Improvements for February

Overall my venture into semi-pro poker has gone quite well! I have already had great success beating the games that I am good at, maintaining a very good hourly rate and relatively low session to session variance (variance with sessions has been relatively high though). I have thought about adding in new types of tournaments so that I can use my time more effectively, but for now I think I should stay with my 90 mans until I am totally comfortable, financially stable, and well equipped enough to deal with playing multiple types of games at once. So what this means is that I will not be mixing in 18, 27, or 45 mans until May of this year.

One of the most frustrating things thus far has been trying to get in my desired hours of play while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, a high level of play, and avoiding tilt. I do not think that arbitrarily saying that I will raise my hours by 6 a week will work, as I do not think I could handle that volume right now. I think eventually I could but only through slowly increasing my average per week. In January I average 21.7 hours per full week of play. So for February I will have an absolute minimum of 23.5 hours per week. My goal is an average of 24 hours per week, which would be a small, but meaningful increase in total hours of play. Slowly adding in time makes it much less intimidating for me to add in hours.

The results I would like to achieve this month are:
*$7700 total profit
*Increase hourly rate to $80/hour
*Feel better while playing
*Average 24 hours a week
*Read one book on poker


I will do this by achieving these goals daily and weekly
*Improving my focus
*Removing distractions
*Improving on my confidence in the face of negative variance
*Listening to classical music while playing
*Closing Trillian as soon as I register for a tournament
*Not opening a web browser except to Sharkscope other players while in session. All other research/surfing must be done before or after session. (an exception to this rule is when I have 3 or less tables open)
*Using the concepts contained in the Secret to reduce tilt and increase level of play.
*Absolutely no videos or movies while in a session, for any reason.
*An absolute minimum of 23.5 hour minimum per week
*Read through HoH Volume 2
*Have a jug of water, and some snacks ready before I start my session

I am very proud of the discipline I have maintained and will continue to maintain as I slowly master my games. I have recognized that greatness is a gradual process, and that the only way I will reach it is through taking small steps. My next step is to 3 months of solid winning play at the 90 mans, mastering myself. Then I can move up to the 45 mans in order to increase hourly (however variance will also increase). This will work!