Summer Solstice Status...

Feel like I’ve made some progress since my last entry. May was a tough month, as I barely broke even, courtesy of a win on May 31st that put me in the green by about $40. Wish I could blame it on luck, but alas, the lackluster results have still been a result of my play.

So, I decided to go the route of hiring a coach to help with my game – in this case, James “SplitSuit” Sweeney, who focuses on fullring and plays at or around the level I’m currently trying to master. We’ve had some interesting conversations, and he’s clearly highlighted a couple of aspects of my game that I've needed to adjust – primarily related to being a little less aggressive in certain instances, so that I’m willing to set mine a little more frequently, flat 3-bets more in position and call OOP versus steals in instances where I’m ahead of the steal range, but potentially dominated by the villain’s continuation range versus a 3-bet.

These adjustments took some getting used to, but I feel like I’m getting more comfortable playing pots post-flop because of them, as opposed to settling everything on the basis of two cards. It’s also forcing me to work on my hand-reading, as identifying opportunities to steal pots vs. letting go based on perceived ranges becomes more critical for success in that environment.

Even with these improvements, I still feel that my biggest leak has been in taking marginal, one-pair type holdings too far – either by not getting away from them earlier in the hand, or by willing to put too much in the middle pre-flop with hands like AK or QQ. I’ve been extremely critical of myself in identifying spots where I should have folded AK vs.a 4-bet when I had strong feeling the opponent had aces, and in putting too much money in the pot when checkraised on the flop, just in case my opponent happened to be bluffing. It seems that my default reaction to a strong play is “this guy might be full of it” – but putting these suspicions to definitive rest has cost me entirely too much money in the past.

So, while the progress has been slow, I do feel that I’m getting there. Yesterday may have been the culmination of that sense of developing discipline, as I grinded for a few hours with no noticeable result, while folding several TPTK type of hands early against strength – only to later benefit from a run resulting in my largest single-session win ever (over 6.5 buy-ins). In the past, I would never have seen that result, because I would have been in the hole to the tune of 3 or 4 buy-ins before starting the recovery. It’s amazing what an effect not losing your chips in the first place can have on your overall winrate.

As an interesting aside, I was at a table with Chris Moneymaker for one of the $50 buy-in events on Sunday, and nearly busted him. Alas, all of the money went in preflop with my aces vs. his jacks, but he spiked a jack on the flop, leaving me on life support. Considering it was extremely early in the tournament, and – if I recall correctly, a 5-bet pot – I was a little surprised he was willing to get it all in with jacks in that spot. But then again, he’s got a main event bracelet, and I’ve got nada, so…

Current Bankroll: $18,680.87
Month To Date: 42,670 hands; up $555.65; 1.30 bb/100
Year to Date: 329,222 hands; up $4,398.35; 1.38 bb/100