Frustrating session but a win anyway

Worked into the evening last night. When I finally got to play my PC was all over the place, Full Tilt was freezing and HEM didn't work. After a reboot things didn't improve much. So I played a measly 146 hands and won a 1/3d of a BI. Totally blind without my HUD and fighting time outs and all I ended up playing 12/9 lol. I knew I wasn't playing many hands but even for me 12/9 is wow. I only managed a win because I TABLE SELECTED and had position on a guy I knew was quite bad. Fortunately I flopped a set in the blinds and he came over the top of my check raise on a dry board with bottom pair. Perfect.

Anyway this morning I discovered that my graphics control centre software is a major resource hog so I stopped it from starting on boot up. Problem solved I hope. How exciting. If you want to see in more detail what is going on with your processes, download this free tool.

Process Explorer

Power cuts

As UK people know weather has been crapola the last few days with gales and heavy rain. Some poor souls have had it quite bad. As we live on a hillside flooding isn't a risk. Early yesterday morning we had a power cut when something blew up in a nearby field. I ended up going into the office to do my work. At night we dined on carry out pizza which was OK... Power came back on late evening. Power cuts happen a couple of times a year due to third world infrastructure. We are never prepared. At least we have the open fire for some heat but really need to invest in a gas camping stove so we can have a cuppa and fill the hot water bottle.

Didn't play any poker and failed in my attempt to teach my wife how to play holdem. In other words she's not interested. If it has no connection to horses or coronation street she doesn't want to know. She's fairly cool about the poker and doesn't seem to mind that so far I have been a donator. I think she could be decent at poker as she is super competitive, never gives in and is very good at learning / studying.

Am up to my neck in work from early to late. Also going to be working the weekend so when I get to the tables poker will hopefully be a form of relaxation.

Laterz

bluffing villains when they have a strong hand. doh

Poker
After a few drinks (something I never do) sat down to play a session and with a few short hands hand dropped 130 bb. First hand of the session in BB dropped 62bb v a bigger two pair. Ouch. Should have realised.

A few hands later lost 62bb after trying a turn check raise on a wet board in a 3 bet pot, versus aggro villain who snap called. Turns out he had hit a straight on the turn but checked the river presumably for fear of facing a flush. Was this a river shove opportunity? Probably not.

Classic mistakes, losing a silly hand early in the session when I normally give myself a chance to warm up a little.

Both hands where I think would normally have avoided trouble but for the demon drink. On the plus side I didn't tilt and recovered my composure feeling quite confident (the drink again...) that with my improving table selection I could probably recover a fair bit.

Anyway once my head cleared I did play reasonably and recovered from being down 145bb to end the session down only 40bb.

Work
Find I am waking at 4am a lot these days and can't get back to sleep. A combination of thinking about my work situation and not exercising. Ironically because I'm not exercising I don't need as much sleep. Had an uber busy day working with my brother. Got a very busy week in front including the weekends no doubt. Apart from a fractious beginning to the day we both relaxed a little and got the heads down. We are collaborating with Skype and Mikogo which is kind of interesting. Been reading a bit on project management and thinking about doing a certification course in mid January. As I expected the job market is fairly chronic.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Finally managed to string together a few wins this week and generally feeling calmer about my game. With advice I made some changes that have made a difference. Hopefully I can keep this going. There is so much to learn in this game and to be honest I sometimes get overwhelmed by the volume of information. I have decided that I am not going to worry about knowing everything but just focus on trying to fix one or two things at any one time. Also trying to make a habit of good session management; especially regarding table selection and session length. But above all I know that I need to play more, much more.

The last several weeks have been a bit rough in terms of results which had knocked my confidence a bit. No way this downswing was just variance. I think this has been a positive thing as it has forced me to look for answers. I also finally realised that I need to learn to have patience and accept that becoming a winning player takes time and a substantial number of focused repetitions.

Looks like moving to 50 might need postponed.

The new reality

Poker
As stated in previous posts my HEM sessions for the the last several weeks are showing a sea of red. This was clearly a signal to take a close look at my game. I received some good advice from a couple of poker buddies and also have played a few sweats which have been really useful. I had to reset a few ideas re. strategy. So the last few sessions have been much more thoughtful and disciplined, with much better table selection. Consequently I have had a few winning sessions and weirdly my stats are looking a lot more like the thing. I haven't tried to force the numbers but they just happened by trying to play the way I should. Going to try and hold on to those positive feelings.

Work
My second week working from home and it's going OK. The reality is that I have just changed the location of my desk. I thought I might have free time during the day to sneak a session or two but the good old catholic guilt has made that difficult. I expect it will take a few weeks to adjust.

Have been researching the job market, looking at courses and tarting up my CV. For financial reasons, I definitely don't want a permanent position; however even though it's better paid, the thought of going back into contract work is also a little depressing. Obviously I need to make money so will do whatever it takes. The main goal is to rebuild my skills, get a few certificates and up my confidence so that I am ready to take on a job.