How i turned profitable and 2008 Goals

Its said the journey of a poker player goes through many stages as they learn the game. I certainly have gone through a path that some readers may find similar. I want to set these out and also mention what helped me turn into a profitable player.

I used to play poker. I designed a picture of a Jester and got it tattooed on my arm because I thought i was good at cards and well it does look kinda cool. The fact is i thought i was good at cards !!! I knew nothing, i was riding the train of luck and playing players that were not ' great' players. The illusion that i could win money at this game took me into my first card room. The Stakis Casino in London. I played a 50 pound tournament, about 50 runners and i remember calling down to the river with K high thinking the guy was bluffing me. Duh! scratch 1 lesson in tournament poker.

The home game i used to play was run by a guy who I will name Tighty McNuts. I don't remember him ever playing a hand. He never lost much money and didn't win much either. I thought he was boring. Where was the bluffing, the excitement associated with poker. He lent me a book. Harrington on Holdem. My bible for the next few years. I started reading. Then I read some more. I realised i knew nothing about the game of poker.

Preflop Hand ranking, Position, Pot Odds, M Theory, Continuation bets.

I became a knowledgeable player. I started to apply this to my already profitable home games and to my new online hobby. I started losing.. Knowledge made me lose ? I couldn't make sense of it. Online must be rigged right ? My home games i must just be unlucky.

I was tight aggressive. This was the optimal strategy to be winning right? I knew the concept of position and was tightening up in my early positions. What i didn't have was the ability to lay down 2nd best hands. You can play as tight aggressive (TAG) as you like but if you don't know when to make big lay downs you will be a losing player. You are playing less hands than the unpokereducated but when you do play you play them too hard and fast.

So i learned the ability to lay down when i felt i was beat. I stemmed the flow of $ out of my account and became break even online and winning at my home games.

I read more. SuperSystem2, Caro's book of poker tells, Phil Gordon's little Green and Blue books, Tom Mcevoy's championship no limit holdem. My brain couldn't get enough of reading.

I was Breakeven !

In the past year I have discovered a few things that have turned me into a winning player.

http://doubleas.blogspot.com/ i read from post one and really got me on track. Scott if you ever read this Thankyou. Doubleas strategy posts were gold.

http://hammerplayer.blogspot.com/ - Hoy made me stop and think about situations, he is a great writer if sometimes controversial and argumentative but that's why i like reading. Thankyou Hoy.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/ - A wealth of information about any subject regarding poker. If you have a hand you were unsure post it and ask help. Strategy for cash/MTT's/SitnGo's, software, rakeback, everything. Gold!

Pokertracker & PAhud - For any cash game player online this is a must. I cant stress this enough.

Cardrunners - I joined this site in May. There videos are well worth the monthly subscription. They cover a lot of levels and game types.

Pokerstove - When you analyse your play this tool is good to see if you did get your money in when ahead. Its free and very useful.

Bankroll Management (BRM)- I learned this the hard way. I had to redeposit many times in previous years but this year has not seen 1. Variance is a bitch and if you hit a long bad run you need to be moving down in limits. Ill save the detail for another post. But mapping out a good not too aggressive BRM I can stand the swings of variance.

I turned my small winning/breakeven TAG style to a be able to switch between LAG/TAG depending on situations,table conditions and players.

I still have so much to learn but the continuous reading, analysing and playing are making more and more decisions easier. The more decisions that become automatic mean the more you can concentrate on learning and playing the harder more difficult situations correctly.


2008 goals

- I am currently at $.50/$1. My plan is to be at $2/$4 by the year end. This should be achievable.

- I want to play in another large live buy in event. I played a WSOP event this year and feel i can definately hold my own. I will be playing qualifiers. I have qualified for 3 FTOPS events cheaply and also won 2 tournaments to give me a shot at the Aussie millions package. Basically i had a 1 in 24 shot at $18k for $24.

- I want to make 5000 pounds live. I know where the games are and i made more than this live when i was living in London. I move back there in June so will have 6 months to make this. I believe this is achievable.


Ok that's 2 posts today, don't expect this many every day.

Good luck at the tables.
Ryverrat