2008 and 2009

In January 2008 I decided that aside from reading more poker strategy material I would also join a new site to give me a fresh alternative, this site was of course PKR and I was immediately impressed with the 3D environment and the emotes. I made an initial deposit of $250 and with no appreciation of BRM I was buying into $10 - $30 MTTs, in the first week or two I got a couple of minor cashes and a week after this I registered for a $30 MTT with a $10k guarantee, there were 354 runners and I was playing my basic tight ABC game and before I knew it we were in the money and getting quite deep, I was running well and winning most of the all-in confrontations I got involved in and soon made it to the final table, I laddered as much as possible and eventually finished 2nd for $1593, which dwarfed anything I had cashed for previously. Soon after I finished 2nd in a $100 turbo (I had won a ticket via an $11 satellite) on ongame for $2420, once again by playing tight and laddering and all of a sudden I felt like the tweaks I had made had turned me into a world beater. My first victory on PKR came soon after, albeit for $228 I was growing in confidence and started registering for $50 MTTs, alas my weak ABC game was no good and my winnings started to disappear, I flirted between different sites for large portions of 2008, totalling a total of 35 MTT cashes on PKR. I wasn't sticking to BRM and was playing any MTT that was between $3 and $50 with varying degrees of success, I was getting lots of min cashes but could never seem to get any wins but as I was essentially breaking even this didn't bother me too much.

In late 2008 I made PKR my main site again, I started to read the forum and began to understand BRM, at this point I realised that although I felt I was better than the average player, I also knew there were plenty out there who were a lot better than me, I have never been bothered by being the best at anything as long as I felt I was competitive in something that was enough for me. I lacked the drive to really pursue improvement in my game, sure I had read a book and some forums and that was enough for me, as I said I was breaking even / making a small profit and this was enough for me to feel competitive and kept me in a comfort zone. Some people have a natural talent for picking up new things quickly, others have to graft, but as long as you work hard enough you can match and possibly overcome those with talent, the tale of the tortoise and the hare is an old one but it is an important lesson, one which I fail to keep in mind as often as I would like even to this day. When it comes to poker I think I am some animal in between, one that is not as quick as the hare or as slow as a tortoise - I have some natural talent because of my mathematical brain but I also should be putting in lots of effort if I want to beat the hare.

One dark side emerged during the end of 2008, I started to tilt when busting from MTTs in spots where I felt I was donked, people have different ways to handle tilt, unfortunately mine was to play games in the PKR Casino where my losses totalled over 4 figures, this is why I cannot tell for sure when I started making a profit at poker, any profit I was making I ended up losing, money that it had taken me time and effort to win at the poker tables. I have since blocked myself from the casino and side games and I would highly recommend anyone with compulsive tendencies to do so. I can understand why poker sites have these side games as they must generate a huge amount of income for them but I am still disgusted at myself for wasting money in such a way.

2009 started in a similar vein to 2008; I won close to $1,000 in the first week of January, winning one MTT and placing 3rd and 4th in two others. I started to post on the forums now rather than just passively reading (ironically it was my casino losses that prompted me to start posting and that was where I found out I could get the games blocked) and I could feel the community spirit within PKR. I felt like an outsider despite various warm welcomes it is always difficult for me to break into new circles as I am naturally very shy and I am not a conversation generator. Over time though I get to know people and feel more comfortable and the same thing happened with the forum. Later in the month I qualified for a PKR TV MTT (see video below) and found myself on the Final Table, looking back at it now I am horrified at my play, I was trying to be aggressive but did a poor job at it, but it’s important to realise that we all make mistakes in life, poker is no exception, the key is to learn from these mistakes and improve.

PKR Tournament TV Episode 85

                                               

I plodded through most of 2009 with the same style, generally tight and essentially a card player who wasn't really learning at any noticeable rate and was still failing to turn cashes into wins, I had a stumbling block approaching the bubble. It is a classic problem which I call Min Cash Syndrome, it is something that some people find difficult to overcome and I was no exception.

In November 2009 I entered the PKR Masters a $250 showpiece MTT, armed with a tight ABC game and experience of playing similar events elsewhere before where I had cashed a couple of times for $700 - $900, I was hopeful I could cash, however my laptop was constantly struggling to cope with running PKR and I had to reboot it every 30 minutes or so which meant I was missing hands. In truth I don't remember much about how I got to the final table, but I was short a lot of the time and playing a short stack shove/fold strategy this was in part due to the laptop but it was also my style. I missed a few good opportunities to 3 bet shove which I didn't even consider then but I would push them in a heartbeat now. I made it to the final table where there was a late position raise and I was next to act with KQ, I had to 3 bet shove (with fold equity) or fold, I folded trying to ladder my way up, but crucially I was aware that I probably should have shoved the hand and a later posted it on the forums where it was confirmed by the good MTT regulars that it was an easy spot to shove. When we got down to 7 players remaining I found pocket 7s and shoved from mid position it folded to the big blind, who just happened to be Destacker, someone who I was aware was a good player, he had me covered by about half a big blind and he was thinking about his decision, I was praying for him to fold as I figured I was flipping at best, but he called with AQ and flopped 2 pair and I was out for just over $3k.

The Masters final table was a defining moment for me, I purchased a new laptop to ensure I wasn't having connection troubles so I wouldn't miss any hands but also I started to move away from my tight ABC game. Two weeks after I won a $10 buyin 477 runner turbo for just over $1k, I had been pushing a range of hands which I would normally have insta mucked and I was getting lots of folds. A lot of players argue there is no skill in turbos, but this is certainly not true, they reward aggression and sound BRM as players with those skills will push the thin edges that exist in turbos, sure the variance in them is high but there can be just as much value in them as regular MTTs as so many players fail to adapt. I was pushing lots of hands approaching the final table and I got lucky 2 or 3 times when running into a big hand but I felt that my approach was the best one and felt I deserved the win.

I still had a long way to go though, when making changes to your game it is easy to relapse into old habits and I would do this frequently, or I would try and play aggressive and I would pick the wrong spots or run into hands and I would get disheartened. Life is a lot like this, if you are trying to quit smoking or intending to go the gym regularly it can be very difficult to stick to it, especially if the results of your efforts are not apparent as soon as you had hoped. I had a lot of leaks, examples being overplaying blind on blind hands, I was not bluffing enough postflop and I still didn't have clear hand ranges in my mind, should/when I play AJo UTG, when should I call a preflop raise with 66 in the small blind? I decided it was time to purchase another book; I had seen good reviews of the Harrington on Hold’Em Series and purchased copies from E-Bay. I feel these books are a must read for anyone who feels they are at a basic level of understanding of the game but who want to improve. These books won't make you a world beater - most of the successful players have read them and the game has moved on and become a lot more aggressive since, but they should certainly open your eyes and help identify where your game could be improved. They provide a solid foundation from which you can learn and adapt to suit your own style. I learnt about ideas such as M and inflexion points and these helped me take my game up another level in 2010.....