Lover of trading, tacos, 3D/AR/VR, cryptos, and most things Japanese

#poker #recap #stats
I managed to play a good bit this weekend. In the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday nights, I played 1450 hands, not including a tournament. I took some time off from the tables to do other things, so it wasn’t all poker all weekend. On Saturday I won a satellite tournament into the WPT’s Alpha8 again, but I opted not to play the tourney because I wanted to spend some quality dads time Sunday. Sunday I went to church (I have an interview with them tonight for a Media Director-type position), do a UA, and watch the Broncos game with my son and my dad. It was a good day, despite the Broncos’ loss, and it was nice to hang out with the other Orr men. 🙂

Poker this weekend was about two things: putting in some serious time at the tables, and learning to multi-table. I spent most of Saturday playing, starting with about a seven hour stretch without a break. I noticed that, as I got tired/bored, my play slipped – unsurprisingly. This is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to getting back in the gym this week – get the bod back into shape so I can go longer without getting tired and losing focus. As my time went on without a break, I noticed I started letting emotion into my play more than I do when I’m fresh. I was more willing to gamble too. Part of this stemmed from my building up a decent chip stack and then wagering a larger portion than I normally would on more questionable plays. And sometimes I would make bad calls, knowing I was beat, but still paying off hands. But I recognized this tendency and was aware of it at the time I was doing it, but I kept playing because I wanted to push myself a bit more. All I really needed to do was take a break for a few minutes to refocus my energies. Oh, and I was eating Hot Tamales too and the sugar certainly didn’t help.

The new thing I started learning how to do this weekend was multi-tabling. This is where you play more than one game or table at a time. Some of the pros will have as many as twenty games going at once. Multi-tabling is a great way to see more hands and bypass all the time spent waiting when you’re not in a hand. It also is a more math-based way to play. Since you are playing more games simultaneously, you have less time to learn about your opponents’ tendencies and therefore have a tougher time picking off bluffs. The basic approach is to just wait for premium hands and play them aggressively, essentially playing a NIT/TAG style.

I still prefer to get reads on my opponents, so I only had two games going at once. This let me still get reads on my opponents’ betting patterns and not miss things like “Player X always raises pots, no matter what he has” and “Player Y only plays strong hands, proceed with caution.” I think that if I were to play more tables, my win rate would probably improve as not only would I be playing more hands, but I’d be playing only stronger hands. Since there would be more games going on, I’d have more to focus on and be less tempted to mess around with the more questionable holdings. I’m essentially even on the weekend, having run up my stack several times, but losing some big pots too. I had pocket Jacks (JJ) dealt to me on five occasions tonight, played them reasonably well, and lost every time. On the other hand I’ve had Aces (AA) maybe three times and they held up twice, winning me two big pots and losing me one. Like Doyle Brunson says, “everything can change while those cards are in the air.”

All in all, it was a good weekend of play. I’m even or up a little for my experimentation, which is a lot better than losing, and I’m learning a new facet of the game. I could bet a little better – I definitely lost some value by betting nut hands too strongly and scaring players off. When you have the nuts – the best hand possible – the last thing you want to do is get rid of betters. A few times I’ve gotten greedy, thinking they’d call a raise against me, only to have them fold. If I had just kept letting them bet into me and calling them down, and only raise them on the river, I could have made a bunch more.

Anyway, the stats for my sessions are below. I had a 12% win rate over 1450 hands, which seems to be pretty standard for me. I’m curious to know how these stats compare to the pros, if I’m still playing too many hands, what their win rates are, and where I’m missing value. Time to visit the forums!

Statistics for 1450 Hands

I’ve been forced to learn the lesson of patience quite a bit lately. My time at the hospital has mostly been spent waiting: waiting for privs, waiting for doctors, waiting for school, waiting for the courts. I’m doing everything I can to get out of there as soon as possible, but some things are just beyond my control. This bothers me, as I much prefer to be in control, as I think most do. But the fact of the matter is, I’ve done all I can do, and it is enough.

