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Decided to get an early start on the treadmill portion of my goals. Started yesterday and it was tougher than I thought - you lose it so quick!
On the bright side of things, I ran again today and you get it back pretty quick too!
Poker-wise December has been an interesting month - let's just say a test of character... I will write more about it tomorrow when I post my end-of-month and end-of-year reports.
Nice blog m8 read a lot then my login timed out and can't remember what I was going to say but just wanted to say hi and good luck.
Oh yeah nice link about the poker goal post will have a read too 
Treadmill portion of goals you just reminded me of the treadmill joke at start of your blog, you know that's not how you 'run good' right? 
Originally posted by UPAY4DINNER
Fuck it Ramble for President!
I wouldn't be good at that - I always get things mixed up...
See Ya 2014 - You Were Great!
On the personal side of things, where 2013 was a year of incredible struggle – 2014 was a year of tremendous effort and recovery.
On the Poker side of things, I not only accomplished all my goals for 2014 – I crushed them! This year I finally decided to get serious about improving my poker game. I’ll give the brief review of the year on a month-by-month basis.
Warning – This could be a long post!!!
January 2014
Games Played: 360 (11 - $3.50 buy-ins, 349 - $1.50 buy-ins)
ROI: +6.7% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 6 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- By far the biggest influence was that I started a long-term coaching for profit deal with a very experienced and easy-to-talk-to coach. Alex was able to work with me and get me to focus on improving one area at a time through different coaching methods. He also gave me the confidence to take shots at the higher levels when I had the right bankroll for it. He didn’t just teach me strategy, but also kept me motivated and helped with my mental game as well.
- I was still off work on medical leave for the first month of the year, so I was able to spend a lot of time studying and creating pre-flop ranges for Open-Raising, Flat-Calling, 3Bet-Calling, and 3Bet-Folding for every hand from every position. (I even managed to create a 1-page chart that showed all this in a pretty easy-to-read format!) The value was not in the chart, but in the work to build the chart... I only used the chart starting out and haven't looked at it since.
- I was fortunate to be part of a small Skype SnG Study Group with some pretty smart and determined guys who were always willing to share and discuss hands. Working with guys that were better than me, but still near my level, was a great experience and made it easy to learn from them.
- I started to read Jared Tendler’s – The Mental Game of Poker which helped open my eyes to some neat learning concepts and to the many forms of tilt and how to recognize your triggers and prevent tilt.
- I really started working on the stealing and defending part of my game for the first time.
February 2014
Games Played: 290 (265 - $3.50 buy-ins, 25 - $1.50 buy-ins)
ROI: -6.8% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- Back to work on a gradual return-to-service over the whole month.
- I struggled with some entitlement tilt following a win-streak that ended up putting me into a losing streak. Worked hard on understanding this form of tilt and identifying my triggers and warning signs so I could avoid it in future.
- Made the move to $3.50’s after a rocky start losing about 20 buy-ins straight away, and then rebounding. Big difference from $1.50’s is that people blind-steal and 3Bet more.
- Had lots of study group and coaching sessions. Focused a lot on bubble play and trying to understand ICM dynamics better.
March 2014
Games Played: 259 (all $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: +7.5% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- Switched to Knock Out format to take advantage of softer fields and my edge with better ICM understanding.
- Finished reading the Mental Game of Poker
- Started embracing down-swings as opportunities that force you to study and examine your game with only 3 possible outcomes that in the end are all good things:
1) You find leaks and mistakes and can then take action to fix them on your own
2) You find that you aren’t sure if you are playing well or not – this points to an area of your game that you need to seek help from better players on (i.e. study partner/group, hand evaluation board or coach)
3) You find that your play is actually quite strong, gain confidence and realize that it is truly just variance
April 2014
Games Played: 172 (all $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: +10.0% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- Took a couple of weeks of vacation and then spent a few days helping family with flooding issues so had almost 3 weeks off from poker this month.
- Started embracing the longer-term nature of this game and that you can’t sweat results every day or every week – it is a volume game where good play tends to win out in the long run. Small volume results don’t mean much.
May 2014
Games Played: 317 (all $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: -1.82% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- Learned that +EV decisions are not always maximum value decisions. Started push/folding less often and started playing more post-flop to try and extract more value from opponents. As a result, I learned that my post-flop game was very weak.
