The Poker Moth

“HAH. Take a look at these hands. Take a look at these hands. The hand speaks… the hand of a Government man. “

Which is another way of saying, I’m governing again. The last twenty four hours have seen me notch one piddly but mildly encouraging 6th place finish in a bog standard Crypto MTT, and then a somewhat unfortunate 2nd in a rather nice guaranteed tourney, which was particularly gratifying as I didn’t get my chips in bad until we were heads up (and even then, I was never more than a 40/60 dog).

So, I’m healthily green for August, and in love with poker again. WHICH IS NOT GOOD. I used to be utterly dispassionate about my results, (which is the best way to cope with the nonsense the game throws at you), but that cold, dead-eyed apathy that I used to have mastered continues to elude me. (To continue the Remain In Light nonsense, I’m supposed to be far more Crosseyed And Painless). That’s probably because it’s a whole lot easier to be apathetic about your results when you’ve got a healthy bankroll behind you, and I’m still a long way from my comfort zone. (Hence all the Navel Gazing; I’m currently using this blog to talk myself sensible, which is kinda dull, but necessary. I hope to be talking about poker, rather than poker and me, very soon!)

Poker. It’s a game of short term luck, and long term skill. And the problem there is it’s very hard to focus on how your long term skill pays consistent dividends, when you’re getting it in the nose from a streak of short term bad luck. Or, in other words, I’m tilting. Again.

To counteract this tilt, I’m going to do something I normally can’t be bothered with: collating my Poker Tracker stats from my desktop and laptop, for last month. Last month was cool for two reasons; firstly, I made lots of money, and secondly, I had a tilt-tacular week in the middle of the month where I was sure I’d never win another penny. This seems to happen about once a fortnight.

So! July. I played 136 tournaments all told, with three wins, five second place finishes, and no thirds (which is good; finishing third sucks). I cashed in 26 out of the 136 tourneys, for an ITM ratio of 19.11 percent, which is surprisingly low; however, I ended up (at least) heads up in almost 20% of the tournaments I cashed in, which I believe is pretty bloody good. (These are almost all small field tournaments, of course – generally 50 to 200 runners with 10 to 20 paying). This all boils down to a ROI for the month of 106%.

Contrast with the start of August, which has seen me play twenty five tournaments so far, and cash in two. Now, that’s not a million miles away from my expected ITM rate, but it’s still bloody irritating; the short term negative streak is obscuring my view of the long term positive one, and it’s making me crazy. As per usual.

So, note to self! Read above, develop perspective, stop whining. Ten HUT.