Wow very nice overall graph there Viper, glad to see things are back on the up for you!

yeh man never play when you are tilted. Stay cool, learn when not to sit at the table and also learn when to just sit out!

Good luck getting the green line up!

Well, guys. Time to share some of the thinking I'm having right now, not only in poker but also in my life.

Right now I'm wondering how much importance should poker take in my life. I think I could better be a recreational player rather than taking it as serious as I've been taking it.

Is it really accomplishable (sorry if that word doesn't exist; not sure) to go from NL2 to NL200 and actually win money on a regular basis at that limit? Well I don't know becuase right now I'm playing NL10.

But I look backwards and analyse how much time I've spent just playing (without counting how much time I've spent studying) and can't avoid wondering again if this is worth the effort.

If I consider being a recreational player, that would mean I will not respect my bankroll anymore. I will pretend I just go to the casino and play on a normal table. So If I win,that's great and If I lose, bad luck.

I think that's what I'm gonna start doing guys. I have a bankroll of $370. Why not just play at NL50 in one table or two? If I do well, then great and otherwise then I just play for fun, not to make a living nor anything similar.

Because come on! I've played around 380k hands so far and just win around 0,90bb/100. What makes me think that will be different when I play at NL200? If I ever reach to that limit? Winning will be as difficult or even tougher that what winning is right now in NL10.


Being a recreational player for me means I don't have to play 30k hands per month, I don't bother to think about bankroll anymore and just "play for fun". Because I realise that taking poker seriously is way too difficult and demands a lot of my time. Time I could be spending doing, maybe, something better like reading a book.

However, I do love poker and I want to play poker now and then. I like being in my laptop playing poker whenever I'm bored. But I think I just can't be 2 or 3 hours a day playing this virtual game and want to make this of my life.


Today I played 6 hours of poker. 1st session was of 2hours and ended up 1 buy in down.

Second session was of 4 hours. Enden almost even:



4 HOURS!!!

This is my month so far. I was doing great, now not so great but still winning:




SOME STATISTICS:

- This month I've played 28.866 hand in 2976 minutes. That makes it to 49 hours, which means TWO WHOLE DAYS PLAYING POKER.

- Since I started playing 10 months ago, I've played a total of 345.561 hands (NL2, NL5 and NL10) in a total of 32.748 minutes. That means a total of 546 hours. 22 WHOLE DAYS PLAYING POKER. That's almost a month of my life. I still would need maybe a couple of more months in order to make it to a whole month. That's the time I've been in Europe last april, which was probably the best trip of my life so far.



So why do I mention all this and why do I want to share it? I'm a guy who thinks a lot about life and what to do or how I'm living it. I've been through tough times like many people in this world. And I'm also very grateful for what I have and for the life I've been given.

Whenever I have to make a decision or I'm having a problem in my head (which many are really stupid. Like for example when we people think about taxes we have to pay or a stupid debt or whatever), I usually wonder If that is worth enough to worry about and If that is something I'll remember the day I'll be living my last minutes of life.

So If I make a summary of my life right now, I will just remember the best times of it and maybe a couple of bad ones. I will not regret about anything but what I'm certain is that I will not remember stupid things like a stupid fight with my sister or, I dont know... maybe any other thing like when a truck crashed my parked car.

Will I remember poker? Is poker that important so as to put a smile on my face in 10 years? Will I think to myself "oh... such good moments... those were great times" like when I think, for example, about highschool or about the chess club I used to frequent?

For sure not. Because poker is a solitary game. Well, at least it is for me. Maybe not for others. But I just feel right now I'm not doing anything productive with this.

Had I spent those whole 22 days thinking about a new work project, that would for sure have been more profitable.

I don't think focusing so much energy on this is worth for me. I just want to share this with you because It's part of this journey.

I think that from now on I will just play at limits which are fun for me. Maybe one table or maybe two. Won't focus on playing a lot of hands anymore. And... if I can, I'll try to play tournaments which are fun for me and try to make a good result out of it.

So if I win big I win big. And if I lose that's it. But at least I think I won't spend soooo many hours on this.

JUST A THOUGHT. THANKS FOR READING!!!

Really nice post Viper and it certainly strikes a chord with me as I too realise that I am never going to be a grinder, my health problems wont allow it, a couple or 3 hours a day four or five times a week is about max for me. I also have such a love of horse racing where I worked all my working life. I havent played as many hands as you, only a fraction of that to date.
I do really enjoy poker but like you it will be rather more recreational than for more serious reasons. It doesnt mean that I wont study or try to improve but just that I am never going to hit the heights as it were.
You have obviously taken a while to think it all through, so good luck with whatever course you take. Again a really nice thoughtful post, thanks!

