weekly event (BTW, this particular event is often touted on the forums as one of the hardest regular online poker tournament around). Anyway, in the video, the Hero only did min-raises whenever he entered a pot. Didn't matter if he was first to act, was RR'ing, or was squeezing. The pro giving the voice-over critique kept saying that this is not a recommended strategy, but also kept saying that the min raises were having the effect of completely confusing the opp, based on their reactions. Not sure if I really learned anything from video, but it was still pretty interesting to watch.
- Read an interesting comparison between the child's game of Rochambeau (i.e., Rock, Paper, Scissors) and tournament poker. In a nutshell, Chips are equivalent to Rocks, Cards are the same as Paper, and Position is the equivalent to Scissors. Said another way, Cards beat Chips (i.e., if you have a strong hand, you can go up against a big stack); Position beats Cards (i.e., having position allows you to play weaker hands); and Chips beat Position (i.e., being able to play a Big Stack Bully role negates positional disadvantages). Dunno if I fully buy into this theorem, but it's kinda fun to think about.
- Been doing a little coaching with StockGirl. She's got a lot of beginner leaks in her game, but she is also a fast learner. We've done a couple of lessons thus far, and it's been really helpful to me to work with someone on the basics. Years ago, I took a job teaching calculus at the local community college. One of the life lessons I got out of that experience is the realization that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it someone else. You simply can't stand up in front of a class, explain something, and answer questions about it without fully understanding it yourself. In the case of coaching StockGirl, I'm not only helping her, but I'm also helping my own game. The main focus thus far that we've been working on has been on position, position, position, which I believe to be the cornerstone of winning poker. It's all level-1 poker stuff at this point; i.e., what are my cards and how do they play in this situation and against the board texture. Good stuff.
About all the time there is today to post.
All-in for now...
-Bug
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