Honesty in poker, a self analysis....

Obviously a large part of improvement in this game of poker we love so much is a good healthy and honest, self-assessment as we go along. I frequently run small sample sized runs of ten games or so, and then evaluate my performance based on the results. I personally find it’s a better test of my abilities and capabilities as they are at the moment, to plan the evaluation period. Rather than just look back and see where I’ve been. I liken this to exam time back in school.

Knowing full well that I could not play every single event for one very important reason, (SLEEP !) I decided to make the BBT3 an evaluation process for the current state of my game. And since Al would already be doing all the hard work for me, in keeping up with all of the stats for every player in the damn thing, it seemed a no-brainer to use the event as a study on my play over the three months. So all I had to do was set a few goals and play my ass off. Seems easy enough!

So how’d I do?

My first goal :
Knowing how many games I would have to miss, finish in the top 50% in points.

Result :
I played in exactly 40% of the games throughout the BBT3 and I finished in the top 12% in points, averaging about 27 points per game played.

Analysis :
At first I went with how the numbers can be skewed because of the number of players that only played 2 or 3 times. This gives me a better result, despite how few games I actually played in the series. But in all honesty, as I look at the players around me in the standings that played 5, 10, 20 and even 30 more games than I did over the entire thing, I’m pretty damn proud to have finished so high. As points were awarded to the top 25% of the players in every game and I finished up in the points in just about 50% of the games I played in, I’ll give myself a B+ here and tell myself to work harder on not making the mistake of re-steal attempts. This is the one true reason I didn’t do even better. Too many times I let my ego cloud my judgment and I just wouldn’t lay down a hand when I thought I was being robbed.

My counter-measure for this leak :
It doesn’t matter if you’re being robbed, if you’re holding nothing to steal.
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My second goal :
Do well enough to make it a freeroll.

Result :
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!

The 23 games I played including MATH’s, Skillz, Mookies and Riverchasers, cost me an average of $5.25 each. I was actually freerolling for some time there along the way, but the last three weeks saw me play a few more games than I already knew I should have. Including three in a row in back-to-back weeks. Playing that late and getting up at 4:30am everyday, was just a re-donk-ulous decision on my part.

Analysis :
I don’t care how you slice it. $5.25 / game is less than ½ price. But is that a good thing? In order to find out, I needed to create a comparison. But that pretty tough, when you don’t know what games at what price, everyone paid. So I thought it over and decided to take a look at it, as if everyone only played the $11 games. It’s not realistic of course, but it is a form of measure that will give me some idea of how I stack up against a few random players I pick to measure myself against. For the record, (read : not to piss anyone off or even worse! Boost up anyone’s ego too high!) I decided to pick players near me in the points and several others who’s games I have a great deal of respect for.

So at an average of $11 / game, the numbers come out like this;

Bam-Bam -$3.95 / game
Cemfredmd - $7.60 / game ( 1 ahead of me in points )
PushMonkey -$3.37 / game ( 1 behind me in points )
Surflexus +$2.27 / game
Corron10 +$17.05 / game
Crackenaces -$0.83 / game
RaisingCayne -$4.09 / game
Bayne_s +$6.65 / game

Since my goal was to freeroll this thing at worst and considering the number of final tables and in the points results I actually achieved, my grade for this has to be a D. I just didn’t get paid enough for the results. That shows I have a leak and I’d have to say it was being too careful, (read weak!) around the money bubbles.

My counter-measure for this leak :
I need to stay focused on the game at these points, rather than on the results. I analyzed my HH’s at both the points bubbles and the money bubbles and found the exact same thing. I was folding good solid hands, in the hopes that others would screw up before me. Thus allowing me to squeak into both the points and the cash. This is a brutal flaw! I do not want to have done all this analysis for nothing. Going forward, I will play the game and pay better attention during these sessions, in order to improve my position in the standings, rather than “maintain,” where I am at the moment.
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And finally, my third goal was to be in the points in 50% of the games I played.

Result : I was in the points in 44% of the games I played.

Analysis : I was a Donkey for playing all three games near the end there. Tired, un-focused and so far from the right frame of mind. I give myself a C+ here, only to be hard enough on myself to get the message to sink in.

My counter-measure :
Check my ego and my friendships at the door and only play poker during one of these studies, when I’m at my best. The other results tell me quite simply, that my best isn’t even good enough right now! Why the hell would I want to sit down and play when I’m not even that good?

In an ever optimistic glass is half full kind of way, I do want to leave here with a positive of sorts. I looked at the breakdown of the games I played over this time period, and I was pleasantly surprised to see my results in the hold’em games over all. This game continues to be my nemesis, as it’s clear I’m not catching up with the very talented players out there in these BBT events. I expected all of my points, cashes and better results, to come solely from the non- hold’em events. I based this on my experience in the games available over the series. Surprisingly, maybe some of the help I’ve gotten from friends and the lessons I’ve learnt over the last year is all starting to actually kick in! My results in hold’em were very +EV for the expectations going in.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….