The Start Of Self Assessment

Hi, I am a young aspiring poker player and I hope producing a blog will be good for many reasons. I want to get feedback and criticism on how I play the game and at times I'm sure I will vent frustration to other people who can sympathise with the bad beats that are part and parcel of the game!

Best to start with a brief introduction I guess. My name is Paul and I'm a second year law student studying at the University of Durham. I started playing poker around 20 months ago, when I reluctantly agreed to play a £4 game with my mates who all knew how to play. Somehow I donked a win and since then I have been hooked.

I started out on Willhill and would consistently make a small profit in the low level SNG's and had a few decent tournament results in the £2.25 MTT's. I also made a tidy sum each night playing 15c/25c cash games. In around 14 months I played a monster amount of hands on Willhill and clocked up around $2k profit (Including all game types).

However, playing on Willhill I picked up a lot of bad habits which I am still struggling to shake off now! These include: -

1) Poor bankroll management. Initially I would play above what I was rolled for, and now I am sometimes reluctant to play what I am rolled for for fear of losing what I sometimes see as personal money rather than poker money.

2) Withdrawing after a decent night. This goes hand in hand with the poor bankroll management. If I make money, I want to keep it, even though if I play with good BR management these profits will be secured.

3) Stopping when running well and moving up trying to recoup losses.

4) Not monitoring effectively enough wins/losses in online/live games. Sharkscope and thepokerdb.com helps, but I don't monitor results closely enough, and I especially don't like to record losses!!

5) Tilting...I guess this is just an inherent flaw in my genetics but I am liable to tilt at times if I am on a bad run. I must find more ways to avoid tilting to improve as a player.

6) Getting in very poor sleep patterns. As the easiest games are late, I often stay up until the early hours of the morning, affecting anything I have planned for the next day.

7) Playing under time constraints. I used to try to slip in a turbo or two in before football training for example, and rushing my game and my hands really didn't help!

Anyway, my game, along with it's multiple flaws, has moved away from Willhill and I now play primarily on Pokerstars and Fulltilt, operating as mainly a SNG player. I think I will continue to prioritise SNG's, perhaps on FullTilt which seems slightly easier, and combine these with some MTT's on Stars for the chance of a big payday. I will dabble in cash for enjoyment at times, but won't grind it out for the time being at least.

My stats for SNG's on Stars and FullTilt are available by searching for 147_star on Sharkscope for these sites, and I think these are fairly encouraging for my first year of turbos. However, one huge tilt on Pokerstars and a general loss at HU SNG's has weakened Stars a little.

Therefore, I will post in my blog to wind down, give myself aims and guidelines for my poker career, and give myself something to work towards. If anybody wants to post something, especially criticism, please do so. I want to get better and that's the only way.

My aims from my initial post are:-

1) DO NOT PLAY HEADS UP SNG'S WHEN ON A LOSING STREAK! This is my biggest weakness and is my least profitable of any form of game. I should stop them all together as I don't have a decent ROI in them.

2) IF I FEEL BAD BEATS ARE AFFECTING MY PLAY, TAKE A BREATHER.

3) MOVE UP TO HIGHER SNG'S. I want to progress from the $6.50 games and move up as my bankroll permits.

4) PLAY MORE SATELLITES TO BIG TOURNAMENTS, I.E. THE SUNDAY MILLION. I want to give myself a chance of winning big and this is the best way to do so.

5) PUT UNIVERSITY WORK ABOVE POKER WHEN I NEED TO. I can't play for just an hour before work as if I lose I will want to win it back. I need to have a few hours set aside for an online poker session.

6) ESTABLISH AN ONLINE BANKROLL. I will try to do this, though I will skim off the top to fund general living costs.

7) READ POKER BOOKS AND FORUMS. I still haven't read a poker book yet but I plan to read all of the major ones and hopefully some specific SNG books to add extra dimensions to my game.

If anybody has read through all of this rubbish, I apologise for the length but once I start writing it's not easy to stop. Plus, the weakness section was extensive!!

Anyway, I will post here as frequently as possible and hope to generate some interesting discussions, most likely by very bad hands I have played.

Cheers,

Paul. (147_star)