Focus Focus Focus

Had a long session at the Casino yesterday of around 8 hours. In reviewing this session I realized that for the last 3 to 4 hours of the session I was not tracking information about hands. This is not good. At the moment I believe my biggest leak is failing to track information about other players betting patterns and behavior for later use.

Starting today, and continuing until I am able to focus for longer periods, I intend to structure my visits to the Casino as follows:

• Overall session time no longer than four hours
• When first seated at a table set up the following alarms in my phone

1. 90 minute alarm. When this alarm goes off take a short 5 minute break from the table. Take a walk or get a coffee
2. 185 minute alarm. Another short 5 minute break
3. 250 minute alarm. Leave the Casino

 The cue for setting the alarms to be sitting down at the table.
The cue for taking short breaks to be the alarms
The cue to leave to be the final alarm

Feb Review and time for some goal setting

Feb was a break even month for me. Tracking well until a down swing over the past week.  The poker gods seem to have a good way of  bringing you back to earth just when you think you are started to travel well poker wise

Some good things happened during Feb.

• AirBnB. I'm in my fourth AirBnB since landing in Melbourne. If I stay in AirBnBs all year it will be more expensive than if I found a small apartment to rent. However, in the short to medium term it is a great way to check out different parts of the city. And it is definitely cheaper and more cheerful than staying in backpackers or motels. Yet to have a dud experience
• Meditation. I have meditated every day. And over the past week have extended the time for meditation to 45 minutes daily. With the help of the information in the TED talk on Tiny Habits, I have chosen to set my cue for meditation to be that of waking up in the morning. The pattern that seems to be a reasonable one is a) Wake up b) void bladder c) mediate d) stretch hamstrings e) push ups
• Exercise. Each AirBnB, bar the first,  has been a reasonable distance from public transport. Say between 1 to 1.8 km. And depending on where I end my destination in the CBD, the distance from the end point and the Casino is often over 1km. Which has resulted in my walking over 5km every day for one AirBnB and up to 3km at other AirBnBs. In addition to the walking, push ups have been added to my daily ritual. Over the course of my time in Melbourne, the number of push ups performed each day has risen from 30 to 45.  Increasing in small increments of 3 to 4 extra push ups every now and again. A side benefit of adding the push ups to my daily regime seems to be much less tension and discomfort in my neck and shoulders.
• Weight. A goal I have set myself for this year is to have my weight down from 95kg  at the start of the year to 85 kg by October. Up until this AirBnB I have not had access to a set of scales to weigh myself. The walking, in combination with a change in diet, seems to have led to a loss of about 7kg. At least on these scales. 
• Diet. The vast bulk of my diet has consisted of meals from the food hall near the Casino. Mainly Indian curries or Asian dishes, with some sushi thrown in now and again. All are small portions. And I only eat twice a day.  Every now and again I will venture into a supermarket to purchase some fruit and I will admit to buying some licorice or chocolate on some of those visits. Missing from my diet, compared to my New Zealand diet, is breakfast, snacks from the pantry or fridge, and a steep decrease in the amount of bread and cheese consumed.
• Poker study. Another pattern that has emerged is one associated with my ipad. A much under-utilized resource while living in New Zealand. Now the ipad is shining during my commute, with poker (and other) podcasts being consumed. Poker books have been dipped into on the commute, and I've even watched a couple of training videos on my commute. The ipad has become, for me, an essential educational tool 
• Discovering Alex Fitzgerald's (theAssassinato) podcasts at oneouter.com. It took a while, but over time I have grown to love listening to this podcast. Mainly for the enthusiasm in his rants. But also for his repetition of the importance of hard work, persistence, discipline and looking after yourself physically and mentally. Added to that there is some pretty good poker content thrown in there as well

