Poker session planning

So today I thought I’d talk about something I haven’t heard many people on this forum (let alone in the MTT community) bring up.

I’m sure a lot of you play relatively consistently, I’m sure lots of you play long sessions (Sunday being a prime example), I’m sure lot’s of you talk about how the session is/was going or go on teamviewer and rail someone or have people rail you. One thing we never talk about. Session preparation. Why do I want to talk about this you ask? Because I think there’s a load of ev being lost from being inefficient/lazy preparation. Plus I’d like to hear you’re (yes you, seriously feel free to post!) opinions on this. I’m going to split this into two main parts and try and cover them both.

1) What you do before/during your play and planning a session, a ritual in a sense. Do you grab something to eat beforehand, do you have stuff planned for the breaks, do you tend to get up x amount of hours before the session.

For me personally I try and get at least 8 hours of sleep a night whatever I’m doing. I got this amount all through secondary school and it’s pretty much the prime amount of sleep I need. I could easily sleep in and it could become 10 but I know once I’ve had 8, I’m pretty set for the day. I’m not saying you need 8, it’s all based on what you’re used to. My dad worked in a bank for 30ish years, even after retiring he can only manage 5-6 hours a night as a result. Since you’re (hopefully?) over the age of 18 you’ve kind of figured out what works for you.

Other things I do is go on runs before I start a session (not all the time, I need to get better at this). In my opinion people vastly underestimate the effects even a small 10 minute run can have on you for the rest of the day. (I don’t plan on this becoming a running blog so I’ll stop there).

In regards to eating, my breakfast normally consists of porridge/bananas/tea/toast etc. Lunch can vary a lot but normally made my myself is rarely processed and dinner again is a variable which just comes down to what I/my family feel like eating (normally pretty healthy). Maybe a leak is that I drink too much tea, too much caffiene doesn’t seem that +ev but it’s kind of got to that stage where I get a lot of comfort out of drinking it (perhaps an issue?).

In regards to what I do on breaks, normally get a drink of water, eat a banana and go to the bathroom. Banana’s seem like great food to boost the energy levels during a long session. Again I stay away from energy drinks and all that stuff (can’t be that +ev in the long run).

In regards to planning a session this is something I have got better at but still have some leaks. I need to have a more concrete schedule and get used to playing the same tournaments, know the blinds, know how long late reg is, know how long I could approxamately be playing for. I normally have the BAP I’m selling up a few hours before so I know what I’m getting myself into but I still feel I could making improvements. I think I need to look a fair bit more into game selection and chatting with you guys about it. However, stars are pretty much making every micro/low MTT a signiture atm so the fish/reg ratio has seemed to be pretty good as of late.

What’s more important then saying I’m going to play this/that MTT is knowing if you’re up for the session. I feel we all have those days whee we don’t feel up for it and somewhat reluctantly play a session even though we have a bit of a headache, or overly tired. I made this mistake a few days ago which resulted in me refunding a BAP half way through. There’s always this urge to grind and get a sample and just play poker but I definitely need to start drawing a line and saying “not tonight” and instead review a HH or rail someone. I’ve got better at this but always room for improvement.

2) Session environment/setup.

So this one could lead to some people being at an initial disadvantage. For example, I play on a 15″ laptop. It’s a good quality laptop, I purchased a mouse etc but it’s hardly going to be as +ev as having 2-3 monitors and a desktop. I have a decent computer chair but again, it could be better. One thing I’m definitely going to spend money on when I get a decent score is a second monitor which I can connect with my laptop (I think a decent one is around 60-70 quid so I may end up buying it regardless but whatever). I think the thing a lot of people buy after a big score(s) is a decent computer setup. It’s likely something I myself will invest in, I don’t see myself jumping stakes anytime soon so if I get a big score I might invest in a better setup.

Another problem with a laptop, I can sit on a sofa/on my bed whilst playing. I still do this a fair bit and I know it’s not +ev. I feel a lot of people underrate what sitting at a desk can do in regards to concentration as well as other things. Long story short I should be sitting at my desk every time I play. My environment is always pretty good, I’m never normally disturbed, I never hear loud noises outside my house etc.

So those are my general thoughts about session preparation and some leaks I definitely have. What’s your current situation, what do you need to work on. Let me know!

PS~

Just as a slight plug I recently started another blog on 2p2 which is a bit more jokey and light hearted whilst still having some pretty serious views of mine.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/poker-goals-challenges/mtt-journey-assessment-1610880/

If any of you are interested.


Comments Stace:

hmmmm and what is wrong with Facebook mums???? undecided

Reply Labax:

I’ll go into a bit more depth.

