The Challenge

Today, I’m starting my $50 to 50NL challenge.

A little history: long-term break-even/losing player has finally had enough of this. I'm setting up a challenge for myself to finally turn myself into a decent winner.

I know this isn’t something that hasn’t been done before. Verneer’s epic thread has taught me a lot about poker, although he started with $100. The one thing I have not learned or developed from that, though, is discipline. I think, when I have my head on straight, when I’m focused and paying attention, I’m a decent player. The problem is I tilt way too easily, I lose my concentration, and my bankroll takes a big hit. Over time, I’ve won a bit, lost a lot more, won a bit, lost a lot more, and I’ve finally decided to sit down, take a good hard look at myself and my play, and try and develop the discipline to actually win at this game.

So I’m starting this challenge. It’s for myself and myself alone. This public post is more to keep me honest with myself (psychologically speaking, they say public pronouncements make it more likely you’ll follow through on your goals; i.e. smoker’s who tell everyone they know they’re going to quit are more likely to quit).

In order to develop discipline, I’ve decided to lay down some rules for myself and my play:

1) No session begins before I’ve spent at least 10 minutes meditating.

I used to meditate, and I don’t much anymore. I felt I was much more present with my life in general when I was meditating, and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay focused now that I don’t. Meditating before each session will help me stay focused and aware of myself during play, not to mention general life benefits.

2) After every session, upload the tables for the day to Bluff.com and review every hand.

I don’t do much, if any, post session review. I want to get in the habit of reviewing myself, as well as my opponents, and making notes on my opponents and myself. Pokerstars, at least, allows you to add notes to players even if you’re not on the table with them. I plan on doing this more afterwards so I have more information at my fingertips when I play. It will also give me some more insight into the types of leaks I still have.

3) Stoploss at 4 buyins, stopwin at 6 buyins.

Tilt is a huge problem for me. Losing a few buy-ins usually just makes it worse. So the need for a stoploss is obvious. However, I have the same problem when I’m winning: winner’s tilt. I get over confident, assume I’m going to hit draws, shove in obviously bad spots expected to outdraw my opponent. It’s pretty bad. There’s also a positive psychological factor in “clocking a winning session.” I win 6 buyins, I’m happy, I call it a day. I would also like to mention here that playing for several hours has never been a problem for me. If I’m playing well for the 1st, I’m still playing well at the 4th if I haven’t tilted in interim.

4) Buyin requirements: 20 buyins for the next level before I move up, move down again if I hit 15 buyins for current level. For SnGs, 50 buyins for the next level (although I don’t play many SnGs).

Again, I need to develop the discipline to move back down again if I hit a rough spot: tilt, variance, coolers, whatever. Just move down. I’ve got it stuck in my head that I’m a 25NL player, so starting over at 2NL is going to be humbling. But it’s important. I have to do it.

So this means no shot-taking. I take shots at 50NL HU all the time, and it’s a HUUUUGE leak. So that has to end.

I also plan on playing in the $3.30 6 max MTT @ 9:40 every morning. I like MTTs, I’m decent at them, but I have a focus problem with those as well (in that I go deep, then spew off all my chips on a bad bluff and lose). Playing one MTT a day will improve my MTT game; hopefully, one of these days I’ll actually ship that MTT and can get out some of the grotesque amounts of money I’ve put into this game.

5) No distractions during play.

The amount of times I’ve playing while watching HSP, or a tv show, or some other video, is really lame. I need to remain focused on the game while I’m playing, or I’m simply not going to be as effective.

6) Write about it in a blog after every session.

Again, making this whole process public will force me to stick to the guidelines I’ve set out.

7) If I break any of these rules, I’m voluntarily locking myself out of the software for my next “play day.”

As my work schedule currently is, I can play 2, maybe 3, days a week. Not a whole lot. If I break one of my rules, I lose one of those days to play. Kind of an intense punishment, but totally necessary. I’m trying to figure out a reward system for following the rules, but I don’t want the reward to be poker-related. If you have any suggestions, feel free.

All these rules are intended to make me focus and play my A-game as often as possible. It wil be the only way I’ll have any chance of making any money at this game. I’m also going to add here that I’m planning on making a $150 withdrawal @ the $200 mark because I deposited $250 for the SCOOP bonus that I had planned on taking out as soon as it cleared, and I lost most of it. So I’m going to get some of that back out before I continue on.

It’s going to be a long process. It has to be. Hopefully, some of this self-exploration will turn me from a spewy, losing playing, to a solid, winning LAG.

Thoughts and comments appreciated. Flame on!

Link to TwoPlusTwo.com post about it:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/losing-player-going-try-turn-around-782078

Which was apparently closed not long after it opened :(.

Edit: Nope, moved to a new home :)!