[Poker] Goals for March 2016

Overview

I plan on doing two posts at the start of each month, one to discuss how I did in the previous month, and one to discuss my goals for the next. Considering I haven't properly kept track of how I did this month enough to discuss it, and I didn't have any set goals defined, I thought it was best to start with March and work from there. 

I currently have a $60 roll, which I worked over the past month from about $20. I doubt I'll have very much time to play over the next few days, so March will start with the $60 figure.

Goal Number One

I want to take the $60 roll to a minimum of $80 come the end of March, through direct poker winnings. I am not counting rakeback in this, as I will probably reach 1000 starcoins a few days into March - so the goal is +$20 in PokerTracker for the month. It isn't a lot, but it's a start, and it is going to be made much more difficult in completion of the other goals, which by far take priority. If I had to fail at one goal this month, I'd choose this one.

Goal Number Two

I am a firm believer in building a base to work from before going upwards. I do not see the point in rising up stakes as fast as I can without building myself a key set of skills to use as I climb. One of these skills I want to build is multi-tabling. Currently, I have only played PLO2 Zoom. I would ideally like to play normal tables but I have a laptop with a small screen and low res and it gets awkward once I go past 4. I want to practice playing a high volume, I want to be able to make important decisions quickly. I want to be able to maximise my rakeback and do everything I can to combat the variance by pumping up the volume of hands. I will use my time at the micro stakes to develop these skills. Goal number two is to play a profitable month in March, consistently playing two tables of PLO2 Zoom, playing at least 30 hours.

Goal Number Three

I am going to add a lot more independent study to poker. With my recent purchase of PokerJuice, the lovely people over there gave me a free copy of PLOQuickPro, despite the promotion having already ended. I'm going to take advantage of this fantastic customer service by making sure I read PLOQuickPro cover to cover over the month of March. I've already started and I've already learned a fair bit. I have also ordered both versions of The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler. I feel that tilt is not a major problem for me, I am generally quite level headed, but it definitely happens sometimes and my profits suffer when it does. I want to deal with this as soon as possible because in a game as swingy as PLO if I cannot have complete control of my emotions, I have no chance at all.

Goal Number Four

I want to start to utilise software more. I've had PT for a month or so now and absolutely love it but I feel like I'm only scratching the surface of what it can do for my game. This has been added to with me buying PokerJuice, I know its fantastic software but quite frankly I have no real idea how to use it to its full potential. I will spend time devoted to learning the ins and outs of these softwares and schedule more regular sessions of review using them (I usually just review whenever I feel like, I think more structure is needed than that). I am thinking I should do a review of the previous session I played directly before I play the next, so it sort of works as a warm up as well as a review.

Goal Number Five

Start eating healthier. Actually go the gym I am paying for which is literally a 5 second walk from my flat. The usual shit. 

Goal Number Six

Don't go broke. 

Conclusion

Yes, I know the numbers are small. I will never make a living playing PLO2 and aiming for $20 a month is so tiny it almost seems pointless, but I really want to stress groundwork here. The main goals for this month are improving my volume capability, improving my theoretical side of poker, improving my use of software and improving my mental game. I do not want to rush my way up the stakes and burn out. At this point, profits are not the major priority. 

In terms of BRM, for now I'm just going to stick with PLO2, until I'm playing 4 tables of Zoom and feel comfortable with it. From then on, I'll adopt the 50+10 scheme described in PLO from Scratch. For those who haven't read it, it says to move up stakes, I need 50BI for the stake I'm currently playing and 10BI for the one above, so to move from PLO2 to PLO5 I will need 50($2)+10($5)=$150. I then get to play PLO5 until I go back to 50BI for PLO2 then I switch back, or until I reach the requirement for PLO10, which is 50($5)+10($10)=$350. Until I become more comfortable with judging it myself, I'll stick to this.

I won't just be focused on using BRM to control my up and down in stakes. Every time I make a major adjustment into my game (adding another table, moving up stakes, going from Zoom to regular cash if  I end up buying a proper PC) I want to make sure I am profitable for at least a month with it so I can adapt. I feel it would be easy to go on a major upswing in PLO5 and end up playing PLO10 in a PLO2 mindset. I'll take my time.

So, that's about it. In terms of what else I'll write this month it'll most likely be my takes on the full capabilities of the softwares, the books I plan on reading, anything interesting I discover about PLO in the process, and then at the end of the month I'll outline if I succeeded at these goals, if I didn't why not, and outline my goals for April 2016. I'll try and include some more interesting stuff too, I can't imagine it being super exciting me talking about my poker statistics playing micro stakes. 

There's also one more really important thing. I imagine a lot of the people reading this will be into PLO, so you'll probably be better than me. Please, scrutinise everything I'm doing. If you find a flaw, let me know in a comment, or tweet me @SeacombePLO. The primary reason I am writing this is so I can improve.  

Hopefully see you next time! Seacombe