Baby-steps and Tenacity

I told myself a while back that I would blog regularly, but as I became more frustrated with poker, my desire to write about it was squelched. This blog has been a bit different than most others. I don't post a ton of hands for several reasons. I just enjoy talking more about the psychological aspect and the different stages I go through as a player. I deposited at poker stars 2 months ago and have had mediocre results there. It was a rude awakening, but something I needed. I got really upset one day as I was not playing well at stars and getting outplayed a lot at 5 10, that is a tough game. The regular pros are better there than anywhere else, but its still a beatable game. One day after reviewing hands and picking up on spots I played poorly I got very annoyed with myself and stopped playing for the day. Later that night I thought about an article my friend Ken showed me with Chip Reese talking about Phil Ivey-------- http://pokerworks.com/poker-news/2007/12/10/the-round-table-chip-reese-the-final-interview.html

Reese compares Stu Ungar to Phil Ivey and mentions character as the main attribute that separates the two. Chip goes on to say "Nobody plays perfect every day, but it’s who can consistently do the job every single day and who can manage the adversity when the adversity happens...Phil is a bright kid and he is tenacious, he wants to win, he doesn’t like to lose, and he is a hard worker." Yesterday I was driving to Hooters for my first time ever actually, ha and its really not all that amazing, but I began thinking about my high school tennis instructor. I had a tendency to blow up a lot and get emotional when things didn't go my way. My attitude was so poor. I would break racquets and start fights with the other team. My instructor Eric once told me "only 5% of the time will everything be working perfectly for you, the other 95% of the time, the elite players just find a way to win." This holds very true to poker as well. Many players talk about how they struggle to play their A game consistently. But a good attitude goes a far way. You need that tenacity, the refusal to fall to your knees and admit defeat. I assume this is what makes Ivey the best, hes never going to roll over and die even if things don't go his way, he'll just keep coming at you until he figures out how to win. I lacked this tenacity until recently.

The day I got very upset and stopped playing, I came back later at night and played heads up for 24 hours. Every hour I would take a break and come back in a little. I learned more about heads up that night than any other day in my poker career. Most importantly I understood that you really have to find your own way to the top. You gotta develop and play your own brand of poker. Different strokes for different folks. What works for Ivey might not work for me, and vice versa. After that night and reading this Chip Reese article, I realized I had to manage my life better. 16 days later (today), the fact that I'm awake at 10 am writing this, is a testament to the fact that my attitude has changed immensely. I wrote up a mission statement about what I wanted to accomplish in the next 12 months through poker. There have been a lot of big changes in the last month. I started running a little better and am up around 40k in the last 3 months. Not exactly what I hoped for, but when I step back and look at that last sentence I chuckle a little. 23 years old and 40k in 3 months, lets not complain too much. Last week I got on Ultimate Bet and achieved Icon status in their loyalty program which means they send me to tournaments to represent the site and I don't have to pay for shit. Ha awesome, this is what I dreamt about years ago. I hired a coach for myself and will have my first lesson soon. I had been playing very sloppy poker and decided to do something about it. I will also start coaching up to 1/2 myself now. At my gym, I met with a trainer and hired him. If I start treating my body better, I will play poker at a higher level. New years was the first time I got drunk in 18 days, and I didn't get as drunk as I would have in the past. I'm just flat out living better and managing my personal life for the first time in years. I can either sit around abusing my body struggling to make 100-150k a year or put my mind to this and make something great happen, an epic run to the top of this game. I'm doing everything I can to help myself now for a better future. You know why those pros in the 5 10 stars game are better than me? Its experience, they have more of it and they kept getting back up every time they got knocked down.

I would like to write an article about thin value plays, frequencies, and adjusting to them. I'm still working on fine tuning these aspects of my game. Maybe I'll write something on the topic when I get a better grasp of these things. Keep bluffing.

-Justin