VPPs for week 4: ~26k

VPP total: ~194k

Pace: (106,000).

Because February is 28 days long, I am going to count January 31st as my February, and March 1st as February’s last day. Therefore, my month is officially over.

On a good note, I was up for the week. I’m not sure how many buy ins, since its scattered across my desktop and my laptop, but it was a solid amount of buy ins.

I noted last week that I was going out of town this month and that I would make a good faith effort to put in full volume. I put in the effort, but it was just impossible. I was having such a good time on the trip, I wasn’t going to stray away from my desire to connect with my mom and friends just to play poker. Also, I can’t 6 table on my laptop, its way too hard. I either need to buy a laptop with a big screen like Max has, borrow someone elses laptop when I go out of town, or just use Max’s laptop when I’m out of town. Probably not going to do the first one, but may use Max’s, at least on trips where I’m with Max.

I think I could easily look at this month negatively and say I failed because I didn’t reach my monthly goal and I’m in too big of a hole to catch up. I may have had that perspective too, but I got better clarity about this challenge and how to handle the year when I talked to Jared Tendler this week. Talking to him made me realize a few things. One, I have never put in this sort of volume before, and I need to let my mind build its endurance up. I had a lot of times this month where my focus was lacking after a session had gone on for awhile and I felt like I was playing losing poker.  That may always happen occasionally, but I think over time of doing this for awhile my mind will improve and it will happen a lot less, if I stay mindful of it, journal, and work on it. But I also have to be mindful of my limits. So I have set this gameplan for the rest of the year:

Start out getting up to 6 tables. If I feel like I have lost focus or something of that flavor, I will go down to 3 tables until my awareness comes back to a more full focus.

I think this is a good plan, it will guarantee that I’m not sacrificing my best profit strategy at the expense of this challenge. I don’t want to play 6 tables of losing poker just for volumes sake.

The truth is, 194,000 is the most VPPs I have ever made in a month before. To expect myself to be able to do 300,000 right off the bat was a mistake. But I’m really confident I can make up the pace. I know that if I manage a session well, and as I get more and more used this regimen, I can put in 20-25k vpp days. Then if all goes as planned, and I’m making a large amount with my game selection strategy (which is basically play anyone), then I’ll be able to add 2k’s and 5k’s to my stake spread, which will allow me to make VPPs. What I’m saying is, just because I’m off pace by 100k vpps, doesn’t mean its all over.

My goal for next month: 250k VPPs. If 300k comes, that’s great too. But I’m going to try to not push it to harder than my brain is able to go. I have to remember that poker isn’t a normal 9-5, its so much more mentally draining, and therefore requires more care.