- Realized that I had too much on my plate to continue working with study-group, removed myself until my coaching deal concluded.
- Started working on identifying when it was better to blind-steal pre-flop or limp-stab post-flop from SB. I had been ignoring limp-stabs up to this point.
- Started using HM2 to auto-rate opponents and color-code them for me.
June 2014
Games Played: 441 (44 - $7 buy-ins, 397 - $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: -0.4% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- I did an in-depth analysis of Nash push/fold ranges on the bubble with different stack set-ups for each position and then looked at the trends. This really made clear to me how to play the big-stack, second stack and short-stack from any position. The third stack still remains the most difficult and uncertain stack to play.
- Won some cash from PokerStars Battle of the Planets SnG Leaderboard!
- Started my stab at the $7 games
July 2014
Games Played: 244 (114 - $7 buy-ins, 130 - $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: +9.7% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables in sets (tiled)
Spoiler
- Lots of vacation time and lots of overtime at work meant very little poker time this month
- Having success at $7’s – big difference from $3.50’s is that people tend to defend blinds better and have a better appreciation of ICM near the bubble.
- Need to be sure that I am focused on learning and improving versus volume at this stage – Found I was often playing a bad game on auto-pilot with too many tables at once.
August 2014
Games Played: 236 (170 - $7 buy-ins, 66 - $3.50 buy-ins)
ROI: +8.6% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 6 tables in sets (tiled) – wanted to focus on learning and improving instead of volume as per previous month’s lesson from a coaching review of me on auto-pilot.
Spoiler
- I got sick with Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease from my kid who had it earlier this month – fun times.
- I got distracted with the PokerStars/Amaya news and possible implications of pulling-out-of or segregating Canada. In a way this was a good experience as I had to learn not to get upset about things that I have no control over. There will always be other options if something like this comes to pass.
- Adjusted HUD to switch color-coding of stats when it got down to 6-players... wish they would allow you to customize for ‘x’ number of players.
September 2014
Games Played: 222 (221 - $7 buy-ins, 1 - $1.50 buy-in)
ROI: +15.1% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables – (4 tiles with each one stacked 2 deep)
Spoiler
- Switched entirely to the $7 games
- Getting really worn down from all the travel I do for work – decide that a change is needed.
October 2014
Games Played: 44 (all $7 buy-ins)
ROI: -25.2% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 8 tables – (4 tiles with each one stacked and cascaded 2 deep)
Spoiler
- PokerStars pulls out of 29 countries overnight! Canada is not one of them (yet)!
- Start a new position at work that drops my travel by 95%. I am extremely happy that I will be able to be home with family more. Only downside is that until they find my replacement, I need to do both jobs. In addition, I had volunteered to support another department for 2 weeks. My free-time just dropped to ZERO for the month!
- Blog hits 10,000 views – Thanks everyone and especially appreciate those who take the time to leave a comment or question! The blog is a huge motivator for me, so I really love to see others benefit from it as well.
- PokerStars increases rake of SnG games.
- PokerStars announces end of the long-running, much-loved Battle of Planets SnG Leaderboard promotion.
November 2014
Games Played: 400 (all $7 buy-ins)
ROI: +9.2% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 10 tables – (4 tiles with each one stacked and cascaded 3 deep)
Spoiler
- Learned that I need to take an extra second to look at the stats before making those big decisions – I have a HUD for a reason!
- Ended the month with a very intense coaching session with Alex where he made me look at my poker future and where I wanted to go with it. This really started the ball rolling on so many things for me... it’s still rolling...
December 2014
Games Played: 464 (462 $7 buy-ins, 2 $15 buy-ins)
ROI: +0.4% pre-RB
Multi-tabling: 12 tables stacked
Spoiler
- Purchased SharkyStrator to auto-register me in games and love it
- Started using PokerStars Hotkeys for some actions – really like it
- Due to lack of tables at the times I play, I started adding regular speed tables to the mix.
- Started winding down the coaching for profit deal with Alex (end in January) – what an extremely positive experience this year has been working with him. I would definitely not be playing at the level I am if it had not been for his coaching.
- Started a personal promotion for tournament players that is still on-going, but appears to have fallen flat... Maybe the New Year will bring some more attention to it.
- Did a lot of thinking about Poker goals for 2015 – Got some great stuff from Scnhitzelfisch and made some great Poker and Life goals for 2015!
