Some ramblings about mindset when starting a session

[Fiddler]

I'm beginner and have only played $0.5/$1.0 fixed limit holdem for about two and a half months. I usally try to sit at full 10-seat tables because I feel a little intimidated by how wild a shorthanded game can be. Anyway, the weird part is that when I sit down at a full table I almost always start off by losing 10BB or so (and rather quickly at that) before I win a couple of hands and start to play better. But if I sit down at a table with only 3-4 people I tend to do pretty well and as the table fills with more people I find it relatively easy to "calm" down and start with better hands but still be as aggressive with them as I was before. It seems like I have this tendency to start weak/tight at a full table and the calling down of bluffs and raising etc. in a shorthanded game makes me more confident which makes me more aggressive afterwards at a full table. Hopefully this is something that will go away with more experience...

Am I just rambling or can anyone relate to that?

[SevenStuda]

You're just rambling.

-Dimitri

[pdubz]

I don't think its entirely rambling. I think you are losing those BB because some part of you isn't really yet focused when you first sit down. When you've lost those number of BB you might react and remember how to play correctly. You probably are playing too loose when you first sit down, calling down when you aren't getting enough odds or getting involved in showdowns you aren't supposed to be in. It takes a few losses before you return to "correct" poker. Maybe you do better at short handed becaues playing in a looser style, and seeing more of the showdowns is actually correct since there are less people. Hopefully it will go away with a little more experience, or maybe more discipline. Just my thoughts.

[Cry Me A River]

I've had a similar leak (that I think I've pretty much fixed, I hope) and maybe yours is a similar so I'll outline mine.

When I would start at a table, like you, I would seem to always give away a couple big pots. Then, I'd start to play an awful lot better, dig myself out of the hole and eventually start to make money (I've pretty much just been playing $1/$2 for a while). It was really rare for me to be in the black early, but also really rare for me to stay in the red too long or go back into the red once I'd gotten my act together.

Two things I've done, first I've gotten a lot better at table selection. Knowing the other players is really, really key (who's a rock, who's a calling station, who's a maniac, who's a shark) and when you just jump into a table cold it'll take you a while to get a read on the players and a feel for the table. So now I try to play at tables where I have notes on at least half the players (I'm playing on smaller sites, this would be really difficult on Party). If that's not possible then I'll just watch tables for a half hour to an hour before I start playing to try and get reads on players and the texture of the table(s).

The other big problem I was having was that my post-flop play at the start of a session was way, way too loose (loose-passive and loose-aggressive!) Pre-flop is generally pretty cut and dry (depending a bit on the texture of the table) so that was unaffected - there's just no way you're ever going to play 72o except the blinds. Post-flop is much less rote and it would usually take me getting punished by loosing a couple big pots before I would start to play correctly. Whether this was eagerness to win my first big pot, or to make my presence felt (alpha male syndrome), or just not wanting to be down early by folding right after a flop I would tend to start out each session alternating between calling station and maniac; calling middle pairs (mid-low pocket pairs in particular!) all the way, re-raising low flushes when the board is paired, trying to muscle pots against players who never fold, etc.

So my soloution has been to tighten up *a lot* post-flop in the early going. I may be missing some opportunities to maximise profit on marginal hands, but I wasn't doing that anyway. I was just spraying chips. And then as I do get into the groove, I'm not having to dig myself out of that hole and it's taking less and less time to really get comfortable and get my rythm.

Your leak may not be the same, but the key is really just to figure out how you're playing differently early on in the session as opposed to your "normal" play. It could well be that you're playing too tight (though playing too tight probably isn't going to consistently loose you a bunch of money quickly...)