Eye of the tiger

Raising Pots

I started my February grind this week, missed the first few days of February as I was away in my beloved in Cornwall. I approached this week with the same enthusiasm that I ended January with, a desire, commitment and belief to really start making some progress, I've played for too long now at the same limit style and decided it was time for some changes. Nothing major or indeed ground breaking but just stick a cork in a few leaks and play a little more aggressively. I'm far from a passive player and can sometimes be too aggressive but I needed to find the line between controlled, well timed aggression and being a total spew monkey which can sometimes happen! Looking through my database, which is something I have only really recently started to do properly I noticed a few interesting things. When 3 betting preflop my BB/100 is a staggering 216.50 yet I only 3 bet 2.20% of the time...very low. Now clearly this is high as I'm only 3 betting the premium hands but unles there's a showdown, who's to know what you're 3 betting right? So I decided to introduce a more aggressive approach to my pre-flop play by 3 betting more and isolating limpers more. Also, I discovered to my horror I was playing a far too 'fit or fold' stlye of poker post flop so have also made some changes here - c-betting more and barrelling scare cards. An aggressive approach is certainly high variance but I think it's another gear that needs to be added to my game and I should switch more freely between being tight and aggressive and looser, certainly in position.

So, the tale of the tape:

Hands: 11,299

Hours: 15.72

BB/100: 1.02

$/hour: $0.73

Total winnings: $11.48

Total rakeback: $0

Total for the week: $11.48

Another profitable week to the tune of two buyins and with a 13th place finish in yesterday's Cardschat tournament this all amounts to one thing...I'm approximately $1 short of where I want my bank roll to be for $10NL. Very exciting - I wanted to hit this by month end so all being well should be able to get there a little earlier.

I discovered also this week that I have, metaphorically speaking, been 'leaving a lot of money on the table' by not opting in and taking part in Full Tilt's Ironman promotion. In a nutshell you need to earn a certain number of points each day for either 15 or 20 days of that month. If achieved you get bonus points and cash bonuses every six months. As I have started late for February I now need to play on 14 of the remaining 15 days of February to qualify. Quite a grind but can see no reason why I can't achieve it.

Lifting Weights

No gym work this week. Back down the gym first thing tomorrow morning. Starting to feel sluggish with the lack of exercise now but can hopefully turn a corner this week.