A Fish With Chips

Lack of Focus

2011-03-01T13:45:00.000-06:00

Just don't seem to be able to get my arms around a focused approach - to anything! Poker or Running.

Running and exercise has been almost non existent - I don't seem able to get motivated, although I know what I want to do and what I want to achieve, my motivation is so low it never seem to transfer from my heat to actually taking action. Still, I don't intend giving up - once I gain the focus I need and get on a self motivation path I'm start knocking of the goal I have set.

Poker has been all over the place - couple of decent MTT cashes, but way too little focus on my goals, today I re-apply myself to the goals I laid out at the start of the year - F O C U S!!

2011-01-09T21:53:00.001-06:00

First full week of January - 2nd to 8th - managed to get 20 x $3 18 mans in, only just, but pretty nice profit. Had a couple of nights when I didn't or couldn't play. I have to get as many of these in as possible, they've always been profitable and a little over $2 per game I need to get a ton of these in every week!

Biggest cash of the week was $134 on Merge ( Carbon Poker client ), took 6th in the $3 rebuy/add-on ( little over 400 runners ) - busted when I was on the button, CO makes it $60K to go ( blinds $10K/$20K/$2 ) - I jam over with 8 BB - AJss -, for $163K, he insta calls, has me covered by $100K and shows A7o..........hits a 7 on the river - gg me!!!

Targets for first 3 months 2011

2011-01-06T11:48:00.000-06:00

Goal setting is an easy thing to do at the start of a new year - achieving those goal, or even sticking to them is a little trickier, so for the next three months I'm going to set myself some targets to aim at - they are part of longer range goals, which will I'll also include here, but to step towards them I'm going to give myself some easier targets to achieve - it's the old "how do you eat an elephant?" question - one bite at a time!

Poker

Minimum of 30 x $3 18 mans per week on Stars - every week!

Medium Term goal is 40-50 18's per week - target is end March, begining April.
Long Term goal - 80-100 18's per week

Move VIP status on Stars to "Silver"

Longer Term goal - move to $6 18 mans

Move VIP status to "Gold"

Next year goals - move to $15 18's

Stop playing cash games!

These continue to be a drain on my bankroll

Focus on SNG and SNG MTT's

18 mans, 45 mans and 180's

Start a comprehensive BR monitoring and tracking process

I have a spreadsheet for this - and MUST start using it!!!

Continue Learning

Currently subscribed to Poker Zion and Deepstacks

Second half of year - look for another training site, probably SNG training

Non-Poker

Work Out

Work out twice per week cardio and once per week strength

Medium Term Goal - Complete the Soldier Field 10 in May
Longer Term - Complete Marathon in fall 2011

Bring focus to my 9-5 career

Mostly through training, seminars and activity with professional groups

Try to be a better partner and parent!
Buy an Xbox Kinect - just for FUN!!

Here's the thing with goals/targets - they're always best when you can measure them - "be better" is a poor goal since it can't be measured, but in life we know when we're not being the best we can be, and I'll alow myself simply to "be better" The measurable ones, I'll be updating regularlly - the non-measurable ones, less often.

Non Poker Plans - 2011

2010-12-30T08:40:00.000-06:00

Intend to get back to running in 2011 - 2010 was a bust on that front - initially get moving early in the year and plan to run the Soldier Field 10 at the end of May, then hopefully push on and complete a full marathon in the fall.

I completed the SF10 in 2009 - super fun race and just a great day, running into SF and seeing yourself on the Jumbotron screen, I'd have to say was pretty cool. So, May 28 - look out here I come!!

No New Years resolutions - just plan to get running again and all the benefits that brings, including weekends away with Susan.

Heading out of this year into the next

2010-12-28T16:00:00.001-06:00

Decided to sign up for some additional poker training - I've had accounts at SNG Grinders, Grinders School and Deepstacks University - but thought I'd take a different approach and bought a 6 month subscription to Poker Zion. This is a 12 week course, principally for cash players, but there's always something new to learn and I like the linear approach, starting out with basics and building on them over the weeks. I just recieved week 4 content and so far so good.

After a couple of nice scores in November, December has been quiet so far, until last weekend when I FT'd the $10K GTD on AP, made a horrible mistake - re-shoved KQss over the big stack, who, obv, had AK and hit his A on the flop - but, $500+ is a genuinely good score for me, with added value since I Sat'd into the $25+$2 for $5.

Played a ton cash on Bodog, mostly 0.25/0.50 6-max NLHE - made decent profit and was running around 9 BB/100 after 2000 hands.

So, not a bad month, not as good as the last, but we'll build on it and try to increase the BR on various sites.

The Return.........again!

2010-12-08T09:59:00.003-06:00

Not sure why I struggle to put this together, it's not that difficult and takes very little time - as 2010 draws to a close I've decided to post a minimum of once a week through 2011........OK, might be setting the bar a bit high there, but it's better than setting it too low.

Primarily poker related - but also life in general - random thoughts and opinions - which I'll try to keep to a minimum, so primarily poker.

I'm currently active on the following sites using the screen name Stingray606:

Pokerstars

Full Tilt

Doyles Room

Absolute Poker

Bodog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rant #1

Pocketfives.com

OH BOY - what to say about this! Pocketfives.com has banned me for life - my crime? In a thread about poker training sites I posted 2 links to training sites I liked - BOOM! Banned for life - "SPAMMER" no less, although how 1 single post is SPAM I'm unclear, no warning, no infraction, no "1 week" loss of posting priveleges - nope, banned for life.

