I’ve been enjoying playing 6-max since Black Friday it’s been fun learning some new skills and I think my game has improved a lot as a result. I’m happy I’ve quit smoking, I’m happy I’m working out again and eating good food.I’m happy I have a smoking hot girlfriend and two amazing dogs that always cheer me up.

What is making me super frustrated then? What else – Poker

Played the ANZPT Melbourne ME on the weekend and busted in two hours, 66vJJ in 3bet pot on a J64 rainbow, obviously I’m going broke there all day. It’s just a cooler, but it’s all too familiar a feeling. I haven’t made a day two in a live event for 18 months – sure it’s a tiny sample size of less than 20 tournies but it still drives me nuts to see so many of my peers boxing donkaments on the regular. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great and am happy to see people I know doing so well – if it can’t be me then it may as well be them. It just kills to know you are more than good enough to lock up one of these boxfests and just keep getting shat on.

Below is a SS of my results this month, I’m just about ready to start hurling random objects across the room. I can not explain to you just how mind blowingly terribly I have run on Stars, for the most part I always ran fairly close (+-25 buy ins) to my EV on FTP. I don’t have all my hands from Stars but from memory this month takes me to right around 100 buy-ins under EV lifetime considering my lifetime number of hands on Stars is probably about 350-400k max thats quite something. The majority of players don’t even have winrates as large as the amount I have run under EV.

It’s not even this on its own thats getting me down, this entire year has just been one huge ballache. Black Friday hit just after I had decided to move back to Australia from the U.K. – an expensive choice to say the least. Although I didn’t have a ton of money on FTP it was enough to hurt and I even bought up some more of other peoples balances in the aftermath. I broke about even at WSOP mostly thanks to having small pieces of a couple of people who ran great and boxed a couple of final tables. Sure breaking even for WSOP isn’t the worst but it was also a month where I couldn’t grind online, effectively costing me a lot more. 2011 just feels like one thing after another and tbh I’m getting pretty sick of it.

I get that this is a pretty boring blog post and one thing I’ve learned in the last 3 years is that nobody cares how bad you run. Sometimes you just need to let it out, release some built up tension and frustration and get your head straight. This is my attempt to do that and hopefully the poker gods will see it fit to grant me some October run goods.

October Goals -

1. 12 Gym sessions

2. 150k hands of poker

If I don’t make either of these targets I’ll donate $500 to charity

Sparky

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Introduction
About a year ago, I wrote what I thought was going to be a chapter in a poker book, offering advice on pre and post-session poker routine. Unfortunately, the book was never published and from what I hear it had a lot of great stuff in it from a bunch of different guest authors. I wrote the piece for free, mostly as a favour to my friends who were working on the book. Additionally, I thought it would be cool to have something I’d written published in a book that people would actually buy. It had never occurred to me that the content I put time and effort into writing would never see the light of day until just recently. Realising this now, I will happily be releasing my chapter over a series of blogs. Enjoy!

Read Part 1a here: Poker Routine – Part 1a: Before You Play
Read Part 1b here: Poker Routine – Part 1b: Before You Play
Read Part 2a here: Poker Routine – Part 2a: After You Play

Literature & Videos
A lot of people will read a poker book cover to cover or watch an hour long poker training video without taking any notes whatsoever. I’d imagine they are also very unlikely to re-visit the same resource twice. I think this is a big mistake. Part of your poker studying routine should include re-vision, particularly when you’re struggling with form or through a downswing. Taking notes will not only help emphasis key points at the time of learning, but also provide for an invaluable resource to look back on.

With the plethora of poker strategy material on the market today, it’s hard to what to watch or read next, let alone keep track of what you’ve already gone over. I think it’s really important to have a good filing system to keep track of what you’ve already looked at, what is worth re-visiting, but also to prioritise what you want to learn from going forward. Your list of weaknesses can come in handy in determining what resources to make use of. For example, you may be struggling with tilt issues, so watching or listening to some of Tommy Angelo’s stuff could be high on your list. You’ve only got a limited time to spend studying, so make the most of it. If you can get in the routine of keeping notes and track of what you’ve studied you’re going to be a step ahead of everyone else who’s also trying to improve.

