Adam LaBare's Poker Blog

Past few weeks have been tough.  I've made absolutely no money through my normal means on both Bodog and Stars.  Usually when I hit a dry spell, I have sporadic moments of hope which keep me actively engaged.  Last week, 2 weeks into my poor showing, I made the decision to step back, take a break and just relax.  Spent a good amount of time wasting my life in WoW.  Brings back fond memories of Norrath.  Call me a geek, I don't care.

Anyway...Tuesday I spent some time answering a question in regards to bankroll building and management.  While the intent was to help others, the article ended up helping me tremendously.  While I only went into so much detail, it allowed me to step back, re-asses and determine next steps.  While it was absolutely necessary for me to step away from the tables last week which probably saved me a lot of money...writing my thoughts Tuesday really allowed me to get back to basics.  With that in mind, decided to take my own advice and make a run on Stars last night.  I made a whopping $25 deposit.  Haven't really had any money on Stars in a few months so I didn't really want to put a large lump over there.  Started with a $13 6 person SnG.  Took 1st place.  Applied those winnings to a $20 180 person MTT.  Finished 4th.  Went to bed.  This now gets me back in the game. 

Cashing last night deep was a big boost for the confidence factor.  While it's one thing to stay technical during a downswing while maintaining a positive attitude, it only goes so far.  In the real world of an aspiring poker professional, long down swings can really impact your self esteem and morale.  It hinders your judgment, it affects those around you, it affects your home life, etc.  You can remind yourself not to take it so personal, but seriously, it just doesn't work like that.  Self discipline away from the poker table during a drought can be extremely hard as I'm sure my wife can attest to.  However, I do think that having something else to focus on aside from poker during a bad run is important, whether that be home, work, xbox, warcraft, whatever.  While many call poker a job and or hobby...having something else to fill the void when running bad does wonders.






Technorati Tags: bankroll management, bankroll building, poker, wsop, world series of poker, bodog, pokerstars

How Do I Build My Bankroll?
I get this question a lot and usually address it half assed as my approach usually changes from one month to the next. However, over the past year, I've had a lot of success with the below approach.

I think everyone that has had a taste of success has created their own path, or method for bankroll building and management. For myself, I stick with what I know works. My formula goes a little something like this:

Have a master plan for the week. If I'm starting out with $100 on a Monday, by Sunday, I would want to have that built to $1000. That's my goal, certainly not always a reality.

Each session, start small and build as you experience success. For example. I know my short handed SnG's work very well for me. So I'll sit down at a $13 6 handed SnG.

If I finish 1st, I move up to the next level which is a $38 6 person Sng.
If I finish 2nd, I'll do the same tournament again.
In that second tourney, if I finish 1st or 2nd, I'll move on to the next level. If I do not finish in the money, I'll rinse and repeat at the bottom level.
If I finish out of the money on any higher level, I'll drop back one level and continue the process.

I find PokerStars and Bodog both have decent scenarios for this method. Stars has also added a $70 6 handed SnG to alleviate the pressure of jumping from $38 to $110. Nice addition.

If Short handed action is not your style, play a full table scenario.

As I'm making money on these SnG's, I'll pick and choose my MTT's wisely. I believe MTT's to be my strongest skill and try to cater the tournament to my style. I prefer a realistic tournament as opposed to a lottery and very much like the 180 person MTT sng's on Stars...or the $30k guarantee's on Bodog.

If my bankroll allows with the above efforts, I will often opt to hit a SnG satellite for the big tournaments on Sunday's.

Often times, I find it healthy and necessary to do something different. If I find any of the above methods not panning out, I'll migrate over to a limit game. Something like 2/4 or 3/6. I'll jump on these tables and play fairly ABC type poker. Beyond that, I'll also change things up a bit by hitting a stud 8 or Omaha hi/low game just to keep my brain in shape.

With the above $1000 goal in mind, I'm also making sound decisions on withdrawals. Personally, I find it important to associate online success with real money in my bank accounts. Therefore, I've adopted a process for withdrawal as follows:

Start with $100
If I double and reach the $200 mark, I'll withdrawal 10% which leaves me with $180.
If I double and reach $360, I'll withdrawal 15% which leaves me with $306.
If I double and reach $612, I'll withdrawal 20% which leaves me with $489.60.
If I double I will then have $979.20 which I will often extract altogether and start again, or make a very conscience decision as to my next week.

With this method, I'm able to put a little change in the bank which is only $196.40 but psychologically, this helps me understand that I am accomplishing something other than just accumulating cyber chips. I now have money in my personal account that I can use for live action around town, a nice evening out, etc. Once I obtain my weekly goal, I then am faced with upping my goal for the following week. I'll adjust my formula accordingly.

The trick for me is to run it like a business and keep accurate records. When I do this, I find I am more successful. The past few weeks I have been winging it and have not made a penny. Perhaps there's something to my method...who knows.

The intent here for me though is to associate my successes with something tangible.

This is my formula, albeit non technical in comparison to other poker pro's and semi pro's...but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Technorati Tags: bankroll building, bankroll management, poker, wsop, adam labare, poker pro, poker semi pro, bodog, pokerstars

Hello all...
To those wondering what the hell is going on with me...worry not, I'm
not yet dead! Truth is, I've been stuck in the middle of a horrible
run. And when runs such as these hit, I tend to crawl in a hole and
wait for it to pass. As a result, I tend to stay away from all things
poker. Every few days though, I'll check in with the poker gods and
they seem to be determined to keep the rain cloud over my head.

No real bad beats or dead cards. I keep getting my money in with the
best hand...but unfortunately, bad luck keeps getting in the way. I'm
strangely not very upset about it...just annoyed. When swings like
this present themselves, I have a bad habit of trying to bully my way
through which results in larger loss. So, just practicing what I
preach and taking a breather if you will.

With that being said, suppose I can screw around with my gnome warlock in the meantime...sigh.

Good luck everyone!
Adam

Technorati Tags: poker, world series of poker, adam labare, wow, gnome, warlock, poker swing, bad beat, card dead