January Poker News

January 20th, 2006

The major poker news of this week has been NETeller stopping US players from depositing and withdrawing from online gambling sites. The events come days after 2 former NETeller executives were arrested while travelling through the US.

January 10th, 2007

This year I'm not going to make any ridiculous predictions about X amount of money I'm going to make, instead attempt to take it 1 hand at a time. To extract maximum value, to make those folds and play with sound logic and a clear mind.

I want to go back to Vegas for the 2007 WSOP, a more experienced and well-rounded player who will have the discipline not blow money in -EV games.

January 5th, 2007

In my last update I wrote about the good points of 2006, today, it's the dark side.

---

After losing heavily in Las Vegas during the WSOP, I returned home and continued to play with reckless abandon, losing over $50K in 6 weeks. A disgusting amount of money to lose playing games I shouldn't have touched. It became entertainment and not a business, culminating in some awful mistakes. I busted my online roll and had to borrow money from my friend Sam until my roll was replenished by previously tied-up savings. I was not running really bad, just playing terribly. This was horrible, depressing time.

I don't know for sure what caused this catastrophe, perhaps it was because when I started taking poker seriously, one of my main goals was to go to Vegas and play in the WSOP. Well, I did that, now what?

"If ain't broke, don't fix it" was my attitude towards studying the game. It wasn't until I started losing that I re-evaluated, reading forums and going over my poker books. The new motto is, "If you don't maintain it, it will break."

Another big negative that I have to improve is my mental stamina and overall concentration. Many times, I'd be playing and think of what better things I could be doing. I need to rediscover 'the zone', where every decision is automatic.

Next Update - Goals for 2007