Peer Hand Reviews
One of the most productive aspects of your post-session routine is going to be hand reviews with your peers. It may be that you post your own hands and analyse others on a public forum, you might have buddies that you talk strategy with over IM or you may even have a coach.

Public forums are useful only up to a certain point in the poker learning process, there is some great basic advice around, but there is also a lot of misinformation.

Given the level of readily available resources such as training sites, forums, your friends, books and e-books, in my opinion, private coaching only becomes necessary once you reach a point where those resources are no longer allowing you to move up or improve at your desired pace.

I believe that the most cost effective and efficient way for you to get and give feedback on hands is going to be to become buddies with some players of equal or better skill level. Personally, I’m a part of a private forum of around a dozen players, kind of like a study group. Unlike a public forum, everyone is pretty willing to open up about their game and their opinions, knowing that they are only giving information away to a select few and that everyone has something to offer to everyone else. You don’t have to take it that far, it may be as simple as a group of 3 or 4 friends that you run hands by on IM. The more opinions and ideas you can get from competent players, the better.

Parting Thoughts
Ultimately, having a poker routine should be about getting the most out of yourself, help you avoid many of the pitfalls of playing poker and assist you to productively learn about the game. Routine doesn’t have to take over your life. In fact, I use my routine to make sure I get through what I need to as efficiently as possible so that I can relax and enjoy the financial freedom that poker has given me. Routine doesn’t have to be boring either, there’s so many ways you can nourish your brain’s thirst for poker knowledge!

Poker is like any sort of business, it’s a dog eat dog world, anything you can be doing better than your opponents is going to give you a competitive edge. Hopefully, I’ve opened your eyes when it comes to organisation and routine and got you thinking about things you could be doing better to lift your game to a new level and get a leg up on your opponents!

Coaching
I do a limited amount of coaching and am happy to help people looking to improve their routine and/or mental game for all forms of poker. I also specialise in coaching no limit hold ‘em theory and practice in cash games as well. In particular, full-ring and 6-max at a small and micro stakes. If you are interested in finding out more about my services, please contact me on Skype (EurekaKid).

EurekaKid

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Introduction
About a year ago, I wrote what I thought was going to be a chapter in a poker book, offering advice on pre and post-session poker routine. Unfortunately, the book was never published and from what I hear it had a lot of great stuff in it from a bunch of different guest authors. I wrote the piece for free, mostly as a favour to my friends who were working on the book. Additionally, I thought it would be cool to have something I’d written published in a book that people would actually buy. It had never occurred to me that the content I put time and effort into writing would never see the light of day until just recently. Realising this now, I will happily be releasing my chapter over a series of blogs. Enjoy!

Read Part 1a here: Poker Routine – Part 1a: Before You Play
Read Part 1b here: Poker Routine – Part 1b: Before You Play

After You Play
During Your Session
In order to make your post-session reviews and study time more efficient, there are some things you can do during your session to assist. Instead of doing absolutely nothing while you play and having to look through a bunch of meaningless hands or rely on your memory, I’d recommend noting worthy study hands during your session. It can be as simple as writing brief details of a hand on a notepad, but these days it’s easy to mark them within your tracking software and pull them up later.

There may be cases where a specific hand isn’t giving you all that much trouble, but you’re struggling with a concept such as 3-betting out of position pre-flop or floating on the flop. It may also be that a an opponent is driving you up the wall. In these cases, write it down so you don’t forget later.

Try and limit the notes you take during a session, particularly the more tables you play. Trying to multi-task by taking notes and playing hands at the same time is going to cause you to miss valuable information and lose value from your current hands. If nothing else, your notes are going to be a lot more meaningful if you have time to word them correctly and extract the relevant information from a situation and come up with necessary adjustments. Additionally, the less taking notes you do during your session, the more motivation you are going to have to do thorough post-session work and this is only going to help your game.

If you are intent on taking notes during your session, make things as efficient as possible. Come up with your own set of shorthand and only take notes on things that surprise you. Instead of recording detailed information about a particular hand, it’s often best to just record something like ‘CDL’ for called down light or ‘SPWB’ for slow-played wet board. You can always build upon your notes and re-visit them post-session, so don’t spend too much time on them while you’re playing.

