Prose from a Poshboy

[redarmi]

I’m waiting for a skip to be delivered so until it arrives here are some words of wisdom.
Apologies if any of it comes of as patronising etc its not intended that way…

Don’t get too down with a losing month – In poker the downswings due to variance are much higher than you ever think they will be.  During the bad times you have to think about it positively and think this is what will separate you from the other players.  It’s the easiest game in the world when you’re winning but when you really earn your money is by minimising losses and not tilting.  Whenever you get unlucky you need to see it as a test.  In short do whatever you can not to tilt – this IMO is one of the biggest factors that seperates average players from good players.
Don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse but to give you an idea my biggest downswing lasted about 100,000 hands and 30 buy ins.  I think any downswing you have should be less though as you should have a bigger edge in a live 0.5/1 game than I have in my games.
If I was a good live pro I think id have to expect to have 2-3 losing months a year due to few number of hands you play.

I think your bankroll is way too small.  Firstly it puts you at risk of going broke.  Secondly I don’t see how you can make optimal plays if you know one bad move could cost you 10% of your roll.  Finally if you are losing amounts that hurt your roll significantly it makes you pretty unhappy (and life is all about maximising happiness).
 
My advice would be have a separate life and poker roll.
Easier said than done I know when you don’t have much cash.  I remember you saying somewhere in your blog you can play some low level tournies online which were boring but was like printing money slowly.  Well my advice would be get playing those games and put some serious hours in and build your roll.  I understand that you don’t like online/prefer live etc.  The online grind isn’t forever but you may have to do it for a few months just while you build a roll.  Playing lots of hands will also be good for your game.
Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like but as long as its short term and you will eventually be able to do what you really want to do it will be worth it.

I think you are correct in thinking even 0.5/1 online games are tough.  Its also easier to tilt online because you are playing so many more hands the games are more agrressive and the action comes round a lot faster.  If you are going to play online I strongly advise you get PT or HM.  Fish stick out a mile online because of their stats – its easy enough to learn.
I watched a guy play recently who had table selecting software that located the soft tables for him – I don’t use this personally because there just aren’t that many games running at my stakes but it seemed to be a pretty good tool to have. 

Keep the faith and don’t panic – its amazing how quickly confidence can evaporate during a downswing.  If you keep working at your game I’m sure you will be a success.


Now where’s this bloody skip?

This is an amazing post.  One of the very best I have ever seen on Blonde.

[pleno1]

I play $0.50/1 rush hold em sometimes because I don't want my NL game to be rusty and its pretty easy. I'd expect you do beat it for like 5-10bb/100.

wow rly?

[GreekStein]

I play $0.50/1 rush hold em sometimes because I don't want my NL game to be rusty and its pretty easy. I'd expect you do beat it for like 5-10bb/100.

wow rly?

Yes.

It's much much softer than $1/2

[SuuPRlim]

Now where’s this bloody skip?

Still arrived? wtf skip hurry up!

[pleno1]

I play $0.50/1 rush hold em sometimes because I don't want my NL game to be rusty and its pretty easy. I'd expect you do beat it for like 5-10bb/100.

wow rly?

Yes.

It's much much softer than $1/2

2.5bb/100 is seen as v.good at 200nl rush, makes sense for all 200 regs to just play 100.

[titaniumbean]

Rush poker would be well suited to you.  After you win a hand you can leave the table and play on another one.

OH MY GOD KIN.



POST MOOAAAAAAAAR 

[Mondeoman]

Still no skip........

[George2Loose]

Alex I understand your aversion to online. I go through swings myself where I love playing live and hate playing online and vice-versa. ATM I HATE playing live. Stupid live donko's.

U must live local to Andy/Mitch etc. I know they don't play online too much but perhaps arrange grind sessions at each others to get over the monotony of it. As has been mentioned your roll is too small currently and if you do go busto it'll be tough getting out of it. If you're fortunate to get rakeback take advantage of it imo.

[Honeybadger]

I play $0.50/1 rush hold em sometimes because I don't want my NL game to be rusty and its pretty easy. I'd expect you do beat it for like 5-10bb/100.

wow rly?

Yes.

It's much much softer than $1/2

2.5bb/100 is seen as v.good at 200nl rush, makes sense for all 200 regs to just play 100.

100NL rush is quite a bit softer than 200NL rush. But expecting to have  a 5bb+/100 winrate over a significant sample size is unrealistic unless you are a very good online player already. For most players a 2.5bb/100 is really good whilst multitabling rush poker. There are exceptions. For example Bamyeah (shpanko on 2+2) is smashing rush for ~5bb/100 whilst 8 tabling 200NL rush and 400NL rush . But he is an outlier. A machine. And very, very good. Expecting to make 10bb/100... well it is just not going to happen even at 100NL.