Aims for March

• Coaching. There are some hours left in my coaching package with Andrew Brokos which need to be utulized. to make that happen I need to stick in some time playing cash online.  Both to get a decent volume of hands to be able to give meaningful statistics regarding my play, and to  get a smattering of hands for hand history review for spots which have been difficult for me in the moment.  Aim: to play online and build up 50,000 hands over the month then instigate a session with Andrew.
• Play cash on 888 poker as well as pokerstars
• Play between four to eight hours at the Casino for 5 to 6 days per week
• have one day off live poker per week
• Exercise. Continue with the walking and push ups.
• Diet. Vary the diet a little away from food courts. Time to investigate some more of Melbourne with respect to eateries. Aim to stay away from bread and cheese as much as possible. Continue to stay with eating two meals a day. Allowed to have snacks / treats on two days per week
• Poker study. Read one book per week. Watch two training videos per week. Book currently being consumed is The Math of Hold'em by Colin Moshman and Douglas Zare. Frankly I struggle with the mathematical aspect of poker. But after all the rants by Alex Fitzgerald that I've consumed over the past month I've realized this is an area that requires more work. And regular meaningful work so that I can get the concepts imbedded. This means that when I have a tricky hand which required a decision, I will need to ensure that I look at the maths involved in the hand history. The reason I am reading "The Math of Hold'em" rather than "The Mathematics of Poker" by William Chen is that "The Math of Hold'em" is available on kindle where as the other book is not.  Both Alex Fitzgerald and the hosts of the Thinking Poker podcast speak highly of Chen's book. But as I currently have no fixed address and am living out of a suitcase, any reading material has to be electronic in nature.  And I found Moshman's book to be reasonable the first time I read through. If anyone from Amazon would care to get Chen's book into electronic format I would be a willing buyer.
• Meditation. Continue with the 45 minutes per day. Feb to be a consolidation month with respect to meditating for 45 minutes per day.

Melbourne masquerading as a Sauna ...

Yesterday I moved from my short-term North Brighton AirBnB accomodation to another AirBnB in Northcote. The arrangement was that I was to turn up between 4:00pm - 5:00pm. This meant I needed to stash my luggage for a while between exiting North Brighton and turning up at Northcote. The Southern Cross train station has some short term luggage  lockers where people can stash luggage for short periods of time. Past experience with this facility has not been great. Several times I have been wandering past bank after bank of storage lockers which have all been labelled as being "Out of Action". Maybe they just don't care about tourists but it seems to be a facility that quite a few people make use of. After all, if you check out of your CBD hotel and have a late flight, the luggage storage facility at Southern Cross station is an easy money maker and greatly appreciated by tourists who then are able to swan around the city for a while before heading out to the airport.

Anyhoo, yesterday was an exception and I found a locker straight away. Yah!. Off to the Casino. Little bit warm on the way there. Air conditioned environment where I donked off a couple of buy-ins. Then out to the furnace like conditions of a very hot Melbourne afternoon. Luggage picked up and onto a route 86 tram. Not air-conditioned. Managed to snag a seat for which I was very grateful. But man. Just like a Sauna. Perspiration dripped into my clothes and I was very glad to exit the tram and wander down to my new accomodation. And very grateful to find a fan in my room....

After four weeks in Melbourne that is by far the hottest day I've had so far.  And on a par with the hotter days I experienced during my years living in Sydney. Today is far more tolerable so hopefully there won't be too many more days like that in the near future.

Adrift in a stream of information

I recently watched an Ed Miller Webinar on the subject of information dominance. Ed talked about betting patterns and being able to use the information from those betting patterns in certain spots to be able to dominate some of your opponents.

The webinar resonated with me. Roughly four to six weeks before I saw the webinar I was lucky enough to start sitting at the same live tables as a New Zealand guy of Indian ethnicity who was charming, interesting and could play much better poker than me. There were a number of hands where he appeared to make a big call with second pair and be good. Then on one hand he said words to the effect of "You gave me this information previously. And it would be bad for me to not act on it. I call.".  And, again, he was good with second pair. His opponent had shoved with a draw and didn't get there. The recent history was that in a similar spot perhaps thirty or forty minutes earlier, both of the players  had been in a similar hand where the Villain had shoved and then shown his hand with the semi-bluff.  The light-bulb moment for me was that even though we were both sitting at the same table, I was failing to take on board and interpret the information that was readily available. Both in hands I was in, and just as importantly, hands I was not in

My major goal for the short to medium term is to improve my focus at live tables and to be able to reconstruct betting action in large pots so that I can better analyze Villains betting patterns.

