Poker. Puggy Pearson said there were 3 things to becoming a good poker player " knowing when you have the best of it, money management and managing yourself". He found the last one hard, I find the second. My cash game "game" has got very good lately, I seem to be able to make good $ multi-tabling and build up a decent bankroll. Then I do stupid things like play the $54 rebuy MTT or go loco in the $24 rebuy and lose $$$. I have cut down massively but need to work on my dedication and bankroll management skills. Iv lost another decent roll through playing a tourney that was out of my league and I MUST stop it. In a cash game, if I take a rough beat, I quit. In a tourney, I ALWAYS rebuy. I’m not going to deposit my own money, so it looks like ill have to wait until iv won something largeish at Luton to redeposit. There won’t be any great posts about me going deep in online MTT’s for a while……coz I won’t be entering them. I think my "real" return to online poker one way or the other will be around the WSOP when hopefully the publicity generated will make me more +EV. I only have to look at a recent post I made on secretsoftheamateurs.blogspot.com to see how dire my mentality had got. "Try and get into the money in SnG’s- don’t risk it all for the win"- losing mentality.
When winning, you ride high on a wave of confidence, have deep insight and are generally fearless. The opposite has been true of my online tournament play for a while now, so ill try and reverse it. I’m playing the "rookie" night at Luton this eve and I’m going for podium playing MY game. Making the right decisions, more often, because I have less. If that doesn’t make sense to you, fold to my raises. GL all, and especially to those fearless players who go with their gut and for 1st place, I was one once, and summer could see the final stage of my metamorphosis come full circle. More learning, less umming and ahhing, less calling, more raising, more pot odds and body language, less probability I’m beaten.
Tip of the day: Consult someone with some authority on Bankroll Management. I don’t have the first idea.