Started keeping a Poker journal

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klickitat

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I started to keep a poker Journal this week.

I play live tourneys and decided to keep track of all my games.

I plan on keeping track of the game, places that I took, money earned, all expenses. Also I plan on keeping track of the mistakes I feel I made in each game. I will also keep notes on certain players that are of note.

Is anyone else keeping a poker journal?

I just finished my second game of the week. Tuesdays game, I took first and tonight I took fourth. After all expenses and buy ins, I made a net profit of $113.
 
polo kwan

polo kwan

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good to hear that u got a net value.
can u tell us more abt the live tourn?
seems fun.

i was played regular tourn every single night in Macau
played almost a month and i gave up
caz not that easy to get ITM with high final ranking
 
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klickitat

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I have approximately three dozen games within an hours drive every week. Eight of these games are small and fairly weak. Most are 30 players or less with a $30 buy in or less, most with rebuys.

So far I have only been playing the weaker games and the closer ones. Driving and food eats into my bankroll if I have to travel too far. So for now until my bankroll is over a thousand, I will stick to the home town games.

There are two venues that have some big tournaments with $100+ buy ins but not until I have a bankroll that is at least 20 times the buy in.

I am finding the best place for games is where I find drunks. The local taverns and the Eagles club so far have been the best places to earn.
 
Jillychemung

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Is anyone else keeping a poker journal?

I don't keep a journal but do keep stats (see thread in my signature).

I'll be interested in seeing 6-9-12 months down the road if the journal part has been worth the effort.
 
dino

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hi, 1st of all, congraty to you for making profit
2nd, please update your info,where are you from, then tell little bit more where are you playing, live or online....
How are you keeping your journal???
In excel?
Online?
I wish you the best luck and keep up with the journal
 
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klickitat

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I am keeping my Journal in a note book. I live in Washington State in the US. I play live games 1-3 tables for the most part tournament style.


Now for this week so far. Well was not so good tonight. We had a wild player come in and was tearing it up. I am down $30 so far this week after all expenses.

I was in SB and short stacked. I pushed all in with AK off and the button called with a 97 off. He hit the flop and I didn't. End of short story. I hope he plays next week.
 
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klickitat

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So Friday was a mix for me. I sat in on the weekly tournament that sit in on for a $30 by in. I was second person out AK suited lost out to 66. That was the bad news. The good news was that I decided to sit in on the cash game and came out ahead $100. After my loss in the tournament and my expenses, I was up a total of $60
 
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ItryhardAA

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So Friday was a mix for me. I sat in on the weekly tournament that sit in on for a $30 by in. I was second person out AK suited lost out to 66. That was the bad news. The good news was that I decided to sit in on the cash game and came out ahead $100. After my loss in the tournament and my expenses, I was up a total of $60

Second person out!? how long were you in it for because if you are using small ball technique you should never be out that fast unless you really do hit the board and he hits a set. So a cooler
 
nikkouy

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i will try this one if have stacks hahahahaha
still dont have though :(
 
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klickitat

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Second person out!? how long were you in it for because if you are using small ball technique you should never be out that fast unless you really do hit the board and he hits a set. So a cooler

about a half hour.
 
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klickitat

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Little slow getting this weeks info out on here.

Monday I took fourth in a 28 person wsop League Tourney.

I played good all the way up until the end and I choked. I had an advanced player who was to my immediate left and kept stealing my blinds. I just could not catch anything better than pure rags and I just kept letting him do it until it was too late to do anything about it.

Looking back on it, I should have really have pushed back an all in even with rags. Not that it would have done me any good in that game but this being league play it would have set the tone for later. Now I will have to waste the play in the next game if it comes up again.

The good news is that I am 3rd in points 3 games into the new quarter.

I skipped my loose game Tuesday as I was really sick and did not feel like putting up with a bunch of drunks. I may go Thursday. I am still trying to decide if I want to head up to the big game at the Little Creek Casino Thursday. $60 buy-in 100-150 players.
 
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mastahbates

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I have started a blog on a local web server (soon to get a domain) which I use to track my progress and discuss with myself certain hands.
 
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klickitat

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took second in last nights tourney.

I made three mistakes:

#1 I was chip leader at my table early on by at least 3 times anyone else left at my table. I was BB and there was a min raise by the SB. I had A3 diamonds and called. The two limpers called.

A, rag, rag on the flop. SB checks and the rest of the table checks. Turn comes queen and I see the SB instantly getting a little antsy, but checks. I bet into him half pot. SB raised all in and I called having him well covered. It turned out he had AQ off. My misread and a big hit.

#2 Four players left in tourney. BB is short stacked and is playing super tight waiting for a hand. I am on the button with KJ spades. Flop comes A,7 spades 3 hearts. BB checks and I push1/3 of my stack to put him all in. He calls holding an A4 off. He wins with pair of AA. I knew he was waiting for a hand and I should have known he had an A or a pair of some sort. I should have never bet into him with only a 40% chance of hitting my flush. I should have realized he had me beat and it was a bad bet to make.

#3 I was in position with just 4 left on table. The SB was easy pickings for the most part all night so I made another move to steel his blinds. Problem was I forgot to check his stack and the blinds had just increased to 10k/20K and only had 5 BB left and called with a 7,8 off. He hit a 7 on the flop.

It was a good night overall and for the most part was very happy with my play other than the 3 mistakes I made. With those mistakes, I instantly realized what I did and I hope to remember them in the next game.
 
