Cash Games:

I just wrapped up my best month at the online cash tables since I began playing 6-max back in August. I wound up winning 17 buy ins for the month. I also crossed the 10,000 hand plateau for the first time in the 4 months I’ve been playing.

I feel good about November’s results primarily because I feel good about my game. I’m confident that my cash game is in a better place today than it was when I started writing this blog back in October. I’ve continued to examine both my game and myself during this time. Doing so has helped me identify a couple of leaks, both in game play and in what I’m bringing to the table. I believe both have made a difference in my bottom line.

One of my early concerns which I voiced in a prior writing of this blog was that the size of my winning days were being dwarfed when compared to the size of my losing days. I wrote that I felt strongly that it was an issue of variance. I had examined my hand histories and really saw no difference in my play when my stack began to grow at a table. When examining November’s results I’m pleased with what I see. I believe that my suspicions about variance being the culprit were correct. My daily’s came in at 19 wins and 7 losses. I booked 6 winning days for better than 2 buy ins vs. only 1 losing day of more than 2 buy ins. I’ll be sure to re-examine this again at the end of December.

Looking forward I can’t forecast what December will allow in terms of available time to devote to poker. My life remains chaotic and I may not be able to put in as much time next month as I did in November. My #1 goal will be to try to play my best whenever I sit down, hopefully good results will follow.


Tournaments:

My results have been overall to the positive since I began dabbling in tournaments back in late October after having taken several months off. Unlike my cash game, I am not happy with where I am regarding the online tournament experience. This isn’t actually a function of my game play but more so a factor of my current real life situation. Of late I’ve begun buying into tournaments when I really shouldn’t be due to time constraints and life responsibilities. My strong desire to play has been winning the battle much to my own detriment. What invariably has been happening is I wind up constantly distracted and I’m probably playing sub optimally and often times I’m not focused on playing at all. With cash games this is no problem whatsoever, you just click sit out or you cash out depending on what pops up in your life. With tournaments this is quite frankly terrible, and something which I must stop doing.

So my tournament goal for December will be to only play when I can give it proper focus and attention. It looks like I might be free and clear to play on Saturday the 1st of the month. Hopefully I can play a bunch of events throughout the day and just enjoy the experience, results be damned.


Live Play:

Last I played live was at the main event at the Borgata Summer Open. It’s been 6 long months since I’ve seen a real deck of cards, way too long. There are WSOP circuit events coming up at Harrah’s AC in December. The World Poker Tour comes to the Borgata in January. I am going to see if I can somehow find time to make it to Atlantic City to play at one or both of these venues. I much prefer Atlantic City in the warm weather but beggars can’t be choosers and I would really like to play live again sometime soon.


And Lastly, the Football Giants:

I’ve mentioned my favorite football team twice in my blog in anticipation of an upcoming game and both times they stunk out the joint. Watching last weeks debacle against the Vikings was painful to say the least. The last few seasons under the Manning/Coughlin regime have begun with such promise and ended with sloppy uninspired football. I hope the Giants show up and play their “A” game at Chicago this week. If they finish out their schedule without another historic collapse they should easily grab the 5 seed in the playoffs which could lead to a winnable 1st round road playoff game which would then likely set up the 3rd meeting of the year against the Cowboys who last night all but locked up the 1 seed with their win against Green Bay.

I choose not to play the online Sunday events so I can watch the NFL. I hope the Giants will reward that decision by playing some good inspired football as the season winds down. Last thought on this weeks game in the Windy City, please don’t kick the ball to Hester, he’s a total game breaking freak.


-Doyle-

EdmondDantes says

Nice post, DT. Sound like you're taking a pretty thoughtful approach to your game. But, good lord, man...the Giants? Liking the Giants is like having a "favorite" hand like JTs. It's ok...I guess...but don't get too invested with it when faced with real opposition!

11/30/07

Anonymous says

I am also suffering from Manningitus.

11/30/07

Mr_Taterhead says

Nice post Doyle. I sure wish my poker month consisted of me winning 17 BIs instead of -2 BIs. Just blame everything regarding the Giants on Tiki. It's always his fault say the NYorkers.

At least your not a JETS fan.

Good Luck next month.

11/30/07

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