- Started action on a number of goals immediately, have action steps for remaining ones.
The Year That Was - 2014
Games Played: 3456 (2-$15 buy-ins, 1455-$7 buy-ins, 1617-$3.50 buy-ins, 375-$1.50 buy-ins, + some miscellaneous)
ROI: +4.5% pre-RB
I already posted my goals for 2015 a few days ago - here is the quick link if you want to check them out: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=1975904#post1975904
Happy New Year Everyone!
I had a great night last night celebrating the New Year with my family and friends. What a way to both end and start a year! I even managed to get up early this morning and had a productive day - getting tons done at home and making great progress towards all my goals. I have printed them off and they are the first thing I see everyday when I sit down at my desk.
Poker-wise I got my volume in tonight and had very disappointing results, but I am happy with level of play overall. I've got a few spots marked for review, and have come up with several areas of study that I will be focusing on over next two weeks.
One thing I realized in doing my 2014 wrap-up post was that I really need a small warm-up script (10-15 minutes max) to remind me of the areas I've worked on and made great progress in. This will build my confidence, remind me of what I need to do, and get me focused on making good decisions.
Make 2015 your best year yet!
Originally posted by webhunky
Great post about your achievements in 2014May you have even a better year!
Thanks man - I am certain it will be. I am more focused on achieving my goals now than I have ever been.
The New Year has not been kind so far - 2 days in and 20 buy-ins down. Very frustrating, but giving me lots of situations to review...
Reviewed all significant hands from past 2 days and only found 2 hands that were bad mistakes (one of them I knew was probably a mistake when I made it, but didn't realize just how bad it was - posted below). There were 2 other hands that were ok shoves given ranges, but on review I probably min-raise/fold next time. The rest of the hands I think I played very well, and am just experiencing some really awful run-bad.
Here is the hand I knew was a mistake when I did it, but it is much worse than I thought...
Poker Stars, $6.45 Buy-in (100/200 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.
Hero (SB): 3,175 (15.9 bb)
BB: 2,074 (10.4 bb)
CO: 6,566 (32.8 bb)
BTN: 1,685 (8.4 bb)
Preflop: Hero is SB with A
Q
CO raises to 6,566 and is all-in, BTN folds, Hero calls 3,075 and is all-in, BB folds
Flop: (6,550) 4
K
7 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (6,550) T (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (6,550) 5 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Results:
Spoiler
6,550 pot
Final Board: 4 K 7 T 5
Hero showed A Q and lost (-3,175 net)
CO showed K J and won 6,550 (3,375 net)
CO is a known reg who tops the profit leaderboards at these games - he is very solid. I expect him to be pushing close to Nash here which is just shy of 80% of hands. BB is an unknown, but assuming he has any sense will be calling very tight if I call so this puts my calling range at about (2.3%) TT+.
Even if I assume CO is shoving ATC, my calling range only improves to (2.7%) 99+.
After a long break-even December, and a cold start to January, I'm ready for a little heater... BRING BACK THE HEAT!!!
Originally posted by Ramble
After a long break-even December, and a cold start to January, I'm ready for a little heater... BRING BACK THE HEAT!!!
Spoiler
Enough heat? ♠_cool:
Originally posted by Zanardi1
Originally posted by Ramble
After a long break-even December, and a cold start to January, I'm ready for a little heater... BRING BACK THE HEAT!!!Spoiler
Enough heat? ♠_cool:
Hahaha - well played sir, well played!
I got my minimum volume in today and the heater has started - clawed back 2.5 buy-ins... 
I will likely get another session in later tonight.
I've started working on my warm-up script and think it will make a big difference - I noticed during today's session that my auto-pilot is missing a few of the things I have worked on over the past year. So even though I played well today, I think it was not my A game... maybe a B or B+ game.
Mental Game / Warm-Up Routine
Mental Game
I got another session in today and didn't really manage to claw my way back out of the hole yet. I'm about break-even for the day. My second session was much closer to my A-game. I think I am running about 14 buy-ins below EV. I have to say that I have been EXTREMELY pleased with my mental game the past few days - The bad beats keep coming but they do not phase me, I am remaining focused on making the best decisions for the hand in front of me.
Poker Warm-Up Routine and 2015 Goals Tracking
I got a few documents drafted up today.
The first is my poker warm-up routine. I think it will help me step up to the tables much more focused on all aspects of my game. I'm really looking forward to implementing it and seeing the impact on my game.
