The peaceful shark

04 oct 2012
A new country a new chance!
Little update: I started this blog 16 sep last mouth. Thoth it was good idea but the problem was that I have studied for the past 20 days and not played much. So I will go to India and join a Yoga school and I will try again to play poker not just study it
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After reading this article about motivation I realized what my problem is. I feel that I should learn more, and that I'm not ready to play.

But that is not true!

I know that the only way I will learn poker is to practice what I learn. I need to play, learn, play, learn...

Today I have studied poker for six hour, reading every basic article in Psychology & Didactics and making intensive note-taking. Will probably finish all the bronze articles this week.

And I found the problem!

My only motivation is to study and not play. I have no habit to play, but I have a extremely strong habit to learn, which make it very easy to study but really hard for me to play poker. I force myself to read books when I was 14. And I established a habit to read for one hour every day. Now this habit have evolved to study for three hour every day. I rather study than watch tv. I really feel joy when I study and I have tooled myself that I need to learn more before I sit down at the tables. But the problem is that I have to much information after reading three books and read many articles on PS and only played <1000 hands. All the information is contradicting itself in my head and I can't make any sens of it.

So I will start from the beginning and do as I should have done from the start, instead for playing the smart guy and thinking that if I only learn, I could play on tables with total knowledge and not needing any "start hand chart".

It's time to make a plan!

So why do I want to play poker?
I want to play because I want to continue to travel the world and not needing to take a normal job. Next year this time I will go back to Sweden to start a company that have the sole goal to "Build the First Floating Metropolis".But to continue to travel, I need to earn around $50 per day or $1500 per mouth. I see that the easiest way to do that is to grind low-limit.

Okey now we know that - how will I achieve it?

I know that the best way to learn something new is to learn little and repeat the information over, and over again. So I will begin all over again and do it the right way this time.

1. I will chose a topic to learn.
2. Play 3000 hands will focusing on the topic. It's around teen hour of practice. (80hands/hour - 80hands * 4tables = 320)
3. Do a session review and focus on the topic.
4. If the session review shows good play, go on to the next topic. If not, repeat the topic.

But I also need to protect myself against tilt so I have made a checklist to get myself into the right state of mind before playing. This is the checklist. please comment if you have a idea how to improve it!

My checklist
tired?
hungry?
on drogs?

DON'T PLAY, FIX IT FIRST

Non of the above, continue:
1. Stretch for five minutes to get the blood flowing.
2. Go on the WC.
3. Get a bottle of water.
4. Close down all programs.
5. Start Pokertracker
6. Start Keypoker
7. Start Spotify and play music
8. Start poker client
9. Open four tables
10. Play for 90 min and sit-out from all tables.
11. Do breathing exercise in 10 min and reset your stop-limit if needed.
12. Continue to play for 90 min.
13. Write in the dairy how this session felt like.
14. Do something fun...

No I have a plan and a checklist.

Stop-limit
So I will set the stop limit to 5 buy-ins and 2 buy-ins per table. To make it easy for me I will take 10 coins and for every half buy-in I lose I will move the coin to a other place. When the run out I need to stop playing.

Reset limit
I will reset the limit every 90 min after my breathing exercise. I will reset the limit to 5 buy-ins from the winning point after 90 min. If I have a losing 90 min I will not reset. I do not reset the table buy-in limit.

0 - 3000 hands (Start-hand-chart newbie)
Here I will follow the chart to the point. Postflop I will just play as predictable as possible. I raise If I think I have the best hand, call if I have a draw and fold I don't hit anything. This part have more to do with following the chart than anything else. My session review will be really simple there I will analyze if I followed to chart and postflop I will just see if I didn't do to big mistakes.

3000 Goal
[ ] Play 3000 hands.
[ ] Follow my checklist before every session.
[ ] Do a session review after every session.
[ ] Follow the start-hand-chart to the point.

3000 - 6000 hands (blind Stealer)
Here I will introduce Blind stealing into my game. because stealing is easy and I can't make many mistakes in position, so I feel it a good next step. I will go though all blind steal attempts in the session review to make sure that I don't have any big leaks. I will also start to use HUD into the game so I can see if the player i tight or loose.

6000 Goal
[ ] Do intensive studying how to make good blind steals.
[ ] introduce blind steal into my game.
[ ] Check list before every session.
[ ] To a session review after every session.
[ ] Follow the start-hand-chart.
[ ] Start using HUD

6000 - 9000 hands (Postflop with lead master)
It's time to study Postflop. This is the part where I will practice to identify if the board is draw heavy etc. When to do Cbets and when do check. adjust my play if I have the lead or not.

9000 Goal
[ ] Do intensive studying how to make good blind steals.
[ ] introduce blind steal into my game.
[ ] Check list before every session.
[ ] To a session review after every session.
[ ] Follow the start-hand-chart

9000 - 12000 hands (Isolation Clown)
Time to learn Isolation and get this weak player to fold and make me happy. ♠_biggrin:

1200 Goal
[ ] Do intensive studying how to Isolate player.
[ ] introduce Isolation into my game.
[ ] Check list before every session.
[ ] To a session review after every session.
[ ] Follow the start-hand-chart.

What topics do you feel is important? And place tell me if I have missed something? ♦

Other topics I need to cover
No specific order
Start-hand-chart
Isolation
Domination
Postflop with lead
Postflop opponent have lead
Postflop no one have lead
Habit to make up goals for every hand
adjust preflop play to rocks and calling station
adjust postflop play to rocks and calling station
adjust preflop play to Maniacs and fish
adjust postflop play to Maniacs and fish
adjust preflop play to shortstack
adjust postflop play to shortstack
adjust preflop play to TAG's
adjust postflop play to TAG's
Protection
Maximizing Value
Slowplay
Player notes
Table selection
Strong draws
Blockbets
play from the big blinds
play from the small blinds
Small pocket pair and sets
Set-mining
blind Steal
Re-stealing

So that is the plan for now. Do you have any idea I can add or mistakes you see?
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16 Sep 2012
Hallo, my name is Mateusz Rybinski and I’m live in Bangkok, Thailand. I live on only $5-10 per day.

I live a awesome lifestyle right now and don’t want it to end. So my goal is to earn $15 per day and just continue to learn yoga, meditate and Crossfit every day. Also eating really healthy and just chilling with awesome backpackers.

I play lite poker in the beginning of 2012 so I know the basics of SnG - with will be my sole purpose to master.

I’m reading right now “Phil Gordon's Little Green Book” to get back on my shining white poker horse. I will start in two day to play on Pokerstars but first I need to sett up my new routine and set up everything on the computer. Also make a reading list and read up on the basics to not get lost.

Mentally I feel that I have really good Chance to preform well. I’m very stable mentally from my daily training of yoga and mediation. And my healthy routine in food and running every morning, make that I always have my batteries charged.

Have any good tips for me, videos or great books I should read - I will be very grateful if you comment.

Do anyone have a good setup in place with software that tracks your preforms - that you would like to recommend?

PS make a lite info-graphic over a “thinking script”, that Phil Gordon use when he plays.