Poker Forum > General Discussion

Winning Players No. 2

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Mikeyboy9361:
I love following the exploits of our better players on this site, George and Leigh in particular, these guys are obviously very good players, you can"t go so deep so regularly in the type of tournaments that these guys play, without being good! They must be winning players with the big cashes they have had!
What about the rest of us? For my part I play smaller tournaments and as many APAT events as I can, I consider myself an improving amateur and fully intend to continue improving! The thing is, if I have a decent win, I find it difficult to re invest and build the Bank roll, as my Good lady then expects a meal out on the back of my winnings! Her reward for my time in front of the computer screen! How does that work?
Any way I have thought back along the last year or so, looked at my deposits against my wins, live and on line, including buy ins, and I would say that I am a winning player, but only enough to continue playing if you know what I mean.
The type of small MTTs and SNGs I play I will never be rich, what I need to do is commit the time to playing some of these mega MTTs with the big pay outs, but this is very difficult when you have a wife and kids that expect more from a Dad than a Poker player!
So my question to you big tournament players is, how do you find the time to play them? And also what advice would you give to fellow APATers who wish to emulate your success? Do you have a fixed strategy etc?

hi_am_chris:
Im going to guess that the better tourny players on here will say you have to put in a lot of volume which means playing eight or more at the same time time, when you play so many theres a good chance ull go deep in a couple but then again variance is a bitch

kinboshi:
I tend to play cash.

Chipaccrual:
First of all, it"s very nice of you to include me in the same sentence as George, but trust me, he is a far better player than I.

I have just interviewed him for an upcoming APAT podcast (coming soon  ;D ) and he is a top guy with a superb attitude towards his poker and life.


As far as my poker playing goes, perhaps I should fill you guys in on my current circumstances.

I am a qualified accountant, but after taking a slight career change 18 months ago, was made redundant in December.  I decided to take the opportunity to have a break and do a bit of consultancy work on a part time basis and supplelement that with redundancy money and a good go at some poker.

So, the past 120 days have been quite good.  My OPR stats on pokerstars are :-

Winnings $11,249
Profit $5,909

Tournament 217
In The Money 36
ITM %   17%

That info is in the public domain, so happy to share.  Those stats are far better than anything I had ever achieved in my 4 years of playing poker.  So, what have I done differentely ?

Bankroll Management

I set up a spreadsheet with all my poker account balances on it and log every game I play.  Buy-In, type, no runners, finish, cash etc etc

So, there"s no more kidding myself about being a break-even/winning player.  It"s in black and white and I also log how I exit.  Was it a shove, was I ahead, that kind of stuff.

I"m not a massive one for pokertracker stats, as I play poker because I enjoy it and don"t want it to become too serious.

Tournament Choice

Before this life break, my poker playing would often inolve playing the next available tourney after having dinner, if I wanted to play that night.  No real thought about it and often would end up playing satellites, chasing the next dream trip to play poker live.

Now I target the types of tournaments I want to play and try to stick to tourneys that fit my buy-in, runners, structure.
It"s not easy, as If you get knocked out of one early, there is a desire to fire up the next available tourney.

Poker Philosophy

Finally, I have become more aware that you can"t win all the time and variance plays a big part in poker.  I used to play poker a bit scared.  Worried about getting knocked out cheaply, but I am now more aware of pot odds and positional play.  I don"t get annoyed (too much) about getting unlucky.  I now just get annoyed if I feel I didn"t play the hand well or as I know I should have.


But this is only a temporary lifestyle for me.  Whilst the work is there great, but I don"t think I could play poker full time at home.  Should have a job lined up for next month.   Fingers crossed.   ;D

Well, enough of my ramblings, not sure that answers any questions really, but as I"ve typed it, I"ll post it.

Leigh

kinboshi:
Great post Leigh.  The playing scared thing is so key imo, and you have to be willing to lose as long as you know you"re playing correctly.

Pokertracker is key for online cash players, but I don"t think it"s particularly helpful for tournament players (might be wrong though).

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