Friday, January 30, 2009

January Review


Well there is no doubt that this has been my most profitable month ever at poker, online or live. I was fairly consistent about putting in high volume hours, and my level of play was quite high. My hourly rate was around where I had projected it to be, and my negative variance was almost non-existent. That being said, I still have a lot of room for improvement. I definitely have a tilt issue when my sessions run on back to back days, or even if I'm running bad. I either go on a wild sort of tilt or I just go on autopilot, reading forums or paying attention to other things instead of focusing. That being said, when I do focus to hard I seem to play a little to splashy. Also, I need to play more hour, not a ton more, but like 5-7 more a week. Not doing so will cost me a lot of money in the long run. I also need to find a way to incorporate other types of games into my sessions (at the beginning or end or wherever I am running under 12 tables) so as to increase my hourly. However these must not too much focus away from my normal games so as to cause me to lose money there. I also need to set up for my sessions better. To often I time out when I go to get a glass of water, or some food. I should have a jug of water and a couple snacks sitting by me while I wait. If i start to feel restless I could do some stretching while playing.

Total Profit: $6413
Total hours played: 91.25 hours
Hourly rate: $70.2/h

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 643 $9.69 $14 68% $6,232

1/30/09


I had a meh session today. Took about 5.5 hours and I lost about $46 dollars. I was very bothered by the fact that I just seemed to be playing sloppily and without concern. I believe I was slightly burnt out as this was my third day in a row playing, but this was also some form of tilt. I will be discussing this more in my monthly review.
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 40 -$0.35 $14 16% -$14

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

1/28/09


Today was a very profitable 5.5 hour session. In fact, it was my most profitable session ever. I ran pretty well throughout, and managed to tack on 3 wins (too $11s and one $26) in a matter of 10 minutes at the end, a first for me. Total profit was $1365, and here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 31 $41.74 $14 298% $1,294

1/27/09


Today was a slightly losing 5.5 hour session. Generally played a little too splashy, and lost almost all my key flips. Still managed to control losses pretty well though without any top 4 cashes. Total loss was -$146. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 42 -$3.06 $14 -8 -$129

Monday, January 26, 2009

Week 4 (1/19/09-1/25/09)


This week was not bad overall. I really feel that I could have had a 4-500 dollars more in profit if I had been more focused during the time that I had to play. I also really need to put in more hours. My solution for this problem is to regularize my hours. I will do this by changing my available hours at Starbucks. Based on some Sharkscope stats showing that I have the most profit between the hours of 2PM and 8PM, I have come up with the following regular weekly schedule for poker:

Monday- off
Tuesday- 12:30PM-6:30PM
Wednesday- 10:00AM-4PM
Thursday- 12:30PM-6:30PM
Friday- 3:00PM-9:00PM
Saturday- off
Sunday- 10:00AM-4PM

Of course, most of these sessions will run under 6 hours, but this more regularized schedule will allow me to also regularize my Starbucks hours, and is also conveniently positioned while my girlfriend is at work (she's a server at a local golf club). I will have to fill out a new availability form at Starbucks, but this will actually give me more hours of availability.

Here are the total stats for the week.

Total hours of play: 20.25
Total profit: $1336
Hourly rate: $66/hour

1/25/09


Today ended up being a pretty good 5 hour session. I feel that I played about my B- game, mostly because I was trying to do too many things at once (non-poker related) and this caused me to time out and fold in various key spots. Total profit was $336. Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 35 $9.57 $15 68% $335

Saturday, January 24, 2009

1/23/09


Had a pretty good 5.5 hour session today. Total profit was $884. I really felt this was a breakthrough after my past few break-even sessions. We shall see though.

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 36 $24.86 $14 140% $895

Friday, January 23, 2009

1/22/09


Had a small winning session today, 4.25 hours and a total profit of $69 (lol). Sharkscope:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 34 -$0.09 $14 23% -$3

Thursday, January 22, 2009

1/21/09


Well I had another somewhat mediocre session, about 5.5 hours long, but that is bound to happen occasionally. Overall felt I played pretty well, might have made a few too many read based spewy plays. Total profit was $47, but here is the Sharkscope.

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 40 $0.2 $12 53% $8

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Week 3 (1/12/09-1/18/09)


This week was very frustrating overall. I started off very strong but then started running terribly and I started to question my play. I am going to try to take a few days off and gather my thoughts, and do some more reading, which I have been neglecting. Looking back objectively though, this was still a good week, and I made way more than I would have at Starbucks lol. I only played 23 hours, and I would like to average higher than this. Putting in the hours is tougher than I imagined. I have noticed that a 6 hour session (at least planned that way) in late morning to mid afternoon seems to be optimal. I would like to try for 30 hours a week, so perhaps I should adjust my availability at my other job so that I can have more regular hours of play.

