Night shift diary

As i mentioned in my last post i was gonna do a long night shift last night and keep a diary as it went, here goes:


NIGHT SHIFT DIARY JUNE 21st 2009

19.15hrs

Gonna start the shift shortly, decided to start early then I can get a break or two in and still play for at least 8 hours.
I went for dinner with the family for fathers day and got home about 3pm so decided to have a kip for a bit to hopefully recharge my batteries. I have just had some tea and am gonna crack open a can of redbull to keep me firing on all cylinders.

Today is the busiest day on all the poker sites and as I write this there are just over 92,000 players on Full Tilt and approximately 60 x $0.50/$1 NL full ring games going on so plenty to choose from.

20.50hrs

Having a quick break, I’m currently $5 down, nothing much has happened, ran KK into AA against a shortish stacker for a $50 pot but that is about it. Playing at about 14/12/6 so need to open up with a few more hands I think.
Put baby R to bed as he was fast asleep downstairs with Mrs R.

22.30hrs

Had another quick break when Mrs R went upto bed, I have got the baby monitor in the conservatory with me, though baby R hasn’t been asleep all day so he should hopefully sleep through until after 5am’ish.
In the last hour I had AA vs JQ all in on an A high flop for a $137 pot, but those winnings wittled away so I am currently $30 down. After that hand I didn’t get any decent hands or situations. My VPIP is still at 15 which I feel could be a bit higher so gonna have to concentrate on opening up more hands.
Just put on Classic FM on the computer to keep me company now that I am all alone in the conservatory and it is deathly quiet, and also the longest day off the year so it is still fairly light outside.


MIDNIGHT

Starting to feel tired actually although its probably in my head, I should get used to this and I cant believe it has taken me so long to actually do a proper scheduled ‘shift’ at the poker tables after 9 months of so called semi-pro. My mindset is a lot better and I feel more chilled out and definitely a lot more patient. I think this is definitely the way forward, not necessarily doing night shifts but scheduled planned shifts at some point in the day.

Pulled a bit back during the last session and am now +$62 so hopefully heading in the right direction but it only takes a suckout to loose a buy-in and be back to square one (actually lower than that!!) . Played 920 hands now and my stats are 15/12/2.5 so not too bad.

Just cracked open another can of redbull!!!

02.20 am

That redbull must have worked because I feel fine now and raring to go. The last session went well and I am now +$170.
Playing four tables feels good and I can really concentrate on hands and opponents. I have datamined stats on most people and make a note on how many tables each player is at which is a great help when assigning a villain a hand range. Most people seem to fit into the following catorgries
SHORT STACKER
MASS MULTI-TABLING REGULAR
MULTI-TABLING REGULAR
ONE/TWO TABLE PLAYER
ONE TABLE MID to HALF STACKER
MULTI-TABLING SHARK THAT HAS MADE $thousands

Knowing how many tables a villain is at combined with HUD stats over a good range of hands makes it so much easier to work out if your ahead or not.

Baby R is still fast asleep (fingers crossed) and ClassicFM is keeping me company. Its now dark outside and deadly silent, the hoodies on our estate that I could hear earlier must have long since gone to bed……only degenerate poker players up at this hour!!!

Quick toilet break and back to the tables, after each break I have been sitting at new tables to mix things up a bit and not get to stagnate.


04.15am

Built my winnings upto +$220 but after a couple of big hands that I had to lay down I have dropped down to +$90. Its getting light outside and the birds are singing, don’t feel that tired, I just think at this hour your mind is telling you that you should be tucked up in bed!!!


0.4.45am

Decided to end the session as I don’t feel like I am now playing my A game. Havent had much and I have finished +$80 and $26 in rakeback. I think as I dropped from being $220 in profit down to about $80 I was starting to play a little scared, as I knew the shift was nearing the end and I didn’t want to end up finishing down after putting in all the hours. This is the wrong mindset hence why I ended the session.

So $80 + $26 = $106 (£76)

Its light outside the birds are singing and I think I can hear Baby R waking up.

If things had gone a little better it could have been nearer $300 in profit but I aint complaining as I feel I played really well and finishing in profit in poker is the main thing however much it maybe.

A year long downswing!!!

