Hey guys.

So I was thinking about the top 5 things I should do to improve my poker game. This is actually a very interesting question, and it's extremelly hard to answer.

So these are my thoughts:

1. I should respect the game much more than I do now.

It's a very important thing, because if I could accept the difficulties, I would be so much calmer. It's extremelly important for me to concentrate...to focus till the end of each session, and to forget the things which has happened before, since usually I'm playing at least 15-20 tournaments simultaneously, and I HAVE TO play my A game all the time.

It's extremelly hard to do, and if I have problems in my private life (and unfortunatelly I have nowadays), it becomes harder... So I have to close off my problems, and concentrate when I'm playing.

This is very difficult to do, because it's an emotional thing, so I cannot do it alone. I have to be in good relationship with my friends, and relatives, because if anything's wrong, I cannot give my best when playing.

2. I have to improve my heads up game.

I am playing turbo tournaments (most of the time), and since the first place pays much more, then the second, I really have to improve my HU game. In turbo tournaments, there is no space when you are HU, but there is a system, which I have to get by heart. It's called SAGE, and you can find it on a lot of sites (I will not link it, because I do not want to advertise other pages here).

3. Give myself a day every week to replay tournaments, and find mistakes.

It is important as well, since I don't have time to think about my mistakes when playing... Actually I don't have time for anything when I'm playing, because I have to make my decisions so fast continuously.

4. Don't play cash games!!!!

I am a tournament player, and it becomes clear every time when I'm trying with cash games. I was wasting a lot of time with cash games, but I cannot be a cash game player, it's too hard for me emotionally... When I'm winning, I take it for granted, but when I'm losing it's like I could NOT win anymore... I think I could be a much more better (or succesful) player if I wasn't playing cash games in my life.

5. Learn a second game.

This game will be Omaha Hilo, and I already started it. It would be so important, because the fields are softer here, and there aren't as much players on the guarranteed tournaments as on the NLHE events.

These were my thoughts, thank you for reading!

Good Luck!

Hey everyone,

It's the end of november, so I'm going to write a post again.

I have mentioned that I've got some problems, and unfortunatelly I still have them, but I must get over them.

I asked Rex to give me her advice and then, I spoke with the girl, who is the main problem now.

I said I'm not willing to continue this way...she has to decide what she wants, because I do NOT wannabe the second guy in her life.... It's still in progress, but I think I'll close her as soon as possible... I don't want to be a stupid idiot, who waits for a girl, and his life is running....

You know it's extremelly hard to forget somebody who you really love, so I have to find things in my life which are good, and I started to do that.

I'm 20 years old, so I have to mention poker...it's a big possibility for me, since I still have at least 3 years from school...3 years....So long time, that I really think I can be a professional poker player in that interval.

I think I'll set poker as the most important thing in my life (besides friends and family), and I'll read articles, watch videos (so I should subscribe to PXF again, since I didn't do it when I decided to be a cash game player).

I want to forget...really...so I have to do a lot of stuffs...because if I don't give myself time to think about past, it will be easier to forget her (I hope).

Plans for December:

I'll have about 4 exams in school, so I have to learn for them... then... I would like to play at least 1,5k tournaments (from the 18 player sng-s, to the 180 player sng-s on stars; and some bigger field MTT-s on Sundays on Full TIlt and on Stars...) If I can do it, it will be the month in which I will have been played the most tournaments...1k was the most till now.

And the most important is that I will not have time to think about the girl............. I hope.

Oh yea, Christmas is coming as well, so I've got a lot of things to do...I hope I'll manage to do everything I want to. These are:

• Play at least 1,5k tournaments
• At least $2k profit
• Learn for my exams
• Succeed in all of my exams
• Have a great Christmas with my family without poker
• Have a cool new year's eve.
• Do NOT contact the girl, try to forget her...

Oh yeah, next friday I'm going to my old school for a stuff that is called "15 hours sport". That's gonna be a lot of fun I think, because I'll meet a lot of my friends there...

That's all for now... thanks a lot for reading!

GL!

