The problem with my new job is that I really, really enjoy it. I have fun all day at work, and so when I start to feel like maybe it’s time to go home, I look at the clock and it’s late. I come home, and there’s very little time to be playing lots of hands online. Still, I try to get the required number of hands in and I’m somewhat ahead of schedule in terms of clearing the $1,500 Stars bonus. I feel pretty confident in getting there on time. Hopefully, once that’s done, I can go back to playing without feeling like I “need” to put in hands. For instance, I can actually take the time to play NL half the time, like I planned to do this year. For now, though, $25 NL (which is what I feel comfortable playing, given what an extreme rookie I am at this game) just doesn’t clear enough VPPs for me to be able to finish the bonus on time.

Anyway.

I’ve learned a lot in the past six months. My overall poker understanding hasn’t changed much, but I’ve started thinking more in terms of ranges and I’ve become better at folding, betting, checking, raising and calling at the right times. Nothing major, in other words, but lots of small improvements here and there. But there IS one major thing: I’ve realized how much I have left to learn. I think that a year ago, I was to some degree thinking of learning more about poker as mostly a way to beat future opposition. As if I already knew “enough” to perfectly beat the games I was playing back then ($5/$10 6-max LHE). The mere thought of it makes me smirk and wonder what the hell I was thinking.

I probably was a winning player at that point in those games, but the arrogance of thinking that I was good enough eventually got me in trouble. I stopped doing my homework, I failed to study my own hands sufficiently and I gradually stopped trying to learn. Then the inevitable downswing came - not “inevitable” because I was playing poorly, I was still playing an OK game - and I lost a lot of money. At first, this didn’t have much of an effect. But then the weeks kept going, and I kept losing money. My confidence started wavering and I started seeing monsters under the bed in every hand I played. I checked behind a few more rivers out of fear that I had been outdrawn and would be checkraised. I took a call-down line with A-high more often than I should because I didn’t want to risk being bluffed out of a pot. I stopped trying to bluff or semibluff my way to glory because no one ever folds.

And all these little things became leaks. And the leaks started to cost me. And what started out as variance, eventually became a sinking ship.

Fortunately, I had the sense to move down in stakes. I moved down from a peak of playing some $10/$20 to eventually bottoming out at $1/$2 and making an executive decision that from now on, I was going to learn the game, and learn it well. No more thinking that I’m good enough, no more arrogance. Just me, the hands I play and learning as much as possible. And since that point, I’ve done well. I’ve actually done very well.

Now, as you may have noticed in my last post, my results aren’t stellar. But seriously, I know I’ve been playing well. I have a new-found confidence - not to be confused with arrogance, thank you - in that I know I’ve had a huge edge on the games I’ve been playing and that the results will eventually reflect that. I’ve won money already, yes, but not at the rate I expect I will.

But enough bragging. I have a flaw in my overall game that I want to fix, and that is the fact that I’m failing to play my A-game as much as I’d like to. This is, to a fairly large extent, a product of me having to finish a certain number of hands before a certain date, so I often find myself “having to play” rather than “wanting and feeling up for playing.” Sure, it’s easy to think that all I have to do is not play when I’m not feeling absolutely top-of-the-line physically and mentally, but, honestly, this is not realistic. Even after I finish this bonus (and please god make it so that I don’t have to go through the process of forcing myself to grind out this many hands again, kthx) there will be times when I will want to play more hands, but may for one reason or another not be in the absolute best state-of-mind to do it. Maybe I’m tired after a long day at work, but I have the house to myself and can try to get 500 hands in. Or maybe there’s a reload bonus on some site that I feel I should take advantage of. Whatever the reason, it’s simply a fact that I won’t always be able to play my A-game, and “not playing at all” isn’t necessarily an option.

What should I do about this then? I should work to improve my B- and C-game, that’s what. And I think the first thing I need to go out and do is to buy Tommy Angelo’s book. Everything I’ve read about it suggests that it’s just as great as I’d expect from Tommy. I’ve read everything he’s written that I’ve been able to Google, and I’m really excited to get my hands on his book.

Hopefully the rest of the plan on how to improve my C-game will materialize after reading his book. I just wish that… Well, I just wish I could buy it. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t appear to be released in Europe just yet, which in this day and age - international market, my ass - seems odd.

Oh well. I just have to sit and re-read some (maybe all) of Tommy’s articles in the mean time. If you haven’t read them already, I suggest you do yourself the favor.