After long talks with my friends and thinking about the way I play poker, I've decided I'm going to do an overhaul of my game. Basically I plan on starting at square one, working on basic fundamentals, and adding new concepts along the way.
First I went through and figured out my strengths and weaknesses, and broke them down:
Strengths:
- Decent understanding of most games: While I'm certainly not the greatest player at all games, I have played and read enough about each game to have some understanding of them. NLHE, 5 card draw, and PLO are my better games... O8 and Razz are probably my worst games, mostly due to lack of experience in these games.
- Not playing for a living: I find this to be a positive, as I don't need to worry about whether I've made enough to cover life expenses, I use poker as entertainment and I use my winnings for fun stuff like Sabres tickets and help pay for vacations.
- Support of my girlfriend: Not really poker related, but everyone knows poker is psychological, and having her support my playing helps a GREAT deal.
- I have a willingness to learn: I think this is a game where if you aren't willing to learn or try something new, you will not succeed in the long run
- I have no problem playing any style: I've experimented with many different styles, trying to figure out which i like best, and I think out of that I learned to play many different styles... small ball.. long ball.. tag, lag.. maniac
- I enjoy playing all forms of games: single table sit and go's, cash games, and MTT... while I haven't lit the world on fire in any of those areas, I have had some success in all of those forms, and feel I can have better success with a better understanding of the basics
- Reading people: I only play micro limits, but when I feel like playing, I am often times on when it comes to reads.. weak/strong, drawing/made hand.. and how to play my marginal hands vs. these players
Weaknesses:
- Biggest Weakness: BANKROLL MANAGEMENT: I am terrible with bankroll management.. its something I am working on..but this has been by far the biggest leak in my game, because I know I can beat the 25c 50c and 50c $1 games on bodog.. but taking 25-50% of my roll to those games is BAD
- Playing when I shouldn't: Most times when I play, I'm refreshed and ready to play, but when I'm playing tired, i don't think their is a bigger donkey in the world. I become an ATM machine
- Laying down hands when I'm beat: This goes along with playing when I shouldn't. When I play tired, my strength of reading people, ends up putting me on tilt. Often times I'll know I'm beat, and make the call anyway, which makes me mad cuz i know I'm spewing money.
- Lack of support from my family: This isn't a big weakness, as my family isn't exactly close, but it wouldn't hurt if my family was supportive, but this isn't going to change.
- No record keeping: Have never kept any real records of my play
Next I reviewed my goals.. since I'm not playing to become a professional, the only goals I really have are:
- Always have fun with the game
- Buy some cool stuff I would never buy with my own money
- Have a big enough bankroll to play 50c $1... thats about as high a limit is I would ever want to play.. maybe $1/$2 someday, but I would be fully satisfied playing 50c $1
Finally I reviewed what tools I have to help me improve my game:
- Poker Tracker for both Hold em and Omaha
- Gametime+
- FCP strat forums
- Harrington on Holdem Vol 1 and 2
- Small Stakes Hold em
- Super Systems 2
I do need to get Dogwatch hand grabber for bodog, since that is my primary site.
sorry this is so long, but I wanted to post it here to get some feedback. If anyone has any questions, insight, comments, please post it. Any questions you want to ask about why I'm doing this, anything about my game, any of my strengths or weaknesses and I'll be glad to answer them. I'm open to any help from these boards, anything from being an apprentice type to just a tip here and their. I've been a long time lurker of this board, and know this is the right place for help and support.
to anyone still reading this.. thanks.. lol