Maybe I come and go. Sometimes I doubt myself. Musn't do it anymore. Reaching what I want or what anyone of us wants in poker is not easy. And giving up of course is the easiest solution.

When I take a look at the hands where I lose, I realise some of them might've been bad beats. But many many of them were hand where I stupidly gave away money.

I don't know. I kinda get like a zombie in NL10. Everything's a new insight. So, once I calmly see where I've been losing money, I try to fix that and calmly return to my A game. Luckily my bankroll hasn't suffered that much.

Must thank to a forum member for motivating me again. Sometimes we need that. I will keep on working on this. I want to improve in this game and I'll make it.

Can't set a goal and quit it after struggling so much.

I realise I need to study. If I don't study I won't make it. I gotta be better than the rest, otherwise I won't make it.

I love this video. Should watch it every day:

[youtube=loSqhfrUoMg]

hey man that last video is really cool! everybody needs motivation and help. i guess my advice is to take advice from ppl who know what theyre talking about, u can get a lot of bad poker advice and it hurts ur game so make sure ur getting advice from winning players

Yeah, number10, you're totally right. I think I am getting advice from winning players so that's ok!

A DIFFERENT JOURNEY STARTS TODAY!

Gonna start investing real time in studying. I haven't studied much since I started this journey. I realise my game right now is stuck and I need to study in order to beat NL10 and become a better player.

Let's see how this works!

Great men, go for it ! You can do IT

How excactly are you gone do the studying ? Reading books ? Posting hands ?
I feel like I have to study 6max cash a bit more asswel, so like to hear how you are going to do it

Hi PokGod:

I will design a studying program. And I will be watching videos and reading books mainly. You know, I'm not sure about what exactly to do but studying will surely improve my game.

On the other hand, watching motivation videos every day will also be a pump up factor =)

Ok cool, go for it !

Yea, these motivation videos are awesome to pump yourself up and keep believing that you should and could do it !
But a tip: Don't watch them everyday because they will sink in less and less every time, watch them 1's or 2's a week and get pumped !

Keep on going for it buddy. I love me a motivational video also so i will sit back and watch it also....just hoping it isnt in Argentinian

For the moment I'm having a great month. The best one so far. But... WTF is going on with my orange line? I'm too concerned about it. Last days I've been trying to put some huge volume. Maybe not best decision If I want to play my best poker. But I felt like multitabling a lot so as to try and see the result.

Month so far...

Still having a great month:



Still going for my goal of recovering from bad play at the beginning of NL10:



And what is great is that after around 220K hands, I'm back at the top of my total winnings graph!!!

Nice ! Really cool to see that you are crushing, keep going !

sick graphs bro! Keep crushing like that

Great graph buddy!!!! What changed most about your game??

I'm not sure! LOL!!

I think I've adapted better to NL10 this time. Making solid decisions. Playing slightly better from some positions, you know... =)

I't not everything pure roses!

I had an AWFUL day today. Probably the worst. Lost 10 buy in which is really really bad for me.
I played 3 sessions. Maybe the first two weren't well played but the last one I was rocking and suddenley like 4 coolers came to me. Terrible.

The feeling sucks. Should learn from this... but how? My game was optimal until I made a bad call on a river. A call I should've folded and knew had to fold.

Then AAA vos straight, set vs higher set and other terrible hands.


Third session I focused on defending more the blinds. Not getting crazy but testing how to deal with different situations. Was doing great.

But well... I will recover. Too bad lost so many buy ins. I feel like Sisyphus, every time I climb to the top of the mountain, rock falls again and I have to climb again and again...

Maybe have a stop loss? When I lose 4bi in a day, I turn off and won't play again tomorrow. Was you titled?

After I would hit my stop less. A few hours later I would post some hands in the stat section and get opinions off other people to get a new perspective to see how I played the last session. Sometimes it can just be variance.

Ye agree with Harvie, sometimes it is variance but a downswing will always be part variance part bad play and often more bad play than you think. Also watch out for low level tilt- you might not be super pissed off when u lose a big pot but after a while you will begin to play your B-C game more and more. Good tip I picked up from a buddy was to ask myself when I figured I was losing in a session "Am I on Tilt?". If I was I would take a few mins away from the tables inject some logic and return to play more. If I continued ot tilt I just left for some time did something completely different