Drawing Up A Battle Plan

With a bit of luck I should be back online by the end of November, ready to hit the tables on December 1st. I'm looking forward to playing again but at the same time I'm a little apprehensive too because my mindset has totally changed and we all know your mindset has a huge effect on the way you play poker, it can be the difference between being a winning and losing player.

Regular readers of this blog know that I can be a bit of a loose cannon and that I often played under the influence of whatever and when not in the right frame of mind and as a result I seem to have hit a brick wall and haven't progressed my actual game at the same speed as I have done with my knowledge and understanding. I became transfixed on the money aspect and also on the short-term results rather then thinking of poker as one long session where all you can do is make plays with maximum expectation and leave the rest to the poker Gods (amen). It didn't help that I was under a lot of stress at the time and was finding it hard to focus and started doing stupid mini challenges all the time and often darting around playing NL cash, FL cash, SnG's, MTT's and even Omaha and Stud cash games! Not surprising then that I managed to spunk away about $100 in the process.

Things have turned the corner now though. For one I am away from the pub and all the influences that place brought. I'm still working there until the 18th November and then that is it completely and I don't want to have to get another part-time job so will be able to dedicate a bit of solid, quality time at the tables. I've managed to sort myself a place out and although not perfect it's a base and something to build on. I've also finally got Mrs P and that's going brilliantly and despite my serious lack of funds for the time being I am really on top of things and feeling good about myself. So why am I a bit apprehensive? Well I can't remember the last time I played poker with a clear head and without things clouding my judgement! I guess I'm worried that part of my game comes out when I am feeling shit about stuff and that without all the stress and stuff I won't be the same player. I hope it's going to have a more positive effect because I'm feeling healthier, hardly drinking and eating at proper times now but I guess time will tell.

I've decided to follow some proper bankroll strategy and actually stick to it as this will generate discipline for the higher stakes. I'm going to always sit with a full buy-in and reload when I drop the blinds from my stack and always make sure I have 25 buy-ins for any given level and drop to the previous level should I fall to 18 buy-ins for the stakes I am currently at. This would mean needing $250 to play NL10 but I'd drop back to NL5 if my bankroll fell to $180 and rebuild again. The only exceptions to these rules will be when I play NL2 and NL5 on Stars because the maximum you can sit with at NL2 is, for some reason, $5 and $10 at NL5. When I play NL2 and NL5 I will play with the default stack of $3 and $6 respectively giving me around 17 and 21 buy-ins for the respective levels when my bankroll hits the $50 and $125 mark. My reasoning for this is the fact the play is so poor at these levels that I'm not bothered about BR management as much because people are willing to stack off with top pair regardless of the action around them. Yeah the beats will be plentiful but it's rare to find any fish at these stakes with a full stack for it to make a major difference. I'll be using the back end of November and the majority of December getting used to playing again after a month and a bit away from the tables then starting in January I'm really going to push this and earn some decent money. My circumstances may change a little for the better in the coming couple of months and I may be able to add to my roll again but even if I can't I've worked out that I should be able to take $50 and turn it into $2500 within 230 table hours, or 11.5 weeks at 20 hours per week.

Things on the home front are still superb and it's hard to believe it's been almost a week since Mrs P and step P came to stay. Really enjoying their company despite the fact that I seem to be getting by on less than 5 hours kip a night through a mixture of a crying baby and also practising making babies although the vats of coffee and cans of Red Bull are keeping me alive at the minute! Everything seems so natural and all three of us have slotted right into place like I hoped we would do and I'm loving how things are progressing right now because Mrs P and I are going great guns and step Pud seems to be liking me too and spends most of his time wanting to play with me which is great because I'm a big kid anyway! I knew it'd all go to plan as it's not like we don't know each other and have rushed into this, we've been talking deeply for months and this was just the next stage. One of the reasons I want to hit the poker and earn some decent monies is so I can spend more time at home with Mrs P, Pud Jr and Step Pud because I'm a big soft family man at heart! Oh and on a side note, skimpy shorts and vest top combinations for bed rule the world, and no, they're not what I had on!

Well thanks, as always, for checking in and best of luck at those rigged online tables!