WSOP-2013: Week #10

It’s Sunday, so time for a recap of this week's prep/progress toward WSOP-2013:

• Preparation:
• Pregame. Let's start by saying this week was mostly a bust for WSOP preparation in terms of actual poker play. I've had a number of home issues and projects that required my attention, and frankly when I had time to play I just didn't feel like it.... and you know what? That's actually a good thing. Don't play when you're not mentally ready to do so.... but still, it's a little worrisome that I'm hardly playing any real poker these days.
• Postgame. See above.
• Off-Table.
• Forums/Hand-of-the-Day. Posted one HotD analysis on this blog (here).
• Books. Continued reading Winning Poker Tournaments, One Hand At A Time, volumes 1 and 2 (I'm bouncing back and forth, picking random hands and working them through). I've stalled in Snyder's second book, but I think part of that reasons is simply that I haven't had significant amounts to time to really dive into his book and work through a chapter; his books really aren't meant to be read piecemeal.
• Videos. Watched the third video in the live tells videos I picked. More "meh" information. FWIW, the company/guy I bought them from sent me a SurveyMonkey form to fill out, which I did in complete, unfiltered honesty. He's probably never going to send me another email again...
• Podcasts. Listened to the start of  Bart Hanson 'cast in which he's interviewing "Limon," who is a SoCal live PLO expert. Yes, it's Omaha, but it's still very interesting stuff.
• Health. Was doing fairly well until the day after Halloween, in which I found too many opportunities at work to eat candy that coworkers brought in. Then I went out to dinner Saturday night and ate way too much again. Compounding issues is the fact that my adult son is living with us, which means my wife is cooking more carb-laden meals in the evenings than she usually does for just the two of us. Exercise has also suffered a bit this week due to busy life stuff. The worst news is I'm heading off early this morning for a week long biz trip; it's gonna be tough both exercising and eating right for the next five days.
• Other. Watched the WSOP final table, both days. I confess I gave up after about 5 hours into day two, as it seemed like it would never end 3-handed. There were lots of interesting hands to chew over, and it felt to me like some of the latter plays were heavily influenced by sheer fatigue. Jesse Sylvia's final call all-in with QJs for instance, or Koroknai's meltdown with KQo. Ask both of them about those hands a few days later after they've rested up, and I doubt either would make the same play again. This is the chief reason I've included "health" as a category for prep I'm tracking/working on; a WSOP event is a marathon.
• Technique:
• Preflop. Nada.
• REDi. Wrote a couple of posts on post-flop play, including one on c-betting, and another on the fallacy of "protection" bets in cash games. This is good mental exercise, but I really need to spend more time thinking/writing about MTT strategy in the future, and less on cash games.
• Emotional Control:
• Tilt Control. Another week in which I didn't play enough to actually tilt.
• BRM. No problemos in this department.
• Discipline. Wrote a quick Bug Tip on Paying Attention. Otherwise, nada.

$ Results:

• Tournaments (Online). Played three micro-stakes Turbo STSnGs this week; took one first, one third, and bubbled in the other. Total profit was just $8. Woo. Pee.
• Tournaments (Live) None played.
• Cash Games. Played a little $50NL 6max on one day and made about $40 overall.

Summary: I'm simply not playing much poker these past few weeks, and while it's been OK thus far, I'm starting to get a little worried that I'm not making enough time for hands-on play. Yes, I'm doing a lot of reading, studying, and note-taking, but actual seat time is woefully inadequate. Worse, the next two months will see me away on a total of four one-week long biz trips, plus 3 weeks of vacation time. It's going to be really, really tough to stay the course. My goal in fact is to just survive until the new year, and then double down on training, health, etc. at that point; the next two months are going to be mostly about survival.

On to the next entry on this WSOP journey...

All-in for now...
-Bug