I'm falling

It seems like simply playing poker to the best of my ability every time I log on would be simple. I know I make more money when I do, I enjoy the game more, even while losing when I know I'm in the zone, but for some reason I just can't do it. I've spent probably the last 6 sessions spewing off a ton of money, but these last two it finally caught up with me. So ya, before every wrestling match I go through a set routine to get myself warmed up and mentally ready for competition, but with poker I roll out of bed, log on, put $700 on the tables, and go. Surely I'm not in the best possible place mentally with this routine. I'm not sure how a poker warm up should go, but I need to get it figured out before I lose any more money. It's also embarrassing how I've been playing so I'm going to try to use that feeling in one way or another to help keep me from making irrational decisions. I would never make a lot of the plays I do if someone was watching me. I've also failed to quit when I'm frustrated the last couple sessions, and I was doing awesome with that for a while. I've fallen off the path, but I'll claw my way back up, and hopefully adopt some better habits to keep me playing my best.

cheers,

Chad

Woo Hoo!

Just finished a sesh and my summer poker earnings stand at $4053.74, so mission accomplished! I could definitely hit a downswing before the end of the summer and unaccomplish this, but for the time being I'm above the goal! I still fall back into my overaggressive spewy ways sometimes, but I definitely feel like I'm making progress and continuing to distinguish the lines I take against fish and different types of regs to get the most out of each! So ya, making money and continuing to improve my game a bunch! All is well on the poker front.

My dad just went in for a pretty major surgery and everything went well and he's on the road to recovery now, but will still be in the hospital for at least 4 more days, so I'm just thanking God that its all gone as well as possible so far, and that the thing removed wasn't cancerous. Pretty scary stuff, I've never really lost anyone close to me, so to some extent everyone seems immortal, but this was a wake up call and hopefully will encourage me to make the most out of the short time we're given here.

cheers,

Chad

The Summer Home Stretch

I am too loose and I look for a reason not to make a play, instead of a reason to make a play, and that gets me in a lot of really tough spots. If I'm going to continue to play 14 tables or increase that number I've got to tighten up a little bit. My results have been good but I feel like my current style has a lot of variance. On the positive side I'm pretty sure this style has improved my hand reading a lot, or I wouldn't be winning, but ya I'd like to adopt a slightly more conservative style and take a little bit of the stress out of my game so I can play more tables and put in a little more volume.

I'm also going to start setting a target volume at the beginning of each day, and not check my bankroll until I've completed it or am too tired or tilted to play anymore that day. I think this will greatly increase my bottom line and take some of the emotion out of the game.

I've got sooooo much work to do, its definitely overwhelming sometimes, but I'm enjoying the hell out of the learning process, and am so glad I decided to give poker a pretty serious go this summer. I've improved my game immensely, it has freed up a lot of time to chill with friends and really enjoy having a summer vacation for the second to last time, and I'm sure my efforts to improve will continue to payoff dividends for the rest of my poker career. So ya, 3 more weeks left to hit my summer goals! Hopefully I can catch a bit of run good and wrap it up!

cheers,

Chad