Feb. Results/ March Goals

What a month. I don't even know what to say before I post my results. Here they are:

20,471 hands- 7.5k at 10nl and the other ~13k at 25nl
Beat 10nl @ 8.03BB/100
Beat 25nl @ 4.03BB/100

Complete Month Graph:



Here's a look at what goals I set for the month and if they were reached...

1. 20k hands. [Goal met]
2. Play exclusively ring. [Goal NOT met]
3. Positive form of rakeback, mostly likely the 210FPP's again. [Goal not met. Played a couple of the 210's, without a cash]
4. Continue to post hands in the HA section, along with sending more hands to a handful of CCers. [Goal met]
5. Take shots at 25nl once I've spoken with a few others throughout the month and come up with a solid BRM plan for it. [GOAL MET!]
6. Do more sweats with some of the regs, along with sweating some of the new 10nl players. [Goal met]

I only played two 210fpp satty's this month and didn't run so well in them. I've decided now that I'm going to be moving up through the limits to save up my FPPs for something worthwhile. At the moment, I'm not sure exactly what...I still have to look into the Stars Store.
The other goal I failed was playing ONLY ring. I dabbled in the Step SNGs, which for some reason I could not beat at all, even though I grinded up through the $22 and $33 SNGs only a year ago. I also played a few MTT's here and there as well. I have put some major thought into a way to achieve this goal and came up with an idea I will include in next month's preview.
Also, I JUST reached SilverStar, with about 45 minutes in the month left to spare! I hadn't planned on doing this at all, as I didn't think I'd be playing above 10nl yet, but when I saw it would be reasonably manageable, I decided to give it a shot. Weeeeeeee for 1.5x FPP's!

MARCH GOALS:

1. 30k hands.
2. Make GoldStar (will come along with completing Goal #1).
3. Play ONLY ring. I need some sort of motivation to do this, and a prop bet seems silly because 30k hands will definitely be manageable, and really shouldn't be that hard for me to do. I'm going to post on CC about this particular goal and the way I will achieve it--if any member of the forum catches me playing anything other than 25nl, I will send them $25. The person would have to show a screen shot of the 'Find a Player' option on Stars and prove that I was playing something else (No photoshopping allowed!) I think me essentially giving $25 away will work as an aid in me sticking to what I want to do this month.
4. Sweat players at the micro limits from CC, preferably 10nl. I really feel like I learned what it takes to beat this limit in a fairly short amount of time and would really like to give back to CardsChat.

After slowwwwly beginning ring in January, and having way to many days I couldn't play in February, I'm really looking forward to increasing my volume in March. I am also working on my own article for CardsChat, so be on the lookout for that.

Beat, Brag

This is going to be a longer post, but well worth it for me...

We usually see the "Brag: Look at this sweet hand!" Followed by, "Beat: I later got sucked out on and broke even for the session." The last two days for me have been the other way around.
To make a very long day short, I just had a bad day student teaching. Maybe it was because the kids were on break last week and still getting back into the swing of things, but there was just no energy, a lack of motivation..no one wanted to do anything. To make it worse, I played a session last night only to have this hand occur:



