New Month

With 4 days to go in January I was up ~ $22k. I lost $4k on that day, and so snap quit for the month on $18,633. Woohoo.

Hmm, except it doesn't really tell the whole story. I did much better at higher stakes, and ran a full $12k over EV. My EV bb/100 for the month is only 2.93, 55k hands played.

Whatever, I'll take it. I'm a big believer in money coming to money, and my complete lack of bankroll was hindering my confidence and ability to play 400nl+ comfortably. After a withdrawal to cover essential bills and debts (I always pull out a month like this just when I need it) my BR stands almost exactly at $20k.

I did play pretty well for most of it until some leaks started to creep in. Those leaks are kinda intangible though and so fairly easy to fix:

• Playing without fish. I got so cocky that by the end I was just trying to destory every reg, starting 4 new 400nl Euro tables at once. I do think it's important to start the odd table, but one the whole having money across 3 sites (Will Hill imminent, got a good RB deal from Matt) means I can afford to be choosy when I'm happy to play only 3 through 6 tables.
• Lack of intensity. The money stopped mattering. Something Ashton said to Galfond the other day on twitter, something along the lines of 'you must completely convince yourself that the money REALLY matters, that it's SUPER important to win.'. I remember Aaron saying about playing Ashton HU back in the day, he just got the feeling that Ash wanted it so much more than he did, and that he just had this intensity about him. I have that intensity when playing well, I need to keep it up in Feb.

I've had a bit of an epiphany about balance again, but it's important I don't overdo it. The first thought should always be to exploit, but then think about how to do this in a balanced fashion. Example, player X folds a ton to 3bets. We need to exploit this, but we're dealt J3s. Fold it, wait for J8s. We've expanded our bluff 3bet range to exploit, but we should still be letting the cards randomise our actions.

I could harp on about balancing forever, but I feel like it's one of those things I understand better in my head now than I could put into words. It's main effect on my play though is to ensure I'm never making bluffs without actually having enough identically played value hands in there as well. So when I'm about to bluff, it makes for the amazing habit of thinking the hand through and realising 'oh shit, I would've done X with a value hand there, I can't bluff'. I'm also never sizing my bets for value or bluffs VS regs where my sizing wouldn't be identical with the opposite type of hand (when betting, I decide on a value bet size, then I decide a bluff size, then I average the two in almost every spot).

It basically keeps my aggro side in line, whilst allowing me to get completely out of line in spots where I previously never did.

So in summary, gameplan for Feb:

Play VS fish.

Have intensity.

Exploit, be mindful of balance, don't overdo it.

????

Run over EV again.

Profit!

Hope everyone is well. People should talk to me on skype more I get poker lonely.

dan