So Feb definitely didn't go as planned. After a great start it all fell apart. Very reminiscent of my last and all too recent down swing, I simply didn't win showdowns. Plain and simple.

On top of everything, my laptop was basically ready to explode, and the new PC I bought took about 5 years to arrive (thanks FedEx). Being forced to play on the laptop that basically could freeze mid-session, combined with the runbad, made me cut back on the volume. I played enough to maintain IronMan/BlackCard, and that's it.

The good news is it finally did arrive so I'm now ready to ramp up the volume. And to top that off, I hit a great run starting this weekend, up almost $1k in my last 400 games or so. Had a few lessons and sweat sessions since my last entry that helped a lot. Even as my downswing continued near the end, I could tell I was playing much better which obv helped me get through it all.

Feb was my first ever losing month, but it was pretty aweful (100 buyins bad), but March, despite an extra 1k downswing to start, is now sitting at a half respectable profit, so looking forward to finishing it off strong.

-delahunty

Well all goals are going great, with the exception of my profit goals. The good news there, is I'm doing everything I can control. Profit will come in time, as soon as this crazy high variance stretch is over. enjoyed a little bit of rungood, then ran into a 100 BI downswing, followed by an annoying breakeven stretch.

Been an especially wierd stretch lately, will run like death in 8/10 games, normal in 1/10, and run like absolute god in the other.

Next week should be a good test for me. Going to have a larger than normal amount of spare time, so I'm going to put some crazy volume in. Looking to play no less than 1500 games. We'll see how that goes.

Some good news, I finally ordered my new PC. The laptop froze mid-session 1 too many times so I literally stopped playing that day and instantly started looking. Found an amazing deal so I bought it, unfortunately it's going to take some extra time (and creative shipping arrangements) to get it. Just hoping now the old computer behaves until the new one arrives. I'm really looking forward to grinding on the new machine, since I'll finally have 2 monitors running meaning no overlapping and far better table selecting.

Had yet another coaching session last night that was very good. Always nice to reinforce that I'm not playing like a total dummy when these runs are happening, but also nice to identify a few opportunities to improve to help climb out of the slump.

I now have only 7k games left in my coaching deal. Here's hoping for a strong finish, especially since I now have a much higher cut :)

-delahunty

So after a devastating crash to end 2010, and dropping another $1100 in just over a week to start January, things really picked up in a big way. At my worst, I was down $2750ish from my peak, but have now recouped all but maybe $500 of that. In the end, I made around $1100 for Jan and actually found my way onto the sharkscope leaderboard for the $15.01-$35 6max super turbos.

Before I go further, I'd like to give a huge shout out to Jimmy Legs for his Brain Fail video series. Had I not watched that in full, I may never have made it through that brutal stretch of pure run bad. If any of you haven't watched it, do it now! You won't regret it.

My goals thus far are going well. I played almost 1800 games in the 2nd half of the month, which is right in line with my 800 game per week goal. Mind you I played almost 1k the first week, so I need to work on playing 800 games min, regardless of whether I was over in previous weeks. The ROI is starting to climb back to a more respectable number which is nice to see. Hopefully as I move further past this downswing, it will continue to climb until I get back to the 4% I was at before it began.

The best part of being pack to putting in such volume, is I have more play to review. Constantly checking spots, getting coaching sessions, reviewing HH's, etc, is so crucial to staying sharp in these games where your edge is so marginal to begin with.

In other aspects, work is going great. Still waiting to hear if I can knock my schedule down to 4 days to help me keep a better work/poker/life balance. I've been doing pretty well at only playing poker before work and on my days off, so that I can spend more time with my girlfriend, but having an extra day off would make that so much easier. I've even cut back on attending my weekly home game. Playing only 2 nights per month, maybe 3. It kinda sucks, cause I really enjoy getting out to see all my friends, but it's getting to the point where I play so much poker, I'd rather just go have a beer with them. Going to a poker game to "socialize" is like going into work on your day off lol.

Next step for me is getting a new PC. This one is just getting way too sluggish, and it won't be long before my HEM database is just too large for it to handle. Also desperately need to get a larger monitor to get rid of the little overlay I have, and a 2nd one to help with table selection.

That's it for now. Best of luck at the tables!

-delahunty

Ok, having run pretty decent all week, I think I can safely say this latest crazy runbad stretch is over. Still have some ground to make up, but at least I'm on the mend.