Why Is A Post-Session Review Important?
While you’re playing, your focus and energy needs to be on making good decisions and the execution of those decisions. If you try and review recent hands while playing, you’re not going to be able to absorb all the necessary information, get reads and learn valuable lessons without adversely impacting upon your play of current hands. You’ll pick up and learn things while you’re playing, but you don’t get the same level of understanding that comes with dedicated review where you can think deeply and organise your ideas.

Take A Break
If you’ve put a long session or day at the tables then stepping straight into ‘study mode’ is not going to reap the best learning results. To get the most out of your post-session review, it’s key to take a break between playing and studying just to give your brain a rest. Coming back with a fresh perspective is going to allow you to pick up on things you otherwise wouldn’t. You’re probably going to be a lot more thorough and less lazy if you’re feeling refreshed.

Maintain A List of Leaks and Trouble Opponents
I talked about this a bit in the pre-session section, but I find this incredibly helpful in advancing my game. I even go so far as to categorize and rank in terms of importance the issues I need to work on. That way, I force myself to tackle my deepest darkest leaks first instead of taking the easy option of dealing with some of the easily solved smaller issues all the time.

Coaching
I do a limited amount of coaching and am happy to help people looking to improve their routine and/or mental game for all forms of poker. I also specialise in coaching no limit hold ‘em theory and practice in cash games as well. In particular, full-ring and 6-max at a small and micro stakes. If you are interested in finding out more about my services, please contact me on Skype (EurekaKid).

EurekaKid

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1. Having to pay a fee when my airline baggage is a little bit over the limit whilst some 400lb fat bloke pays the same airfare?? WTF

2. People who are super anti illegal drugs yet get shitfaced on alcohol every weekend and smoke a pack a day

3. People who are walking down a busy street and just decide to stop without looking to see if anyone is behind them

4. Old people assuming they should get a free ride in all situations because they are old

5. The way organised religion has systematically preyed on the weak and vulnerable for centuries

6. Girlfriends who ask stupid questions that if you gave an honest answer would slap you round the face, yet if you lie say ‘your just lying to make me feel better about myself’

7. Not having a ‘Fat Tax’ yet people who smoke, drink and use petrol are taxed insane amounts – seriously if we are taxing things that damage your health or the environment then why are we letting fat people off???

8. Government not realising that the war on drugs is beyond futile and the only logical thing to do is legalise, educate and tax.

9. Speed limits have essentially not been adjusted in decades yet the improvements in vehicles braking distance and overall safety has increased exponentially

10. The fact that dumb people have more kids than intelligent people predominantly as a result of a messed up welfare system that is going to lead to a reduction in the overall intelligence of the human race.

/rant

Sparky

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Introduction
About a year ago, I wrote what I thought was going to be a chapter in a poker book, offering advice on pre and post-session poker routine. Unfortunately, the book was never published and from what I hear it had a lot of great stuff in it from a bunch of different guest authors. I wrote the piece for free, mostly as a favour to my friends who were working on the book. Additionally, I thought it would be cool to have something I’d written published in a book that people would actually buy. It had never occurred to me that the content I put time and effort into writing would never see the light of day until just recently. Realising this now, I will happily be releasing my chapter over a series of blogs. Enjoy!

Read Part 1a here: Poker Routine – Part 1a: Before You Play

Plan Your Session
A very long time ago I made the decision to come up with a set number of hands or hours for my session and just about always stick to it. The only thing that would prevent me from following through was if I decided the games were bad or that I wasn’t thinking clearly or playing well enough. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know a lot of really talented poker players and one of the biggest flaws I see in their game is the choice to quit early when they win big early and play too long when they get stuck. Logically, you should be playing longer when you are in a great frame of mind and playing shorter when you’re not, so they’re obviously not doing it right. Playing to get unstuck seems to be one of the most fashionable things for a poker player to do, I really suggest your adopt some sort of session volume/time goal in order to avoid the pitfall. If you don’t think you’re a disciplined enough judge to decide when you are playing bad, you may want to consider coming up with a session stop loss.

If you’re playing online, you should also be deciding the number of tables you’re going to grind in the session. Get an idea of how many tables you can handle under different circumstances and stick to it. You’ll avoid playing too many tables in general and also the leak of adding more tables when you get stuck. Don’t be afraid to adjust your standards. Just because you can usually 20 table when you’re at you’re at the peak of your powers, doesn’t mean that you can do it when you’ve had a bad night’s sleep and you’ve been running bad all month. Read the rest of this entry »

EurekaKid

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Yo,

It’s been a while since my last blog, mostly cos my shipment of furniture arrived from the U.K. to Australia which included my computer and it took me 3 weeks to copy over all my bookmarks etc from my laptop to my comp which included the link to write this blog. Yes I really am that lazy sometimes!!

