Scraping the Bottom of the Bankroll Barrel
It was no Silver Lining. It was just the eye of the storm. Last night I was all too close to going broke.
I did all the things I shouldn't. I played long and late, I played at stakes too high for my bankroll and I tilted after taking a few beats.
I hit a lot of second best hands during the course of the session, but maybe I should have been able to get away from them. Highlights include top two pair against bottom set (twice) and a set of fours on an A24 flop against the small blind who had 35.
But those details are fairly irrelevant. In fact yesterday is fairly irrelevant now. The important thing is trying to pick myself up and grind grind grind to get it back and not go broke.
I know I have a sizeable rakeback payment coming at the end of the month. Now I just have not to go broke in the meantime. It's definitely doable, but I will have to be the most disciplined that I've ever been.
I think my biggest problem is not being able to walk away from the table when tilt starts to set in or when I get tired. It's especially hard when I'm in a hole or when there are plenty of fish at the table.
I think the key to success over the next few weeks will be playing shorter sessions in order to maintain my focus. I do know when I'm playing well and I should be able to walk away when I'm not.
The poker gods were having a huge laugh this morning when they saw fit to oversee the delivery of my latest Frequent Player Point order from PokerStars. I'd ordered it a while ago, but it was chosen that this morning would be the time for it to drop through the letter box. It was a book by Russell Fox and Scott Harker entitled "Why You Lose at Poker"! At least I could see the funny side of it.
I should probably read it ;-)
As for today, things went better. I've been playing the $200 and £100 tables with short stacks ($150 and £75 respectively) and made about £250. For the most part my focus was spot on and I only made a couple of bad calls. I just need to take each day at a time.
In other news, I played in the Oxford Cup on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, but I'll write about in another post as this one's gone on long enough.
I did all the things I shouldn't. I played long and late, I played at stakes too high for my bankroll and I tilted after taking a few beats.
I hit a lot of second best hands during the course of the session, but maybe I should have been able to get away from them. Highlights include top two pair against bottom set (twice) and a set of fours on an A24 flop against the small blind who had 35.
But those details are fairly irrelevant. In fact yesterday is fairly irrelevant now. The important thing is trying to pick myself up and grind grind grind to get it back and not go broke.
I know I have a sizeable rakeback payment coming at the end of the month. Now I just have not to go broke in the meantime. It's definitely doable, but I will have to be the most disciplined that I've ever been.
I think my biggest problem is not being able to walk away from the table when tilt starts to set in or when I get tired. It's especially hard when I'm in a hole or when there are plenty of fish at the table.
I think the key to success over the next few weeks will be playing shorter sessions in order to maintain my focus. I do know when I'm playing well and I should be able to walk away when I'm not.
The poker gods were having a huge laugh this morning when they saw fit to oversee the delivery of my latest Frequent Player Point order from PokerStars. I'd ordered it a while ago, but it was chosen that this morning would be the time for it to drop through the letter box. It was a book by Russell Fox and Scott Harker entitled "Why You Lose at Poker"! At least I could see the funny side of it.
I should probably read it ;-)
As for today, things went better. I've been playing the $200 and £100 tables with short stacks ($150 and £75 respectively) and made about £250. For the most part my focus was spot on and I only made a couple of bad calls. I just need to take each day at a time.
In other news, I played in the Oxford Cup on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, but I'll write about in another post as this one's gone on long enough.
posted by Pinky @ 7:27 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:33 PM,
Jack Dashed said…
Pinky,
At the risk of sounding far more knowledgable than I really am it seems like you're sometimes making the kind of mistakes novices (like me) make but at what I regard as scarily high stakes.
I have my own intentions regarding making a living at poker. Step one though is to iron out my weaknesses before putting any serious money in to the game. If you take a look at my blog you'll realise I'm an awful player at times - and I went broke this week because of it. But only low-stakes broke.
Might it be useful for you to drop right down to $1/2 or something similar for, say, 4 weeks, while taking a ruthless look at your play and ironing out some of its crinkles?
Best of luck,
Jack
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