Project No-Look (No content... and that's the whole point!)

[dfscott]

This post serves to document the beginning of my journey into the information void to fight the stats noise that I feel is negatively impacting my game. Sort of my own personal caamora (for those who catch the reference).

As I alluded to in another thread, I'm following in Yugo's footsteps and making a public vow not to look at my ROI, ITM or any other stats except for total bankroll (and I'm not even going to track that very closely). I'm going cold turkey on this, so my intial goal is to do it until last month's rakeback hits my account, which is generally around the 15th. Not a long time by most standards, but since I look at my stats every day, if not more often, it could prove difficult for me. If I make it that long, I'll decide if I feel that it's helping me and if so, I'll see if I can go longer.

So here we go... (as I warned, there's not a lot of content here):

Day 1: Played about a dozen or so SnGs last night. Made some money.

ITM: ???
ROI: ???

That is all.

[BradleyT]

Since we're talking No-Look....

A little yellow post it note to put over your hole cards when you're supposed to push any two helps you get used to that aspect of the game also.

[Nottom]

I might try that sometimes, but I'm likely to find out how I'm doing when I go to sign up for a SNG and realize I don't have $33 in my account.

[1C5]

Join the club, I started this as well. And it is great! /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Misfire]

Dude, that's the best avatar I've seen in a long time.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
I might try that sometimes, but I'm likely to find out how I'm doing when I go to sign up for a SNG and realize I don't have $33 in my account.

[/ QUOTE ]

I still monitor that BR a bit -- I just make sure I have at least 4 figures in there...

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Dude, that's the best avatar I've seen in a long time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks -- I had to do a lot of searching to find the right combination of poker and hottie.

[Misfire]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, that's the best avatar I've seen in a long time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks -- I had to do a lot of searching to find the right combination of poker and hottie.

[/ QUOTE ]

So is the fact that she's so hot supposed to distract us from the fact that she drew 7 cards?? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[The Yugoslavian]

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It helped me last another few weeks...

I am now on a 2 week break from playing any form of poker starting today (it was gonna start last Thursday but the damn 2+2 get together messed everything up...).

If I post here, then it will most likely not be on a hand or very poker related (in other words, I'll continue to provide no content, ever, right Degen? /images/graemlins/wink.gif ).

I still welcome pms from anyone...but hopefully I can actually stop logging onto this stupid thing for awhile during my poker break.

Yugoslav

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, that's the best avatar I've seen in a long time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks -- I had to do a lot of searching to find the right combination of poker and hottie.

[/ QUOTE ]

So is the fact that she's so hot supposed to distract us from the fact that she drew 7 cards?? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe she's playing 7-card pass-the-trash. Heck, I'd play whatever she wants to play...

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, that's the best avatar I've seen in a long time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks -- I had to do a lot of searching to find the right combination of poker and hottie.

[/ QUOTE ]

So is the fact that she's so hot supposed to distract us from the fact that she drew 7 cards?? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe she's playing 7-card pass-the-trash. Heck, I'd play whatever she wants to play...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure she's playing strip poker. At least she is in my fantasy, /images/graemlins/wink.gif.

She also is teamed up with my avatar for this particular game.

I'm very good at this game b/c their clothes keep comin' off!!!! /images/graemlins/smile.gif /images/graemlins/smile.gif /images/graemlins/grin.gif /images/graemlins/smile.gif /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yugoslav

[dfscott]

Day 2: Only got in a handful of 33s. Won goot -- I mean really goot. It took everything I had not to look at my stats, but I didn't.

ITM: ???
ROI: ???

That is all.

Note: I promise to stop bumping this every day once I get a few days under my belt...

[Slim Pickens]

Now that my obsessive recordkeeping has been fully automated, I no longer need to look at my AM spreadsheet stats pages every day. Now I just keep it tabbed on "Money" so I play the appropriate tables for my bankroll. You've recruited me. I don't need to know what my ROI is. I just need to know that I have one.

Slim

[The Yugoslavian]

Dude, you totally need to get a lifesized printout of that chick in your avatar...and each day you don't look or calculate your stats - take off a piece of her clothing.

This is a completely original idea, btw....never been thought of before.

