Pokerlifter's January

Raising Pots

I realise I have only done one monthly round-up on this blog (last September) and that's just not good enough. So I will look to get 2011 off to a good start by rounding up my first month.

So January only saw one major change in my game itself and that was the introduction of three additional tables taking me up to 12. It still remains unclear at this stage if I'm over stretching myself with this amount of tables, it was definitely tricky to accommodate at first but after awhile it does start to feel natural. The benefit of this amount of tables is of course the increased volume I can put through and with this the amount I'm getting back in rakeback will shoot up. I'm currently playing approximately 700 hands per hour which means to hit my monthly target of 25,000 hands I need only grind 35 hours a month. Of course, this is the minimum and in previous months I have been able to grind upwards of double this amount, so all being well I should be in for a massive February...but enough about 'what ifs' let's stick to some facts and talk about January.

Let's look at the tale of the tape:

Hands: 34,268

Hours: 55.87

BB/100: 0.31

$/hour: $0.19

Total winnings: $10.63

Total rakeback: $19.88

Total for the month: $30.51

So, a profitable January and a great way to start 2011. OK, so I'm far from crushing it and 0.31 BB/100 is pretty poor, I really want to be hitting 4-5 BB/100 per month and as yet I have come nowhere near that in any months. I haven't had a losing month since November but have also yet to have a month where I have really crushed the tables. I have however run massively below EV this month so to come out with a profit following the down swing is pretty pleasing. To illustrate, here's my graph for the month (the yellow is my EV whereas the green line is my actual):

So you can see I should have been up ~$55 on the tables.

So, what do I want to achieve in February. Well I want to play 25,000 hands at a profit of 4 BB/100, hands wise this is easily achievable and I believe I have the ability to hit my winrate target too. This will make me $100 and roll me for $10NL. How do I wish to achieve this? Well I want to become more active in the wonderful cardschat.com hand analysis forum - both posting my own hands and studying others. I have also trawled through my database and isolated a few areas where I seem to be leaking dollars and want to see if I can plug some of those. A more longer term objective and not just for February is to get a coach and/or arrange some sweatsession. So, bring on February and see you for a monthly round-up soon.

Lifting Weights

So the poor cousin of my blog hobbies? Yes, very much so. I have had an appalling January for lifting. I seem to have had neither the time nor motivation to hit the gym with any kind of routine. God loves a trier though and boy do I try. I will aim to hit three steady sessions a week in February. That's all.

See you soon!