Raising Pots
Big week for Pokerlifter this week. Like a phoenix from the flames I raised myself out of $2NL and ascended to the dizzy heights of $5NL. That's right, grind after grind for the last few months culminated in my bankroll hitting $150 giving me 30BIs for $5NL! Yes, I've gone up in limits. Let me talk you through the events that led up to this. Following 2 big winning sessions on Sunday and Monday my BR total in my spreadsheet changed colour (the delights of conditional formatting) telling me that I was rolled for the next level. Cue excitement and trepidation in equal measure. So, I wasn't going to move up initially and I just going to continue at $2NL to ensure that it was my game improvements that had led me here and not just a big heater. However, following some posts on the wonderful cardschat.com I was told that staying at the lower limit was equally as stupid as playing a limit too high for you, so with a wobble in my step and a quiver in my voice I loaded up the $5NL tables and got stuck in. It was strange to see the pot sizes double what I'm used to and was scary at first and losing a few early pots really knocked my confidence. But Pokerlifter regrouped, told himself that he can do it and not focus on the sums of money. They're not important. Play your game and get your money in good and don't be nervous. So, I'm really happy with how the rest of the week panned out. I had some great sessions and played some big hands well (some not so well) but on the whole my fist week at $5NL has been highly successful. I'm keen to temper my enthusiasm with the realisation that I'm running ever so slightly ahead of EV and that there is always a downswing lurking around the corner. However, in the words of Doyle Brunson, "That's Poker folks". I just need to control my emotions at the table and avoid going tilt monkey.
So, the all important tale of the tape:
Hands: 9,173
Hours: 23.05
BB/100: 7.43
Total Winnings: $48.17
Total Rakeback + bonus: $0.87
Total of the week: $49.04
$49.04! Yes, you don't need to adjust your screens. I made a staggering $49.04 this week. $13.34 came from $2NL and $34.83 from $5NL. All this success at the tables resulted in something extremely important happening this week. Pokerlifter became a profitable player. That's right in my poker career since August 2009 I have played a total of 80,119 hands raking in profit of $60.32. This does only equal a very measly 0.96BB/100 however it's important to understand just how important this profit, however small, is. ~90% of players lose money. This blog and all the hard work I put in is to ensure that I am in, and that I remain in, that 10%. You can do this Pokerlifter. We believe in you.
Lifting Weights
I hit this week with renewed vigour for lifting weights. Vigour which is often hard to sustain by 2:30pm when you have woken at 4:30am for a 6am start. However, I was determined to book in my gym time and to start my 100 push-ups challenge. Shock horror I did both. Yes, I managed to get down the gym, albeit it with a lack of structure, and I managed to complete week 1 on the push-up challenge. What is this 100 push-up challenge you ask? Well take a look at this website (www.hundredpushups.com) and give it a go yourself. The idea is that you start of small, week 1 is fairly straight forward, and each week a few more are added as you get stronger. I did this earlier in the summer and did very well with it and the increased strength and definition in my shoulders was very noticeable. However, as is too often the case it fizzled out and after a few false starts at week 4 I decided the only way was to start from scratch. Week 2 starts on Tuesday as tomorrow will be a standard gym day and I'm not doing the gym and push-ups on the same day. So the gym this week revolved around my favourite compound exercises (Squats, Deadlifts, Military Presses, Bench Presses and Bent Rows) with the idea of just building and maintaing all round body strength. I need to get some structure in to my sessions so that I am able to actively record and monitor progress. Watch this space as it is on my to do list and should hopefully make this section of the blog a lot more readable.
Until next time...
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