15,184 hands

Well as usual I haven't updated in a while, most likely as a result of running so badly in the late parts of December and early January. When I run ridiculously far under EV in all in pots and run into other types of bad luck I don't feel much like posting about it. No one wants to hear me whine.

I do feel pretty good with how I dealt with the bad run though. I've thought countless times about getting coaching from Jared Tendler, and while I have no doubt his $350/hr (if I rememer correctly) coaching would help tremendously, I feel like another really important aspect to maintaining a level head is simply to keep studying. When you play for a month and run a million dollars under EV, if you're not studying away from the tables, all you can think about is the run you're on. You stop playing hands with an objective point of view, and instead all you're reminded of is the fact that you're running bad and that you kind of expect to run into hands.

I started doing more work around the turn of the new year with stuff like pokerazor analyses, and I wrote an ongoing guide thing for HUD stats. Doing stuff like this keeps me off the tables when I'm tilting, and most important of all brings me back a step or two to rekindle my awareness for keeping my game simple. Not necessarily tag, but simple. Keep my decisions easy. I also had a fantastic opportunity to make a video with stoxpoker coach Stosh McConnell. The video is up, and thanks to a lot of support from you CC/stox members (myself included...), it's getting great ratings. The video was a replay of hands I played in that tough stretch I talked about, and there were some really interesting spots in there. A few of the hands were no doubt a result of my non-%100 state of mind. Not necessarily monkey tilt, but most definitely 'act too fast' tilt, or 'not check for alternative lines stat' tilt. Interesting video nonetheless. If you have a stox account you can watch it here. If you don't have one, I'd seriously consider getting one unless the cost is a significant hit to your bankroll. I signed up when I had just a few hundred bucks in my account for half a year ($190), and it's easily the best poker investment I've ever made. If you do sign up, please do so through the link at the right. [/referral whoring]

So I was running terribly through this late Dec/early Jan stretch, but I stuck to my guns, kept studying, and lo and behold, it turned around. I'm still like $4k under EV since the beginning of December, but it's really turned around in the last bit. My monthly graph looks exactly like last month's midway graph. Break even for what feels like forever, then shoot up out of nowhere to like 4k. Hopefully this time it holds, or better yet keeps rising. I feel great though. I feel like my game takes a leap every single day.

Two more things to tell you about:

1) I've cracked $30k in rings! Yay meaningless but fun milestones!

2) I'm finally exactly back to neutral EV for that same time frame. Guess I can't run like a god forever. Just another reason I can't complain about 'running bad' anyways.

Now my next big obstacle is getting the motivation to play some real volume! Only 12k hands this month! And the lady friend gets back from Cuba tomorrow! Eek!