Review Post!

Well I decided to do the review post now so I get it out the way and can have a poker free day tomorrow, without it consuming my mind!!

Firstly, I'll deal with some thoughts on the week:

- I felt I brought my A game to every single session and certainly grew with confidence as the week went by. I am now entirely comfortable with my game, I feel pre-flop I have learnt a substantially, just by the sheer volume of hands and I now feel capable of making the optimum decision time after time. On the post flop front, there is always room for improvement and I think every poker player in the world always has the potential to learn. However, again, I seem to be developing new levels and dimensions of thinking and my bet sizing has developed to the point where I automatically plan a hand, without thinking "oh shit, let's plan", it just sort of fits e.g. bet sizing in accordance with finding a shove on the river etc etc or read based plays

- I certainly want to play more live poker as I feel I can pick up more reads even online so transferring that ability to live may well give me the potential to take down some live scores!

- On the Stars front I have reached a decision I think. I believe I am +EV in the tournaments I enter, thus, on a purely mathematical front it would be stupid to surpass that opportunity. Further, despite the fields entailing high variance it also means any final table is pretty damn lucrative and certainly to what is still a relatively small roll. That said, despite my average buy-in being kept down (too the point where I was a bit of a BR nit), it may not be wise to enter such a "high" buy-in tournament on Stars. I think, instead, what I'll do is stick to the $5.50s and $11's on Stars, allowing me to incorporate some of the $33s into my game on the Euro sites, as well as reducing the impact of variance from Stars on the roll.

- Generally I am pretty pleased with the amount of volume and effort I put in. I could have perhaps played a few more tournaments in all honesty but I had a friend with me on a couple of occasions so I didn't want to get to engrossed in the games and seem unsociable (we still maintained a conversation at the time of grinding lol). Nonetheless, its about enjoyment as much as results so that was fine with me.


Right, onto the eagerly anticipated figures for the week:

- Tournaments played = 97

- Total Buy-In = $1191.45

- Average Buy-In = $13

- Total Cashes = $2242.45

- Net Profit = $1051

- Cash % = 19.6%

- ROI % = 88.2%


Obviously that is a rather encouraging and satisfying set of figures. I am extremely pleased with the way the week has gone and it probably couldn't have gone better (I won't be too greedy and whine about the odd example!).

As I said in a new year post, if I was to set a financial target for 2010 it would be to achieve a $10,000 roll by the year end. Given its the 01st March on Monday and thus less than one third of the way into the year, I am doing well. However, I don't feel I have hit the inevitable downswing or any long period of running bad so inevitably there will be fluctuations. That said, the volume will severely reduce from this point forward, until June. I have arguably the most important three months of my life coming up and I really need to regain focus on what, essentially, really matters. There won't be any weeks like that unfortunately but I'm hoping to be able to lead a balanced life so I can at least put in a few sessions when time permits in March. As of 01st April I will be self-banned until exams finish at the end of May. My intention is then to play full-time for the entirety of June, as there will be no financial pressure to get a job.

Something that has been playing on my mind is the option of withdrawing some and enjoying the reward for my efforts. There is nothing material that attracts me right now, I would much rather invest the money in doing something with my girlfriend or going away with mates, but when it comes to the latter I seem to spend more of my life talking about doing than actually doing it! Either way, I won't make any rash decisions on it and hopefully let the roll grow to the point where taking a substantial amount out won't hurt so much. Come the summer I'll look at it.

Anyway, I have rambled enough but it will be the last post in a while so make the most of it!

Just finally, I did make a small withdrawal today to pay for a forthcoming trip to Europe with the Mrs for our anniversary. I paid for the plane tickets so thought I may as well let poker reimburse me for that!!

As a result, the roll now stands at $4986.77 and I look forward to hitting the tables again soon! For a now, I'm drained!

GL in the Sunday Majors all, run goot one time!