Over the past couple of weeks since I saw the Ed Miller webinar I have been sitting down at the start of each session with the intent of keeping track of the betting action so I can observe betting patterns. I have found this is not easy.  And that often I am still waking up in the middle of a big pot where I have folded pre-flop to wonder who the initial aggressor was and how the betting action had unfolded. It seems I can keep track earlier in a session. And when I am tired it currently seems that it is almost impossible for me to keep track of the action in a hand I am not involved in.

Not surprisingly, the issue of improving focus during a session is a topic that has been addressed by several authors. To this time I have found several sources of information that seem to be relevant.

• Tommy Angelo's "Elements of Poker". In particular, for me, the information he provides with respect to quitting, and the information in the "Elements of Performance" section on focus seem most relevant. One of my major leaks has been to keep playing when I am tired. Whenever I do that I seem to have my biggest losses. Even if I have been a buy-in or two up, if I continue when I am tired I may end a buy-in or two down. So being aware enough of my own internal state and being able to quit when I am tired is a leak I have been working on.
• Jared Tendler's Mental Game of Poker 2 has a section on Focus.. Both this book and Tommy Angelo's book make reference to meditation as being a way of building mental strength in the mental skill of focus. Tommy uses a gym related metaphor where if you go to the gym to build physical strength you set up a program where you perform a number of reps of an exercise so that you can increase the strength of the muscles being exercised. Similarly, for mental strength to improve, there is a requirement to undertake regular, repeated mental exercises to build that strength.
• The Power of Full Engagement is a book which emphasizes the importance of being aware of energy management and how to manage your energy across the day. Plus the follow up to this by the same author Be Excellent at Anything are both well worth reading. Note: I found the titles for both these books to be a little off-putting. Specifically that they seemed to be a little towards how a snake oil salesman might title a book. But I was very surprised to find that, despite, for me,  the off-putting title, there was a lot of valuable information in both these books

Both Tommy Angelo and Jared Tendler mention meditation as a way of improving the mental strength and skills required to be able to better focus for longer. To this end I have upped my morning meditation sessions from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. While I was meditating in an irregular fashion over the past couple of years, over the past month since I have landed in Melbourne, I have meditated every morning.

Going to the gym and completing one workout will not result  in a significant change to fitness or muscle mass.  Improvements in both those metrics requires regular attendance at the gym and discipline to ensure that a regular schedule is adhered to.  Similarly, for me to improve my focus I believe that it is a skill that will not improve overnight. And that I will need to review on a regular basis how I have been travelling with respect to my ability to focus at the tables.....  I suspect this is a topic I will be blogging on again in the future..

Better off dead

Since my arrival in Melbourne the joys of listening to podcasts has helped me during my commutes to and from the Crown Casino. The Thinking Poker podcast and the OneOuter.com podcast have been regular companions during my commutes.

Today I consumed several of the podcasts Andrew Denton has produced about the topic of Assisted Dying under the title "Better off Dead".

Powerful stuff. Well worth listening to.

If your managing agent is going to inspect your rental please warn me...

This morning I woke around 9:45am and was just starting my morning meditation around 10:00 am when my AirBnB hosts rental property managing agent came through the front door.  I received a bit of a surprise and was coming down the hallway in my pyjamas as she was entering through the front door. At first I thought she was the cleaner that P had mentioned a day or so earlier. And I inadvertently mentioned I was "the airBnB guy". Woops. She states she is the Managing Agent come to do a regular property inspection.....And exits.

This is probably not good for P. I text him and let him know that the managing agent had let herself in and knew I was from AirBnB.  P tells me I have dropped him in the fecal material and has a note of panic in his voice.  He decides he will call her and tell her I am a friend of a friend who is insisting on paying money and to make sure insurance is covered we have used AirBnB to make it all insurance legal........Hopefully that works...

