Simple Poker Logic

Just a note to everyone that my coaching rates are going up on the 1st Feb.

Single Sessions – $70/Hr
5+ Bulk Sessions – $60/Hr

I have been thinking of writing a series of workbooks as part of my coaching routine. A lot of my students are in a similar “place” in terms of poker development and I think that having something to work on physically is somewhat underused – in spite of the constant flow of poker learning material available.

At the same time I’m not going to spend weeks on something you guys don’t need want or like so the first one is free to everyone. Email me at soundedsimple@deucescracked.com for the answer sheet when you are finished.

SPL Workbook 1 – 3-Betting Steals QUESTIONS

All I ask is some general feedback and suggestions for topics.

I’m rarely ever giving pokersites much credit and this is probably as much of a PR thing as anything else but hats of to Pokerstars. They are doubling any donation to the the Red Cross in aid of the people of Haiti made through their site.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2010/pokerstars-sets-up-haiti-earthquake-appe-063299.html

I don’t normally go off talking about how good Deuces Cracked is, firstly people know I’m biased and secondly I let the content there speak for itself. But I simply have to make a note of one of the really good developments over there that’s really coming on leaps and bounds at the moment and that is the DC strategy forums.

Mainstream forums (you know where I mean) have become more than a little diluted strategy wise, it’s not just the noob/pro ratio but the fact that many people don’t put enough effort into their games and the better players more or less think “well if you don’t put the effort into learning I’m not putting the effort into helping” – that leads to a downward spiral of rote lines and group-think one-line answers. Then add torrent of low content stuff (fine in small doses but let’s talk cards ffs!) throw in lot’s of epeen measuring and you have a mixture that, for the most part doesn’t give up and coming players the same benefit that some of us benefited from a few years back (I luckily just caught the tail end of the “good days” on a few of the forums when learning myself).

The forums at DC however are much better – a proper learning community environment, the coaches are encouraged to get responding to the threads. In the FR forum hardly a thread goes by that one of us doesn’t pop in with an opinion and in some threads 3-4 coaches chime in with opinions – that’s essentially 100% free coaching. The best thing for those ballin’ on a budget is that you don’t even have to pay membership to the forums. Just join in the community no matter what your stakes, nobody knows nor cares if you subscribe to the video content or not.

Finally if any of you DC members post a question and it drops under the radar feel free to PM me with a link and I will check it out.

So it’s the time of year for taking stock and making some goals.

2009 – Meh

In terms of poker I feel like I’m making progress but not at the rate I ‘d really like. On one hand I managed to make a good chunk of change as a part time player, my HEM database went belly up at the start of Dec but at that point winnings+RB was just under $40k, Dec was a fail with lousy volume and I doubt I hit the $40k at cash games alone. The biggest fail is volume at 270k hands for the year.

I’m probably up another $5-6k in live poker, tournaments etc.  so overall I’m kind of happy.

On the downside I still have not made the leap to 400NL, the worst thing is that I havn’t even had a real shot. I limit myself to a few orbits on a table or two now and then, even though I’m up over the small sample I’m not really confident in game. I think the answer lies in bankroll requirements, my 20bi rule is fine for small stakes but I’m setting a 30bi rule for 400NL+.

Life

Business has been tough, I had a couple of customers go busto on me. One came through with the $, another one I got most through the courts and one may have gotten away but as they say – “It’s a long road there’s no turn on”.

That aside I have tightened up the financial stuff and weathered the storm, I’m pretty confident that in 2010 a lot of the hard work will be paying dividends.

2010 Goals

- Work on mindset and tiltlessness every day.
- Work harder on my game (no more procrastination and random browsing – get it done!!)
- Get the volume up, 1k hands/day average.
- 400NL to be my regular game by May.
- Get back in shape, aim to run 20k of the Belfast marathon (3rd May).
- Hit the weights, back to benching 80kg+ by May.
- Take the girls on a holiday instead of talking about it.
- Learn to cook.

Haha, I like to make things difficult for myself but now these are up there and public I need to get my ass in gear and do them.

Finally

Thanks and GL to everyone I have worked with or discussed poker in 2009.