Making a change

If you guys have read my posts on the message board I have had a horrible few months. After getting suck out after suck out I took a few days off from poker...... that didn’t work, I lowered limits….that didn’t work. I went to another site and bonus whored……that didn’t work. So what did I choose to do? The answer is switching games. I have been playing Limit Holdem ring games for 2 months straight with no tournaments except for VPP tournaments. And sometimes you just need a change and have fun. This month when we played Razz in the green chip free roll I had so much fun and decided to take a day and play stud and Omaha high/low. I had so much fun playing those 2 games, made a little money, and got my head straight. I came back to Limit Hold em today with a completely clear head and a new start, and whenever something bad happens to me I am able to truly laugh it off knowing that their bad play will pay off for me in the long run. I have a completely clear head, and I am having fun again. When you stop having fun playing poker it is time for a change. It is just like professional athletes who stop having fun when they play pro sports. If you aren’t having fun playing poker, switch it up. There are so many different games of poker, there are 3 different types of limits of poker, and there are ring games and tournaments. Whenever you start losing your mind in one game switch it up. Poker can either be a grind, or it can be a whole lot of fun, it’s your choice.

Monthly Assessment

How good of a poker player you are can easily be determined by one factor, how much money are you making. If you just play until you go bust, or move money around so much that you don’t know how much you are up or down, you really cannot determine how you are doing playing poker.

There are several ways to keep track of how you are doing; the easiest way is to get Poker Tracker. Poker Tracker has a ton of information that can help you become a better play, especially when you use 300 VPP points and add on PT HUD. But the biggest thing that I take from Poker Tracker is how I am doing at each level of play. After playing for 4 months on Full Tilt I realized that I was getting killed at 6 max tables (actually yielding a –BB/100). I also realized that I had a better BB/100 at $5/10 than at $2/4.

That is one way PT improves your game. Helping you determine what limit and type of tables you should play. But the goal of playing poker (if you want to make any money), is at the end of the month have more money than you started. How can you determine this if you do not keep any records?

Ever since I started to gamble 3 years ago I have kept a detailed record on Microsoft word and spreadsheet. But for the month to month assessment this is how you would go around doing it. Choose a day you want to start recording, I do it on the 1st of every month. You write down somewhere in a safe place that you won’t lose (either on the computer and/or on a piece of paper or calendar), how much you have in each site, neteller, and any other place you have money for poker. You keep track of any money that you have deposited to a bank or withdrew from a bank. Here is a short example.

Month A:
FT 1540.32
Titan 1540.10
Neteller 1850.50
Bank (withdrew money into neteller) -650.00
Add it up and that is month A $4280.92

Month B:
FT 1104.50
Titan 1650.54
Neteller 540.50
Bank (you withdrew from neteller into bank) 2,000 Month B $5,295.54
Month B- Month A = $1,014.62

Good work you are on pace for a $12,000 year. Keep doing this month to month and see if you are meeting your set goal of whatever you want it to be. If you see you are losing money each month, it might be time to lower your limits, or cut out the places and limits where you are losing money. If the goal of playing poker is to make money, you have to start keeping records. Just like at a real job when you get a paycheck each month, think of poker just like that. If you don’t you will never know how good or bad you are really doing.