Motto of the story for any AirBnB hosts who are subletting and don't want their rental property managers to know.... Tell your AirBnB guest if there is a chance that someone from the rental agency might turn up to do an inspection.  And tell them what to say....

Don't steal my cushion Bro!. And why are you staring at me?

Thursday night at the Casino and I'm seated between a couple of older middle-aged gents. One is off taking a break. And the other wants to get another cushion for their butt. He  already has one but desires another. He notices that the gent who is taking a break has two cushions and decides to purloin one.

When the gent to my right returns he immediately notices a cushion is missing. And almost simultaneously notices the gent to my left has two cushions. He asks the gent to my left if he is responsible for the cushion missing and the gent to the left admits he took it. The gent to the right is a little upset and gives the gent to the right a bit of a serve and admonishes him for being a thief.

... Several minutes pass.... Then the gent to my left starts staring across me to the gent to my right.... The gent to my right gets upset and, in an agitated state demands the dealer calls the floor.  Unfortunately this is happening while I am in quite a big hand. I have two older middle-aged gents acting like three year olds on either side of me while I am trying to make a decision in a fairly big hand....Not the best environment for calm, considered decision making. And while I made a poor decision, and may well have made that decision without the commotion going on either side of me, I was a little put out by the lack of consideration by both parties.

About 90 minutes pass.  The gent to my left has moved on.  At this point I decide the gent to my right has calmed down enough for me to bring up his breach of poker etiquette. While he had been embroiled in the wrongs he perceived the gent to my left had been inflicting on him, he had himself broken a rule of poker etiquette. That is, don't talk across a player who is in a hand. This is even more of a no-no when that player has a big decision to make. I gently brought this to his attention and, to his credit, he was immediately apologetic.  But the learning for me was that I should avoid being placed between three year olds who are inhabiting bodies that appear to be fourty-five years and older...

Update March 3rd:  Well, it came to pass that last night I sat at the same table again as the Gent on my left in the story above.  To my surprise, as the story does not reflect well on him, he started chatting to me about the scenario. I was even further surprised when I suggested he and the other guy had been acting like rather large 3 year olds. And that I hadn't been impressed with their squabble going on at the table while I was in a big hand. Water. Duck's back. No impact.

Auto-Pilot Vs Hard Work to Improve

One of the side benefits of jumping ruts is that in this new rut I have been binging on poker podcasts. Notably the Thinking Poker podcasts hosted by Andrew Brokos and Nate Meyvis. The recent podcasts featuring T.J. Jurkiewicz and Alex Fitzgerald inspired me to make some changes to my daily routine in the hope that, over time, those changes will improve my overall enjoyment and ability with respect to poker.

The Thinking Poker podcast with T.J.Jurkiewicz provides some pointers to additional material beyond the podcast that I have been consuming over the past week or so.

• T.J.'s 2+2 thread that T.J. used to document his goals and progress. I'm still working my way through this thread but, for me, the pursuit of T.J.'s weight loss goal has inspired me to set a goal of my own. That is, to drop from 95 Kg to 85Kg by October 1st 2016.  I've started using  myfitnesspals food and exercise diary facilities to document my food consumption and daily exercise as a way of keeping myself aware of what is going in my pie hole each day, as well as how much exercise is happening.
• T.J. pointed to Tommy Angelo's book, "Elements of Poker". I've now purchased and been through this book once and several items of information resonated with me. The notion of quitting. And the importance of several elements of performance such as meditation and the importance of getting enough sleep. I'm now taking note of the time I'm starting and looking to schedule a break within 2 hours from my session's start time. A major incentive for me to be diligent about quitting while I am still fresh is that I have noticed my biggest losing sessions came after I had mentally noticed I was tired AND that the thought had wandered across my mind that "I should quit now".... In the words of Homer Simpson "D'Oh!". T.J. mentioned in the podcast that he places a condition on himself of only going to the Casino  if he feels he is capable of playing his 'A" game. I guess this falls into the category, for any particular day, of "Quitting before you start a losing session".

