Steep Learning Curve

Apologies for the lack of updates, but 2013 seems to have just flown by, it seems only days since the grind for supernova began on Jan 1st.

The grind is going a lot slower than expected, I was ahead of schedule on Jan 1st, but since then I have slowly been falling behind the pace. This was to be expected as I knew that at some point I would have to move up to 50NL to have a chance of reaching my goal. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of VPP per hand being approx 20% lower. This has put me further behind schedule than I had planned for, so I will need to up the grind or move to 50NL quicker.

The other option is to add some 10NL zoom tables, however I would rather not do this until I am winning at a constant level at 25NL. I am currently down at the tables overall on the year by a few buyins, so I don't think it would be a good idea to add tables while I am not in profit pre rakeback.

I managed to play just under 100k hands in January which is the most I think I have played in a month before and I am on schedule to play about the same this month. My losses at the tables have really come down to about 6 to 7 days losses. In Jan I did manage to have 1 day where I was 13 buyins down, which was really annoying that the time as I was winning at about 5bb/100 until that particular day. It was just one of those days where I was running KK into AA and when I had AA, KK was sucking out. I also manage to have 3 top sets vs lower sets where they rivered quads after all in the money had gone in on the flop or turn.I did also manage to hit quad 9s on a QQ9x9 board where the villain had flopped quads and played it perfectly when all the money went in on the river.

The one bad thing about grinding is that there are many days where you just don't feel like playing, are tired, or just are generally in a bad mood, I have had a few days like this and have tilted 4+ buyins off. Its these days that I need to take note of and learn by my mistakes. I am not sure what to do, ideally I still need to play, but I need to be very mindful of my mood and if I detect any sort of adrenaline going or see myself 4 bet bluffing in a stupid spot, I need to force myself to stop straight away. It might be wise when these days happen that I do stop playing and use the time for studying instead, at least then some useful poker activity will be happening !!

The other addition to the learning curve I need to adjust is playing pissed after the quiz on Thursday nights. It was unfortunate at the end of last year and at the start of this year I had a few small winning sessions when I was doing this, which gave me the false reasoning that 6 pints of Winona does not effect my play or judgement at all, the last two Thursday nights with a total loss of about 10 buyins has proved this to the contrary !!! I def need to stop playing. I still have about £30 in one of my iPoker accounts, so I might just force myself to play some 1c/2c 6 max on there if I want to blow some steam off when I get back !!

One thing I am pleased is that I am studying a bit more, still nowhere near as much as I would like and I am not yet posting hands on forums etc like I should. I decided to buy leak buster and it immediately identified some critical leaks in my game which I have started to adjust, it did spot quite a few leaks that I knew I had and even tell myself while I am playing that I am doing it, but still carry on. Hopefully I can keep ironing them out one by one and get my game more consistent.  I still have a massive leak in paying people off to much when I know I am beat, I still can't help myself calling with my big hands knowing full well he has the exact hand I have put him on, its almost if I have to call to prove that my hand reading skill is spot on !!! as I watch the pot go his way and I say "I knew he had that"

Been a bit of a long post, hopefully won't be as long until the next one.

Goth.