Total hours of play: 23 hours
Total profit: $1005
Hourly rate: 43.7$/hour

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 168 $5.67 $14 43% $952

1/18/09


Today was another mediocre 6.5 hour session. Ran somewhat bad but also made some key errors. I feel very burnt out, I'm gonna take a few days off and just study a bit. Will probably self-exclude for 24 hours or so. Anyway a total profit of $12 lol. Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 49 $0.25 $14 55% $12

1/17/09


Well today went pretty poorly but once again I was able to control my losses with some solid cashes on the end. Ended down only $96. Started drinking once I was done loading and finished early because I was too tilted. I believe I was playing somewhere around my C game during this session :(. Maybe tomorrow will go better. Here are the Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 36 -$2.42 $13 -10% -$87

Friday, January 16, 2009

1/16/09


Today was a very stressful 6.5 hour session, but I think I managed to pull through it pretty well. Started around 10:30 AM, and had a terrible run for the first 4.5 hours where my only cash was like $21 lol. I was down like $750, but managed to pull a win in a $26 and $11 and some other medium cashes to end up $227. Here are the Sharkscope stats:
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 51 $5.84 $13 39% $298

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

1/14/09


Today was a pretty nice little 4.5 hour session. Started off as usual with me sustaining some heavy losses and getting frustrated, but I held it together and managed to pull a very good ending. I tried to never back off the throttle, as I often do if I am tilted or feel I have enough chips to survive without good play. Net profit was $791. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 29 $26.95 $13 110% $782

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Week 2- (1/5/09-1/11/09)


This week went pretty well overall I think. Started off running pretty well and then hit some negative variance, but dealt with it pretty well. My internet connection probably cost $50-150 in equity at least. Would like to play more next week if possible. Here are my total stats:

Total hours of play: 22.5
Total profit: $2303
Hourly rate: $102.36/hour




Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 163 $14.04 $14 75% $2,288

1/11/09


Not too bad of a day. played a nice little 6 hour session starting at 11:20 AM. Ran pretty darn bad but still managed to pull together a decent profit on the end. Tilted a little but tried to keep perspective. My new attitude this year is to become somewhat detached from short term results and focus on success over thousands of tournaments, and that even large downswings have relatively little meaning if dealt with effectively. Just think long term. Looking at other highly successful players in my type of tournament has really motivated me to keep going, and stay humble. Net profit was $253. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 41 $6.83 $14 50% $280

1/9/09


Well today was the first losing session of the year. Played 5 hours total, starting around 4PM. Was probably playing my B- game, but also ran pretty terribly. I actually ended up being pretty happy with how it ended up, I managed to cut my losses from -$500 to -$119 total for the day. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 42 -$2.42 $14 -28% -$102

Thursday, January 8, 2009

1/08/09


Well today I had a pretty nice little 6 hours session. Started off at 4pm, and things did not go well to start off. I kept at it tho, keeping 8-12 tables open and constantly loading 26$s. At one point I was down 500$ on the day (well really 500$ invested), but I pulled even and then had a miraculous double win within 1 minute of two 26$s. I ran pretty damn hot, which kinda scares me because I know I will see the other side of that, but for now I can't complain. Today Was my biggest day ever, online or live. With bounties it totaled to 1261$, my previous biggest day was 1120$. Here are the Sharkscope stats:

Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
Chuckruns 36 $34 15$ 176% $1224

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

1/06/09


So I had a pretty nice little 5.8 hour session today. Started around 4pm, and started out busting out of a lot of tourneys then had some solid cashes and held on. It seems that the 26$ 90 mans are continuing to be by far my most profitable game, my ROI is up at 78%. I am slowly raising my ROI for the 11$s, currently it is at 43%, which makes a 5% raise for the year so far. Total profit was 918$ with bounties, but here are the Sharkscope stats:




Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 44 $20.13 $13 114% $886

Monday, January 5, 2009

Resolution #1- 50 books

So I recently rediscovered that reading is the only pay to truly and consistently stimulate by brain into growth. So I decided that this year, I was going to read 100 books. When I did the math I realized that was a book every 3.65 days, and promptly decided that there was no way I could do this. But being the stubborn ass that I am (thank god) I decided to try to keep to that goal. But now I've changed my mind to go for 50 books a year, much more than the 8 or so I read last year. I will be updating this note with the name of each book I read, and perhaps a short review if I'm feeling especially nerdy.