The waiting game has carried over to my poker play. Yesterday was a prime example. I played a 200 hand session, about 6 hours, and was card dead most of the time. I saw only 29% of flops, and played only 10 hands to the river. Of those, I won 56% and the session ended up being my most profitable yet on Full Tilt – I netted 200k on the day, a personal best since switching to the site. So again the lesson of being patient, waiting for my spots, and then striking when all the stars are aligned payed off. Positive reinforcement at work!

Had I been in a different mindset, more aggressive perhaps, I would have been playing more pots and maybe picking up more with bluffs, but my head just wasn’t in that space yesterday. So I just waited. I waited until I had the best of it, and capitalized on those scenarios. I may have left some value on the table, but I didn’t throw away any.

As in other spots in life, patience has its rewards. I’ve learned to be patient with my family, patient with my son, patient with those I’m forced to interact with every day due to my situation. And being patient, as a patient, is inherently self-referential too and gives my inner geek a bit of a giggle. 🙂

This past week has been somewhat eventful. I met with my new case manager with Arapahoe/Douglas County FCBS since my original one has been reassigned. She is a doctor of psychology and we had a good discussion, going over what’s going to happen with me when I get Community Placement (CP). I’ll meet with her once a week, meet with a therapist once a week, still have to do random UAs, and go to a recovery group once a week too. All on top of finding and keeping a job.

Speaking of jobs, I’m still looking. I received good news from the pastor at Littleton United Methodist Church, where I have applied for a position as a sort of Media Director. This is my sister and brother-in-law’s church that I’ve been to a bunch of times, and have started going regularly after I applied for the position to meet the pastor and get some extra blessings for my job hunt. The position is accepting applications until the 18th and the pastor said she’ll be giving me a call this week, so that’s a good sign. The job listing reads like my resume: web design and development, print, marketing, design, video, and social media skills are required – all of which are my fortes. In the meantime, I’m pursuing other opportunities mainly via LinkedIn. If you know of any openings that I’d be a good fit for, please don’t hesitate to contact me! 🙂

On the poker front, I haven’t been playing as much this week. I was starting to get burned out by all my time at the tables, so I opted to spend much of this week studying instead of playing. I’ve watched dozens of videos on poker math and strategies, as well as a bunch of interviews with top pros to learn what I can from their experience. The poker boom of the mid 2000s is over, due primarily to the economic downturn, and the games are getting tougher. More and more people are doing exactly what I’m doing – taking the time and learning the math, reading the books, doing the work off the tables to improve their games on the tables. I’m still winning, despite not putting in as many hours at the tables. I’m up 300k over the past two weeks, which I’m pleased with. My game has definitely improved and I’m learning how to better deal with the various types of players. Player types will be the subject of a future post.

On the fitness front, I’ve been a total slacker since getting the news my CP had been delayed. It really took the wind out of my sails emotionally and physically, and I know I need to get back to being active more to get back to some sort of better balance in my days. Lately I’ve just been spending my days at Starbucks and I really need to get back to at least doing my regular walks again. My weight loss has stalled and I’ve been stuck around 217 for the last two weeks. My buddy Greg is down to 211, so he’s got the lead on our competition (we made a bet on whether he’d get to 191 or I’d get to 195 first). I’m still down 50 pounds on the year, so I feel good about that, but I need to get my game back in shape and get back to work on that front.

My mom’s 70th birthday party was the other night at Deb and Kevin’s house. It was a very nice get together with most of the whole famn damily and a bunch of mom’s friends. Mom had a good time. She was a bit curious about how people would react to my dad being there too – I have a very untraditional family structure. My mom and dad divorced when I was little, each remarried, and then my mom ultimately ended up marrying one of my dad’s best friends. So I had my birth mom, birth dad, and stepdad who is best buds with my dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece, and even my son and ex-wife Liz put in an appearance.

Speaking of Tom, he only put in an appearance at mom’s because it was homecoming day for him. Unfortunately, his team lost their football game earlier in the day, but he came to the party all dressed up for his date for homecoming that night. They got together, took pictures (coming), went to dinner, and then went to a party at a friend’s house. He ended up coming down with a cold that night and left for home early. 🙁