The Blog Arriveth

Time to get serious about journaling about poker play. I have committed to myself and Deanna to make 2008 be a PROFITABLE year. I have learned that to profit at this game, you must analyze your play, your opponents play, the many and varied situational dynamics of the session, and have an extremely high level of personal discipline in the areas of “tilt management,” bankroll management, and time/balance management. To wrap all these elements together, you need honesty and accountability. By being open with this blog, not only to Deanna but friends whose opinion I value, I can minimize the pitfalls that erode profit, or even worse, push one into a deficit trend.

This will also be the platform for me to track all session results. As of today, I stand at about +$7,000 Year-to-Date. My goal for 2008 is to end the year +$50,000 in cash games and +250,000 in tournaments. Cash games are proving to be the most reliable in consistent profit, though recently downward swings have eroded about $3,000 in previous earnings. For poker to work economically, I need to fund tournament buy-ins from cash game income and satellites. No big buy-ins this year from the personal account. Only from accumulated poker profits.

Poker’s big tournament season is coming ... the WPT Bellagio Championship starts this coming Wed 4-2-08, and in 8 weeks the WSOP gets underway. Last year, this part of the year was an utter disaster in terms of spending and no winnings. That AIN’T gonna happen this year. Here is my intended plan of attack ...

WPT Bellagio: Invest $1,000 in travel expenses, $1,000 in cash game buy-ins, and $1,000 in satellite buy-ins. If cash games or satellites don’t yield an entry, then I won’t play. That would leave a total of $3,000 worst case deficit. If that ends up the case, I will have $4,000 left in YTD profit to invest at the WSOP.

Of course, business and marital-family well being must be in place for me to be in the right mental state for ANY Vegas trips. That is the one big thing I am committed to having in good standing before playing. Doyle Brunson’s sage advice made that need very clear. Balance is the key ... BALANCE. This game requires such mental and emotional discipline that any attempt at playing without other elements of your life in proper balance and order is futile, just plain stupid.

Let’s see some profit booked for the next posting!