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yugoslav

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Dude, you totally need to get a lifesized printout of that chick in your avatar...and each day you don't look or calculate your stats - take off a piece of her clothing.

This is a completely original idea, btw....never been thought of before.

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yugoslav

[/ QUOTE ]

Not exactly life-sized, but bigger, at least:
http://www.pool-and-poker.com/skin1/images/welcomeGirl.jpg
Now, where's my copy of Photoshop...

[dfscott]

Day 3-4: Yesterday, I had to work late so no poker. Last night is my weekly live game, but the tourney ended early, so I jumped on for a set or two. I continue to run incredibly hot. I got cocky and decided to add a 5th table of PS 25+5 Turbo just to see what it's like. I think the poker gods are trying to tempt me into looking at what must be very impressive stats. I refrain and just satisfy myself by watching my BR swell.

ITM: ???
ROI: ???

That is all.

Note: I'm doing ok with the "not looking," so no more posts here until next week.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
Day 3-4: Yesterday, I had to work late so no poker. Last night is my weekly live game, but the tourney ended early, so I jumped on for a set or two. I continue to run incredibly hot. I got cocky and decided to add a 5th table of PS 25+5 Turbo just to see what it's like. I think the poker gods are trying to tempt me into looking at what must be very impressive stats. I refrain and just satisfy myself by watching my BR swell.

ITM: ???
ROI: ???

That is all.

Note: I'm doing ok with the "not looking," so no more posts here until next week.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am not sure ??? is a sustainable ROI.

[Raiser]

[ QUOTE ]
Dude, you totally need to get a lifesized printout of that chick in your avatar...and each day you don't look or calculate your stats - take off a piece of her clothing.

This is a completely original idea, btw....never been thought of before.

/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Yugoslav

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Yugo's avatar and df's avatar should make out for our viewing pleasure. Any way you guys can make that happen?

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Scuba Chuck]

FYI, I remember ZeeJustin (if you have any respect for this guy) saying that he regretted adding too many tables early in his SNG career (sub $55s). He stopped learning. Looking back, he would rather have stuck to four tabling.

[Newt_Buggs]

I stopped looking at my stats just in time before i hit the worst cold streak of my poker career. I had a great day yesterday and still didn't get back half of what I lost.

[DonButtons]

I dont think this is that good of a project. I mean unless your soo worried about your bankroll. I stopped really caring about my day to day swings, because in the back of my mine I know my expected outcome per every sng, and know in the long run I will make $xx ammount per sng, and I might have a crazy rush today, but a bad swing will even it up again tomorrow, and I will be making my same # per game again.

Instead of looking at sngs as how much you make per day, look at it in the perspective of how many you want to play per day, and set a # for yourself. And at the end of the month, you should usually have $xx per game x sngs played profit added to your br.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
FYI, I remember ZeeJustin (if you have any respect for this guy) saying that he regretted adding too many tables early in his SNG career (sub $55s). He stopped learning. Looking back, he would rather have stuck to four tabling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, that was actually more of a learning experience than anything. I decided to see how hard it would be with the overlap, and it was kinda stupid to do it with a new site/structure, but I was a little buzzed from the beers I put away during my game. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

When I called a t100 turn bet on a K-high ragged board with J3o, thinking I was just checking, I knew I was in over my head. (Of course, catching a J on the river to put the A-high on tilt was almost worth it.) I'm back to 4-tables tonight...

[dfscott]

I'm confused by your post. First, you say that this is not a good idea to not worry about your stats. Then, you say that you shouldn't worry about your stats.

Am I missing your point?

BTW, how do you know that you will make $XX per SnG?

[DonButtons]

My point is this, just play a set # of sngs per day, and after a while, the money will be there. Thats my new method. Some people play till they make a certain ammount per day, but thats kind of bad, because on a bad day, you will end up getting stuck a [censored] load when you cant make that goal. Daniel Neg. talked about how he made up his plan when he started off being pro, and it was very good information. Might want to dig those up, and he talks about playing based on hours/not results. And to me, it seems like your trying to fix a habit of looking at your account bankroll $$$ to much, and this might be a better overall perspective approach to the original problem.

Now to find out how much $xx/per sng you make, you got to make a spreadsheet, and after a couple 1000 sngs, the # should be close to accurate.

