I'm a low stakes MTT player. I've decided to start this journal as a way to get to know everyone here, improve my game, and hold myself accountable to whatever goals I set. Also to sort of talk out whatever madness is going on in my head at any given moment.

Really, I'm just getting started with poker. I played back before black friday but I had no clue what I was doing. Outside of reading a book or two I never really studied the game until this time around.

I'm 8 months in and I've only recently decided the type of games I'll be sticking to (big thanks to GodNemes1s). My live game has had some really good results. However my online game has not benefited in the same way. I'm still a losing player overall online. That will change soon enough though.

I finally got some of the more advanced tools I needed last month: HRC, CREV, etc. And I'm still learning to use those properly.

I found RIO after going to a couple other training sites that didn't really suit me. They helped me a lot, but ultimately RIO has been the most helpful. Oddly I'd heard very little about RIO but once I learned Sam Greenwood was a coach here and that pretty much settled it for me. I've watched some of his stuff and always admired the way he played. You can tell the guy is thinking on a different level to most of his opponents.

That's what I'm aiming for.

My immediate goals are to get better at studying (mostly scheduling study sessions), improve hand reading, and add tables to my sessions. Right now I'm fairly comfortable with two tables but i recently tried 3 and failed. I went back down to one table and did pretty well.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the better sites. I'm stuck with the ones that cater to Americans which I sometimes find myself doubting. Honestly, I'd say that's my biggest struggle right now; trusting the sites I play on.

When I first started playing again I didn't have too many tilt issues. But now that I'm increasing volume I see a lot more weird stuff that tilts me that I know wouldn't tilt me if I was on a regulated site. Like when I try to steal from SB and BB wakes up with a hand five times in a row. (!!!)

Like, WTF ACR! This is all YOUR FAULT!

I know it's dumb to think that way. But I'm sure this is a concern that all losing American players have to deal with. And since poker is a mental game, this worry (even in the back of your mind) has to have some affect on our game.

I'm not sure how to fix that problem right now. So I try to ignore it.

I told myself I wouldn't bring up the whole online poker debate, but here we are...

I don't know how often I'll update this journal. Weekly at least. Hopefully daily.

Alright! Well I'm off to do some hand reviews and then start my session for the day (late as usual).