Alright, I'm still not sure if I like my shove here. I had only been at the table for 6 hands, and this limp, 3bet min-raise has usually been some silly A-rag, or a small to medium pocket pair trying to take pot control. I didn't want to 4bet and have this guy cold call and play the hand with half my stack already in the pot, OOP, so I just shipped it in. This is where the guy hits the time bank. So, now I'm thinking he's going to make some call with 55 or something and show the table how good he is. He eventually calls, and as you can see, hit the Q. He then started to go off in the chat box about how it was a coin-flip along with all this other stuff that....yes...tilted me.
I can honestly say in two months of playing ring, I have gone on tilt twice now. Controlling my emotions is one of my strengths as a poker player, but after my worst day this semester of student teaching, and then to have this happen, it got under my skin. So...who's fault is that? Mine. It's not the kids' fault for not being full of energy, and it's not my opponent's fault for me losing control of my emotions.
I went to bed last night in the worst mood since I can remember. When I woke up this morning, I didn't hit my snooze button like I usually do. Instead, I got ready, grabbed some breakfast, and headed to the school. I was determined to make things change today.
In my six weeks of teaching high school, I have never had a day like today. I changed around my lesson plans so we were constantly at a fast pace. The 7th graders were doing the wave. The high schoolers were in their sections, singing. The 8th grade men accomplished things in their repertoire in fifteen minutes today that we spent forty minutes on the day before, getting nowhere. I was on an all-time high and legitimately proud of myself for being lively and energetic myself, in order for the students to feed off of me.
I decided things would be different during my session tonight as well. I looked at my EV for yesterday, and the entire month, which I know is something a lot of poker players frown upon. Well, I'm taking a stand for myself and explaining why I did this. I needed to know that I played well last night. I needed to reassure myself that I am a solid player, and by making the right plays, I will be dominating this limit over a long stretch of time. Without going into too much detail, I put it in only a one hour session tonight, and it was one of my best ever.
I know days like yesterday happen, but to be honest, they used to happen with me very frequently. My second year in college was a tough one, and I was constantly in the mental state I was yesterday. I hate when those days come out, but I suppose it's what we do to make a change when the next day rolls along.
With three days left in February, I have about 3.2k hands left to make SilverStar. I am also looking at beating 25nl for the month at 4BB/100. This is my first ever really in depth blog post, but I think I needed it. Yesterday is gone. Today is almost over. Bring on tomorrow.

Going for the Gold. Oops, I mean Silver.

Since I took my first shot at 25nl two days ago, I have become pretty comfortable with it, and now am properly rolled. I actually think in a few ways, it might be a little easier than 10nl. For example, there were a lot of times when playing 10nl I couldn't decide if the Beluga theorem was in full swing, or if some players just had no idea and were confusing the daylights out of me. Anyway, I'm leaving tomorrow to head up north to hang out with my friends from college until the weekend, so I'll have a few days off. This leaves me with ten days left in the month. I decided yesterday that I would make the push for SilverStar, but tonight realized that it's not much of a push at all. I only have about 8.5k hands left, so it should be relatively easy.

Annnnnnnnnd, my new biggest pot ever:

Mid-Month Update

Last month, I played just over 20k hands at 10nl, and beat it at 2.57BB/100. This month, through only 7.5k hands so far, I can honestly say that I feel like I'm crushing it. My winrate has sky-rocketed to 8.04BB/100, and I credit that to playing more pots in position, and changing the way I steal and isolate. I am extremely happy with the way I've been playing, and in a way, was afraid to move up.
I was planning on waiting til I reached 30BI's for 25nl, but I am very close and have been advised by a few players at CardsChat to start taking shots. I'm going to be on a 28/23 sort of rule while 4-tabling to get comfortable. I think the biggest thing I need to do is not over-adjust. I really want to just play a solid game, without thinking about the money being more than I've played in the past.
I'll update as needed for the next couple weeks through February and my 25nl beginnings. I'm on break from school for a week, so I was planning on logging tons of hands at 10nl, but will instead use this time to get used to 25nl. I'm also taking a trip up north to visit some college friends, so looking forward to that as well. Here's to solid play at 25nl.

Change of Plans

There's something very important that I gave a lot of thought about today. For those of you that don't know, outside of CC and the poker world, I am in my last semester of undergrad, as a piano major in Music Education. I am currently student teaching, working with high school students and will be moving on the the elementary level in mid-March. I have been thinking a lot about my future in music, and decided a while ago that I would audition at Westminster Choir College to pursue a Master's degree in Sacred Music. After receiving some information today over the phone, I have found that my audition requirements for February 27th are a bit more than I had previously seen online. Due to this, I will be changing my goals for the month.
Now, last month was a fantastic start to 10nl and I don't want to go anywhere but up from where I left off in January. As it is, I am looking at 2 days away for the audition, and possibly another 2-3 for a visit to my college friends in a couple of weeks. With this in mind, I could potentially be having a 23-day month. I'm going to set my monthly goal at 20k hands once again and to be honest, if I didn't make it and nailed this audition, it wouldn't bother me a bit. Poker is very important to me, but at the same time, I need a balance for the other important things in my life. So, 20k hands, let's show a profit, do some sweats, and all that other good stuff I took the time to write up two days ago.