The Thinking Poker podcast with Alex Fitzgerald mentioned Alex co-hosted another poker related podcast and, as I had found Alex to be an interesting guest I wandered over to oneouter.com and found Alex's stream of podcasts. While the ratio of rant to poker related content seems to get a little high I've found the podcasts to be interesting and to have some useful content. In particular, a meme that has kept coming through on Alex's podcasts is the importance of work away from the table. He keeps mentioning flopzilla and card runners EV (?sp). I have a copy of flopzilla and have several hands from recent sessions I can fiddle around with in flopzilla. But I have zero familiarity with Card Runners EV so will have to put aside some time to investigate that.

Both Alex and T.J. seem to have been persistent and disciplined in their approach to improving their game. Time to get off auto-pilot and spend time away from the tables reviewing hands and looking to work out better ways to play hands I've either been in or observed at the tables.

Selecting some wallpaper for the Melbourne Rut

Well. Here I am in Melbourne. Landed Jan 23rd and have been bumping along in my new rut.

At this point in time the rut appears to have Crown Casino featuring on an almost daily basis.  The Aussie Millions tournament series was in full swing when I landed and I took that opportunity to burn some cash on satellites to the main event. Sadly the main event satellites all ended prematurely for me.  And I've been playing mainly cash since. With one foray into a $175 tournament where I finished 21st out of 120 runners. 

The family home remains unsold. As #1 son still has two years to go on his Engineering degree I thought it would increase his stress levels if he had to go out into the rental market and suggested to the ex that if I moved out, maybe we could hold off on selling the family home for a couple of years. After a little thought she agreed to this.  Prior to my departure I spent some time doing some maintenance, with the biggest item being a deck rebuild. I've never been a home handyman. The desire and skills to undertake renovations have been lacking to this point. To my surprise, the deck rebuild went surprisingly well. With the deck planks all being lifted and the rotten 200X500 joists all being replaced.  I'm sure the project took longer than the ex wished, however I'm sure she is well pleased with the result.

So while the ex and both sons remain in the family home I'm now in a state of homelessness. There is a roof over my head tonight courtesy of AirBnB.  I am well impressed with AirBnB. With the aid of AirBnB, I'm planning to try out a few different locations around Melbourne over the next two or three months to see where I might like living long term. My first experience with AirBnB was in October 2015 when I stayed in North Richmond for 10 days. Great spot.  Hosted by a lady in her mid-60's for a very reasonable tariff. And on this trip I've spent some time in North Brunswick - another place I enjoyed staying, and now I'm in Brighton.  All spots so far have been great for the cost. With this latest place having the added benefit of being about 1.5km from the train station which means I have some exercise incorporated into my daily routine.

Poker wise I'm going to be having a crack at being a cash game player.  And I need to put a lot of work into my poker education. For much of the past two years I've been playing a lot on auto-pilot which has been a losing strategy. To become a winning player I need to change how I think about the game and play the game. A positive of the move is that I am spending a lot more time studying.  During my commute to the Casino I'm listening to the Thinking Poker podcasts while I walk. And reading some of the recommended poker books on the train / tram.

Enough rambling. Time to post and take myself off to the bank to see if the munted $50 note their ATM gave me can be exchanged for one that will be accepted by local businesses.

Mini ruts courtesy of AirBnB

I'm now into my 4th week in Melbourne, and into my 4th day at my 3rd AirBnB host. I have been very pleasantly surprised with my AirBnB experiences so far. From a stay in North Richmond with a lady in her 60's in October last year, through my North Brunswick experience with a young couple using AirBnB to defray the cost of their mortgage, to a young tradie running his own Air Conditioning business in East Brighton to a West African technology entrepreneur in Brighton.  All different experiences with, so far, each place having more than acceptable facilities at pretty darned reasonable value.

All in all, a much better experience than bunking down at a back packers would have been or trying to land rental accomodation as soon as possible after landing in Melbourne.