Senneville

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I"m starting mine whit detail of the name , the date , the buy-in, my final position and if i'm increase or not my bankroll. and at the end of the week look back wicj=h one will be more profitable in long term. ;)

omg omg omg 50 post lolllllll
 
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K

klickitat

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I"m starting mine whit detail of the name , the date , the buy-in, my final position and if i'm increase or not my bankroll. and at the end of the week look back wicj=h one will be more profitable in long term. ;)

omg omg omg 50 post lolllllll

this is league play with no cash value. I have actually been sick for the last little bit and not played in any money games.


I am hoping to play in one tonight if I am feeling up to it.
 
MediaBLITZ

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Immediately after starting to journal live play (at the request of a coach) I can honestly say it immediately changed my perspective and thus my game. But this was not a journal of results, but of specific hands and how I played them. I have an App for tracking results. I don't know that you will get much better as a player just journaling a bankroll chart - in fact if that is what you are doing and it's not changing the way you think or play, well then....
 
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klickitat

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Immediately after starting to journal live play (at the request of a coach) I can honestly say it immediately changed my perspective and thus my game. But this was not a journal of results, but of specific hands and how I played them. I have an app for tracking results. I don't know that you will get much better as a player just journaling a bankroll chart - in fact if that is what you are doing and it's not changing the way you think or play, well then....

I play live so I do not have software.
 
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klickitat

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So I played in my "soft" game again tonight and have decided to give up on it. They changed the rules to 12 minute blinds and they are now packing 10 people to a table because it is getting too popular and they want to keep two games a night.

It is just way to frustrating for me and my style of play just does not work with super loose players in a Hyper format.

I think I am going to start going back to the bigger tournaments with a slower pace. It's not that I can not peel these folks, it is just that it is too frustrating to play in an uncomfortable game.

We'll see if it is the right move. BTW I am down $35 this week.
 
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I took first tonight. Only 12 people so it was a about a third less than normal for this game, but after expenses, I cleared just over $100 and I won a seat at the big game in August. Only 12 seats available and all seats pay. The last big game only 8 people showed and first place took $852

I played a fairly good game, but made a bad call early on in the game and had to work hard to get back into the game. I am learning that many people just do not have the patience or nerve to ride out their short stacks and start playing super loose even when they are not forced to play. I am going to pay more attention to this over the next couple of weeks and see if this holds true.
 
MediaBLITZ

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nice. Do you have the name of one you like?

Been using Poker Income Pro on iphone, but there are several out there - Poker Sheet looks really good and is cheaper. Search Poker Bankroll in app store and you'll see a bunch
 
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I've kept a journal of all my live games since I started playing regularly, about 3-4 years. I keep all the numerical stats on one spreadsheet and note all hands worth thinking about later in a hand written notebook. Don't just think about loosing hands also think about hands you won, but were lucky or hands you might have gotten more value if you played differently. All the data on hands that I have I condense into error types like pay attention, over play 1 pr hand, bluff in bad spots, etc. Error type will help you narrow down your most frequent mistakes.

I have a second spread sheet to note each mistake as in-position, out-of-position, multi-way, heads up, pre flop and post flop. Categorizing your errors here will also help you avoid playing in your weak spot until you get better.

With second spreadsheet at each months end I look to see where I made most of my mistakes. (Lately O-O-P, post flop)

Interesting to look back at prior years journal to see how far you've come.
 
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klickitat

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absolutely one of the worst games I have ever had. Not that I played horrible but just could not catch any cards or a good spot to make a move even. There were 3 donks at my table that made it impossible to play.

I had nothing but bad cards. The best openers I had was a K,10 suited but under the gun. I tried to make a move in the bb with only 7 bb left but was called by my nemisys hand the dreaded Q7 offsuit.

No big deal. I am actually happy knowing these guys will be back next week. I made one small mistake in the early game by calling a turn bet that cost me about 10% of my chips. However I did learn the guy's tell and so was a mistake worth making.

I had a great time and although i went out a lot earlier than I normally do at this tournament, I am in no way upset or soured in the least.
 
STL FAN

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I have posted and have written many articles that I have in my computer over the last five years. I started to keep a journal in Oct. 2015. I went back to school for psychology and love philosophy, writing creatively, keeping notes, writing my most personal thoughts about life and poker help grow the game mentally.

I use my thoughts to track my memories, mistakes, growths, for the mental side. I usually do not track the amount, examples to do with results. The journal helps me to create a journey without start and stopping points that would be created from starting, stopping points from results or the influence of money won or lost. My thoughts are not better or worse just different.

I try to keep my expenses, buy ins separate from my journal of thoughts so not to allow thoughts of results to skew my thoughts about how I played. It is easy for the brain to label, associate, the memories as a whole that can create stopping, starting points mentally in the game.

However, in the beginning my journal was a short story of these games associated with results. My journal had look of starting points of being happy, stopping point of success, being sad, starting point of being unsuccessful. Ups and down of a journal, not honesty about why I was successful and unsuccessful.

So, now my thoughts, theories, ideas about poker from results are journaled in articles kept in my computer. Buy in’s, expenses are kept in a separate journal. Private thoughts about life, poker are kept in the original journal started in Oct... I kept all of what I wrote in the beginning to measure changes in thoughts, abilities, learned from mistakes about my thoughts of poker from where my journey began.

This was a great thread that was started and how each person keeps a journal that lets them have success would be the best one for them because poker is unique for each player to experience.
 
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