I did send an email requesting clarification - got a support ticket and a "we will be in touch" and never heard from them again. Morons.

Rant #1 over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next couple of weeks as the year closes out I'll update my current bankroll across the sites and maybe fill in a couple of highlights - there haven't been many, but that's OK, just means I have room to grow!

Cheers,

Stingray606

Delayed Return

2009-11-04T12:29:00.003-06:00

It's been a while..........

A few week ago I took a subscription to Sitngogrinders.com - a SNG training site - offering video training on SNG's - this is my second training site subscription, initially I opened a 1 month sub w/Realpokertraining.com - but just felt the content wasn't right for me. Sitngogrinders.com on the other hand is delivery exactly what I needed - insight into how some of the best in the game play - and it's working for me - with increased profit on Stars SNG's. The next trick will be in becoming a multi-tabler - I'm fairly comfortable at 4 concurrent tables right now, and over the coming months will attempt to get to 8 tables while also moving up a level from $3 18 mans to $6 18 mans - it's not going to be easy and variance will intervene no doubt, but it's goal - and goals are good. Along side this I plan on also moving up the VIP ladder on Stars from my humble Bronze Star to Gold Star - timeline on this is fuzzy, but I'd hope by the end of March '10 to be multi-tabling 8 games @ $6 which should give me sufficient base points over a month to move up the VIP ladder, we'll see.

This is the last months results on Stars:These are $3.00 + $0.40 10 man and 18 man games - which effectively turned around a $100 loss over 900 games to a $100 profit by the time I got to 1100 games.

Weekend Poker........and running

2009-06-08T09:43:00.004-05:00

Goofy weekend poker wise - as a newbie it's so easy to get disillusioned with the game. Friday I satellited into the Doyle's Room $10K Bounty with "gold chips" I won in a freeroll the previous week, I played the tourney on Saturday, but made two horrible plays to get eliminated. With around14 BB's in cut off plus 1, I bet 3BB when it folded to me - this was the first mistake, I was holding KQ and the BB was a huge stake with 150BB's. OK - so flop hits my Q and I have top pair with two rags on board - check, check - rag on the turn, check, check, rag on the river - BB puts me all in - and here comes second and final mistake. With such a raggy board, I'm sure BB is hold two pair...........but I still called, even though I know she's only going to call with a hand that can beat me - and she shows small pocket pair for trips.........ugh!

This is where the disillusionment comes - I convince myself that I simply can't play them game and should give up, in fact, I play two MMT's on Stars and play terrible as if to prove to myself how bad I am. But, never knowing when to stop I get back into some SNG action, win three straight on Full Tilt, lose two, move to Stars and cash in four straight - two wins, two seconds.

A normal swingy weekend I guess.

8 mile run on Sunday turned into a 7.3 mile run/walk - this is week one and although I should be disappointed about failing to complete, honestly, I know that it's no big deal and that if it happens in 8 weeks time, that will be the time to beat myself up about it. So much of running is in the head - much like poker - and I've learned over the last couple of years to just not be so hard on myself - just know that the 16 week training program is the right way to get this done, and the proof will be Sept. in Appleton - not the first week in June in WB.

47

2009-06-03T14:10:00.002-05:00

The answer to everything may be 42, but the answer to "How do you run a marathon in 16 weeks time?" is 47. 47 training runs over the course of 16 weeks - the first of which I completed on Tuesday, this week - it was only a 3 miler, but it's checked off of the list - marked "complete". The schedule for the week is:

3 miles - Tuesday

5 miles - Thursday

8 miles - Sunday

It's a 4 week cycle - week 2 and 3 increase in distance over week 1 - week 4 is a flat week, typically dropping the mileage back to week 1 levels, but in 3 even segments. So the first week 4 will 5 miles all three days - the the next week 1 starts............boy, this looks complicated, fortunately it's printed out and sitting on my desk! Anyway, used it last year preparing for the 1/2 marathon and it worked, so, tried and tested! It's a formula available on the www.runnersworld.com web site - look for "TOOLS" then "SMART COACH" - honestly, I didn't make this up.

The 5 miler is just about as much as I can do after work - longer weekday runs have to happen in the morning pre-work - so up at 4;30am and hit the road - the long run on weekends builds to 20 miles, this is a Sunday morning staple for marathoners I think!

Another Re-boot

2009-05-30T10:59:00.008-05:00

Just like PC's when something doesn't work - it's time to re-boot, it fixes everything. And so it is with my attempts at blogging - so many false starts, but here we again, undaunted by previous failures..........actually I am daunted, but it won't stop me.

Poker - Mid-Life - Family - Running

In no particular order, these will be the primary focus of this blog.

Poker:
Started playing Hold 'Em in Nov' 08 - so still in the noob category, but moving away from that status very slowly. Playing online at various sites - Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Doyle's Room etc - mostly using the screen name "Stingray606" - hence my "fish with chips" title, a pun on the "fish" who feed the "sharks" at the poker tables. I won't be detailing every bad beat I suffer, but if I do relay one or two hopefully it won't become a "poor old me" blogfest.

Mid-life:
Actually, pobably passed the mid-life thing already - I was 50 last year, but hey, I could live to be 100!

Family:
The reason for my existence - pure and simple as that.

Running:
Set out in 2006 to run a marathon in 2009 - don't know why, but it's been a personal challenge that's turned into a joint challenge with my wife as we move towards the completion of this lofty physical and mental challenge.

Unlikely I'll limit myself to these topics, however, these will be the principal threads that I blog.

OK - that's post one - my intent is to post at least twice a week from here.............or re-boot in 12 months!