Guidelines

Like i said in my last post, I intend to use this blog to outline the games i'm going to play and how i'm going to play them for the next month or 6 weeks or so. Hopefully I can stick to these guidelines and make this exercise work for me. The main point of doing this is to practice my discipline and get me into the "grinding" mindset that i've been steering away from the last few months. I find that without having a set list of goals, I get bored quickly and lose my focus so the point of this is to set those goals and put them in writing so that I can keep them in mind while i'm playing.

Because I want to start this thing off right, I want to choose a type of game that I know i can crush. For me, that game is single table turbo Sit and Go's on stars. I've been studying SNG strategy for a long time and I've developed (at least I believe I have...i'll talk more about sample size/statistics in a post someday down the line but not here...) a firm understanding of all the concepts required to win at these games regularly. My hold'em SNG game is by far the most "complete" out of all the other types of poker i've ever played, so i'm going to set myself some SNG goals and try to stick to them and hopefully hit the ground running.

"Phase 1" is going to be the period from now until the end of october. The following are my short term guidelines/goals for phase 1 of this exercise.

Bankroll/game selection stuff:
OK so I have about $1,000 on stars right now which I consider a solid bankroll to play $16 turbo's (60 buyins). However, because I am primarily starting this challenge for myself as an exercise in discipline, i'm going to start way below that and begin by playing $6.50 turbos instead. Many of you guys who play SNGs regularly probably think having over 150 buyins for STTs(single table tournies for you guys not "in the know") is stupid or a waste of time and not a great way to make any $$$, but the first month of this challenge isn't about maximizing my profit in the short term. The main purpose of phase 1 is to put myself into the SNG grinding mindset, and get myself comfortable playing more volume than I have been recently. After that I will add tables and move up stakes to try and squeek out the most $/hr i can, but for now I am focusing on my mechanics and not so much on my results. I will detail my short term goals next, but suffice it to say that for now I just want to have a very very deep bankroll for all the games i'm playing to minimize my risk of going broke as much as possible. I've played as high as the 27$ turbos regularly in the past, and even some brief stints into the 60$ turbos, and I am pretty sure that I would be a winner in these games...It's just that for now my main goal isn't playing for the max return.

So i'm starting with 150+ buyins for 6.50 turbos, and I don't intend to move up to the 16's for a while. Whichever comes first between hitting 150 buyins for the 16's, or when I have reached the point where I know i've made some significant improvements to my all around game, i will move up.

Goals for Phase 1:
1. Become comfortable playing 6 tables regularly
Up until now, I have only played 4 tables. Never 1, never 2, never 5 or 6...always exactly four. The reason is that any less gets way too slow/boring for me, and any more would be a pain because of the physical real estate i had available on my old desktop monitor or crappy laptop display. Now i have a new laptop with 1900x1280 resolution and it plays 9 tables with no overlap without any problems whatsoever...I don't think i have the concentration (yet) to play 9 tables, but I know i can do 6 and thats where i intend to start. By the end of the month of september I want to have ironed out all the kinks that come along with the two additional tables, and have my time-per-decision worked out so that I never time out on any of my tables while playing six continuously.

2. Utilize all my poker software to it's fullest potential
I have always had a lot of poker software, but I never really use it. I use poker tracker to track my results, but I rarely (almost never) use it to analyze my play. I have had PokerAceHUD for the last 2 years but never run it because I was never too comfortable using the stats to my advantage. That's something i've been working on and something that I intend to nail down completely by the end of this phase of my personal challenge.

Sitngo Power Tools is another great piece of software that I just got into recently, and it's already helped me plug some leaks in my game. I intend to use this software religiously on every single hand I play past 100/200/ante where i'm not 100% confident in which action is best. This is really where all my leak plugging is going to come from, and if I ever want to crush the 60's or higher I know that this tool is going to be what gets me there...Incase you haven't realized it by now, I highly recommend it for any of you readers out there who play SNGs and don't use it already.

3. Maintain a weekly schedule without letting myself get distracted too much
I intend to play at least 15 hours of sngs per week. That's about as much as I think i can handle while still balancing in my normal 40 hr/week job, my girlfriend, and my other committments (capstone and stuff, bleh). Once co-op ends and class starts up in january I intend to try and play much more. Six tabling turbos, i figure this should put me in around 150-180 sngs/week.

In addition to my 15 hours of playing, i'm going to put in two sessions per week of SNGPT/PokerTracker analysis where I work through all my hands that I'm not sure of. I figure 2 hours per session should do the trick. I really want to make sure that i'm making profitable pushes/calls/folds on the bubble every single time without having to even think about it. This is the key ingredient in being able to play 12 tables for hours and hours...and studying is the only way to get to that point.


Geeze that turned out to be a lot more typing than i intended...Oh well, hopefully it will be worth it as this thing starts to progress. If i think of any more goals as I begin phase 1, i will add them to the list. To summarize:

-I will play 6.50 turbos, 15 hrs/week, despite being grossly over bankrolled for these games.
-I will analyze my play in SNGPT twice a week for as long as it takes to go through all of my "question hands" I will also post most of these on 2+2 STT forums for alternate opinions
-I will update this blog with my progress including games played, $ won/lost, hours logged, and any interesting hands or discussion topics that I decide are worth typing about during the course of my play
-I type faster than I think

God bless you if you actually read any of this and found it interesting in the least. Until next time.

-pat