It’s not the mere act of posting something and being proud of your kid. The thing about Facebook is that you can hide and remove the posts you don’t like so I’m not complaining about people posting running commentaries of their life because I have an active decision about whether I want to read that. It’s the way some (not all) mums go about explaining their experience (yes I don’t have to witness this either but it’s the logic behind some of the posts and some of the general attitudes of the mums which frustrate me).

I’ll highlight some of the stuff I’ve seen which somewhat frustrates me.

“I have such an amazing bond with my child, I think every woman should experience what being a mother is like”

^ An insensitive narrow minded comment which states that just because you feel one way, everyone else should feel the exact same way and want to “experience” kids. The fact that we have 30 year old women who are getting steralized shows that it’s not the end goal for every woman out there.

“I just love being a mum, people who don’t have kids don’t know what they’re missing out on”.

You’re right, they don’t know. I’m just 19 but I’m going to guess that parenting is an experience that no mum and dad in the world, can be fully prepared for. It just hits you all at once and you have to deal with it. Again it’s just the overall tone and the message that everyones lives would be better if they had kids, which isn’t always the case.

What’s worse then the above is some of the comments and conversation that arises as a result of these posts.

“How can you carry your child like that, you should be ashamed to call yourself a parent” and the other highlighting of mistakes from other mums. For some reason it always seems to be so catty and personal, yes they’re technically offering advice but it’s the way they go about it. It’s like they’ve never made a mistake before in regards to parenthood. And as I stated earlier, no one can fully prepare for being a mum/dad. Everyone drops something or forgets something and it’s a different experience for everyone. From my experience a lot of Facebook mums have been pretty condescending to people without kids, like they’re on some higher level because they now have a kid or they’ve just made pretty abrupt and rude about a lot of things to people who are having a kid for the first time.

Again this is just my experience, yours could be different. I’m aware that not all mums on facebook are like this but all I can only base my experiences on are from what I’ve seen from my own wall (surprisingly I am friends with some new mums on facebook) and the media. Hopefully I’ve gone into enough detail to not just make it seem like a cheap shot for all the mums who post on facebook, because that’s not what I wanted it to be.

Comment Stace:

I dont think what youve said is generalised at all. The majority of my friends on Facebook are Mums and I dont see anything like that.

I post on Facebook about my kids all the time, not to think im better than anyone else or that my kids are better than anyone else, but because I create memories with my children and I share those memories with my friends and family. If someone on my friends list doesnt like the fact I post about my children they can remove me I couldnt give a rats ass.

I also agree being/becoming a parent is one of the most rewarding and hard jobs there is, but it isnt for everyone. This doesnt mean people with or without kids are any better than the other.

But, to generalise us and go as far as to say you ‘hate facebook mums’ is probably worse than the stuff ur saying you see.

Reply Labax:

I may end up losing this one but I’m going to attempt to try and be as rational as possible and try and fight my corner.

I agree with you posting pictures of your children on facebook, you’re allowed to post whatever you want and create memories and I respect the fact that you couldn’t care less if someone removes you from facebook as a result. I even said I was okay with this in my previous post. I stated there and want to state now that I literally have no issue with you posting pictures of your family.

I didn’t say that all facebook mums post pictures of kids to come off as better then anyone else. I gave isolated examples based on my experiences which back up the claim that some mums (not all) post in that regard.

All I said was I disliked were examples about when ego (my child is better then your child) and people highlighting other parents mistakes.

This is just personal experience and sample size vs sample size. Do you have a bigger sample size then me, of course I’m sure you know lots of mums on facebook. None of us have a massive sample size though. But both me and you can only base this on our own experiences, not every facebook mum out there. There’s going to be way more variance in my sample then yours.

However, whilst the mothers you know on facebook don’t partake in that stuff I’m sure you’re aware that backseat parenting exists and a lot of parents out there use their child as a symbol of their success. From my experience at school I’ve overheard conversations where people are just using their children as weapons against eachother. So that’s “were I came up with this stuff”. To have an attitude that none of the stuff I mentioned has ever happened before is pretty narrow minded to say the least. Again I just listed examples from my viewpoint.

Regardless of all the above we both know that sometimes the things I state occur and sometimes they don’t visa versa. To say one does and the other doesn’t obviously isn’t correct. But neither of us were under that impression (I hope).

I hope the only thing you’re annoyed about is the generalisation. I can see why it annoys you, you post pictures on facebook of kids and have none of the traits which lead me to dislike some mothers who post on facebook. Me just saying I hate “facebook mums” is just painting every mother who posts on facebook with a broad brush. Why did I make such a rash generalisation, well for a start I originally just made some small bullet points for things I disliked in the note app on an iphone for personal use. I didn’t need to go into any detail because I already knew the aspects I disliked about it. I could write down “I hate driving” on the same note, when in reality I only dislike getting cut off and sitting in traffic and enjoy the actual driving aspect in some scenarios.

