poker journal - 8

[theBruiser500]

Once upon a time, a student came to see a Zen master. He said, "Honorable Master, I have studied for many years, and I have learned so much of the martial arts and Zen theory already that I have reached a very high level. I heard that you are a great master, and I have therefore come to see if you can teach me anything more.

The master didn't reply. Instead, he picked up a teacup and placed it in front of the student. He then picked up the teapot and poured until the tea reached the rim of the cup, and then he kept on pouring until the tea overflowed onto the table. The student stared at the master in total confusion and said, "No, no Master! The cup is overflowing!"

The master stopped pouring, looked at him and smiled. He said, "Young man, this is you. I am sorry I cannot accept you as a student. Like this cup, your mind is filled up and I cannot teach you any more. If you want to learn, you must first empty your cup."

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I got to $5/$10 and I won, and I thought "I made it to the top! I'm good, I did it," and I stopped thinking about the game. See, that story is about me. You guys might have noticed I stopped posting hands here, that is why. Lately though a few things have happened:

1) I played some live poker at umass here and made some really basic mistakes. I thought live would be an easy adjustment from online, but it isn't, at least for me. I have to always count stack sizes (which is really harder than one would think) and pot sizes. And also, not psych myself out with "reads" of other players, and I'm always afraid of giving something away with my own mannerisms (which I might be doing).

2) Played a $500 SNG here with cleric (the clown you might have seen posting here lately) and vagos. And vagos won, just by outplaying me.

3) I've stagnated a lot in online poker lately. Made a lot of mistakes just playing careless and unsure of how to play some hands (but I still didn't post them on here because I thought I was done learning).

4) I ask around about this when I get the chance and I get the impression that the best players at $5/$10 NLHE on PS make $300 an hour, one guy said he made $500 an hour though diablo does not believe him. Diablo guessed that a good player could make $200 an hour if he plays a lot and indiscrimate of game selection or $400 an hour when "cherry picking". I work on game selection a lot and my winrate is nowhere near $400, it is $140-$180 (not sure cause I haven't put my latest hands into PT, probably $155).

5) Diablo says that he is sure I am not a winning player at $5/$10. Also that I have 10k hands logged at $5/$10 now, which I thought was a good indication of what my winrate would be long term but he says it isn't. I think he said 50k hands was a good indication (correct me if I'm wrong Diablo).

6) Part of the problem is I'm just not interested/obsessed whatever with poker anymore like I was before.

Resolution: To "empty my cup" so to speak... start posting hands here again. I will probably play $2/$4 and $3/$6 ring games in the mean time until I am confident in my game again and play $5/$10 when the game looks good.