David

Hey everyone

I wasn’t posting for a long time here, but I start it again, because I think my English is getting worse and worse since I finished grammar school, and I really want to be a part of an online community of an English site as well… so I’ll keep blogging I think.

Things aren’t going well since I wrote my introduction post, and this is just because of me…

I wanted to stop tournaments and play only cash games, but still… I hate cg.

I’m so frustrated when I’m losing buy ins after buy ins…two outers…three outers agains fish… maybe I’m giving up too easily, but I simply cannot cope with these things… When I’m playing cash games I nearly always finish the session on tilt, so I HAVE TO stop playing these games.

The problem is that I’m broke… I have no money and that’s extremelly frustrating. My only fortune is that my staker (who was staking me before I started cash games) is willing to stake me again, so I just have to face my problems and get back my motivation…as soon as possible…

If poker is not enough…I have to mention my offline life… There is a girl who I really love, but there’s a little bit problem…she’s got a boyfriend. Actually I don’t know what to do at all… I think she loves me as well, but she is not leaving her boyfriend... at least so far she didn’t do it. Extremelly crappy situation, believe me…but she’s the most wonderful girl in the world (at least for me), sooo I have to give some more time I think… btw, if it was happened to one of my friends I’d easily say: DO NOT WAIT MAN, IT’S USELESS… life’s much harder if you have to solve your problems, not others.

Oh and one more problem…alcohol. I’ve been drinking SOOO MUCH alcohol lately, that I think is very-very-very bad, and not helps me to solve anything…that’s why I made a decision: I’m gonna drink much more less alcohol, just when having party (and parties are reduced as well, so I hope I can change).

To sum up: I have to be extremelly strong mentally, and must grind for a better life. Hopefully things will change, and I can be the old me again…

I’m going to write soon, hope there’re people who’s interested in it…

GL everyone!

Hello Everyone!

I'm David from Hungary, and I'm gonna start blogging here as well (not just on a hungarian site) because of three main reasons:

1. Hungarian sites are not as good as the english ones (lot of crappy posts)
2. I would like to be happy to have new "online poker friends" from abroad as well
3. Rex55 (she can really motivate me with her posts and with her positive attitude)

I was thinking about starting to write an english blog for weeks ago as well, but the final decision is just now, because I've read Rex's blog, and now I'm going to write starting post about:

"What holds me back from being a better poker player than I am today? What are my shortcomings and weaknesses?"

Since you don't really know me, I think I'd better introduce myself.

I'm a 19 year old guy, playing poker for almost 3 years. I started with free $50-s which I've managed to lose of course. After realizing that tournament poker suits my better than cash games, I started to play them and had some nice results.

This year started extremelly well, and one of Hungary's best poker players offered me a deal which was about stacking and teaching me and for this, I got 40% from the profit...I mean I could got 40% if I could win after it.

I had to read a lot of articles, and I really think that I'm a much better player since then, but the results don't say this.

The bigger problem was that my bankroll was free after I've accepted this deal, and I've started to play cash games again, without control. Losing money was continuous and I lost about $4k + more than $2k in tournaments.

I don't have to say, my confidence was over, I didn't know what to do, furthermore I had to do my final exams in the secondary school.

The main problem was, that I wanted to be good both at tourneys and cash games as well but I was just learning tournament stuffs...and I have had a downswing in them as well.

I really thought my "career" was over, the only things that helped me were trustfullness what I got from my "master", my friends dangling words, and some very good blog post... eg:
http://rex55.blogspot.com/2009/07/sunday-recap.html this one.

So the main problem with me is that I cannot choose one thing and do an do and dooo it till death. I mean I prefer tournaments but I still can't cope with variance and bad beats.

I will NOT give it up, I'm watching a lot of videos at pxf, and I'm reading a lot of articles, the only things I need are willingness, stamina, and patience. Oh, and patience.

I have to learn that nothing's easy. I just have to keep playing, learning, and avoid cash games, because it doesn't make me happy. When I'm winning, I'm taking it natural, but when I'm loosing, I'm feeling that I' never gonna win again...never again. That's why tournament's are better for me...

Thanks for reading, I am going to write at least 1 post per week about my life, my results and my thoughts.

GL all!