Black Belt Poker Grading - Week Four with Steve Holden

Bloggers / Dave Allan / 25 May 2009 / Leave a comment

Popular poker blogger Steve Holden returns with the concluding story from his four-week stay in the Black Belt Poker House.

"I know I could get a few mates to sit with me and pass the bucks into my account through heads up cash but I've never cheated and I ain't going to start now."

"This week the stakes are up to $1/$2 NLHE 6max/HU, PLO or $50+5 minimum STTs.

Before the week starts I'm already down £1013 from Weeks 1,2 and 3. When I started this grading I set myself some goals and targets most of which I have achieved but have failed miserably on the profit side.

Monday

So I reloaded the account for as much as I could get in today and after two hours I've already done £200 outdraw after outdraw and if it wasn't happening to me then I wouldn't believe you if you were to tell me about some of the hands. More importantly the stupid sick calls that people make when they're an 8/1 dog

I bash another 2.5 hours for a break even session intending to do the last 90 minutes later when I'm playing the DTD satellite.

Nik Persaud calls me around tea-time as I sent the lads a text saying that I was close to calling it a day, Nik asks how long I got left for today and offers to sweat me for an hour on team viewer and Skype. I fire up 4 tables and off we go. Nik sees first hand how bad I'm running getting the worse of it on 5 tables although winning the last one of the day for a -£10 session to finish the day -£210

I organise a sweat session with David Tighe for tomorrow afternoon, David is having great results on the HU / STTs using an ICM module and other software, any help he can give me to plug up my leaks would be more than welcome. I play the DTD sat for their £1060 main event and win a seat with considerable ease - if only the on-line grind was this easy.

Tuesday

My daughter Michelle and grandaughter Crystal have come for a few days and I try to spend some quality time with them although it's hard when you got 6 hours of grinding to do, what's even more frustrating is I'm so determined to turn this poor run of form round.

Every one that I sweat with is saying the same thing - you are just running bad. I need to spend time with Michelle and Crystal but my head is miles away with this grading, I also seem to be in such a bad mood as well, is this the pressure of the grading? Or just lack of sleep.

Neil Channing phones me about mid-day to see how things are going. We chat for about 15 minutes and he tells me that there are about 13 graders that are winning and around 7 that are breaking even. I'm around $2k down to-date so I ask Neil if I have a realistic chance of still making Brown belt, He goes on to tell me that I'm not completely out of the running although right at the moment I'm probably one of the underdogs, everything is fine with me apart from my profit, so even though we're not being solely judged on profit this is the area that I am failing in at the moment, he also says that if I can see the grading out then in all probability "you should make a blue belt". I tell Neil that I'm not really interested in a blue belt although I will do my best to see it through.

After the call I'm left a little deflated and almost at the point of calling it a day even if I turn the profit round will it be too much, too little, too late?.

I decide that I'll play the cash in the account and try to turn the profit situation round, I'm happy with my performance in all the other criteria and at least I can look back and say I gave it my best shot.

I have a sweat session with David Tighe who's one of the top graders as far as profit's concerned. I fire up 5 tables at 3pm. I ask him to look for leaks in my play and at the end of an hours play he's give me a couple of pointers and also said that my play when 4/5 handed was very aggressive and perfect - so the secret is to get to the last 4/5 of the STT's. The pointers he noticed were mainly to do with playing too many pots early doors with marginal holdings and out of position, isn't this a live fish tell?. Anyway - it was a good session, David is a good lad and a good player and it won't be long before he takes something big down (I fully expect David to make a Brown Belt).

I complete a 7 hour session and finish the day on -£23

Wednesday

After my chat with Neil yesterday I am left with these words going round in my head, "if I can see the grading out then in all probability you should make a blue belt"

With three six hour stints ahead of me I have two concerns,

1) is that I don't drop any more money as the target I set myself when I started this grading was $2k which was £1350 when we set off over three weeks ago and

2) is that I really need to smash this bad run that I'm having and have a real heater session.

In my head I need to turn this around with a $4k swing asap to stand any chance of being seriously considered for Brown Belt as I know now that profit is a large element of selection.

I know I could get a few mates to sit with me and pass the bucks into my account through heads up cash but I've never cheated and I ain't going to start now.

I've had a migraine for about 7 days now and can only put it down to the mental pressure that I'm putting on myself and the exertion I'm pushing myself through. No matter how many Ibuprofen I neck I just can't shake it off, I think it's gone at one point, fire up the laptop and it's back.

I worked the graveyard shift grinding through from midnight till 4.30am and I show a profit of £74

I get a few hours sleep then take to the felt again mid-afternoon. I complete another 3 hours and this is a losing session of £210 so overall on the day I'm down by £136.

I accept that all I'm playing for now is a Blue belt.

This weeks total is -£369

Week 1 - Week 3 -£1013

Total to date: -£1382

After a great deal of thought I decide to write the following email to Neil and Nik:

"Hi Guys,
At the end of my grind today according to Sharkscope I am now over $2k down for nearly four weeks grading. When I embarked on this project I had some very clear goals. These were to become a Brown belt going on to achieve Black belt status and representing Black Belt Poker.

I also set myself a budget of $2k for this project. We had our chat yesterday, since then I have bashed another 14 hours of grinding out in a vain attempt to turn things around. With just 12 on-line hours remaining I have exceeded the budget I put in place and I also see no point in continuing, as I have no interest in becoming a Blue belt.

Thank you for the opportunity that you gave to me. It's been a pleasure to be part of your first intake of students, who have been fun to work alongside, learning from them and also helping some of them. I have learnt a lot of new things that will be very handy should I take up on-line cash and STT's. The insight into software applications and programmes will be invaluable. Good luck to the eight that make the grade and go on as Brown belts to represent Black Belt Poker, I'm sure that I will be coming up against them on a final table somewhere soon. Good luck to you and to everyone connected with Black Belt Poker. I'm sure that Black Belt Poker will be the number one breeding ground for bringing on-line players through to the live circuit."

So before I got evicted, I decided to leave the Black Belt Poker house.

I put in a lot of hours at the felt (plasma screen) and for whatever reasons be it variance, running bad or just playing shit I failed to make any profit.

I certainly put the hours and the volume of games as required of us in so there was no problem there. I also made my contributions to Black Belt Poker with my daily blog and my weekly round up on Betfair. I can look back on this trial and say I gave it my best shot and I take a lot from this period with Black Belt Poker.

Is this a good test for live players to come through, asking them to step onto the virtual felt and grind away against the software world, out of their normal environment playing against robots and computer geeks rather than like minded players? I don't think so, although I knew what I was getting myself involved with on day 1.

The biggest thing I have learnt from my time with Black Belt Poker is that if your serious about online poker then you really have to embrace all the packages available to you to succeed cause you can take it for granted that 90% of players online are using it against you.

The eight lucky graders will learn about their successful application when Jesse May phones them on Monday Night live on the Poker Show between the hours of 8-11pm, I will be listening with interest and will have my fingers crossed for a couple of graders.

And so it ends for me on Day 24, when I packed my bags and moved out of the Black Belt Poker House.

Black Belt Poker Grading - Week Four with Steve Holden

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