What’s bad on my part is that I directly quoted from that note page onto the twoplustwo thread without any explanation which could easily give off the impression that I hate every mum who posts on facebook, which you know by now isn’t the case. Why did I not give an explanation, merely for the effect of writing so I could rattle off a few points from the list without going into detail regarding relatively unimportant aspects in respect to my whole vlog.

Did I generalise, yes. Did I potentially offend someone, yes. But whatever you generalise in life someone or something is always going to fall into an area in which it’s offended or misunderstood via the generalisation. People generalise for lots of different reasons, it’s faster, comedic effect etc. Me and my twin sister both fell under the whole “dumb blonde stereotype” and obviously that statement isn’t true. Not everyone blonde person in the world is stupid. Was I offended, not after I realise it was just a generalisation and not every blond person was stupid. And as I’ve already stated I don’t hate every facebook mum out there, just some of them.

I’m sorry you fell under the crosshair with this example. But that’s kind of just life in my opinion. The world isn’t going to stop generalising and if you talk to someone long enough eventually they’re going to disagree with some kind of view you have.

You didn’t like the rash generalisation because it affected you personally and you fell into a category which I unfairly represented via generalising. I doubt you hate every generalisation out there though.

I guess a correlation I can draw is someone laughing away at a comedian for thirty minutes and then he suddenly makes a joke about something you don’t like and you don’t laugh and are offended. All those seperate other jokes you laughed at offended someone else watching.

You likely generalise/stereotype in day to day life (I think it’s almost in the inate nature of humans, pick the checkout till with the shorter line because it often finishes quicker, not always though).

Is saying someone hates facebooks mums because of a few aspects which effect some facebook mums potentially worse then just picking a shorter checkout line at a supermarket, of course it is.

Is it a pretty rash generalistion yes, but I already explained the reasons why it came across worse on the thread then it could of done.

People generalise all the time, whether it be over sample size in mtts, hair colour or pretty much anything.

Some people are likely going to read this and brand me as an entirely bad person without knowing that much about me, that’s a generalisation which I’m fine dealing with.

I’ve tried to be as rational and logical as possible and I hope you respect that.

All that really happened is that I made a rash generalisation, you fell into the group which was offended by it, you said you were offended by it, I tried to justify my cause and go deeper into the generalisation, admitted it was rash etc. Everyone makes rash generalisations, I don’t think we can all sit here as white knights and honestly say we’ve never said something which took things out of context in which our view was based on pretty limited things. Stace just happened to come under the fire merely by chance.

This stuff just happens from time to time, I don’t know what else you really want me to say.

Being completely honest (which you know I’ve been from day one) I feel me posting on a forum that “I hate facebook mums” isn’t nearly as bad as some mother having a massive rant at a parent in public and telling her she’s an awful parent and that she shouldn’t be looking after a child. (< again this kind of stuff happens).

I’ve made this so long winded because I respect everyone here and want to say my thoughts in a way that hopefully everyone can understand.

Comment Stace:

I didnt say I was offened by what you said, Im not. It takes more than a rash generalisation to upset or offend me, I just thought what you said was unfair.

Parents shouting at each other in the street or whatever is irrelevant really, you were talking specifically about Facebook.

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions on anything, just when posting on a public forum about these things there is always going to be someone you offend or upset. If you are fine with that then fair enough.

Reply Labax:

Okay, I’m glad I didn’t offend you. It can completely be viewed as unfair. But by that logic every generalisation is unfair. I agree with that logic too, every generalisation out there is going to result in unfairness to one person or another.

“But, to generalise us and go as far as to say you ‘hate facebook mums’ is probably worse than the stuff ur saying you see.”

“Parents shouting at each other in the street or whatever is irrelevant really, you were talking specifically about Facebook.”

I’ve seen stuff in person too which is where I was coming from with my statement about shouting at eachother in the street. I was using real world examples to justify my point that there are some mothers who do things I dislike. Even just looking at Facebook specific examples I feel that personally attacking an individual on facebook and going off about how they’re an awful parent in a similar tone to that streets shouting scenario is worse then just stating the generalision that I hate facebook mums. I think personal harrassment/bullying is worse then a rash generalisation (both being on the same platform/format).

Yes I’m fine with that, I’m sure I’ve likely acted in ways prior to this on the forum which have upset people. I guess it’s part of the risk I take when speaking my mind and talking about certain things.