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As If I'd Never Been Away
Nov. 24th, 2006 07:13 amOne of the most important things to do when you have been suffering a sustained period of horror at the tables is to stop the rot. Only fools try to win back all of 'their' money in as short a time as possible, perhaps by actually moving up in stakes. As Caro says, don't worry about getting even. You are even.
So, for 10 days I focused on stopping the rot. And, to a certain extent, I succeeded. Even though I went down to $1-$2 at Full Tilt, I was still losing (slightly). Yes, I couldn't even beat a $1-$2 game. Then again, I've always had trouble with $1-$2 games, which consist of the weakest of weakest-tight donkeys, but, as Michael said, they will always pay you off with the second-best hand. That means you can't push them off their hand when it isn't the second-best hand, because, once again, you have missed the flop.
Notwithstanding all that, some wins elsewhere kept the balance on an even keel, and I was gradually accumulating bonus money.
Then, yesterday, well, what better day to exploit a surfeit of weak US players than Thanksgiving Day? I sat down at a couple of $3-$6 tables on Full Tilt (having lost $70 at $1-$2, so already we can see that I'm deviating from principle number one at the top of this page) and spent an hour just about breaking even against a few good players and a few bad ones.
And then, of course, off we go again. There's a very loose, somewhat agressive player on my right, and the bastard cannot put a foot wrong. There's a theory that the money at the table moves in a clockwise direction, but I haven't seen a mathematical or empirical proof in today's games where it's invariably heads-up before the flop. After all, the money doesn't move in a clockwise direction in heads-up games, does it? Anyway, I've certainly felt that in today's games I have benefited from having a very loose player either three seats to my right, or on my immediate left.
But that's by-the-by. It was as if I had never been away. Over the next three hours I lost 40 Big bets, all the time trying to remain upbeat as this twat on my right defied financial gravity. The only compensation, if compensation it be, was that another, obviously long-term winning player, was suffering worse than I was. He was in the hole for $450 rather than $240, and promptly reloaded for another $500 before seeming to go on mega-tilt.
Now, obviously, I couldn't leave this table with this donkey on my immediate right. After all, people would kill for this seat, wouldn't they? And at least I was keeping my head above water at the other, somewhat tougher, table. But, by the time it got to 11.30pm (three hours in at this particular seat) I was nearing the red mist zone. Things could have got badly ugly as I attempted to manufacture a win. Think three-betting too thinly and other typical errors made when you have a LAG on your immediate right.
At this point, thankfully, the telephone rang and I had another minor crisis to deal with, one which makes the odd-$300 seem fairly irrelevant. An hour later and I was wide awake (despite having to be up and ready for typing five hours later) and, insanely, thinking about sitting down at the $3-$6 tables again. However, a brief look at the percentages and pot sizes showed that, bank holiday notwithstanding, Full Tilt was not dangling the offer of free money in my face. So I went to bed.
I always said that, if poker started to affect my ability to get to sleep, I would have to think about things. I've always stuck to levels where I could switch off fairly quickly and get some sleep. But the reappearance of the ogre of death every time I seem to sit down at the $3-$6 table (loss at that level on FT, now into four figures) certainly had an impact. I've looked at my stats, I've looked at my game. I've practised game selection. I've done everything that I feel I humanly can. The only thing I can think of now is a complete break. Go back, reread all 50 poker books that I have (maybe more, I haven't counted). Read all the 2+2 magazines online. Read as many posts on the forum about all the games that you can see. Take notes. Go through your entire hand histories for the past three months hand-by hand, slowly making notes. Then start afresh. Look at all the games, look at all the options. Play 50 cents/ a dollar. Don't let pride get in your way.
If we sort of look at September 29 as a kind of year zero (day zero?) in online poker, perhaps that's the best option. The other option is to take my $1,639 in my Full Tilt account (still plus $39, thanks to $1,060 in deposit bonuses!) and go elsewhere, because, as the figures will show when I print them at the end of the month, Full Tilt is my problem. At Ultimate and at Party I've been breaking even/winning slightly. At Virgin, farcically, I've been running good. The downside is that I hate playing there. And Ultimate is a nightmatre for hand histories. I'm tempted to do the workaround mentioned on Pokertracker, but superstition is getting in the way. Hell, if I'm not doing too badly at UB, perhaps this manual hand-history fetching is in some way good for me! Let's not break the spell!
I really should plug the $3-$6 results on FTP into my bankroll spreadsheet to see how statistically likely it is that I am a loser at the game. Then I could plug in the $5-$10 numbers (at which I am a $500 winner, albeit over a smaller number base) and the $2-$4 numbers ($250 winner, bigger number base) and see what the stats tell me. These are of course moving goalposts. You have a bad session and the stats say "oh, did I tell you that you were a big bet an hour winner plus or minus half a big bet, to 95% certainty? Sorry, what I meant to say was that you are a half a big bet an hour winner, plus or minus half a big bet, to 95% certainty".
So you say to the stats: "but that's not what you told me when I sat down! What use are you if you change your mind jus tbecause I have an unlucky session?"
"Sorry mate, I'm just a spreadsheet".
Oh well, I've got some insurance stories to type. Will I be able to resist any fish that I see on Full Tilt at $3-$6? Who knows? Stay tuned for this ongoing car crash of psychological self-destruction, as Matt might so kindly term it. At least that's not so bad as the girl who once said to me "Yeah, I really like you, but I couldn't go out with a dwarf". And they wonder why we get toughened inside before becoming cynically misogynistic.
