The Royal Raiser: January 2014

Sadly I'm old enough to remember watching TV when the original 'A-Team' first aired and the magic of hearing John 'Hannibal' Smith say those legendary lines after a successful mission.

At the beginning of January I sat down to put a plan together for improving my poker game with some interesting results including realising that I'm currently at the stage of 'Conscious Incompetence'. Now before you say 'What you talking about fool' let me explain.

Halfheartedness was not an option and I wanted to do the best job I could at setting these goals but I wasn't sure where to begin. Taking to the poker forums at PokerSchoolOnline I asked the question of what makes solid and objective goals for improving your poker game. Plenty of great suggestions were offered and I took all the advice on board before laying out my goals and objectives for the year ahead. You can see my poker goals thread at PokerSchoolOnline here:

Raiser's Poker Goals

In the end it turned out to be a 5 Year plan instead of just for the year ahead and I'm looking forward to seeing my progress as each month and year goes by. I really hope you follow my story and would really welcome and tips and suggestions you may have. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or Tweet me @TheRoyalRaiser on Twitter.

January at the Tables

I played a little over 16,000 hands at limits between 10nl and 25nl but mostly at 25nl. It was pretty dismal and finished down $329 which on the face of it is only 13 buy-ins at 25nl so not the end of the world. Having reached my stop-go for the month I used any FPPs earned to play satellites for the $5,000 Gtd Big Bang tournament, secured my ticket, and I'm looking forward to that tournament on February 8th.

The highlight for the month came in a Sunday Storm tournament with a finish of 1448th out of 48,235 runners making it a top 3% finish and taking home $72.35 in the process.

Coaching Session

Just how much these personal coaching sessions mean to me is hard to describe, they just help me look at the game in a whole new light. After reviewing some hands and looking at some HM2 stats my coach suggested sticking to the 10nl tables for the month ahead, not because he was afraid I'd lose too much money, but instead because he wanted to set me a challenge of improving my 3-bet and 4-betting ranges. At the 6-max tables it's not profitable to be a really tight and nitty player which I am guilty of and while it can be profitable at microstakes it won't cut-it as we move up in stakes. You'll find that there are many players at 25nl and above that can easily spot nitty players and they know how to exploit them.