Re-inventing myself.

In 2004, I was a winning poker player. 2005: crushed the games. 2006...meh... I didn't play so much, but I was winning. Enter the UIGEA and I have barely won any money since. It has taken me over a year to get over the fact that teh 2004, 2005, and early 2006 games are a thing of the past. Sure there are still many many donks out there, but the games are a lot tougher than they used to be. I have tried to adjust, but it's impossible to adjust fully when you chalk up bad results to negative variance every time.

I won't go as far as to say I'm a losing poker player because I'm not. I'm not a winning poker player either. I'm pretty much a break even player who used to be a winner. You'd think that would be something easy to admit, but pride is a tricky bitch.

Now that I've admitted that my poker abilities are par at best, it's time to re-invent myself. What do I need to do to become a winning poker player? Well I need to work on my game and make it better than most of the other players I'm playing against.

Some things I'm good at right now on the tables:

- Table Selection
- Aggression
- Getting in that extra value bet

Some things that kill me:

- Overaggression
- Trying to get in that extra razor thin value bet
- burnout
- Not being able to trust my instincts and make the tough folds

I've been watching Ed Miller's poker made simple videos on Stoxpoker. These have at least fired me up to play some more. I've never taken the time to properly learn how to play NLHE. I've pretty much used my LHE knowledge and adjusted from that. I can hold my own, but I'm not near as good as I want to be.

Like I mentioned in a prior post, I'm starting at the $25NL tables and working my way up. I'll re-evaluate after every 20K hands. If, after 20K hands, I feel comfortable moving up, I will. If, after 20K hands, I'm not comf0rtable with my game enough for the next level or my bankroll can't take it at the next level, I'll play another 20K hands at the same level and re-evaluate. It's going to be a pass/fail type thing. Pass and you move up a grade, fail and you get held back for 20,000 more hands.

I think my most important aspects to work on at the beginning are:

1.) getting back to ABC poker. Tight/Aggressive
2.) Staying out of auto-pilot mode
3.) Hand reading. This is an aspect of poker where I feel strong, but I don't trust my reads and I might as well be weak without that trust.
4.) Just play and have fun with the game

Now, 20K hands is about a month's worth of hands for me, so this might be a slow and tedious process, but it's one that I want to do. I want so much to be a winning poker player. Now that I admit that I'm not a winning poker player, I can really focus on becoming one. It's kind of excting in a way.... almost like starting over.