Jan. Results/Feb. Goals

Here it is...the brutal truth about my first month as a cash game player and 10nl. I feel like I have a decent grasp on the basics of the game, which has been enough for me to show a profit over 21k hands. I am just now starting to experiment with 3-betting, isolating, and squeezing. In some areas, I didn't find 10nl quite as fishy as I had expected, but then there were times where absolute maniacs proved me wrong. Anyway, here's the Month One Wrap-Up, based on the goals I set in December.

Hands played: 20,159 [Goal met]
1. 20K hands at 10NL in January. [20,159 hands]
5. Save and do something +$ with FPP's. [2/3 in 210FPP satties, worth $10.94 each]
6. Spend way more time in the HA section of CC than the others. [Not met. I found myself browsing a lot more threads and hanging out in the Jan. Thread quite a bit. However, I did sent a few installments of hands to IceMonkey9 for his thoughts, which I value very much.]
7. Only dip into my BR when I absolutely need to. [Goal met. Have not touched the roll.]

10nl Profit: $114.55
FPP Rakeback: $21.88
SNG Profit: -$34.5

I played a few SNG sessions, where I think I played extremely well and got very unlucky right around the bubble. I'd post the hands, but let's not whine about the past :). I also played a few Step 1's and a Triple Shootout just to mix it up, but failed. I didn't mind playing a few of these just for a change of pace, just wish the results were a little better.
As for the ring profit, without whining, I was around $224 EV for the month, so I clearly didn't run the best. To be honest, I wasn't sure why sort of winrate to expect in my first month, so anything in the green was fine by me.

Graph for the month:



February Goals:
1. 30k hands. Between the 28 days and a few trips I am taking this month, along with my audition for graduate school, I may be looking at a lot shorter of a month than is on paper.
2. Play exclusively ring. If I need a break, study my HEM stats, read some of the articles I have yet to get to.
3. Positive form of rakeback, mostly likely the 210FPP's again.
4. Continue to post hands in the HA section, along with sending more hands to a handful of CCers.
5. Take shots at 25nl once I've spoken with a few others throughout the month and come up with a solid BRM plan for it.
6. Do more sweats with some of the regs, along with sweating some of the new 10nl players.

I also had my 1K post on CardsChat this month, which I was very pleased with. I definitely wouldn't be here without a lot of these guys. To close, I want to thank once again IceMonkey9 and Jurns8 for all the work they've done with me this month. Here's to a great February.

Best Day of the Month

The title is not in terms of profit, as I only played about 500 hands today after a very long day at school. I just wanted to give a few quick updates on why this day has just been so great.

1.) I recorded myself for the first time during student teaching today. I'm having a great time teaching, and am actually starting to think I might not be so quick to run away from Music Education and into the Sacred Music field. I'm actually debating now whether or not to go right to grad school in the fall, or if I want to apply for a job. So, yay for teaching.
2. My dad just informed me that I'm getting some money back from school, half of which is his, and half that is mine. I owe him a good chunk of change, and tbh..I'm not really sure how it added up over the last year. I rarely ask my parents to borrow money, mainly because I did alllll the time when I was younger, and I'm trying my BEST to start becoming an adult (while of course, living under their roof during this semester and eating my mom's cooking). Also, I think the trip a few friends and I took to Florida last winter may have had an impact :). Anyway, the money that is getting returned to me is about the same that I owe my dad, so...there goes my debt. This is going to be awesome for my bankroll, as I hopefully won't need to make any cashouts!
3. I had my biggest pot ever at 10NL tonight. On a side note, I debated 3-betting, thought more, didn't, maybe was the wrong play, ect, ect. But here's the hand: