Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

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My grinding pad

"Plan your work and work your plan" is a motto my grandfather lived by.  It helped me through law school, it helped me during nearly a decade of law firm life, and it helped me start and succeed at creating and building my own solo practice.  I figure if it worked in those arenas, it will work in poker. 

So, I've got my grinding station set up and I've got my games scheduled. I'll be playing Monday through Wednesday, beginning at 8:00am, and again on Sundays.  Every other week I hope to get in a live local game, and once a month (or every other month as my schedule and bankroll allows), I hope to travel to Vegas to play several cheaper buy-in tourneys.  My current bankroll is still $3000.  I hold some of that in the bank and some of it across three sites: Bodog, PokerStars, and FullTilt.

During the week (Monday through Wednesday), I'll play a maximum of 20 tournaments a day at a cost of $185.30 per day.  I reviewed each site I play on and have the games calendared by start time, type, and buy-in.  All of the tournaments are the micro/low MTT buy-in stakes (with only two $2.20 rebuys in the mix, not to exceed an $11 total buy-in per game), to be played over the three sites I mentioned above.  I begin at 8:00 and my last buy-in of the day is 1:30.

Thursdays and Fridays, depending on my work schedule, are study and review days. I'm also still very much working on my cash game and if I have no luck for the day in tourneys, I put in some time there.  I'm generally playing .10/.25 FR, but I've begun adding in some 6-handed, and some higher buy-ins.  As of yet, I'm not multi-tabling more than three cash games at a time.

I'll let you know how it goes.  In the meantime, good luck at the tables.

My tools

My poker library

I Haz Chips

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What? I couldn't sleep.



I'd like to thank @MyYearOfPoker for inspiring this monstrosity and @Street3 for some of the (definitely the only sensible) dialogue.

*yawn* Good luck at the tables, peeps.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Online Poker Avatar

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When sitting down to play poker online for the first time, it is important that you convey an image of confidence, know-how, and fearlessness.  Because, generally, you don't actually sit down at a table when you're playing online (unless you have one in front of your couch, bed, or near your toilet), it is imperative that your avatar - or screen image - convey those attributes.  One very well-spoken commentator and twitter professional (Street3), put in some extensive research on the subject, which you can find here and here.

Quite unexpectedly, Street3's educational information came in handy when I stopped by my mom's house today.

Mom plays online poker at Bodog.  She has played so much free money poker that, prior to the site changing its rules, she was able to exchange points for a pretty nice little bankroll and with some judicious playing, she's now sitting at a whopping $1,317,000.00 in (play) dollars.

As we know, image is everything, even at play money tables. For the longest time, Mom's avatar has been a very attractive young lady sunbathing by a pool; and, of late, it's really been hindering her game.  It took some time, but she finally came to see that the scantily clad model pic was garnering her no respect from her opponents.  And this was costing her untold thousands of (play) dollars.  For that reason, she forced me enlisted my help in creating an image that would convey just the right tone for an online (play money) poker professional.

The photo shoot was difficult.  I don't know how many (play money) poker professionals you know, but I'm sure you can imagine they have pretty big egos.  Location, lighting, touch ups...it's all critical.  It took some time, but we finally got it right.  Here are some of the really stunning, but not quite right, photos that didn't make the cut:

Personally, I liked the monkey butler, as it does convey strength.  Basketballs on a tray can be quite heavy. 

Monchhichis are very cunning and deceptively strong creatures. I think it's safe to say that we all know to look out for them anywhere we find them, much less at a (play money) poker table.

And, of course, aside from a Royal or Straight Flush, quads are pretty much the ultimate, so this image was also quite compelling.






At long last, Mom went with what is now her twitter avatar...which is a little familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.


It was tough, but purposeful, work.  And in the end, I think we got it right.  We can't show you everything about how the magic was made, but a little insight probably won't hurt:




Now that you understand the importance of choosing the right online poker avatar for you, I wish you the very best of luck in your games.  Go get 'em!!