Day 88/365

So the past week I slowed things down. A lot. My VPP rate practically disappeared at parts and I've dropped behind pace, but my winrate has picked up again and I put in my second most profitable week of the year. I feel like that $7k downswing throughout the middle of the month could be the best thing that's ever happened to me because it was the kick in the pants I needed to refocus and think things through.

Someone asked me in the SNE thread on 2+2 a question that has really had me thinking lately. The question was what % of the time would I say I'm playing my A game. I feel like to answer that question I first need to define each thought level.

Here is what goes through my mind in each game =

A game: What does my opponent have, and how is he likely to react to various plays I make.
B game: What do I have, and what balanced approach do I need for my range in this situation.
C game: How tight/loose should I be playing, and without a nut hand, can I get to showdown here.
D game: How much am I up/down, and how well/badly am I running.
E game: Total autopilot play. Play strong hands fast, fold weak hands. Thinking about specific hands and the luck or lack of luck in them.

For the year so far, if I'm being completely honest I would say I've played maybe 5% A, 40% B, 40% C, 10% D and 5% E. The thing is, as an SNE grinder, it is just completely unrealistic to think you can always play your A game. If someone has the brain power to be totally on, all the time, then I commend them, but for most mortals its a virtual impossibility.

I believe as an SNE grinder your aim is to be on your A game as much as possible, such as when you start sessions, especially in the morning, and never drop below your B game. The key to this, as far as I know so far is:

-Work out and keep your mind as fresh as possible.
-Recognise when you are dropping in to your C game and end such sessions.

Random other thoughts: When I started this blog I wasn't entirely sure of it's purpose. I felt like it would quickly turn in to something everyone would forget about and that I would use basically just for myself to track my progress. I think I know now the aim I have in mind for this blog. I want to be able to build something that future SNEs and serious grinders can use to learn the skills to make it (Note that this isn't quite as arrogant as it sounds, because even if I fail to make it I still think lessons can be taken from my failure).

Football season has started and I have begun tracking today! It will probably be at least a couple of weeks before anything decent is reported on this front, but I'm certainly happy that footy is back!

Finally, on to the numbers. There is still a day and a half left in March so I'll do a month and quarterly review next week. I've added a week by week profits here though as it just seems kind of interesting:

VPP/Pace = 239,198 / 239,726
$Poker = $9672 ($20,167)

Day 81/365

A weak end to an otherwise good week has left March pretty much a joke. In total I've now dropped $7k since being up on the year two weeks ago. I know I've been very unlucky, but feel that I must be making mistakes at the tables as well.

I have one week left in March pretty much, and not only it is the last chance to salvage something, but its also a chance to get some momentum back going in to April. Given my poor run, for the next week I'm going to keep to the following rules, every time I break one I will record it and report back next week:

-No cashier refreshing midsession.
-Quitting games as soon as I feel tired or tilted.

Also, sportsbetting begins next week! I expected to begin this week but it seems lines are released earlier in round 1 so I'll wait for round 2 to start tracking.

VPP/Pace = 227,150 / 220,548

$Poker = $7691 ($16,956)

Day 74/365

The past week was not great. A lot of distractions (social stuff) kept me away from the tables a lot. I managed to have another $2k losing day chasing 200k, so I guess I should be happy just to finish the week in the black.

I feel like it still could be possible to have a semi-decent March as it's a long month and there are still over two weeks left, but it will be tough. I definitely need to refocus though at this point if it is to happen. I'm finding a lot of my self-discipline has gone and I'm tilting quite easily as soon as I take a few beats in a session.

Anyway, not much else to report, so the numbers:

VPP/Pace = 209,597 / 201,370

$Poker = $3523 ($16,119)

Day 67/365

So I dropped about $3.8k today.

It's funny, yesterday I was off to a great start to the month and everything was looking up, and short of a disaster today I had pretty much got my blog post set out. Then disaster struck, and I can't say all the awesome things I was going to say, because I am now 8 days in to this month, and losing money. At this point I think I will be happy if I even end up with a $6k month, and sadly am already looking towards April to hopefully be the month where I finally don't run terribly.

I firmly believe that every failure is an opportunity for growth, however it will take a couple of days for me to think about just what I can take from this opportunity. This blogpost will thus be fairly short.

Numbers:

VPP/Pace = 190,405 / 182,192

$Poker = $2664 ($15,764)