I had written a post right before I hit some button on my laptop and erased everything.
Here I go again
So, I've been thing a lot about poker and my life lately which equates to my family and music. Anyways over the past 5 months since I started taking poker to the next level by playing full time online, I have to say, it wasn't what I expected. After putting in over 700K hands, seen every beat possible, trying a ton of different things while multitabling, watching a ton of training videos, posting of forums, talking with friends about poker, getting a few coaching lessons, in the end I'm just a marginal, to break even, to slightly losing. It's been really mentally draining on me. What i'm not going to do is complain or say that I ran bad. I think I just over did it by forcing myself to put in to many hours, play to many tables, and really a lot of bad play in my opinion. I mean, 1 or 2 mistakes can really really cost you day in and day out. I mean there would be a lot of days where I would play for 8 hours and be down 10+buy-ins. And I really felt I was playing well, but just coolered a bunch. I would be down for that day and my ev difference would be still positive. But then again, somedays, my ev difference would be negative. I really thought that I would be able to take care of my family in a good way through poker and possibly have more time and quit my part time job and maybe some more time to get my band going again, but from then till now, it's just not working out. I think my whole idea was skewed, and playing for those bonuses on stars was just the wrong way to go. I mean, I set out to what I wanted to do and the bonuses were like my paychecks to take care of bills which it has been doing. But my poker bankroll is just slowly and slowly decreasing.
What I'm not going to do is quit poker. What I'm still going to do, is take it seriously and play to support my family. What I'm not going to do is play countless hours without taking any breaks. What I'm not going to do is play 18-24 tables.
So, for this month, I'm going to keep my sessions short to around 600-1400 hands depending on how I feel. Really, no more than an hour to an hour and a half max. Up or down, i'm going to stop. I'm gonna stick to 6max so, I'm going to play 12 tables max and try and play the best games and exit tables that are just bad. This is how I started and built my roll when I was playing for the fun of it. The only difference is i'm going a to put in a few more sessions in the day. Around 4-6 sessions throughout the day withing a 8 hour period. Take a 15-30 minute break after each session and come back fresh and RESET. I've been doing this the past week and so far my results have been more optimal and in the green instead of red for each session.
I'll have to see how this pans out and I really hope this will help. I've been at 50NL way to long, but really have to crush it before even thinking about moving up. I need to build my bankroll back up and hopefully set out to why I'm playing this game, for the financial freedom in the future and to enjoy the things that have meaning in my life, my wife and my two babies and maybe throw in some time to get back into music if I have time. Maybe own a house of my own one day, go on roadtrips and vacations without worrying about money.
Well I hope all is well and good luck on the journey!!!
Jeff