[SuuPRlim]

Still no skip........

ffs, what are these skip clowns playing at.....

fucking donks

[outragous76]

Still no skip........

ffs, what are these skip clowns playing at.....

fucking donks

id tell em to hop it!

[SuuPRlim]

Still no skip........

ffs, what are these skip clowns playing at.....

fucking donks

id tell em to hop it!
 

[cambridgealex]

I’m waiting for a skip to be delivered so until it arrives here are some words of wisdom.
Apologies if any of it comes of as patronising etc its not intended that way…

Don’t get too down with a losing month – In poker the downswings due to variance are much higher than you ever think they will be.  During the bad times you have to think about it positively and think this is what will separate you from the other players.  It’s the easiest game in the world when you’re winning but when you really earn your money is by minimising losses and not tilting.  Whenever you get unlucky you need to see it as a test.  In short do whatever you can not to tilt – this IMO is one of the biggest factors that seperates average players from good players.
Don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse but to give you an idea my biggest downswing lasted about 100,000 hands and 30 buy ins.  I think any downswing you have should be less though as you should have a bigger edge in a live 0.5/1 game than I have in my games.
If I was a good live pro I think id have to expect to have 2-3 losing months a year due to few number of hands you play.

I think your bankroll is way too small.  Firstly it puts you at risk of going broke.  Secondly I don’t see how you can make optimal plays if you know one bad move could cost you 10% of your roll.  Finally if you are losing amounts that hurt your roll significantly it makes you pretty unhappy (and life is all about maximising happiness).
 
My advice would be have a separate life and poker roll.
Easier said than done I know when you don’t have much cash.  I remember you saying somewhere in your blog you can play some low level tournies online which were boring but was like printing money slowly.  Well my advice would be get playing those games and put some serious hours in and build your roll.  I understand that you don’t like online/prefer live etc.  The online grind isn’t forever but you may have to do it for a few months just while you build a roll.  Playing lots of hands will also be good for your game.
Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like but as long as its short term and you will eventually be able to do what you really want to do it will be worth it.

I think you are correct in thinking even 0.5/1 online games are tough.  Its also easier to tilt online because you are playing so many more hands the games are more agrressive and the action comes round a lot faster.  If you are going to play online I strongly advise you get PT or HM.  Fish stick out a mile online because of their stats – its easy enough to learn.
I watched a guy play recently who had table selecting software that located the soft tables for him – I don’t use this personally because there just aren’t that many games running at my stakes but it seemed to be a pretty good tool to have. 

Keep the faith and don’t panic – its amazing how quickly confidence can evaporate during a downswing.  If you keep working at your game I’m sure you will be a success.


Now where’s this bloody skip?

This is an amazing post.  One of the very best I have ever seen on Blonde.

Of course it is - he's only the Inaugural Eureka Poker Tour Champion Prague 2011! Cheers Keith, and everyone else for your responses.

1) I am not down / depressed over this downswing. Of course it's not nice and I'm not enjoying it and getting frustrated and -6BI nights like last night really take some stomaching. But I'm sure I come across a lot more down because I always post on here immediately after a session. It's sort of cathartic for me to have a rant/whine on here after a bad session and it's one of the purposes of the diary imo. It's not what you all want to read and no1 gives out much sympathy so I'm not fishing for it - it's just helpful.  It does, however, probably bias peoples perceptions of my fragility! I think I've handled the swing pretty well, I can honestly put less than 10% of this months swing down to tilt/bad play. Hannah I guess bears the brunt of it more than anyone. I don't think it's possible to keep all your emotions bottled up inside so during a session like last night I needed to send the odd text to let some of it out. Otherwise it might spill out onto the table and I might spew/tilt or just be rude and ungraceful. It's great to have understanding people around though to make that easier, even if it's in another country, she's brilliant. We're celebrating 2 1/2 years today

2) Especially at 50/1 I don't at all feel held back by my roll. At DTD you're rarely more than 100bbs deep effective so can never make plays for 10% of my roll! 3% maybe but it just doesn't hold me back at all. At 1/2 when I first started I guess I was a bit more wary of the money - but I'm sure that's natural when moving up stakes, next time I go up, I'll have a bigger roll and I'll be more used to it.

[leethefish]

you have had a lot of really good advice on here so i wont add anything irrelevant... i just wish you the very best of luck Alex in whichever decision you take but if you can have a chat with George at the weekend or next time your both at dtd he really knows his online stuff!!
i have played online for years but only really play satellites now so i am no help!!!
good luck in the deepstack mate

[cambridgealex]

George who?