++++++++++++++++++++
( three hand histories, no bad beats )
So, for 10 days I focused on stopping the rot. And, to a certain extent, I succeeded. Even though I went down to $1-$2 at Full Tilt, I was still losing (slightly). Yes, I couldn't even beat a $1-$2 game. Then again, I've always had trouble with $1-$2 games, which consist of the weakest of weakest-tight donkeys, but, as Michael said, they will always pay you off with the second-best hand. That means you can't push them off their hand when it isn't the second-best hand, because, once again, you have missed the flop.
Notwithstanding all that, some wins elsewhere kept the balance on an even keel, and I was gradually accumulating bonus money.
Then, yesterday, well, what better day to exploit a surfeit of weak US players than Thanksgiving Day? I sat down at a couple of $3-$6 tables on Full Tilt (having lost $70 at $1-$2, so already we can see that I'm deviating from principle number one at the top of this page) and spent an hour just about breaking even against a few good players and a few bad ones.
And then, of course, off we go again. There's a very loose, somewhat agressive player on my right, and the bastard cannot put a foot wrong. There's a theory that the money at the table moves in a clockwise direction, but I haven't seen a mathematical or empirical proof in today's games where it's invariably heads-up before the flop. After all, the money doesn't move in a clockwise direction in heads-up games, does it? Anyway, I've certainly felt that in today's games I have benefited from having a very loose player either three seats to my right, or on my immediate left.
But that's by-the-by. It was as if I had never been away. Over the next three hours I lost 40 Big bets, all the time trying to remain upbeat as this twat on my right defied financial gravity. The only compensation, if compensation it be, was that another, obviously long-term winning player, was suffering worse than I was. He was in the hole for $450 rather than $240, and promptly reloaded for another $500 before seeming to go on mega-tilt.
Now, obviously, I couldn't leave this table with this donkey on my immediate right. After all, people would kill for this seat, wouldn't they? And at least I was keeping my head above water at the other, somewhat tougher, table. But, by the time it got to 11.30pm (three hours in at this particular seat) I was nearing the red mist zone. Things could have got badly ugly as I attempted to manufacture a win. Think three-betting too thinly and other typical errors made when you have a LAG on your immediate right.
At this point, thankfully, the telephone rang and I had another minor crisis to deal with, one which makes the odd-$300 seem fairly irrelevant. An hour later and I was wide awake (despite having to be up and ready for typing five hours later) and, insanely, thinking about sitting down at the $3-$6 tables again. However, a brief look at the percentages and pot sizes showed that, bank holiday notwithstanding, Full Tilt was not dangling the offer of free money in my face. So I went to bed.
I always said that, if poker started to affect my ability to get to sleep, I would have to think about things. I've always stuck to levels where I could switch off fairly quickly and get some sleep. But the reappearance of the ogre of death every time I seem to sit down at the $3-$6 table (loss at that level on FT, now into four figures) certainly had an impact. I've looked at my stats, I've looked at my game. I've practised game selection. I've done everything that I feel I humanly can. The only thing I can think of now is a complete break. Go back, reread all 50 poker books that I have (maybe more, I haven't counted). Read all the 2+2 magazines online. Read as many posts on the forum about all the games that you can see. Take notes. Go through your entire hand histories for the past three months hand-by hand, slowly making notes. Then start afresh. Look at all the games, look at all the options. Play 50 cents/ a dollar. Don't let pride get in your way.
If we sort of look at September 29 as a kind of year zero (day zero?) in online poker, perhaps that's the best option. The other option is to take my $1,639 in my Full Tilt account (still plus $39, thanks to $1,060 in deposit bonuses!) and go elsewhere, because, as the figures will show when I print them at the end of the month, Full Tilt is my problem. At Ultimate and at Party I've been breaking even/winning slightly. At Virgin, farcically, I've been running good. The downside is that I hate playing there. And Ultimate is a nightmatre for hand histories. I'm tempted to do the workaround mentioned on Pokertracker, but superstition is getting in the way. Hell, if I'm not doing too badly at UB, perhaps this manual hand-history fetching is in some way good for me! Let's not break the spell!
I really should plug the $3-$6 results on FTP into my bankroll spreadsheet to see how statistically likely it is that I am a loser at the game. Then I could plug in the $5-$10 numbers (at which I am a $500 winner, albeit over a smaller number base) and the $2-$4 numbers ($250 winner, bigger number base) and see what the stats tell me. These are of course moving goalposts. You have a bad session and the stats say "oh, did I tell you that you were a big bet an hour winner plus or minus half a big bet, to 95% certainty? Sorry, what I meant to say was that you are a half a big bet an hour winner, plus or minus half a big bet, to 95% certainty".
So you say to the stats: "but that's not what you told me when I sat down! What use are you if you change your mind jus tbecause I have an unlucky session?"
"Sorry mate, I'm just a spreadsheet".
Oh well, I've got some insurance stories to type. Will I be able to resist any fish that I see on Full Tilt at $3-$6? Who knows? Stay tuned for this ongoing car crash of psychological self-destruction, as Matt might so kindly term it. At least that's not so bad as the girl who once said to me "Yeah, I really like you, but I couldn't go out with a dwarf". And they wonder why we get toughened inside before becoming cynically misogynistic.
++++++++++++++++++++
( three hand histories, no bad beats )
