spoonitnow aka balla in training

Now here’s a poker skill you might have overlooked: how to be good at running bad. It’s not a joke and it’s not sarcasm. If you’re better at running bad than your opponents, then in the long run you’re going to have a significant advantage over them because no one is immune to running insanely bad over some period of time.

The general idea is that when things are going well, you should use that feeling of momentum behind you as motivation and a source of confidence. Also, when your opponents are doing poorly, you should keep putting the pressure on and allow their mental condition to compound their mistakes. On the flip side, when things aren’t going so well for you, the key is to neutralize the possible psychological effects on you and your game, and keep playing well.

So far this month I’ve got in almost 14,000 hands of 100nl and I’m down about seven buy-ins. There have been a number of times I’ve lost a full buy-in when a villain was drawing to just a few outs and hit, but this is really awesome if you think about it, because that means there are idiots still out there who are willing to gambooooooool like that, and I’ll make lots and lots of money off of them.

For those who have tilt problems or have problems getting motivated when they are running bad, here are some suggestions that will help:

• Play on a deep bankroll so that one bad run isn’t going to cripple you. The small amount you might lose in the short-run from playing a lower level is easily overcome by the peace of mind of a secure position at some level.
• Move down for a few thousand hands until you get your confidence back, even if you think you have “enough” buy-ins to continue playing at the same level.
• Avoid talking about specific beats or coolers you have been involved in because the more attention you give them, the more influence they have over you.
• Be careful not to let your poker results manifest themselves in other areas of your life. In short, don’t take your bad results out on those around you.
• If you are feeling particularly down or bad about poker, then just sleep. Sleep is the best cure for this type of pain.

In an effort to break up the monotony and improve as an overall player, I’ve been adding different games to my newly-formed rotation that currently includes the following:

$0.50/1 Full Ring No-Limit Hold’em
$0.25/0.50 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha
$1/2 Six-Handed Limit Hold’em
$0.25/0.50 Full Ring No-Limit Omaha Eight or Better

The Omaha games are pretty soft, and limit Hold’em at peak times reminds me of Party Poker 25nl from like three or four years ago.

After taking a number of expertly created tests on the subject, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am only about 35-40% asshole.

My girlfriend is probably going to get fired from her job inside of the next week. I say this with about 90% certainty. This makes life somewhat difficult for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that her car payment and car insurance are fucking outrageous and there is some likelihood that she won’t be able to pay both this month if (she gets fired) without borrowing the money from me and paying me back when she gets her first or second check from her soon-to-be new job.

Also I’ve realized that not importing hands into Poker Tracker is kind of retarded because I’m not going to be getting any stats on new players, so I’m just going to do my importing at the end of each day so that I’m still not tempted to look to see how I’m doing while I’m playing.

This month’s theme is everyone can suck my fucking dick if they don’t like what I’m doing at the moment. With that having been said, I’m pretty much going to play when and how much i want to play, and if anyone doesn’t like that, then they can refer to the previous sentence for instructions.

So I made about $4.6k this month, which isn’t bad considering everything that has happened.

The goal for May is to not look at PokerTracker or look at my cashier but once each week, and go for at least 25k hands/week while 12 and 14 tabling.

That’s all there is for me right now — the grind. I’ve got a plan laid out for the next few years, and right now the plan calls for me to work my ass off doing what I do, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Holla.

Finally I’m almost caught up on taxes for the year, and things have seemed to settle down long enough for me to get back to concentrating on poker. This year has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, and here are some highlights:

• My best single month of poker profits ever in January
• My mom’s health getting gradually worse and worse this year until finally she can’t drive and can’t walk long distances without crutches or a wheelchair
• I moved out of my parents into an apartment that tried to jack up the rent from $450/month to $700/month after I had been moved in for 2 weeks
• I moved from said apartment into my current place that I like much better, living with my girlfriend

It seems like every time things are going to go smooth for a few weeks all hell breaks loose. I moved down to 100nl after paying a lot of my bankroll out in taxes, and I’m still playing 25-30 hours/week there and doing really well. The money is good, and I’m okay with waiting for another few months before I move up to 200nl because I’d really like to save up some money.

This is what has been going on with me for the past few months in a nutshell.

For June I’m hoping to turn up the volume a little bit on the amount of poker I’m playing. Family and other personal matters have taken me away from what’s really important in this phase of my overall plan for the next few years, and that is making money and moving up. People are going to have to realize that I’m not in their life for the sole purpose of picking up the pieces for them every time they encounter hardship. I don’t mind helping people if and when they really need it, but when it starts to impede upon my well-being and the ability to build myself up financially then it’s crossing the line of what is acceptable.