November ended with another 10k hands of 50nl. Nothing special as I ran a bit under EV to break even over the stretch. I still love to play cash and I feel I have improved my game but I plan to play nothing but super turbos again. I guess I'm a sucker for punishment.
December was a wash of random sets between supers and standard 9 man sngs. I never felt the urge to play for any length of time but I managed a measly 15 hours and about 1k.
As the new year rolled in I knew I had to get back on the horse. I was however stuck watching a friends house for the first couple weeks. Really no big deal except that I couldn't get my wireless adapter to stay connected to their access point for more than an hour at a time. So even though I was beginning to crave poker once more, I found myself scared to load a set. No one likes to lose a few hundred dollars when a set drops due to the internet.
Mid January brought an interesting prospect. The chance to be staked and coached in the very games I already play. As I already crushed the stakes I was playing I was a bit hesitant to jump right in to the deal. However, I know enough about poker to understand that you never know everything. The chance to learn from the best player of his time was too good to pass up. I say "of his time" simply because he has moved on to play other games.
I spent three weeks at his home relearning the finer points of the games. I had gone months without really playing and needed to brush up a bit. Lets just say that I was a bit rusty. After arriving home I set out to use my newly honed skills. It seems lady luck didn't agree.
Now bad luck falls upon us all. At some point playing poker you will run bad and feel that its unfair. You will curse the poker gods for letting the fish take your money when you clearly deserve it. Dealing with variance is the hardest thing in poker. Its the reason so few people can do it for a living. Anyone can learn to beat a game. I really mean that. But so few are able to cope with working for hours, days, or sometimes even months without making a cent. As bad as that is, try going months while losing money.
So far my return to supers has been less than spectacular. I have been running bad in every way imaginable. I have managed to get a heavy dose of my favorite kind as well. Running into better hands. Why is this the worst you ask? It hurts me the worst because my EV line in my graphs suffer. If I play a thousand games and I run bad but my EV is ok I can shrug it off with ease. I can even let it go if my EV looks poor over 500 games or so. Hey, it happens to us all. With every downswing we build a tolerance for them. The only problem is when we find a deeper hole. A longer stretch of games. A new fresh hell.
I will leave you with my graphs so far. My 10s have been sub par but my EV is still within a few points of what I believe is my true ROI. My 20s thus far have been my nightmare.
10s 83ish buy ins below my crappy EV. Now that's special.
20s There are just no words here.
