Ok so after a bit of thought I figured out that I don't want to waste time for the first half of this year playing for a Main Event seat in 2018.
Instead we will have a mini-series of Step 1 satellite tournaments, aimed at giving away as many $1500 bracelet event seats as possible. Details can be found by clicking here.
Hopefully I will get at least 6 committed players besides myself and this will happen - by May we will have about a $2500 prize pool with this minimal amount of players, which will be enough to send two of us to the WSOP (one in a $1500 seat, the other in a 1K).
Of course there's a chance I may get 10 players or so - in which case we'll have over 3K to split among two players for two $1500 seats.
And let's not forget that there's a bigger chance that I won't get the minimal number of players I need - in which case I'm just going to cancel the whole thing which would suck and give me a lot less incentive to try again for the Main Event down the road.
ANYWAYS...
Thought I would post a little update on my home game satellite aspirations here and then also reflect on my own game as it stands in January of 2017.
Truthfully, I think I've regressed just a bit over the last six months or so - despite taking down two of my own tournaments in September and October and scoring $2600 at Hollywood Park in July. This regression simply comes from playing less - I feel much less sharp and dialed in to 'the matrix' when I'm not playing every week.
This is okay, and I'm glad I can articulate this feeling here - because I definitely feel something's amiss lately when I'm at the table. I'm either being far too tight to start, or I'm getting impatient when my stack get's down to 30 bigs or so. Of course I always feel that I'm catching cards when I'm deep and utterly card dead when it's time to get it in for a double up.
Part of me feels like I should resolve to play more tournaments in 2017, and another part of me feels resigned to simply playing less and losing my edge in card rooms. I still feel very capable in my own garage against most opponents that I've played with for years and (no disrespect intended) do not study or work on their games much if at all.
Part of my malaise / disinterest I can attribute to the medication I'm on (see here for the post about this) and yet I still get periodic hot flashes of desire to refocus and bear down again in pursuit of getting better and more comfortable with casino daily's and larger events.
Realistically, I don't think I will be able (or want) to return to playing every weekend. With that in mind, I think I have to remember to go easier on myself when it comes to my results, especially in casinos. I really believe that the very best way to get substantially better at poker, is to play poker all of the time. While sometimes this seems like it would be a fun time, usually I understand that this would be dreadful - turning something I love into a job would be a very bad idea.
Still, as I pine for big results, I really can't and don't want to put in the work that is going to get me there, that is - playing every day or most days. The second option then is to increase my study time, in the form of videos, books, live instruction and/or chatting with my poker compatriots like we did in our first cabal meeting.
Cranking up the study time is something that I think is very achievable - but I have to temper my enthusiasm for the results that will come from this. No doubt I will improve, but it simply won't be the level of improvement that playing full time (or even playing several evenings a week) would bring. And this is okay.
So right now I'm on the lookout for another WSOP Academy type experience, the kind that I had two years ago. Truthfully, that workshop was a great investment that I believe did indeed elevate my game to the next level. I would love to do another immersion weekend of that nature. Both the WSOP and the WPT have discontinued their poker instruction seminars of old, they now both run alternate versions that are much more infrequent, though no less expensive. I will have to keep my ears and eyes open for an opportunity to sign up for something like this.
The other study option is the Cabal - I don't want to let this go by the wayside, as I think our first meeting last year was a very worthy endeavor. I will have to reschedule again soon - this time I think I will aim for a weeknight and make it 7 to 10 or so. I hope I get a similar turnout as the first time.
And finally there is a third study option - enrolling in a video training course. I have tried most of them at one time or another. I would say the one that helped my game the most was Tournament Poker Edge, specifically watching videos by the site leader Big Dog Pocket 5s - he was, and is, a great example to see how a successful maniac does his thing on the felt and most importantly his banter is entertaining. Eventually I got tired of paying every month to watch only one or two videos, and moved on.
Other sights I was less enamored of, CardRunners and DeucesCracked both had some use but their instructors were much drier than Big Dog and really their sites amounedt to little more than watching other guys play and trying to stay awake as they drone on about hand ranges and equity. Run It Once was more of the same thing, and quite a bit more expensive to get access to the top tier instructors. All three of these sights were also less interesting to me because they emphasized cash game play and their tournament videos were far and few between.
Two video courses that I tried many years apart had very different approaches. The WSOP Academy video poker school I took in 2010 (I think) was entertaining and somewhat helpful. What I loved is that it was a curriculum that had a beginning, middle and end - it was like taking a live seminar but at my own pace and over several weeks. Doug Polk's upswing poker that I took just last year has a similar approach and I was able to get through the bulk of the course rather quickly.
The two problems with these sights, WSOP Academy was run by old school instructors who gave old school advice which wasn't always the best. Annie Duke's stuff was good fundamentals, but nothing earth shattering. Phil Hellmuth's lectures were very outdated on the content.
Doug's site was pretty great, but unfortunately it was and I presume still is rather light on content. I was done in a month and a half - and then the only option after that is to watch Doug play heads up or short handed cash games once a week on his new video posts. Again, not really what I am playing - full ring tournament poker. Thankfully Doug is very active in posting free videos, he is quite entertaining and his poker advice is fairly awesome, even though he doesn't focus on tournaments.
Right now I have my eyeballs set on a site called the poker academy .com which is run by Rep Porter, a two time bracelet winner with over 2.5 million in tournament earnings. The thing that appeals to me about his course is that it places an emphasis on tournaments and the videos are reasonably watchable and again, are a full curriculum instead of simply watching someone play poker and commenting as he goes.
The stumbling blocks to me enrolling are the price (all told $500 for the full course) and my time. I enjoy watching his free 7 minute snippets, and suspect there is great stuff beyond them, but the actual full course is literally 25 hours of video. I don't know if I can sustain an interest. I suppose I will if I pay for the entire course at once. We will see.
Beyond this increased study time, I will have to wait and see if I push myself at all to play more this year. I am for sure excited to get back to the WSOP again, so that's good I suppose. I would be super enthused to sneak in a mini-Vegas bender before that in February, if I had been playing more recently and felt sharp about my game. Right now, as I said, I don't feel super great about my game - so Vegas is unlikely to happen.
In the linked post above where I reveal that I am medicated and talk about how my priorities in life are now in the right order - and I do still believe that, but confess I do still day dream about a deep run and a big score, but I know it is unlikely to materialize if I don't play more often.
It is a bit of a dilemma - but I have to let fate take it's course I suppose. If I really want a 5 figure score or more, I have to play more - there is no short cut, I have to do the work. And at the same time, I can't imagine ever going back to playing 100 tournaments a year like I did from 2010 to 2014.
At this moment as I type this, my heart is winning out over my brain - I am pumped to play cards this Friday night in my garage, and I am looking at the newly released LAPC schedule for the perfect event that I can register for that doesn't conflict with work or family obligations. So yes, I guess right now - I'm old Chris. Probably tomorrow I'll be less enthusiastic Chris, but who knows. It appears that this will be an ongoing battle, I just have to remember that deep down one of these forces is a little angel and the other is a little devil, both perched on my shoulders.
Only time will tell which one will win out.
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