Poker Stuff in Front of Me
Okay, so now that all the holiday craziness is over with, I'm all caught up on my poker blogs. Back to not just skimming through them to stay current with the poker world and the blogosphere, but actually reading through entries in an unhurried manner and enjoying them. I even added a couple new blogs to the right that I had missed in Iggy's last several weeks of pimping. One entry that stood out for me was Ice's (of My Little Poker Blog) list of 12 reminders he keeps in his wallet, which he acknowledges he got from another blog, but can't remember which, and boy do I know that feeling. Anyway, I printed the list out and stuck it on the wall my desk faces.

Some other things on my wall:

My Excel summary of Small Stakes Hold'em's starting hand recommendations for "tight" low-limit games. (Interesting to compare that to Ciaffone's recommendations in Middle Limit Holdem Poker.)

My little summary of Outs and Odds. I'm sure you all know this one -- I just have a rough version up:

5 outs, you needs 9:1 odds.
6 outs, 7:1
7 outs, 6:1
9 outs, 5:1
11 outs, 4:1
15 outs, 3:1
23 outs, 2:1

(Update: These numbers should be 1 in 9 and 1 in 7, not 9:1 and 7:1, etc. See my next post.)

Then I have 3 small sticky notes taped to the top of my computer monitor. These have been there since before I started my blog.

One says "PATIENCE + DISCIPLINE"

Another says "PLAY POSITION MORE" (this one is a much less necessary reminder than it was a year or so ago.)

And just this week I added a new one that speaks to a more personal issue -- it says "NO BEER + POKER." Cause as much as I love a beer while I'm grinding it out, it is just plain -EV for met. I did add a little caveat: "Play microlimits when drinking," for those night when I'm just having fun.

Looking back on my year of poker I think several big (for me) things happened:

First, I learned how to 2-table and whomp on many of the .50/$1 games out there. In 2003 I had just barely been winning at that level (although I had been winning a lot in bonus money).
Second thing, directly related to the first, was my bankroll started really growing, and I moved up to $2/$4.
Third thing: After winning in Vegas, at Foxwoods, and at Turning Stone, I became quite comfortable with live play, which had been one of my poker goals from the outset.

None of these 3 things are bad. But going back to my 3 reasons for playing poker -- fun, profit, and improving my game -- I feel I've been concentrating on the first 2 more than the last one. I've been having a lot of fun playing live, and somewhere I think I started viewing online play as just a way to build my bankroll for my next Foxwoods trip. I admit I haven't seriously thought about moving up to $3/$6 in a long time -- I've just been content to get my few BB/hour at $2/$4. So my goal for 2005 is to change that, and to do that I need to stop grabbing a beer and going on 2-table autopilot when I play online, hence the new sticky note.

As a matter of fact I had 3 beers tonight while watching the new episode of Lost, so no poker for me tonight. I shall return with a vengeance tomorrow, tackling the new Empire reload bonus.
posted by James at 10:05 PM