Hey Guys,
As of yesterday I hit my first 10K hands since starting to use Poker Tracker and playing short-handed tables tight aggressive just over a week ago. I was pretty happy with my results up until yesterday when I got slaughtered. I was on track to hit $1000 with $0.25/0.50 which would've been about $450 profit for the week but the poker gods had other plans and now I'm only up about $200. Here's the link to my graphed results: http://i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp8/itsholliday/10KHandsGraph.jpg
Aside of the plethera of other information Poker Tracker keeps dibs on, I was wondering if my chart is telling any stories. The large dip in the beginning was when I tried playing $1/2 because I didn't want to deal with a bunch of bad players at lower limits and lost about $60. Then I decided to play $0.25/0.50 because even the bad players get beat by better players/cards more often than not. Plus my bankroll clearly didn't justify it yet. After that, I had a pretty good run in the direction we should all be going. After the peak just over $300 I think I got a little too aggresive/confident and made a couple bad errors in judgment followed by a couple bad beats. I redeemed myself slightly after posting "Kicked by a Donkey" and then it's been rocky ever since.
I think what happened was a series of bad beats was followed with some cautious play and now I'm not as aggresive as I first was when I had a good balance of aggression and knowing when I was beat. Has anyone else experienced this and if so what tips do you have to help get back on track? Could it be some players have caught onto my plays? I find more people calling my c-bets which almost forces me to check the turn unless I have the goods on the flop or the turn helped (this doesn't happen much). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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4 comments:
I wish I had some advice for you about getting back on track but I don't. I still have not been playing myself.
What I do find myself doing is, like you identified, is that you get too confident and push too many hands. You start opening more hands out of position and then getting into trouble when you hit a flop but then get outdrawn by the river. THIS HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME! I made a respectable play pre-flop, the donkey calls with a marginal hand, I hit the flop, they hit a draw, and then beat me in the end.
The lesson is, pay attention to your table image, recognize when you are being a "pig" by trying to steal/play pots you have no business being in. Pigs get slaughtered in the end.
I find that I make these marginal plays under the following conditions:
1. Boredom - Some days it just feels like a grind. I always multi-table to try and prevent this as much as possible.
2. Playing in a rush. The #1 bankroll killer!- So many times I have blown off a huge portion of my bankroll in a short amount of time trying to make something happen.
3. Playing when not in the right state of mind. Tired, been drinking, hung over, (really need to get to those meetings), other things on my mind, etc.
Anyway, 10,000 hands was my breaking point. I'm currently not playing having lost half my stack in a matter of a few hours when it took me over 50+ hours. I feel your pain and I think the best remedy is a break.
I agree with the "being a pig" at the table and maybe that's what lead to this issue I've been having. Maybe it's my table image. At first, I was kicking ass and once people started seeing I was playing marginal hands because I was in position they started calling me down and getting lucky. Even when I had the better hand they did the same thing and continued getting lucky because they simply didn't believe me. But by that rationale I should be able to return the favor but I don't seem to be hitting too many draws either.
I don't suffer from the 3 symptoms you mentioned which ultimately effect your play (except maybe been drinking and playing...but I broke even that night). My problem seems to be how previous hands effect my future hands. What happens then is I find myself playing tighter and tighter and not making the moves I should be to take down pots. So my "pig" image goes away but it's harder to take down pots unless I've got a hand. People seem to still call my bets or maybe it's what I think is happening.
I certainly don't have a breaking point. Here and there I'll take a day off but I won't stop for more than a day. I believe there's a fix and I just need to find it whether it be my plays or my state of mind based on my plays. I won't get better by not playing that's for sure.
Options? Rotate my playing times so "regulars" have a harder time keeping track of my play? Start raising more aggresively and stick to my guns when I have good hands? Stick to 4 tables or play 8?
Thanks for the advice ;)
I have had this happen as well. Bad beats...you just can't beat them, my resolution for a bad beat is take a break from the game and hope the cards heat up, if you play while your having a bad run your going to loose. To get back on track what I do is watch video's of people that play similar to my style before I play, maybe an hour of my time watching the video just to get your mind readjusted to the way you learned when you first started. Jerrick's video is one you could rewatch. I'm actually going to check out his second video again tonight. Also, the tips in my other post I think will help a lot with making sure you don't stay on tilt. I am very focused my first hour and a half, so now I will play that long and take at least a 15 minute break to clear your head. I love the last guys post he is very smart, his main points were if you double up on a table, close it, open another one and start over, this way you get back to being tight. Also, you didn't win anything, you just enhanced your bankroll. Really check out that post lots of good information I got from the guys at cardrunners.com and if you haven't checked out the video by Brystmar...not sure if it's still free would have to check.
Also, after reading your last post, one huge thing is table image, make sure they are not seeing your cards in less they are good cards, if you have junk and made it to the river and they bet .20 and the pot is 3 bucks, and you have garbage, just fold, don't let them see those cards your playing with, once they see those cards they think you will always play with them, just like you would think if you saw someone open with 72o that will be in your head and you will know it, same happens, now you show down a full boat, your next 5 raises will most likely be folded to you...etc (at least at 10NL).
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