1. The Psychology of Poker , by Alan N. Schoonmaker, PhD.
Definitely worth the read, totally redefined my outlook on player types, their tendencies, and motivations. Addressed a lot of very important underlying issues that most poker books ignore.

Week 1 (1/1/09-1/4/09)


Well here's the results for the first week of 2009.
Username Games Played Av. Profit Av. Stake Av. ROI Total Profit
ChuckRuns 56 $10.61 $14 79% $594

I only played about 9 hours I think, which seriously cut into my bottom line, but my overall quality of play was very good. Somehow managed to play a nearly equal amount of 11$ and 26$ tournaments. Overall, not bad for a 4 day week. I need to put more volume in obviously.

Semi-pro


So I have decided that this year I will officially go semi-pro at poker . I'll probably be playing around 20-30 hours a week, trying to average about 25 hours/week for the year. I'll be keeping my job at Starbucks and am pushing for a promotion there, but even if I do I will likely still only work around 30 hours a week there, and netting me only a relatively small increase in pay.

Okay, so why would I decide to go semi-pro at poker? Especially after my last note was about quitting poker? Well, frankly its an almost purely economic decision. I still do occasionally enjoy playing poker, but is no longer the obsession that it used to be. Working at Starbucks has its perks, such as work experience, networking, its fun most of the time, it is challenging in many ways, free coffee, opportunity for advancement, and a steady, yet very small paycheck. With tips I probably make on average 9-9.50$/h. Working around the 20 hours a week I am right now that results in me making around 750$ a month, hardly enough to move out, buy a car, or do much of anything I plan to do this year.

Financially speaking, it just makes sense to play poker. I play almost exclusively online, which allows me to play comfortably at home and maintain a higher hourly rate than I could make at any local casino (I think). Here's the math for whoever is interested. I will be playing an average of 25 hours a week. When playing I will average 9 tables. Each tournament I play averages around 1.25 table hours to play. Since I have 225 table hours a week (9 tables at a time by 25 hours a week), I will be playing around 180 tournaments a week. I estimate that about 120 of these will be 8$ tournaments, where I will most likely maintain around a 75% return on investment (based on previous experience). The other 60 will be 20$ tournaments where I already maintain a 75% ROI. So on a weekly basis, I will be making, on average, 1620$ a week. Add to this the average an average of 1 bounty per tournament (2$ and 4$) and a rake back deal (65$ a week) and we have an average weekly profit of 2045$. This allows me to maintain an hourly rate of around 82$/h, almost ten times what I make at Starbucks. If i work (play) 50 weeks out of the year, I will earn just over 100k for the year sitting around at home working part time.

I'd also like to state that these numbers are not just conjecture, they are based upon previous success over medium sample sizes. That being said, they still are just projections, as anything can happen.

I will be setting up some basic ground rules based on the advice of a few friends. First of all, I will not play more than 30 hours a week. If I exceed this by more than 5 hours (sometimes a tournament may go long) I must pull my entire bankroll offline and self exclude for a week. It is very important that I maintain balance, for my sanity and happiness, and also so that I am able to maintain a high level of play. Also, for each hour that I play each week I must spend 5 minutes exercising. That comes out to just over 2 hours a week. It doesn't sound like much, but keep in mind that this is a minimum and I hope to exceed this. Also, for each hour playing, I must spend 5 minutes recording and reviewing my performance. For this I will be using an Excel spreadsheet and Sharkscope. I will be posting weekly and monthly reviews of my performance with graphs and occasionally a key hand. This will create a system of accountability for poor as well as positive results. Anytime my bankroll on any particular site exceeds 3500$, I will withdraw the excess so as that I will not be tempted to play higher stakes.

I will continue to be a student of the game, reading as many books as I possibly can on Poker, Psychology, Mathematics, and other related subjects. Depending on whether or not the UIGEA is repealed, and my level of success, I may hire a personal coach. I will be more active on Two Plus Two, but will spend less time lurking and much more time posting. I believe that any setbacks that I have ever had in my poker career were because I stopped being a student of the game and made the arrogant assumption that I could get by on what I knew. But the truth is that the only way to become and great and maintain greatness is through CONSTANT and diligent hard work.

I may occasionally play live, but unless it is a home game for fun, the hours I spend playing live will be added to my online hours, and must not exceed 30 hours a week. This will keep me from spending excessive hours on poker, keeping my OCD tendencies in check.

I will also be taking a more active role in attempting to have the UIGEA repealed, both for selfish reasons and because I feel it is morally wrong wrong for the government to put such regulations in place. To sit by and do nothing while my rights are being taken away is the ultimate crime.

Attached is my graph for 2008 sit and go tournaments (what I will be playing).