Regulars at pokerstars.

Been trying out the regular speed sng's at pokerstars lately. The BOP had double prizes, so I thought I'd give it a little shot and play my main game where I usually have a good ROI. Things started out very well with my 6 tables; 2 first and a 2nd place. Another set 7 with tables made me one 1st, 2 2nd and one 3rd. But then got the variance coming in the last set of 7 (which was played after the first set of 6).

So not even near any prices, and I think one have to run like god to get on top of BOP. But never mind, this is not something to consider for a common hobbyplayer like myself. The regular speed games, on the other hand, may be something to take under consideration. They seem rather soft compared to the turbos. Only downside is, they take foreeeeever to finish. On average they take just under one hour, but at the time of day I play they load rather slow, and when you get to a win it can have been running for almost 80 minutes!

And as usual a little graph from a very little sample:

If it somehow would be possible to obtain a 15-20% ROI it might be profitable to play these instead of the turbos. So maybe I continue where I left off at full tilt - playing the regulars...

Motivation.

Have been reading some books lately on how to develop your personality, especially on setting goals and being motivated. This is intended for use in my approach to poker, but can of course also be used in other contexts.
Of the books I highly recommend "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" written by Stephen R. Covey.

Not surprisingly, it is said that it is the fifth best-selling book in the world, and I think many things reviewed in it can be related to poker. Let me show you some text from habit one which is called "Be proactive":

Being Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response.

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

 Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive.

- guess you can see the relations to poker, especially if you're facing a downswing.

On the pokerplaying front, I again found myself in my so called "pokernowhereland" dabbling around in different sng-games; 45man, 18man, 6max and 9man turbos, unable to settle down and concentrating on one single game. At least I'm doing very well in everything - especially in multitables - although samples as usual are small:

Think it ends in a choice between 18man turbo and 9man turbo.

Tough games.

Finally time for a post, and finally today I had the urge for playing some 9man sng. Went rather well, as I in just 6 games had one 3rd place and tree WINS!

These were all turbo's and only at low stakes, but man, these games are getting somewhat tougher. Seemingly it's not unusual to see all 9 players still around at bb200, bubbleplay starting at bb400 and Hu-play when blinds are 500/1000.

Although I'm doing okay in these turbo's (13.2% EV-ROI) so far, I'm contemplating moving to PokerStars and continue playing what I do best, which is the regular speed game. The only thing hindering me is my low volume, because rakeback will be almost cero at Stars compared with my 27% at FullTilt.

"But you only have to play around 200 games a month" you say - yes, but remember I play as a hobby and don't wanna be a grinder.

But who really cares - summer is here, holiday is here and soon me my wife and kid are off to Grece and the lovely island of Crete. So happy holidays everyone!

Ohh and last but not least some nice piece of music i recently stumbled upon:

No games running

I was - according to plan/goal - slowly starting on $20 regular speed sng, but after black friday I completely had to change my goals of becoming a regular speed reg!

Earlier when I played my $10's I could load my set rather quickly, but now take a look at my future battlefield:

absolutely nothing going on!

So to prevent not again ending in poker nowhereland, I instantly made a dicision on moving to turbo's instead. Starting out on the $6.5 level with around 60BI (cashed +$800 out) and only 4-tabling as I gotta get used to the faster pace.

Even though the bitch and my ma'am now having to almost live next door, thing are looking fine:

EV ROI is at 18.3% which I don't think (know) I can keep, but maybe around 10-15% when I get to 6-9 tables. And I think this will be my first goal; adding tables and then move up.

See you at the tables...

Beers and bitches.

The bitch called variance would not leave, so I left her by stop playing! Furthermore games was starting rather slow pre black friday, but now it's even worse - much worse.

The bright side of it though, is that summer has come early here in Denmark, so I have been working the garden instead, and just had a nice weekendtrip to Germany, filling up the car with cheap beers and stuff which is rather expencive in my country.

And if you ever come across this beer:

then don't hesitate, and just buy some. It's my absolutely favorite, and even if it's imported from Germany, it's certainly still a Danish beer! Apart from being some of the best pokerplayers, we also make some of the worlds best beers. (cheers ;-D)

But back to poker. Sometimes when I'm persecuted from a bitch at one site, I tend to switch to another and hope to stay out of her way. So I have mengled a bit with my old 45man spiced with some 18man, and those are still under consideration to be my new main game if fulltilt don't catch up in volume.

Here's the graph:

Now that's my Ma'am talking!

The bitch is back!

Yes she is back. That freaking little sucker of an RNG bitch - called variance - is back. Worst thing is that I don't know how long she's gonna stay, and funny thing is, most times I get outdrawn on the RIVER! It's like the RNG has to hurt me the most possible, and after seeing the flop and turn without getting fuc..., then BAM! - throw the 3-outer in my face on the river.

Here's a litte shot of running bad:

And please don't mention samplesize - I know! But everything does not have to be in big scale, and as a hobbyplayer; I play in small scale.
At least I'm still obtaining my main - in game - goal of getting to the bubble. As you can see i have plenty of 4th places, only have to convert them into 3rd, 2nd and 1st places.

So when I don't have the urge the tangle with that kind of madness, and play less, time is not wasted. Instead I do what I do best; Study. I have allready checked out the next level of $20+2 regular sng, and found that fish is still around, and also tagged the regulars. So when the variance turns around - or just settles to cero - I'm ready to move up!

Here's a little look of my spreadsheet for checking out some players:

Hope to be back soon with a winning graph.

Never to become a grinder.

Playing poker ? - YES. Grinding ? - NO.
But why not ? - Because I don't have to, and I guess I don't want to.

Lately I haven't been playing much, mostly caused by having a cold and coughing my lungs out, but also because I'm in a breakeven streak in my games.

These tiny obstructions leads me to not wanna play, and this is why I have to admit I will never be a grinder. Furthermore, spring is coming and my garden is calling me along with more time to be spend outside the house enjoying the warmer weather and more bright hours.

I'm just born in the wrong year. If I was born just 15-18 years ago, I would be grinding poker now, putting in hours and hours of that unendless physical and mental energy that only young people have. Now I have other and more important things in my life to do, and I guess thats the way life is, so I have to settle with poker being a hobby.

Some GREAT music to go with this post: