Task-Force Zoom

Next week my first goal will be to go to the doctor (they all have a huge lunch break, so I'll call there asap), because the main thing must be to get well again (feeling bad for a pretty long time just suxx hard)

Moreover I have to choose whether I have enough motivation to write another exam or not (21.03.).
I want to play at least one top A-game session with warmup/cooldown and want to watch 2vids (with a pen in my hand!!) and want to work through two more points in SF's productivity guide.

Time for a next update and I really can't be satisfied with last week...
Well, first the good thing... I managed to go to the doctor. He gave me some antibiotics and wanted me to take them for a couple of days (just took the last one of them).

So, as you can imagine, I was still really ill during the last week and didn't do anything like joggin/walking/whatever after getting up (I'm fine with this, let's use this bad cold as an excuse...).
I played a couple of sessions and focused on having a Warm-up, but always forgot about the cooldown (because I played too long and just got too lazy/sleepy to do it)

I didn't manage to work on SF's guide (Shame on me!) and just watched one vid (using notepad/no pen, but that should be fine).

I decided to not writing the last exam btw:)

Pokerwise this week was incredibly swingy... From TUE-THU I lost something between 15 and 20 BI's on zoom500, got a lot of setups, badrun and started bluffing too much ("well, I 3bet, he calls, I got to barrel"... this type of hands. GJ at the guys calling me down with secondpair no kicker-.-)

I took one day off and was talking to a guys who is playing the regular tables on different sites and always told me how tough zoom500 is in comparison. So I gave it a try again... reactivated my FullTilt and Partypoker account and started grinding 6tables NL400-1k with good tableselection. I felt incredibly comfortable with always one fish at the table and got on a great upswing. ( I think I just need 1 or 2k more to have the zoom losses chased:) )

so, goalsetting again is pretty easy:
watch 2 vids and take notes
visit bootcamp coaching ( I'll try to go to football-training TUE/THU (yes, I feel better now), so I hope the coaching will be recorded again)
keep on warming up before session. Invent some kind of nice cooldown
Work on SF's guide as I wanted last week

Hey

How has the NL1K/2K Zoom tables effected 500?

well, haven't played a zoomhand since NL1k+ was released
What I see when looking at the pools that some of the really good regulars just play 3tables zoom500 now and add one NL1k table.

But don't think that there is a huge effect on how the pool is made up.

Originally posted by alderfalder
keep on warming up before session. Invent some kind of nice cooldown

Hey alderfalder !

My name is Erik and I'm focusing on the mental side of the game. Tilt, A-Game, Mindset, and Lifecoaching etc.

I have a ton of experience creating warm-up/cooldown routines for players. What does your current routines look like?

Cheers!

Hey Erik,
at the moment while only playing 6 tables I mark a lot of spots each session.
-hands I want to have a look at again and maybe discuss with other players
-hands I got in tough spots
-hands my opponents played in a weird/nonstandard/exploitable way

Directly after a session I'm not in the right state to have an analytical view on these hands, because I still have the thoughts in my mind I had when playing them.
So I made this my Warm-Up-Routine. I take as much time as it needs to have a look at these hands and note a lot of stuff/post hands/whatever.

I'm pretty fine with this kind of stuff, because after doing it I feel well prepared for playing at the tables.

For Cooldown I struggle a bit to find something useful to do. As I said I don't want to do any kind of analytical stuff, because I'm still too much in the session directly after playing.
Moreover I think your feelings when starting a session are more or less the same every time (if you don't have some kind of accumulating tilt problem^^), but after a session feelings can be very different. There are some reasons for stop playing:

-You don't feel comfortable at the tables anymore (just regs/no fish e.g.) and quit
-You need to do some other stuff but would actually prefer grinding (e.g. mum coming home and wants you to help anything)
-The "session time" you set before is over
-you kinda tiltquit

-The "session time" you set before is over

This is the the way it should be in theory. You plan a session, you do your warmup, you play, and you stop playing at a certain time.
But as we all know it's hard to do it like this in practice.

Putting the things together I'm sure it's pretty hard to find a cooldown-routine which fits to all kind of session-endings. If you have a lot of experience I'd like you to list a few possibilities (I'm not a creative person^^) and maybe have some ideas about the problem I tried to describe above.

I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and am sure there will be some good stuff in your next post:)

Hi alderfalder,

I am always struggeling of whats more profitable.. normal ringgames or zoom.

I feel comfortable at playing 4 tables at zoom and can grind a lot of hands/h. At ringgames I am also playing 6-8 tables at most and with table-selection etc I reach only 50-60% of hands/h compared to zoom. But I think zoom is way tougher and its harder to move up, so maybe its not the ideal way.

Are you playing on different sites or still stars?

Will be interesting how you compare the different games in 1-2 weeks with a bit sample at normal tables. Maybe I also give a try next days.

Gl!

Hey honky (still love this name^^)

If I had an idea of what's more profitable I would have been playing one thing for a longer time...
As you said, Zoom is great for getting samplesize (Rakebackgrinding...) but in normal ring games you can make higher winrates. I play atm on FullTilt and Stars and maybe will try some Partypoker tables as well when I'm back at my "good" computer... (their software is too bad for my slow laptop)

One thing I can tell you about the 3-4 days is, that you can feel a higher edge at the tables. On FT NL600+ tables are only running when there is a fish, so you always have a tablespot who is more or less donating money. On Stars it's harder to find good tables cause of all the SNE-chasers on midstakes.

I'll keep on playing the normal ring games and hopefully I will be able to give you some kind of conclusion in 2 weeks or so:)

Originally posted by alderfalder
Hey Erik,
1.at the moment while only playing 6 tables I mark a lot of spots each session.
-hands I want to have a look at again and maybe discuss with other players
-hands I got in tough spots
-hands my opponents played in a weird/nonstandard/exploitable way

2.Directly after a session I'm not in the right state to have an analytical view on these hands, because I still have the thoughts in my mind I had when playing them.
So I made this my Warm-Up-Routine. I take as much time as it needs to have a look at these hands and note a lot of stuff/post hands/whatever.

3.For Cooldown I struggle a bit to find something useful to do.

Hey!

Ok let's break it down i smaller areas first.

1. One thing you can try is to decide one spot or concept like 3b defense and focus on that for 2 weeks or so. Look for those spots, anticipate analyze and mark those hands. If you focus everything in and around poker towards that you will eb able to improve quickly. And you sit down in the session with a purpose, not results, but learning and improving.

2/3. This is actually an excellent time to put work in when we aren't in the mood. Use the post session analysis to write out your tilt profile. How did the session go A-Game and tilt wise. What were the earliest signs? What annoyed you etc? This is great for gathering information and improving a-game and reducing tilt. And it also helps you to let sessions go so they don't linger in your mind...

thx, I'll start this writing some stuff down after sessions:)

I don't know why, but I'm the kind of guy who always needs to brag:D
Maybe just because I think that Poker's not about complaining during downswings, but about celebrating your heaters:)

Just went to the bakery and rewarded myself with two huge pieces of cake:)
And plz don't dare to ask for EV-graph:P

wow, nice

Only normal ringgames?

Right on!

maybe 3k hands zoom/rush 200 included. 10 hands zoom 1kand a few zoom500, but everything else should be normal ring games

bragging wasn't good for karma. had a terrible session this morning. But the good point was that after reviewing I was still quite fine with my game (trips vs rivered boat in 3betpot, toptwo vs deceptive gutshot and so on, some setups against me this time:( )

Originally posted by alderfalder
thx, I'll start this writing some stuff down after sessions:)

Ok great! Let me know what you find!

And watch out for overconfidence It's a long fall when we are flying high!

Keep working hard!

Cheers!