The second is a daily progress chart for all of my 2015 goals. Up until today I have been mentally checking them off the list as I accomplish them, but there is something about the physical act of making a check-mark that feels great! Speaking of, I better get to bed to get my 7-hours in!!!
Learning with Equilab
I'm a SnG player and like most SnG players, my post-flop play is pretty weak. I've been trying to develop it now for the past few months by reviewing a lot of hands from my sessions to see how they could have been played better.
Sometimes I use Equilab to see how much equity I have at various points in the hand versus opponents range, but up until now I missed a really cool feature in Equilab... The ability to (somewhat) automatically pick sub-ranges at each street... I've been doing this manually all this time :facepalm:...
I saw this yesterday while reviewing a hand and almost did this 
... I feel so silly for not seeing this before!
The thing is I'm still not 100% sure how to interpret the results I'm seeing in the context of a tourney with ICM implications on the bubble... Take this hand:
Poker Stars, $6.37 Buy-in (75/150 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.
Hero (SB): 3,951 (26.3 bb)
BB: 2,471 (16.5 bb)
CO: 2,628 (17.5 bb)
BTN: 4,450 (29.7 bb)
Preflop: Hero is SB with J K
CO folds, BTN raises to 450, Hero calls 375, BB calls 300
Flop: (1,350) J 5 7 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 900 What should Hero do from this point?
In Equilab I put in the pre-flop ranges for the 3 players and see that we all have similar equity:
After the flop looking at the unmodified ranges, the equities look like this...
If I consider that the BTN C-bets quite large (2/3 pot) to our 2 checks, I assume that he has a hand that he is comfortable with betting on the large side, so I can narrow down his range a bit (using that wonderful little button I have circled) to include only the original part of his range that would give him a set or includes a pair. (I don't see him betting this big with just A-high - or 2 over-cards - that could be wrong assumption on my part. Also none of his range has any draws.) If I re-apply that new range to him and re-run I get the following equities:
So my questions are:
- How do I play this hand if I think I have 51% equity here?
- How do I factor in the ICM tax with it being a bubble where BTN has me out-chipped?
Thanks for any input/feedback at all...
Week 1 Goals Report
I track my goals daily only a tracking sheet I have printed out on my desk - my plan is to update my blog every Sunday with a report for the week. For every goal I allow myself one miss per week. This is a short week (only 4 days) and many of my goals are focused on weekdays so you may see x/4 or x/2 depending. Going forward it will be x/5 or x/7.
Sleep - 7 hours / night: 2/4 - New Year's Eve and kid crawling into bed with me.
Exercise - 5 days / week: 2/2 - Running on treadmill is feeling really good again.
Breakfast - 7 days / week: 3/4 - Missed breakfast one day getting 2 other goals accomplished... hmmm not sure how I feel about that!
Work - 15 minutes early: 0/0 - Starts tomorrow.
Friends - 1 get-together / week: 1/1 - had a games night with friends and their kids.
Family - focused quality time: 4/4 - visited with sister's family one day and great quality time with mine each day.
Volume - 100 games / week: 82/60 - Got a few extra games in unexpectedly.
Study - 3 hours / week: 3/2 - Reviewed all significant hands played this week - found some mistakes that have re-entered my game, developed a warm-up routine, explored Equilab (see above post).
Stakes - Get to $15 and win: 0/0 long-term goal.
Games - Find 2nd format: 0/0 medium-term goal.
Blog - Updates, Report & Feature: 2/2 - New feature to be introduced next week (hopefully).
Forums - Be Positive, Active, & Supportive: 3/3 - I think I have been all 3.
Accomplishing most of your goals, keep it up!
Preflop: Hero is SB with J
CO folds, BTN raises to 450, Hero calls 375, BB calls 300Flop: (1,350) J
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 900 What should Hero do from this point?
I'm not a SnG player, but isn't that a bad call preflop (SB + OOP)? Especially against 3x open?
Probably a shove would be better, you can instantly win almost 20% of your stack.
Flop is no brainer - shove, since there's already 2250 in the pot, you might not get any calls from worse hands, at least you protect your hand and win this big pot instantly (also shove sometimes looks weaker). If it's a spewy opponent, you can risk a bit by just calling the flop and letting him bluff again (but he has position on you, so you might give him two free cards).