So with all the negativity toward poker gone from my head...I can now set my goals for 2011. Here they are:

Volume: -800 games per week (roughly 22.5 hours) *vacations excluded of course*
-minimum 45 bonus IronMan medals per week
-maintain a BlackCard avg of 1k FTP per day. Then re-evaluate to see if 1500 is attainable.
-IronMan all 12 months
-Complete my coaching program by April 1.

Profit: -4% ROI or higher
-Top 20 on SharkScope leaderboardfor $15.01-$35 stake SuperTurbos.

Review: -At least 1 form of learning, 5 days a week. Could be watching a video, reviewing HHs, reviewing certain spots in HEM, etc.

Non-Poker: -Simple. Get back in shape. I recently bought a new bike which I will use to get back and forth to work, weather permitting. Also, eating right and being more active in general. I'm already doing pretty good in this regard, having dropped 20 pounds in the last 2 months. Weight really isn't my concern though, as I wasn't really too big to begin with. Just want to be healthier in general, which realistically should help my poker game by being able to stay sharp longer.

All of these goals are based on my current work and life situation. Currently I work 5 days a week, but am in the process of trying to get my hours condensed into a 4 day work week. If that happens, I'll be ramping up my volume goals to what I originally wanted. 1k games per week.

I'm going to continue writing roughly once per week, but will likely only update goals and such once per month as any more may be a bit tedious.

One last point, and it's not really a goal, but I'd really like to make it to Vegas at some point in June. I've been the last 2 WSOPs, and also in 2006, but I'd really like to make it a yearly trip. Don't even really care if I play any events as I'm not exactly rolled for them and I'm just an avg deep field MTT player, but it's just a great experience all around. So, variance permitting, I'll be there.

Really looking forward to a HUGE 2011!

Best of luck to all of you at the tables.

-delahunty

So after several months of not so much as a losing week, I got hit HARD by the variance stick. From late December to a few days ago, I was on a sick sick downswing. 180 buyins to be exact. In that time, I ran 200ish buyins below eV. What's worse about it, is that it was such a small sample. I only had about 1300 games in that period, so to run so incredibly bad in that short a time was pretty mind boggling.

Last couple days have been decent, winnningaround $400 in 200ish games, so hopefully this is the start of my variance correcting upswing! Pretty thankful to have the iron man year end bonus to help rebuild the roll, and enough FTPs to buy more bonus if I need to.

Well, it was a great year with a terrible ending! I made the crucial mistake of hitting the cash out button to help with Christmas. That was somewhere around the 20th. Without fail, I ran $1500 -eV over my next 500ish games :(

Luckily, the timing was alright since I had plenty of other reasons to play very little volume. I only played a few sessions since then, so it wasn't a mind numbing run-bad stretch by any means.

About to play my first session of the year. Here's hoping 2011 starts with a huge upswing!

-delahunty

Hey all,

Volume's been light with the holidays approaching, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays.

After the $5k milestone I kept running well for a few days, then had one real bad day. Played very little since then and haven't quite made it all back yet. All good though, should get good volume in next week.

Hope everyone gets what they want this year! All the best!

-delahunty

Hey all,

Will keep this short since I just posted, but the $5k goal has been achieved! Pretty psyched about this obv. Especially psyched to be doing so well in the $20s. I'm even beating them at 4% (slightly higher than my overall ROI) over a decent sample.

Gonna wait til after the holidays to set the next goal(s), but will continue to update weekly.

Big thanks to my coaches! You guys rock!

-delahunty

What can I say, just hit the $4k milestone earlier this week. Thanks to today being my best day ever in the supers, making this my best week yet, the $5k goal is now just around the corner. Ran very well this week, finally!

Highlight of the week was a player making a ridiculous call, I win the pot and he sits on the rail berating me. That never bothers me, but what was hilarious was this awesome quote: "delahunty, you are a very bad player. you only win cause you're lucky".

HA! Cause we all know variance doesn't adjust over a 12,500 game sample right?

Anyway, here are some stats:

Today:

Hey folks,

After another basically break even day Monday, and a day off Tuesday, I've finally hit the $4k mark with a nice $300+ day today. Hopefully this marks the end of the breakeven stretch, and I'll hit the $5k goal very soon!

On top of that, just had another great lesson, which hopefully will bring some more value to these games for me.

Till next time.....

-delahunty