No Goals, No Glory?

I started out today with updating my blog. I like to have my blogroll up to date, I’ve updated my Biography and added a “Live Tournaments Schedule” page. I might add the 2006-2008 tournaments one day but it’s going to be hard to dig up the specifics so I won’t promise anything. I’ve removed my 2010/2011 goal pages and that’s mainly because I don’t have any specific big 2011 goals, more on that later.

March started pretty bad with a -$1.400 session on Thursday. I think it would have been better if I didn’t have played at all since I really wasn’t in the mood. Sure that happens more often but normally after 30minutes it feels okay again, this time however I was tired not motivated and those are really signs that you shouldn’t play any poker. It might had something to do with the fact I was really looking forward to the weekend, which was a very pleasant one! On Sunday it was time again to play some more poker and I of course had to play the 5Million Guaranteed Sunday Million! I Started at 19:00 playing the Ultimate Grinders Home Game, 15.326 entries but a really sweet first price. You could win a group poker trip with up to 8 players to Macau, Buenos Aires, EPT Snowfest or Vancouver. I also again decided to play the Sunday Warm-Up for the exact reason they created it, a warming-up 🙂 I added some $5/$10 LHE Cashgames, played my weekly Home Game, Sunday 1/4 Million and 2 Sunday Million Qualifiers.

I managed to score a Sunday Million Ticket in one Qualifier then busted my Home game Tournament quickly again with AA vs KK, which means I didn’t even manage to reach the Final Table in 7 tournaments! The $11, 1000 Seats Guaranteed qualifier for the Sunday Millions lasted exactly 4 hands when I managed to flop a set of queens on a QJ8 board vs T9 and then I busted the Warm-up 200 places before the money which was another frustrating moment. I first lost KK vs 88 which moved me from slightly below average to shortstack. Then I raised 1/3 of my stack with KJ from the Cut-Off and a crazy player shoved all-in, I wasn’t really happy to call but couldn’t really do anything else and lost vs A8o. In the Sunday 1/4 Million I had my Kings running into Aces so at least I could focus on the Sunday Million and the Ultimate Grinders Home Game which was actually the only tournament I really managed to get a decent stack. Unfortunately 66 vs KJs and 99 vs AQs made it another disappointing tournament, earning $27 🙁

The Sunday Million was crazy, 59.128 players paid $215 to create a $11.825.600 Prize Pool. The largest Sunday Million ever and the 5M GTD might have been a bit to cautious 🙂 The Sunday Million was another disappointing event as every time I raised I got challenged and had to fold vs a 3-bet or fold the flop. The times I got a Premium I only picked up the blinds. As a shorty I managed to double up with QQ vs JJ one time then again as shorty I doubled up with 99 vs 66 but eventually busted as #23.866 with KJs vs 88. I had already quit my cashgames as Tournaments just tilt the hell out of me. I don’t really think it affected my play in the tournaments as looking back I didn’t do anything stupid but it did affect my Cashgames. I paid way to much attention at my tournaments and the 8-12 cashgames I was playing just didn’t get the attention they deserve. The results showed that as well, losing $575 in only 1.200 hands. I was smart enough to already close them down at 22:00 since I noticed I wasn’t paying enough attention so after busting the Sunday Million I went to bed early.

The conclusion is basically the same as last week, tournaments are not my game. I love them and I think it’s the most fun variant of poker but wow do I hate the variance in them! I have no problems with the variance in cashgames but I have so much respect for tournament players. Busting before you are ITM almost every event is frustrating but even busting in like 11th place can be unbelievable frustrating, especially to somebody who tries to make a living out of them. You often see a lot of players with hardly any results on the Final Table of big events and seeing that would tilt the hell out of me if I would bust just before the big money every time. It’s just something so different from cashgames where the long run will always make sure the bad players lose. When I lose a flip or even Aces in a cashgame I shrug, when I lose a flip in a tournament I think “why me” and when I lose Aces I feel like puking. I want to keep playing tournaments but once a month is really more then enough, I might change it to “tournaments” only evening so I have a bigger sample size and might win something in the smaller events.

Yesterday I was happy I could get back to playing something I know I can beat! My “evening” session was pretty good but I was unlucky in the last 30 minutes going from +$500 to -$150. I had a break, watched “V”, had some food and sat back in. Most tables were pretty good and I was just focused on one thing, playing my best. I had great music to listen to, the Pacha NYC Podcast and everything connected. When I was up $1.200 I got 2 outered for a $460 pot and I wanted to be sure to quit when I was still up a nice amount, so promised myself to quit when I got below the $750 profit. I got close to quitting but I managed to grind it back and I finished my session winning $1.360. Needless to say it was a great session and I hope to keep it going when I get back to the tables tonight, I’m still a little down for the month so there is work to do!

One thing however keeps hunting me this year and that is the fact that I don’t really have any goals this year. Sure I have a poker goal, getting 600.000/700.000 VPPs, winning and player some Live events but it ain’t something I can hold on to like SNE. Also because the goal is not as big as last year I don’t really feel challenged. I exactly have the same thing with cycling. In five weeks I have to cycle 65km while last year I did the 100km which was a pretty tough challenge. It’s been perfect weather over the last week and a half but I’m just not motivated enough to get out and do what I have to do. I did sign-up for a 110km race in the first week of May but the course is flat so it ain’t that hard either. I’m really thinking about some fun challenges. There is only one way to change this and that is to just set a date, create a challenge and do it. I’m going to think about it but that is what I’ve been doing the last 3 months, maybe it ain’t that bad to relax a little more this year as last year was kind of crazy.