Resolution #3: Be Serious About Working On My Game

For the first time in my life, barring my first week of online play, I feel like I really have a chance to start growing my roll. Considering the amount of time I goof off, I think it's time I invest in being serious about getting better and preparing to move up again in a few months if things go well here. With that in mind, I'm going to do something that's out of character: I'm going to set some goals. Here they are:

1. Get/do coaching
   
2. Consider cardrunners
   
3. August: 20k hands at 5ptbb/100
   
4. September: take shots at .5/$1 6max
   
5. 2+2?

Now, one at a time:
1) Get/do coaching
Last night at 4am, while feeding the baby, I listened to the new episode of "Cash Plays". In it, Bart Hanson reminded me of the value of doing coaching. He sweated a friend for a couple of hours at Commerce as he played a 5/10 nl game and took notes. He talked through a couple of hands he felt the guy botched and Bart talked about how valuable it was for him to articulate some of these ideas. And it reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing sng coaching for chiptalkers.

So this goal has already sorta been ticked off the list. Today Littlebu and I are swapping 200 hands to do some hand history work and help each other out. It's not like either of us are pros or anything, but we respect each other's games and I hope the discussion helps us both.

In addition, I've been in contact with TMJ2k in the past about possible coaching, and I'm going to give more thought into that, although the guy seems swamped with baseball/poker.

2) Consider Cardrunners
I've always considered it too expensive to be realistic, but then again I never made much online either. If my goals for August are resonable (more on that in goal 3), then it becomes a relatively minor investment. The video training model is one that I think is great, I've watched some of their videos before and think it could really help. Also, it'd be an investment that could continue to help me if I'm fortunate enough to keep moving up.

Subgoal: talk to CT'ers I trust about which training sites they use, why, and how valuable their experiences have been.

3) August: 20k hands at 5ptbb/100
This month, I played 5 days so far (newly up, plus visitors in town), at an average of 700 hands per day. At 700 per day, I can do 20k in 29 days. More realistic imo would be to play a little longer at a time and do something like 900 hands per playing day and 22 days. Included in this estimate is the fact that we'll have family in town for 5 days next month.

As far as win rate, I'm currently at 18ptbb/100. If I can't do 5ptbb/100 next month then I need to start to seriously ramp down my expectations, which is fine. But if I do meet that goal...

3) September: take shots at .5/$1 6max
If next month goes well, I'll have 30 buyins at p* for .5/1, and with that I'll give it a go. I'll be fairly confident that I can use .25/.50 as a builder if things go well, and give it a shot. I'm not sure how much I should be willing to lose before moving down, but I guess it's something like 7-8 buyins.

4) 2+2?
I seriously have my doubts, b/c the microstakes forum tends to have like 100 threads a day, each with like 2 responses. That said, there is so much content there that I'm bound to find some good stuff. I'll wade in...I suppose...and find the good stuff through stickies, references, et cetera.