Poker : Black Belt Poker – Grading week final analysis

So how did I do overall for the week ?   

The stats make pretty grim reading, I played a total of 6416 hands over 101 hours and my total losses were around $400 (£260)

So where did it all go wrong ?  The week started well enough and seemed to be doing pretty well the first couple of days, then had a horrid day Wednesday and mediocre grim days Thurs/Fri followed by bad days Sat and Sun.    Looking back at my updates, the excuses get more elaborate about the bad beats :-)  but I think in the end I was probably playing tight/weak post flop too much and also calling too much for big bets on the river  when beaten.     Playing over the weekend was also probably a bad move, particularly Sunday, as despite my best efforts I was trying to make money quickly and this probably effected my game

Overall, there were probably more bad beats than stupid mistakes, but when I made a mistake it tended to be a spectacular one and cost me my stack.    

The biggest problem (and my biggest excuse ;-) is that I am still learning cash games as have only started seriously playing cash games in November (and then it was Limit rather than No Limit) and also only started 4 tabling with any seriousness since December (in preparation for the grading week)  

So, lots of lessons learned, both about Poker generally (albeit an expensive lesson) and also about the Poker grading process itself.

I don’t believe I will have any chance to go to the next stage of grading this time, but that’s probably a good thing as I don’t have much of my bankroll left now which which to participate !

Would I go for the grading again in future ?   Well, yes I probably would as it gives a sense of purpose and also an extra challenge to stretch beyond the comfort zone.  I would prepare for it differently though, firstly by making sure I do have a better bankroll behind me, but also to take time off work so I can play the games that I specialize in (Single Table Tournaments) rather than playing the Cash games.   

Will I continue to play cash games ?   I have never previously really “liked” cash games as I tend to just get bored after a while and just play silly.   Doing the cash games under “grading” conditions (and playing 4 at a time!) did make them more enjoyable and believe I now have a better understanding of this variant and how to play it.   I will need to do more reading and build up my bankroll first, but may have the occasional Cash session in the future, but will go back to my primary love which is the STT format.