Marshall28's blog

I know I don't keep a regular blog here anymore since becoming a CR pro (my regular blog is over there now) like over a year ago, but I know a lot of people still frequent this site, and I'm trying to post this basically everywhere.

I have up to 40k on Merge network I'm looking to trade, I'm willing to negotiate %'s for vig, please PM me if you have any interest in trading at minimum 5k.

Thanks.

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2009 Review, what went well and what went wrong?

So, I guess I shouldn't have expected this year to end any differently after all this negative momentum I've had throughout December. I begrudgingly agreed to purchase a step 4 ticket to attempt to satellite into the PCA because one of my non poker friends begged me to try it. I took the 4th step by storm and moved on easily. I beat the 5th step even faster, completely dominating the table (obviously because I ran like the sun). I had 6k at one point while all remaining players had less than 1500. Then I went for step 6, prepared by getting a friend who has a very strong SNG game and actually grinded these steps last year to sweat and help me through it. It was a pretty tough line up and some big names were in it, but with just 10 of 18 remaining, I was actually in 1st place. That didn't last long though. I went card dead and was slowly grinded down (and everyone who seemed to be at risk when all in kept seeming to win at showdown. Anyways, 6th place paid 700, 1st and 2nd got the 15k trips, I ended up placing 7th. Kinda standard for me and donkaments. Oh well enough complaining.

2009
Things I did well:

--I finally swallowed a chunk of my pride.
Moved back in with my parents in Feb of 2009. Began grinding, starting all over again at the .05/.1 games (yes after playing the 3/6 and 5/10 games the previous year).

--I heavily increased my studying time and spent many hours with coaches.
I spent a little under 10k$ this year on coaching alone and I definitely think it helped me in a number of ways. (1) It gave me some semblance of a support group, and (2) it gave me access to the thoughts of players much better than me. I learned a lot and I'm glad I am happy with the investment.

--I cut out the majority of auto-piloting that had ruined me over the course of 2008.
It didn't hurt to run a little good in those first couple of months either.

--I put in heavy hours at the tables.
I booked 250 hours in each of the 1st three months I returned.

--Most importantly I think, I completely paid off all of my debts.
I had accrued about 50k worth of debt over the course of 2008, 5k worth of debt to poker players, 15k to credit cards and 30k to my parents. It sure is quite a relief to have completely paid all that back in less than a years time and to have plenty left over.

--I worked diligently at building a student base in order to secure additional means of variance free income. I now have a strong long term student base with solid referrals. The majority of my students are thriving, and those who aren't have some disgusting EV graphs. I also began making training videos for grinderschool.com, and while the compensation I receive is rather minimal, I am getting good experience and helping people along the way. Things in this department have gone so well for me that I've begun writing a book about optimal HUD use pertaining specifically to HEM. I expect to finish it sometime in February of 2010.

I also have plans to create a website in which a community can be formed between players and coaches. Coaches will be evaluated and will contribute content such as free training videos and responses to questions in forums to the site in return for free advertising for their services. Hopefully it will be a place where students can come together and form peer groups or poker circles to discuss theory and find support from others with similar goals.

--I played in some of the toughest games in the world this year (5/10 and 10/20 across FTP and PS) and fared well.
I set a goal 3 or 4 months ago claiming that I wanted to have built a big enough bankroll (about 50k) to have taken a shot at the 5/10 games by February of 2010. I accomplished that goal midway through November and felt as if I was +ev in many of the games in which I sat, even if it was all regulars. (There were clearly some games I sat in where this wasn't the case, but that's for the part where I talk about the things I did wrong).


I'm actually surprised I was able to come up with so many positives for the year. It makes it difficult to feel negatively about the situation I'm currently in, but for some reason I do. I guess it just shows how seriously I am affected by momentum. Regardless, I need to feel satisfied with my accomplishments in 2009, I left the situation I was in in 08 in the dust and definitely am stampeding in the right direction now.

2009
Things I did poorly:

--TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL.
My tilt control was horrid, it was atrocious, it was flat out embarrassing, insert any other synonym you can think of and that's what it was. My win rate when I play my A-game is somewhere around 4.5BB/100 at 400 and 600nl. When I'm playing my D or F game, it's got to be -15BB/100. My lack of tilt control is at the very core of all my poker related problems. I lost 1/3rd of my overall profit for the entire year in two separate sessions.

I even went so far as to make a blog post bragging about how "epic" it was that I was down 10k at 3/6 and CONTINUED TO PLAY, somehow luckily winning the money back. I was being ridiculous. It's happened in the past, and it will probably happen again, what can I say, I'm ego-driven by nature and it's something that will always be a part of me. I can do my best to push it down when I am aware of it, but when my self-awareness falls flat, I fall to the whim of my ego. I'll get back to what I'm planning on doing about this in my next blog post--Goals for 2010.

--Bankroll management.
I wouldn't say I managed my bankroll that poorly, however, in terms of my new form of BR management, it will be considered poor. I feel this one of the core principles that relates specifically to my lack of tilt control.

--Having a balanced life
The balance in my life was nothing short of a disaster. It also lies within the same core concepts that relate to my problem with tilt control. The bigger a part of my life and well-being that I make my poker graph, the more I remain at its mercy.

The more I think about it, the more it seems these three concepts seem to feed off each other. When I am playing on a short bankroll, I over-concern myself with my daily wins and losses because it has more of an effect on my daily mood. The more I allow poker to control my mood, the more often I tend to tilt and play too long and refuse taking breaks. The more I tilt and refuse to take breaks, the more I think I need to play in order to make up for the lost money from my tilt.

I’m glad I worked this all out on paper, I really feel like changing my bankroll management is going to have a huge effect on the rest of my life, that’s going to be my number one goal for 2010.

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