The Poker Bonus Chaser's Journal

I have been single-tabling for a couple of weeks now, or playing a main table and one sideshow table that I am not paying much attention to - just nut-pedalling.  At first this was somewhat painful for me, as I have been 3 or 4 tabling for over a year, racking up bonus after bonus.  The really slow action of just one table was irritating.  I am glad I have stuck with it, though, as I am doing something I have not been doing for the past 8 or 9 months:  learning and improving my game.

When I first got serious about poker, I improved very rapidly - there was no where to go but up!  I got good at grinding, multi-tabling, and finding bonuses to chase.  My earn rate was higher than I ever dreamed it could be when I first started playing.  I became overly reliant on the edge I had in my pre-flop game.  Eighteen months ago, if you were a solid pre-flop player, you could be profitable up to $3/6 full ring limit.  There were enough clueless players to keep it profitable.  As that slowly drained away I missed the opportunities to improve the other parts of my game.  I was too busy being profitable, and finding other ways to be profitable - casinos and sportsbooks.  When the slump hit, it took me a long while to figure out I wasn't going to be able to grind my way through it.  I needed to make some changes.

I think less of a slump would not have got my attention the way this one did.  Down 300 BB I continued to pound out 3 and 4 table sessions without a second thought.  Never stopping to review the sessions and hands where I was losing.  Knowing the cloud would eventually lift and I would be back on track eventually.  Somewhere around 600 BB down I just couldn't stand it any longer.  I had to do something different.  I didn't know what at the time, but continuing as I was just wasn't making any sense.  I started by looking for the weakest players I could remember - Pacific Poker and VIP Poker.  I found them just where I'd left them. 

Now I was sure I had players that could be easily beat - all I had to do was beat them.  And if I wasn't, I had to be sure it was their dumb luck and not my bad play.  That meant slowing down and paying closer attention.  Now, with that lack of action that I found so painful a few weeks ago, I have the time to analyze my play as I go.  Win or lose, I can tell what I am doing right and wrong pre-flop to showdown.  It is helping, as is getting significantly better reads on the opponents I face.

Lastly, I started re-reading Theory of Poker three days ago.  Four chapters in and I have found two things I missed before that are going to help me at the tables.  I have won 5 of my last 6 sessions, and (knock wood) I am ahead in cash games for the month.  First time that's happened since February.