Not posted for a while because i have still been pissed off with my game, or to be more precise myself. Read a couple of posts/forum posts about downswings and to be honest i have been on a year long downswing, ever since i applied to reduce my hours at work. That was last June , where the previous 3 months had all been winners and by the half way point in June i was up $2.2k, everything was looking great.

Ever since then i have been on a massive downswing with only 3 small winning months in the last year ( 5 losing months were less than $500) which is just shite. Everyone including myself know the reason for a lot of this 'wasted' money is me swapping and changing things and trying mad new schemes. The pattern of this behaviour usually goes something like this:
Play well but get unlucky/CHANGE to something which deep down i know is wrong but i get greedy then WASTE more money/CHANGE back, play well but get UNLUCKY/ CHANGE again.....and so the cycle repeats itself.

I dont want to rant to much on here because everyone has heard it before, but i felt by actually writing it down, and then stating on here an exact plan of action i will hopefully more obliged to stick to it, so here goes:....

PLAY NO MORE THAN 4 TABLES AT ONCE
STICK TO MY BANKROLL MANGEMENT RULES
FORGET THE MONEY/PRETEND ITS JUST POINTS
NOT BE MONEY/RESULTS ORIENTATED, JUST FOCUS ON GOOD PLAY.
ACT LIKE A PRO rather than a NUGET
TRY AND PUT IN PROPER WORKING SESSIONS OF AT LEAST 3 HOURS.

Starting from next month i am gonna post graphs/stats of my play and results on here so i will hopefully feel more accountable. If i know everyone is gonna see how i have been playing then it will hopefully stop me from doing all the BAD stuff!! I will post my results every half month, starting on the 15th July. (this month is another car crash!!)

The stupid thing is when i actually do all these things i play well, a prime example is a small session i put in yesterday afternoon playing 4 full ring tables. Regardless of winnings i think the stats on my play are pretty much optimal and as good as you can get (any comments welcome)



If i could play like this all month there is no reason why i cant have $2k profit months. Instead of throwing money down the drain by keep swapping/changing things because i am on tilt.

Live pro Steve Holden did a good post yesterday about playing online poker which has a lot of truth in it. poker is a cancer post

A documentary here that i found via an american pros blog about a online pro from a the USA, the guy is a typical computer game Nerd!! but has made over $2 million plaing poker online. Online Pro documentary

The other day i blacked out most of the conservatory roof as now that the hot sunny weather is here i cant see my computer screen due to the bright sunlight and glare on the screen. I ordered some blackout roll from this firm and it has worked pretty well. Prior to doing this i was only able to use my computer after about 4pm which was no good.
Last night myself and Mrs R went out for an indian meal with the in-laws but this morning i have the usual "ringo sting"!!

Above i stated i wanted to do more proper working sessions so on Sunday (cleared by Mrs R) i am gonna prepare myself for an eight hour night shift from about 21.30hrs to approx 05.30hrs. Throughout this i am gonna keep a small diary of how i am doing and feeling as the session progresses which i will put in my next post. Now that i have mentioned it on here i will feel more obliged to take it seriously rather than just saying fook it and going to bed!!

wish me luck.....

Been a while

Its been a while since i last posted mostly because i have been busy looking after Baby R, and poker during May was shite and i was well down, again due to me changing things and messing about.

Hopefully things are looking up this month as i am playing a lot better and have cut my tables down to 4 so to make sure my game is better. Why i keep making the same mistakes time after time really pisses me off. Hopefully no more (and yeah i have said that so many times).

The World series is on at the moment in Vegas, i had 2% of Amatay in event 7 but the fish didnt get anywhere apparently.

On Saturday i went out on an all dayer in Liverpool on a works doo, although i had a good laugh i didnt really enjoy the drinks, same old stuff probably, and then felt rough as fook on Sunday.

Baby R who has been in a harness to try and solve his dislocated hips now has to have an operation on July 1st, they will try and do it under ansethetic without actually cutting him but failing that they will at a later date have to do it again but make a small incision in his groin so to work from the inside.

I am off work now for two weeks on summer leave so hopefully i can put some hours into playing good poker and not donking off money left right and centre.

Will do a better post later in the week, with some aims and new rules i have implemented.