I am seriously just about done with this for now. My confidence has completely gone down the toilet and i feel my game is at an all-time low. Previously I've thought this was just down to a bad run of cards, but tonight some of the things I did were inexplicable. I think winning more than I could ever really have imagined for a nice period of time has basically made me lose my perspective as to the value of money. I don't spend the required amount of time on decisions which are the equivalent of the amount of money I make in four or five hours at work. I feel in zero control of what's going on at the tables, and I'm not happy about it. I'm pretty much resigned now to the fact this is going to be my first ever losing month since I started online a couple of years back, and to be honest it was a situation I thought I wouldn't find myself in. If there's any silver lining to this cloud, it's that my BR (built up to over $25,000 this year) has only taken a hit of $600-700 or so (I think, before checking) but basically it's still getting me down an astonishing amount how BAD this run has been, particularly as I can't really explain what's been going on. Am i just playing badly, have the cards been excessively unkind? I can't remember a lot of astonishing beats.
Today I had a couple of nasty ones, some goon calling all-in at PLO for a $60 pot with a gutshot... of course he hit it, and I was also chased down for a runner-runner flush in my SnG but really, a lot of my losses were my fault, or that's how it felt. Calling too much preflop, making the wrong move, not thinking enough, and one or two glaring errors such as calling down a pot sized raise at PLO8 when I was basically sure I was quartered, mis-clicking because i badly aligned the windows and calling off half my stack in my SnG with K8o early in the SnG (I recovered superbly to money in 3rd place, one high spot this month has been my SnG results - My ITM % is somewhere in the 80s currently).
I find myself exhausted and drawn by this run. Poker is not becoming something I am looking forward to every night, and I think if this continues much longer it will start to really get me down. Right now though, quite frankly, I don't care nearly as much as I ought to do and after a losing run of about 4 weeks now, I think I need to nip this in the bud, regroup, and maybe take my first proper "break". I have never been an advocate of taking lengthy breaks, personally, I always prefer to simply change my focus by switching games (the benefit of playing O8, PLO and NL), but then i've never been in a situation where my game seems so lacking in focus and aim, and where it's hurting me significantly monetarily. My lack of huge hands is perplexing as well, I don't recall winning more than maybe one "big" (i.e. 2 buy-ins +) pot at the 100 and 200 games this month, and otherwise it's just been a slow leak of chips. The bad run started at empire but now I am officially a losing player for the month at UB and royal vegas, and barely a winner at Stars.
In any case, I have decided to get "serious" about this break thing, and in order to stop myself creeping back on in the next day or two to hash out a few hours of play, I've decided to take the very serious step of withdrawing my entire online bankrolls to my bank account. I'll find myself some other way to kill time in the evenings until the new year, perhaps i'll go get myself a copy of half life 2 ... I've also got a few things to work on, including an article or two I intend to write for posting on here . Maybe I'll put my mind to thinking about how best to dig myself out of this funk, as well. I might leave a few bucks on stars to play some SnGs towards the end of the month, as my results there have been good enough to suggest I might have a future pushing my "career" in that direction for a month or two. On the whole, I think it's a smart move to get out whilst I havent hurt my bankroll to any great extent, and to re-evaluate. I think one area I might like to look at is playing fewer tables - I bore easily and to be honest I think these days I over face myself with high-level tables where i need to be on my a-game to win consistently, and my a-game is nowhere to seen. The iterative losses one can take on 3 tables of $100 buyins and 2 of $200 are quite large, I would guess!
I'll still be posting and readin here regularly, so I'll be around until I pick it up again seriously in the new year gl everybody, keep posting and enjoy the christmas period, I will keep dropping by whilst I'm on my break!
For your perusal (and mostly to make me feel a bit better, to be honest) here's my gross stats for the year. Things don't seem so bleak when I look at the numbers I've been able to put up, considering that at the beginning of 2004 I was targetting £300-350 per month (incl. bonuses)
Jan: £600 80 hours
Feb: £425 55 hours
Mar: £450 60 hours
Apr: £1497 72 hours
May: £1013 75 hours
Jun: £1103 67 hours
Jul: £1096 69 hours
Aug: £1138 81 hours
Sep: £1516 78 hours
Oct: £3105 102 hours
Nov: £921 79 hours
Dec: -£318 39 hours
The small totals in the first few months were due to concentrating mainly on limit holdem at that point, and due to my low bankroll not allowing me to play above 2/4 (I had been withdrawing above certain cut-off points). Once I decided to grow my BR a bit and take the NL and PLO (my best games) a bit more seriously and allocate some money to them, I only dropped below £1000 in the last two months of the year, and averaged comfortably over 1000 per month.
TOTAL: £12,864 in 857 hours (after moving to "big bet" games this is £11389 in 662 hrs)
With current exchange rate (£/$) rounded to £0.55 : $1...
TOTAL: $23,389 in 857 hours ($20,707 in 662 hrs for the big bet games). Averaging $30 per hour or so for the year, not bad given the fact i've been changing games regularly and trying some different things (getting serious with omaha 8, playing some SnGs, playing some smaller level games at the start of the year). This figure does not include live play, btw, which will push it comfortably above $25,000.
I am really happy that poker, which, at the start of the year was merely a small sideline for me that I was hoping would pay my monthly rent/mortgage, has turned into a major earner for me and a potential future career. If my abysmal downturn of the last couple of months had not occurred, I would have been close to $30,000 for the year playing part time, which was far in excess of what I had hoped for at the beginning of the year. I've beaten a variety of different games in this period, and improved my play from the start of the year immeasurably in some areas. For a long time now, I've played poker as a passtime and for a bit of pocket money, always dreaming that at some stage it would become a potential career for me, or that I could hold my head up having won a significant, meaningful sum. This year I've one from being a relatively serious recreational player to a very serious semi-pro, and although I feel some other areas of my life have suffered slightly from the amount of hours I've been putting in, I've succeeded in holding down the job as well, and putting myself in a financial position where I have been able to afford a car with my winnings (plus a few grand from 2003) and build up enough savings to be able to pay the deposit on a house in the new year. Poker, for all its frustrations, wicked downswings, and heart-wrenching, painful moments, has still opened a lot of doors for me, financially, and has psychologically provided me with something in my life that I know I'm truly good at, and something at which I have been truly successful so far, from the sweat of my own labour, learning and efforts. And perhaps that, for those of us who do not yet play for a living, is the most important thing.
Anyways, recent downswing aside, it's been a heck of a year, and hopefully 2005 will see some more breakthroughs in my game. It's been fun posting online, meeting a lot of great people through these boards (many of whom I've been lucky enough to meet, or at least plan to, in real life over in the UK) and it's always fantastic to receive appreciation for some of the material that I've posted on here, as well as reading some truly A-grade material from some of the other posters on these boards. Despite its bad image, truly some of the most enlightened, intelligent, deep thinking people I know are involved in this game, and it's been a pleasure being around this last 12 months. Right now, I'm going to hit the sack, and reflect on what might well be a world record for longest post in history lol.
Thanks to all those online who've helped me this year (you know who you are!) and thanks also for the appreciation, thanks, and referral bonuses I've received from those who I've been able to help.
Catch you later, here's to 2005!
Monk
xxxxxStatistics: Posted by Felonius_Monk — Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:22 pm
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