I started keeping a Angka Keluaran HK journal, and here's what it said today

I know, I should have been doing this years ago.  Smart players do. I have kept various informal logs, but this is my first attempt at a structured one… here’s how it looks:

Session Preview

General

Taking a break from working on the webpage and heading over to the boat for an couple hours of play.  I feel ok about my play this afternoon and I’m in a mood to play poker, but not over-excited – a Live Draw HK  couple of hours of cards sounds like a nice way to get out from in front of the computer.  Ha.

Goals

My goals for this session are

Not to play more than 3 hours

To be more conservative about my calling with middle pairs

To be aware of pot size when I am not in hand as an exercise

To use decision trees even on basic decisions, even if it means playing slow.

Session Review

Overview

Game: 2/5 -5/10 NL

Site: Live

# tables: 1

Time: 5 hrs

Result: -300

Luck / Skill: a bit of both

Discipline

Use of decision trees: low

Amount of notes taken: n/a

Use of ACEHUD / PT: n/a

Goals

Preflop tightness: Not terrible, got worse as the night went on.  Still overvaluing weak aces and kings

Session specific goals

Not to play more than 3 hours: Played too long

To be more conservative about my calling with middle pairs: Did a better job with this but still paid off about 600 or so unnecessarily.  People just don’t make that many plays

To be aware of pot size when I am not in hand as an exercise: Failed miserably

To use decision trees even on basic decisions, even if it means playing slow:  Almost complete failure.

Critical mistakes made: Two, maybe three

Left when felt appropriate? Nope, stayed too long as I tend to do at boat

Physical / emotional

Caffeine intake? Very little an hour or so before play

Mood? Thought it was good but turned out i had a short fuse once I got there

Awake? For most of the session, got sleepy around two.  Imagine that!

Review:

This should have been a good session but I let my frustrations get in the way.  Really there was no reason why this shouldn’t have been a $500-$800 win – a bad play or two with middle pair and a failure to protect some other hands made the difference.  That and I got very passive once we got down to short – I could have probably picked up a lot of small Angka Keluaran HK, and at 5-10, a lot of small pots makes the difference between -300 and +500.

I felt like I had a really short fuse for some reason – I was quick to criticize other players and didn’t feel “in it” really.  I need a better attitude.  I would think I was an ass if I played with me, and I wouldn’t mind that if I thought It was helping me win, but I’m not seeing how it is.

I think that frustration contributed to my absolute refusal to work with my decision trees.

New Ideas:

I really need a time limit at the damn boat, bottom line.  I stayed about an hour too long, and I tend to fall into this pattern where I get really focused on getting even or not giving away a small win in that last hour and it almost guarantees that I won’t play well.

Conclusions:

Need a time limit next time

Think more about maximizing the good hands when you get them.

Go back to focusing on controlling your physicality.

Counting the pot was a good idea – you should have done that and should do it next time.