Running bad, moving down

11 days into the month and I'm still running horribly. I've said a few times in the last month that I was going to move back down, however, each time I did so I proceeded to go on a heater and/or get a rakeback payment that put my roll back up to an acceptable amount. When I moved up I said I would move down when my bankroll went below $1,000 (starting at ~$1,500, so losing 10 buy-ins, after rakeback, bonuses, etc.) - that finally happened today.

I know I'm clearly not playing perfect - I probably have a ton of leaks that I haven't even realized yet - but I'm running horrible. I just started to review hands from the start of the month until now; I've been stacked 16 times: 4 times questionably/bad (although one time I was actually 2-1 favorite, I don't like my play), and 12 times I was coolered/sucked out upon. You can't do anything about set over set, KK vs QJ on KT9r, etc. That's poker.

In any event, I'm not going to let this discourage me too much. I'm going to continue working to plug leaks. I'm reviewing my hand histories now, will start watching more DeucesCracked videos this week, and begin coaching on Sunday (followed by Two Months Two Million on G4 - check it out). Wish me luck.

Graph:

10 buy-ins below EV, not even taking into account coolers. Sick.

July results...

... in a word... not good. A good number of swings in both directions, but mostly downward. I finished the month down 11.5 buy-ins; it ended with an 8 buy-in loss immediately after a 12 buy-in heater. Even after rakeback I am down $90.47 (it's hard to see an upswing at the very end of the graph) for the month.

Graph:

I don't think I ran well, but I'd be being ridiculous if I said I played perfect and ran horribly. That clearly isn't the case. However, I finished the month a lot better than when I started, without a doubt. Playing 40k hands and watching a ton of poker videos will do that. There are also a number of things I am/will be doing to improve as well. I'm also starting to talk poker on AIM more, which is great. I've been making a point of going over hand histories even more so than I did in the past (lately it's been every single session, which is a good thing, but might not be realistic to continue doing). And I finally signed-up for coaching (TubaSteve's group coaching), which I'm pretty excited about. So, despite losing a lot, I'm kinda excited for poker in the future.

There were also some upsides for the month. I had a lot of fun in non-poker. I also went to Atlantic City for 4 days and made a decent profit, though I was ridiculously card dead for the last 2 days and cut my profits in half. Being card dead live is horrible (only 20-30 hands an hour), but playing one hand at a time definitely lets you think through all of your decisions and think through hands more deeply. I also managed to make Iron Man on Full Tilt Poker (it's their frequent player thing) for the first time ever, which I thought was cool. And, as I said, my poker playing improved a great deal. A big part of my improvement, I think, came in my mindset. I tilted much much less, and was generally okay when I had took a nasty beat or had a horrible session. I attribute a lot of this to The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment. At the start I think I was... skeptical. I was excited when it was announced, but wasn't really impressed initially. I wasn't really taking it seriously. But somewhere along the way I started picking out little pieces of information and ideas that really sunk in. I'm definitely going to watch it again after the final episode comes out in 2 weeks.

Hopefully August will treat me a bit better, though. I think I will be a bit more busy so 40k hands might not happen, but I will still be aiming for Iron Man on FTP again.

Wish me luck,

Jacob Negley