Focus, Focus, Re-focus, Focus. Got it! Shit. Re-focus

Last year was a blur of ill played tournaments and focus free cash games. There was a stretch where I was crushing the NLHE tables at an alarming rate. How else could I have afforded to do so poorly in Vegas? Instead of bearing down and trying to keep the ball rolling though, I let myself piss away any chance at a great year by playing cards as though I was "on a rush." Well, the rush is over as soon as your opponents stop picking up second best hands now isn't it? Heading into the new year, I resolved to bear down and grind out some hands in the Proper Pirate Style. The early results have been very good with some recent donkery thrown in. In NLHE, I am playing at a very low level at a particular site, trying to build a bankroll through solid play. I started with four buy-ins (not enough but it is a very low level and I can restock easily). I dropped one buy-in in the first ten minutes of the year playing a weak hand too strongly of course. After that, I cut off the internets and the boob tube and proceeded to win eight buy-ins over the next four hours. No big whoop. I've been there before. The test will be to maintain focus long enough to build to a proper bankroll for the next level. If I can't, it might be time to make online poker even more recreational than it already is and concentrate more on the live games. I know online is where it is at, but my brain revolts sometimes with all of the other available stimulus. Live, I can get my fix by watching the other players and listening to their bullshit.

As an aside, I also have an Omaha project going on at another site. I search for the highest "saw flop" percentage at any table in the 25-100 buy-in range and sit down. This has worked very well so far. Who said table selection was over rated? Not this guy.

Last night in the MATH was very short for me. I took a coin flip getting 2:1 on my money. I seem to be doing a lot of this lately. Oh, I remember the days I could fold AKs to a re-raise of my re-raise. I still think the play was correct as I was very confident the raiser had a PP smaller than AA or KK or had complete air. He had 33 and I never caught up. I have been able to fold there in the past, even getting good odds, as I would have had plenty of chips to play but I find myself getting more impatient in MTTs to either double up or move on to something else. At least I am smart enough to avoid most MTTs until I can fix this wiring problem in my poker brain. From there, I gave away my last T400 or so and went back to PLO8. Buddy Frank made the money so that's good for him,