A day in paradise

[stupidsucker]

Recently I have been strugling hardcore. I made my move to the 50s and I got slaughtered. I dropped 1.2k at the 50 level before I came to my senses to step down to the 30s again.

I didnt want to cry about my bad streak, but I did send a personal message out to eastbay to vent(sorry), and I did post some HHs on my recent slump.

Today I have recovered almost all my losses in one solid day. Here I am back playing the 30s and I picked up right where I left off... sssssmokin! Today I played 23 tourneys and had my best 1st place streak of 4 in a row. I took ZERO third place finishes, and made over $800!!!

I pose this question for those who have played both 30s and 50s. Are there any main strategy differneces? I played mainly the same way in both levels, but I just got my ass torn in two at the 50s. I dont see much difference in the skill levels at all, but yet I had the worst losing streak of my poker career there.

Here is what I noticed the most. There is a lot more aggression at the 50 level. I used to be able to often take pots down on the flop by betting the pot. Now it seems that every time I bet the pot on the flop someone comes over the top of me all in. (sometimes I have them, sometimes I have to fold) More often I have to fold.

What main thing should change about ones strategy when given that extra 200 chips and facing tougher opposition?

Anyways. It was a breath of fresh air to do so well today. The fish were biting left and right(and this time they werent sucking out). I am not done though. I promised myself to play extra games this weekend to make up for the days I took off to get off tilt.

[Texas Pete]

Well my friend, I just experienced the same sort of thing you did, over the past month. Without getting into the details, here are my conclusions:

(1) Everyone can come to a point in a losing streak where it starts to affect their play for the worse. The result: we lose even more.

(2) It is psychologically difficult to drop down a level. It is an admission of defeat, and we also know it will take even MORE work to win back that money. This is where losers and winners are defined. The winner drops down. The loser moves up.

(3) Once we admit we are playing poorly and drop down, we play very well. More importantly, to steal a line from Mark Douglas, we have just proven ourselves flexible in our expectations, and rigid in our money management rules.

(4) Each higher level must be more difficult, but the psychological factors (1)-(3) are many times the bigger effect.

[benjdm]

Nicely stated, Texas.

[stupidsucker]

Yes dropping down felt like an admission of defeat, but my senses took over. Refusing to drop down would have been a stupid move, and we should never let pride get in the way of an making the proper EV moves.

Today has been ridiculously incredible, and I admit I have some thoughts about how much better this would be if they were 50s instead of 30s. My roi today is over 100%.

I plan to tackle the 50s again when I have around a $2500 bankroll again starting from scratch of $500. I also have to review my HHs and see where my biggest mistakes were.

I hope this story of my getting stuck to getting unstuck has helped anyone that is having trouble.