[dfscott]

Ok, I think the point of my mission got lost in the confusion.

This who idea stemmed from a post about how I was getting too hung up on my stats (ITM, ROI, etc.) and was worried about results instead of just playing well. My goal was to not track anything at all, but then I decided that I at least needed to keep an eye on my BR to make sure that I was sufficiently BR'ed for the level I was playing, but I didn't want to track the amount of any swings.

I happened to go on a tear (my first ever at the SnGs) when I started this, so maybe that's why a little optimism about increasing BR is coming through. Friday is coming up, so I'm sure to take a downswing.

Anyway, I think we're on the same page, just a different book. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[dfscott]

This is the last post until I hit my deadline. The poker gods seem to really be testing me. First, I get on a great run so that I want to see just how hot I'm running. Then, I lose half my bankroll in one weekend and have to move down. In any case, I can't decide if not watching my stats is having any effect, but I'm going to stick with it.

[1C5]

Are you still in the 33s ? I saw you on them last night. I just took out a bunch of money from my account and of course didn't win a single hand for 20 tournaments after the withdrawl.

I will be in the 20s for a while now. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you still in the 33s ? I saw you on them last night. I just took out a bunch of money from my account and of course didn't win a single hand for 20 tournaments after the withdrawl.

I will be in the 20s for a while now. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I played a lot of 33s over the weekend and after my last one last night, I was shocked to see how much of my BR had been eaten away. I knew I was running cold, but I didn't realize that I had been running that cold and decided to move down.

It wasn't until today that I remembered that I had pulled $600 out for the PokerStars bonus, so I was in a lot better shape than I thought. I still have 50 buy-ins at the 33s, so I think I might just try and play through it there.

[The Yugoslavian]

FWIW I'm on day 6 of not playing poker. I had the shakes earlier this morning but have resolved to continue the streak.

I haven't done quite as well on not thinking about poker...I have to admit I got drawn in a bit to looking at Giga's hand and skimming some of the threads on this forum.

All in all I feel good about it all...hell, maybe I won't even return, /images/graemlins/cool.gif.

Yugoslav

[1C5]

Why are you quitting for a while? I miss all the threads!

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
Why are you quitting for a while? I miss all the threads!

[/ QUOTE ]

Needed a break.

Not sure when I mentioned it but it was an aside in some thread or another.

Yugoslav

[SuitedSixes]

Nobody likes a quitter.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
All in all I feel good about it all...hell, maybe I won't even return, /images/graemlins/cool.gif.

Yugoslav

[/ QUOTE ]

Awwww - don't leave. My avatar will give your avatar some of her cards (she has too many anyway) so she can stop fondling herself.

Wait... why would I want her to stop fondling herself?

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]

Wait... why would I want her to stop fondling herself?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, wanting her to stop fondling herself is almost as gay as Scuba rejecting the brilliant avatar Suited and I had all picked out for him...

C'mon scuba dooba doo...you know you liked that avatar.

Yugoslav

[dfscott]

Well, my rakeback check came in early this month, so technically, Project No-Look should be complete.

Since it was shorter than I expected, I considered extending my "no look" period. After about 1/2 second of consideration, I declined. I apparently still haven't shaken the stats jones. I'm dying to see a quantification of my dismal 33 performance, my newfound 27 success and my HU stats.

All-in-all, I have to admit that this project was not what I had hoped for. I don't think it really helped me that much except to realize that I don't have to look at my stats, but I really haven't disconnected my game from them yet. Hopefully I'll at least stop obsessing over them quite so much.

Maybe in a few weeks I'll try this again (I won't bother with the meaningless post this time). For the time being, I'll at least try to cut back on my stats spreadsheet updates to once a week. I'll also refuse to post my ROI or ITM (even if I secretly know what it is).

P.S. Yugo, I hope your "no poker" quest is going better...

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]

P.S. Yugo, I hope your "no poker" quest is going better...

[/ QUOTE ]

It is going swimmingly actually. I haven't played any poker for 8 full days (this will be my 9th) and I even was able to completely cut myself off from even checking 2+2 for the last 2 days, /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

The real test will be when I play again....I really have no idea where I will be mentally and motivationally.

Yugoslav