July 2010 Poker Results

July was my second losing month of this year. I had moved up a level at the middle of last month. Things started off good, and then I hit a combo of running bad mixed with a bit of bad play on my part. A lot of it was variance, like getting the money in good and the other guy hitting his miracle card. There were a few hands where I had a full house or straight and knew the other guy had a higher straight or better full house and I would still pay the other guy off anyway. I also did one of the stupid things every other fish does, moving up another level trying to chase my losses, which definitely did not work out well for me.

On my worst day I lost 8.4 buy-ins. Then after a few days of small steady wins (up 3.70 buy-ins), I dropped another 12 buy-ins over three sessions in two days. It's a definite confidence shaker. At that point I decided to try and spend the rest of the month playing break even poker. Which, to me, pretty much means giving up in marginal spots even when I think I'm ahead, and avoiding big pots if possible without the absolute nuts. ("Nuts" is the best hand in poker lingo for those of you who change the channel when poker comes on ESPN.)

The graph's count is a bit skewed, since the big blinds are counted over three different levels. That would be my current level, which is the majority of the hands, the level above, and even the previous level I just left, which I played for part of a session. I'm only counting big blinds in the level I currently normally play at. At the end of August, I'm down 12.75 buy-ins from my maximum bankroll. I also included two bonuses that I cleared and lost, which I'm pretty certain aren't reflected in the graph.

The first month of moving up to the next level was fine, which would be the last half of last month and the first half of this month. I went from running at 21.39 bb/100 to -3.70 bb/100.

In terms of actual dollars, it definitely hurts more to lose when you move up, since you're losing more money. (Each level up is roughly double the amount of money of the previous level.) I still try to treat all of the money on the tables as just chips or big blinds, but when I do my accounting at the end of each session on my spreadsheet, it's hard not to look at it as real money.

The plan for August is to try in get in as many hands as possible and make good decisions. The money will follow.