Wednesday, Bottle and I went to a talk hosted by Oanda Asia Pacific here in Singapore, by Stuart McPhee on basic trading lesson. It wasn't a lesson about asking you to sign up their course though he was selling his book at the refreshment and attending the talk gives you chance to win an iPad. I admit I was there partly because of it.
The fee of the course was $50, but for Oanda account users, they will deposit it into your account, on top of that Oanda account users have 3x more chance for the iPad. Ok I seem to be going for the wrong reason, but thats not the saddest thing. I fell ill in the afternoon and was feeling terrible during the talk. Had cold sweat and was feverish, I was dozing off throughout and had medical leave the next 2 days. So sorry if I am not able to share what was taught in the talk, but they were things like using take-profit and stop loss and identifying trends and basic bankroll management. It was good, Mr Stuart believes solely on technical analysis only. And also he take things simple, and does not complicate his trades.
I had quite some time for poker this week. Monday started off badly, joined a 27-man SNG with my fren and I was out in no time. Felt bored along the way so I played a 6-handed $0.10 table, seeking action. Sadly the play was different, I kept getting called unlike in a full ring game and drew down quickly.
Thursday, on my first day of medical leave, I was 6-tabling 500 hands. I think that was my limit. Am tired right after the session. That day, I ran pretty good, I was up about 20+ usd, never in my poker life have I had such a successful session. I later joined a 18-man SNG and cashed out 2nd place.
I planned my style before the session. I have been losing by being too loose and calling opponents' raises and playing too much hands. This time I approached the game by folding more hands than before, folding opponents' raises, playing much much tighter. It ran real well. In a full-ring game, I managed to bluff a lot of pots too, I think partly because other people were also playing a lot of tables at once. And probably they can't be bothered when they miss their flops.
On Friday, I played the same blinds 10cent table 6-tabling and again another 500 hands. It was bad at some table, my JT hearts ran into ace high flush. At the other table, I called a re-raised pre-flop with 66. Flopped a 6 and I re-raised all-in against aces. Sweet. I got closed to 10 usd that session using the same approached. Later in that day, I played another 18-man SNG and won 1st!! It was a micro though. I was so happy and dancing around until my girlfriend asked the prize I won.. errrmm.. seven dollars. WHAT!? Was it worth the effort she asked. Its the winning that counts heehee.
So the 2 days ran well, but I think that doesn't prove my approach is good yet. I see improvement becuz I slowly grind my way up in the session, but I still think I'm seeing too much flop. So I took a day off on Saturday, and started my third session on Sunday, today. This time, it went all the way to 900 hands. It might be little to some of you, but 3 hours sessions was a strain to my eyes. My little 14.1 inch laptop could only fit 6 tables at once, I took another shot at a micro 27-man sng and have much difficulty on the 7th, I really got no place to put and was so clumsy. I was out quickly in 18th place and I didn't even know what I was doing.
Lesson 1: never play more than you/your screen can handle.
I ran bad on the start, with an all-in with something against something I forgot. I slowly grind my way back and was seeing profit already. I dominated some of the tables. That was about 500-hands when I last checked. I thought it was a Sunday and I was pretty free so I continued my session. Maintaining throughout, my connection got messed up on about 700+ hands and I was stuck in four of the tables, unable to play, exit nor cashout. I had to close them out and join another table. I was feeling frustrated already and I began losing. Cards ran pretty badly right after and then I got disconnected again. Maybe this is an omen for telling me to stop my session.
In less than 200 hands, my profit of less than 10 became -30 quickly.
Lesson 2: don't play beyond session you can handle, stop once u feel fatigued.
Lesson 3: stop immediately once you feel irritation. cards are supposed to be ur fren, if u feel irritation, they will become ur enemy in no time.
I finally sat out and walk out of my seat. My water-bottle was empty and I was feeling dried up. My eyes really needed a break and I felt like shit. It feels exactly like those tilting days like my trading. I went for a shower to cool off and thoughts kept running over my mind. I felt anger and frustration. Feel like screaming if you ask me.
I went out and took a breather. Back home, I thought about one more tourney for the night. I maintained well and was chip lead until a flop T34, I had pocket 34 and re-raised all-in becuz he was short stacked. Expectedly, he turn over an AT, top pair with best kicker. I was favourite at the moment, although I know he had outs. Unexpectedly, turn came a Q, river came a Q. ARGH. That over-pair on the board overwrites my treys. Thats poker. My stack was halved. I was out in the 7th later with A4s vs pocket tens, taking another huge draw-down on my bankroll.
Lesson 4: Now I know why people say stop during your bad day, because if you continue, it felt double worst.
Lesson 5: Such days makes you appreciate break-even day. (which leads to the what-if what-if if-only if-only I had stop at 500 hands at little profit blah blah)
After reading Trader32's post of full-time trading, it kinda give me a clearer picture on dreams on becoming a full-time trading, or full time poker? Full time poker doesn't seem to exist in my country except probably Pokerstars team pro Bryan Huang.
Trading/poker skills aside, it definitely have tremendous stress when ur income solely dependent on these. Because u need money, u need to trade, becuz u need to trade, u may do it despite having no setup. Besides, being an employee, company gives u 14.5% of your salary into your Central Provident Fund account, something very important to us Singaporean. We use it to buy ridiculously high pricing homes here, and we use it for retirement. If we have to become a full time trader, we need to be proficient enuff to sustain such high standards of living. Right now, if lucky, my profit a month can only buy me a double cheeseburger in mcdonalds', not even a full meal with french fries, if they can take out the pickles and charge me less that would even help.
I'm going to have some ice-cream cool off, tomorrow is a new day new week. Gl to everyone at the chart and at the tables!
Black.
