Student: Progress Report

[Student]

Briefly, I'm doing well!

Thursday I had an "Agony & Ecstasy" session. I'd played 333 hands on Wednesday (all 1/2 cents NL HE, my game!), until midnight. So I was tired Thursday to begin with, and didn't even start playing until noon. I played the first 195 hands masterly, taking my bankroll to the highest it's ever been. That's the Ecstasy part! It capped off with making $5.17 in 6 hands, and at 3 different tables, and then I walked.

When I came back I did so with something of an understanding that I might be on tilt, after that wonderful ending earlier. So I came in with $1. This went quickly, so I added $2 (in for $3, then). Too soon it left, too. But did I stop playing? Did I change tables? No, no, no; not me! I had a BAD case of tilt.

This continued until I'd played a total of 347 hands, so I guess I added another 152 hands, or so. I was determined, aggressive, mind-numbed, stupid, foolish etc. It was a case of tilt at level 10. When I looked at just a hand or two using PokerTracker, I saw what had been happening to me. Hindsight is just such a wonderful thing, eh? Hopefully that's an adequate description of the Agony phase.

One thing that drew me to poker, in addition to watching and enjoying it on TV, was my basic math approach to life, and the expected creativity I'd hope would spring up somehow, when I got serious about poker. My wife says all my thoughts involve numbers, and I think she's right! Happily I'm starting to see math applications, practical ones, I can apply to poker. These don't involve anything I've seen published, so I expect I'm on another quest for the Holy Grail, but we'll see! Hint: it involves math and computers, 2 things that have been prominent in importance in my young 67 years of life.

I read somewhere that poker at every blinds level involves just 2 kinds of players: the weak and the strong. To be successful at your level, whether it be 1/2 cents blinds or $30/60, you need to be able to play with the big boys (the strong), and you and they will take money from the weak. The weak are to be found at every level, is the encouraging part. Another encouraging part for me, since I'm a 1/2 cents guy, is that the strong are to be found in my games. It's easy enough to dismiss my game as being beneath dignity! But I'd independently deduced empirically that the strong are present in my game, and that one would be wise to identify these strong players as early as possible, after sitting down to play at a table. In fact, if one could choose the table on the basis that there are no strong players there, that would be even better.

Unfortunately, having gotten a seat in a weak table (which is the good part), naturally you're going to wipe out players left and right; as quickly as they leave the strong pop up in vacated seats. So 15 minutes after you've arrived, the weak table now has 8 strong opponents and me. Lucky me! Gotta scoot...

Lately I'm playing 6-max tables. This is good, and this is partially responsible for some of the math breakthrus I've been having (there I go, another hint!). So I've enjoyed all the benefits of having made a change, though it's not a change to 5/10 cents NL HE, while keeping the benefits of playing at tables with little rake expense.

I've bought PokerTracker. Presently I have about 4,400 hands, which include every hand I've played on PokerStars since I switched from freeplay to 1/2 cents games (turns out PS won't permit grabbing historic hands for freeplay games). Total rake paid to date is $10.50, which means PS has made more money from my poker activity than I have, net. Of course, I've done better than they since 7-16, which was my date of Metamorphosis!

Thanks for your interest!

Dave

[AKQJ10]

Congrats. I suspect things are starting to fall into place. Do everything possible to avoid tilt, including leaving. There will always be a good table some other time.

(Guess who forgot that principle and stayed way too late at Foxwoods Saturday morning? I didn't tilt -- actually I made up some of my earlier losses -- but I'm regretting the sleep loss now. So in the sense of making a bad decision, I guess I did tilt.)