Why?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
After I put up that post Thursday night, I sat back and reflected on the month that was, the first winning month of poker for me in at least a year, if not longer. Why did I have a winning month, as opposed to the constant bad beats, tiltage and general poor play that has plagued me for the last couple of years?
Why is indeed a good question and I'm not sure I have any concrete answers for you, but I thought I might discuss a few things I've been considering.
First off, and I've mentioned this here before, but I think Rush Poker allows me to be even more patient (nitty) than my normal game because of a couple of different reasons:
1 - I can fold for a considerable amount of hands in a row without it feeling like I'm waiting too long to drive the action. (i.e. waiting for the monster hands)
-I think, as much as anything, that sheer boredom sometimes encourages (my) bad play and it's pretty easy (for me) to become bored and think that j-9 s00ted looks good for a raise, when you've folded the previous 47 hands.
2 - I can continue my nittish ways without fear of being labelled a "tight, nit" by everybody at the table, due to constantly switching tables.
-I realize that there are people out there taking notes, I do it myself, when they run into certain players over and over again. I mean, some of these guys are playing 4 or 5 tables at a time, so you are bound to run into them more often, it only makes sense to take notes if you discover something about one of them. But, for the most part, alot of these players are not taking notes, that's been proven time and time again over the last 4 or 5 years, and to them, you're a blank avatar and they are playing their two cards and their two cards only. I think this certainly helps me (and my image) at the Rush tables.
So, did I somehow become a better player last month than I've been for the last two years? I don't think so. I will say that I think on a couple of different (big) hands that I played them better than I would have in the past, thus earning more money from them, but no, I haven't changed very much from where I was two years ago.
I emplyed the two things that used to allow me to make a little scratch at the virtual poker tables. Patience and a lack of distractions.
I quit surfing the web while playing. Basically, Rush Poker made me quit surfing while playing, due to the sheer speed of the game, but I eliminated some of the distractions that were causing me to miss the value in some hands and to misread the actions of the other players in other hands. I still have the TV on in the background, but I finally decided that if something was drawing my interest to the TV instead of the computer screen, I sat out and watched TV, rather than trying to do both.
Patience has long been a standard in my game and I think anybody who has played against me can vouch for that, but, I took it to a different level over the last month. When I bought in and started playing, I paid strict attention to starting hand selection, as well as position. Position is the one thing that allowed me to float around at the starting stack without getting blinded down a little at a time. I almost always opened for a raise in LP in an unopened pot. Even if it was just a min-raise, I raised when it folded around to me. You'd be surprised how many people already have folded in that instance. I raised with a lot less than premium hands in this position, but they are easy enough to fold if you get called and miss the flop or if you get re-raised from a later position. By far, I got alot more walks than having to face a re-raise.
Tilt is something that every player battles in their own distinct way. For me, it starts with a bad beat, regardless of how poorly I might have played the hand. When I get sucked out on, I generally sit out for a minute and try to collect my thoughts before resuming play. It happens, that's poker and it's part of the game are phrases that don't really help me deal with it, personally. Almost without fail, the best thing for me to do at that point is to log off and call it a night, because I'm probably not going to play very well from that point on.
And that's exactly what I've done for the last month or so. When I take that beat that we all take on occasion, I tried my best to remain calm and collected, but, if I felt like I was steaming and not playing my best, I logged off and quit playing for the night, even if that meant not collecting on as much of the bonus as I could have otherwise. I can assure you, that alone saved me money during the last month.
So, where do I go from here?
It's funny, after playing nightly for the past few weeks, trying my hardest to earn that bonus and putting in way more hours than I had previously, I sat down last night with no bonus to clear and played, maybe, 100 hands at $25 NL. I finished the session down $1.34 when I had to take a phone call from a friend. When I got off the phone, I fired it back up and turned around to see the K-State game coming on and promptly turned off the computer and watched a good basketball game. While I may have played my ass off for the last 30 days trying to collect that bonus, I am certainly nowhere close to the poker player I was 3-4 years ago, when I'd rush home from work, fire up the computer and play into the wee hours of the morning. Age has something to do with that, I'm sure. I would say maturity too, but too many of you know me too well to let that slide, so I won't even pretend.
For now, I'll still be playing on occasion, perhaps even nightly, but my sessions and swings will certainly be much shorter and much smaller, as long as I can maintain this focus and this patience.
Until next time, I fold.
G
posted by GaryC @ 5:28 PM,
4 Comments:
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At 12:12 PM,
Benny said...
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I think you on to something there.
Good Job,
Here's to doubling that next month!
Eye's on the prize...
You got to focus on the game, and switch the TV off.
Keep on posting -
At 8:22 AM,
Sean D said...
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Focus Grasshopper!
Proud of you on the streak that you have been on.
Keep it up.
So how many days till the next hunting season? -
At 3:41 PM,
GaryC said...
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Please see my post later tonight, but to answer the question, 6 days.
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At 6:51 PM,
kurokitty said...
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Congrats! Rush Poker is a great way to have poker winnings!
