still on the de-cline

Not too much to report except for some more losses unfortunately. Poker can be a pretty cruel game. When you're losing it's easy to question why you even play the game in the first place and without the confidence my game definately suffers. So, what's the damage? Since the new year i've lost a quater of my bankroll which is pretty shocking. The trouble is, I'm chasing my losses at the moment trying to get back on track. Never a good strategy, but sometimes hard to avoid.

Tilt kicked in pretty hard when I got two outtered in the deep stages of a multi, but come on, that's pretty standard. I've got to learn to roll with the punches if I'm going to be a good MTT player. Since then, like I've said I've been chasing losses and don't really think I've been in the right frame of mind to play nuttin but A. About two years ago me and a mate started taking MTT's seriously, and although I don't think our strategy was the best our focus and concentration on each game I think was unmatched. We were constantly assessing people's ranges, what fold equity we had, who was playing aggressively etc etc...It gave us a massive edge. I need some of that focus back, trouble is you can't have it if you are chasing your losses. So, a pretty boring and low spirited post but after a few days of not playing I'll be back ready to destroy it again.

more down's then up's

An interesting and frustrating 3 weeks of poker. As much as I enjoy playing multitables they just take up too much time. I decided to try and focus just on 6 max 25c-50c for this month and was 9 tabling most of the time with an effort to try and get to gold star status. Although I don't really think there much point in getting to gold star doesn't seem like you can do much with it, although I have alot of FPP's to spend now.

Anyways, my pokertracker isn't working but basically I went 6 buy-ins up and then proceeded to lose 11 buy ins... in pretty standard/brutal fashion. So basically I dropped $250 which although not a HUGE amount of money is more painful due to the hours I put in. Atleast I got to gold star status.....GRRRREAAT.

A few leaks in my game which I need to sort out:

- Calling raises OOP too much.
- 9 tabling isn't probably optimal, should really stick to 6.
- Not betting for value on the river once it's checked to me.
- When I have the nuts of the river and someone bets into me, alot of the time I just jam my whole stack in there, even if it's 3 or 4x the pot. This probably works 5% of the time (in that I get called) and although is pretty funny when I do, I could be getting so much more value if I just put a sensible raise in there. In short, I get greedy!
- Most importantly, don't play when I'm not feeling like playing well.

Poker: you love it and hate it.

The last week of poker has been a bit of a rollercoaster where I've lost some discipline and played a bit too much; something I'm not too pleased about and will improve upon. It stems from the tournament win the other day, getting use to larger buy-in tournaments, the new found money and a bit of over confidence. Luckily I haven't damaged the bankroll but could have quite easily. I had one session where I had a $700 swing playing cash, I'm not doing that again....until I have the bankroll.

The MTT's haven't exactly been going very well. No cashes online in the last 20 tournaments. I'm not sure exactly what the standard variance is in MTT's with such large fields as I'm not a regular MTT player but losing consistently isn't much fun. What's more frustrating is that I haven't been playing well. I've had a couple of poker binges in which I just fired up as many tables as I could, out of the bankroll, and played without focus.

The one cash I did have was in the live poker tournament last week. The structure was really good, you could start with 10k if you took the add-on, blinds 25/50 and a 20 minute clock. It was a real local boys game, everyone knew each other and the type of game where if you took a few hundred quid from a mate in the cash game you could wind him up the next day on the high street. I eventually finished up 4th, trying my luck one too many times stealing the blinds but was good for a small profit. The friend I was with came 2nd which was pretty impressive especially as he was one card away from the £500 first prize.

So, this week has really taught me a lesson. No more poker binges, you may aswell play slot machines if you are going to do that because it's pretty much the same process imo. No more playing out of the bankroll, getting over-setted in $1-$2 taught me that. From now on I won't be playing anything higher than 25c/50c until I hit $4k. It's all about being a bankroll nit.

A few goals to go with the new year too:

- Finally get the life/poker balance
- Stop playing whenever it's not fun.
- Record every entry/win/loss
- Win enough money to pay for a Vegas and Brazil trip

Current bankroll situation:

$2k- Just to be used for MTT's and 25c-50c
W$450- To be used to try and Satalitte into a big live event