LATEsummer’s Night Dream (3 of 4): Runnin’ Good in the Real World.

As the days grow shockingly shorter, and I find myself as likely to be wearing a hoodie as a T-shirt, it is time to reflect back on my summer of poker. This posting will deal with my “live” play performance (i.e., bricks & mortar); the fourth in this series will discuss my online performance.

While I harbor no delusions of greatness, I think it is safe to say that my game has taken a sizable step forward over the June-August time frame. In cash games I have gone from a losing-to-breakeven player to a generally profitable player. As recently as this spring, I would sit in a cash game and wait for big pocket pairs or big aces to make big moves.

Now, I am much more inclined to play drawing hands aggressively in multi-way pots, hunting for the big payoff when I hit my straight or flush. Additionally, I have begun making sizable, timely bluffs (it certainly makes the game a lot more fun!) Frequently, I am now the one cracking other players’ big pairs—instead of vice versa (witness my earlier blogs describing my repeated experiences of having my Kings or Queens cracked).

My tournament results have been even stronger. Kicking off with a first place finish in a 50-odd person tourney several weeks ago when my buddy Troy was visiting from Bangkok, I have come 1st or 2nd in three of my past seven tourneys. I will be the first to admit that there is more than a little luck involved, especially in tournaments, but there has definitely been an improvement in my tourney play.

There is no doubt that the sheer volume of online play has immensely elevated my live tourney play: I play every stage of the tournament in a completely different fashion—I now look back at my all-in pushes with Q,Q in the early stages of a tourney at the Wynn a year ago and laugh. What was I doing?! Of COURSE I would only get called by KK, AA!

The other key component has been a LOT of reading. I joke that I have been earning my second Master’s degree—but in poker instead of finance. This summer alone, I have read swaths of Super/System II, Sklanky on Hold’em, Sklansky on Advanced Tournaments, FullTilt Tourney Guide, Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book and Read ‘Em and Reap…not to mention multiple issues of CardPlayer (stellar), PokerPro (mediocre) and Bluff (pants).

While the magazines are of varying quality, the books have been uniformly outstanding—lots of intense reading, but worth both the investment (in both time and money) several times over. Playing is much more fun than studying, but studying seems to improve my play much more quickly—perhaps by a factor of 10x.

(The truly scary thing for me to consider is how much work it has been to become merely competent in NL Hold’em; I can’t fathom the amount of work it would take to become good at Omaha, Razz, Deuce-Seven, etc. The thought of trying to attain competence in those other games makes my head spin. Frankly, it even depresses me a little bit: learning to be a good poker player is like swallowing a porcupine—it is really, really hard to stop part way through!)

The end result of the good (but not great) results in cash play and great (not good) results in tourneys is that I have parlayed a July ATM withdrawl of $300 into a bankroll of well over $2,000. (If I attempt a similar blog in 2010, I will definitely have two bankroll targets: one offline {perhaps $2,000 into $20,000?} and one online {if I am masochistic I might again attempt $100 into $10,000}).

In closing, I would like to reiterate that for all the hard study and pleasant results, I am the first to admit that a large portion of the outcome hinges on none other than Lady Luck. The real test of character and ability will occur when Lady Luck leaves my side, and I go through a brutal losing spell.

If—and only if—I can pull through that, then I will know that I have become a real player.