Anyways since my last blog I have bought a home gym which is nothing super baller but more than enough for what I need right now. When I was in college I was really into weight lifting/bodybuilding and was in really good shape around the age of 19, I let it slip over the last few years and for some reason decided to get back into it. It’s been hard work and frustrating not being able to lift any where near the kind of weight I used to be able to but its been a 2-3 weeks since I started back and the initial gains have been very solid. Wehn I was 19 I weighed in at about 70Kg which is roughly155lb I think and I could bench press 100kg (220lb) which is pretty solid, I’m keen to get back to benching the same weight but its realistically going to take me about a year, I would think, even with a pristine diet.

I’ve been playing a ton of poker but still running like garbage , I’ve now busted through the 70 buy-in under EV lifetime on Stars, which is starting to get really annoying, I thought I was gonna boom switch a ton of it back last month when I ran like 20 buy-ins over in a couple of days but the next few days it just did the reverse and I was back to where I started. Sigh.

It’s especially annoying cos I feel like my 6-max game has improved a ton in the last few weeks my EV winrate is hovering between the 1.5-2pt mark whilst 24 tabling 1/2 which is decent imo.

Ohhh almost forgot I boxed a satellite to the ANZPT Melbouren main event a couple of weeks ago, Stars run these $22 rebuy super-duper hyper turbos which I love cos you just get to shove shove shove and as we all know jamming all the monies is the most fun thing in poker so I play those whenever I’m bored in the evening and Kym has one of her crappy shows on TV.

Anyways thats all for the update will try and write again soon, not even gonna reread this before I hit submit so sorry in advance for the spelling mistakes and shitty punctuation!!

Sparky

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Introduction
About a year ago, I wrote what I thought was going to be a chapter in a poker book, offering advice on pre and post-session poker routine. Unfortunately, the book was never published and from what I hear it had a lot of great stuff in it from a bunch of different guest authors. I wrote the piece for free, mostly as a favour to my friends who were working on the book. Additionally, I thought it would be cool to have something I’d written published in a book that people would actually buy. It had never occurred to me that the content I put time and effort into writing would never see the light of day until just recently. Realising this now, I will happily be releasing my chapter over a series of blogs. Enjoy!

­­­Pre & Post-Session Routines by Andrew “EurekaKid” Ferguson

Whether you’re a full-time, part-time or casual poker player, streamlining your poker preparation, play and study through routine is a great way to increase your bottom line. As a poker player, you are your own boss and you have no one dictating standards to you. There’s no expectation to arrive on time, put in a certain number of hours, to stay off facebook, to review your performance… you get the idea. If you’re serious about getting better and the most out of the hours you dedicate to poker, you should consider developing a routine that can be taken a seriously as you would a ‘real’ job.

I’m going to share some of my thoughts, experiences and opinions on poker routine. First though, I want to give brief attention to routine and habit outside the realms of poker. Anything that affects our mental condition is going to influence the way we play and learn about poker. Therefore, we should be giving a lot of consideration to our sleeping pattern, diet, physical fitness levels, social/family life, stress associated with study/work and any other interests outside of poker. To me, the perfect poker routine is complimented by plenty of sleep, healthy relationships, physical activity, getting out of the house/poker room and having interests and releases outside of the poker world. Read the rest of this entry »

EurekaKid

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David ‘LacieK’ Menz will this afternoon compete at the final table of the $1,000 buy-in NLHE event at the Event #4 at Sydney Poker Championships.  We can’t find anywhere that is covering the event live, but as always he will be tweeting his progress. Menz is playing a lot of events in September, he will continue to play all that he can at the Sydney Championships and later this month will be meeting up with the other Life Fish in Melbourne for the ANZPT. David finished 12th in this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event.

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TheLacieK David Menz
Made the cash + final table after some heart in mouth sweats. one of the short stacks with 52k at 2k/4k 5 starting at 4 tomorrow

LifeFish

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