Festus22
10-11-2004, 09:41 AM
After a few days off to clear my head and inhaling some nitro fumes this weekend, here’s some conclusions I’ve reached. (Aside: I made my annual pilgrimage this weekend to Reading, PA for the NHRA Nationals. All I can say is if you love absolute mind-blowing power and noise, you must attend one of these events sometime in your life. It can’t really be described – it has to be experienced.)
Back to poker,
Auto Pilot No Goot – When I started $2/4, I would play two 0.5/1 tables and one 2/4 with nearly all my focus on the 2/4. That worked well and I eventually added a second 2/4 table. Eventually, I ended up playing four 2/4’s and I wasn’t really paying close attention to any of them. I am not good enough to beat four 2/4 tables without concentrating.
Terrible River Play – My river PokerTracker aggression factor was below 2 (1.6 to be exact) over the past month. I missed more value bets than one would have thought possible. Throw in a few bad beats and I became even more tentative. This was a very significant portion of my slide and one probably overlooked for too long.
Lack of Reads/Notes – Related to auto-piloting, I had gotten lazy characterizing my opponents. I hadn’t recently updated player notes or exported any PokerTracker data.
Too Loose Early – I was limping with any suited ace and small pairs and even some smaller suited connectors. I know these hands probably can be played profitably by a better player from EP in the Party 2/4 game but they were money losers for me.
Not Semi-Bluffing Enough – Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, not EVERY 2/4 pot goes to showdown. Especially with limping hands, I had gotten into the habit of quickly scanning the board and if I hadn’t connected, I’d just click the Check/Fold button and stop focusing on the play. I know in the months prior, I would probably take down a few smallish pots per hour with a turn bet with pretty much nothing.
So I did get some time in this weekend and made some adjustments.
I reverted to the Tight Game preflop strategy as outlined in SSHE. Right or wrong, it’s what I going to use until I’m back on track. Then I’ll decide whether to lossen up a bit or not.
Three tables only – This probably doesn’t sound like a big change but it allows me to focus a lot more on individual players. I’ve tried playing just one and sorry, just can’t do it. TOO SLOW.
Limit sessions to one hour, then take a break.
Absolute total focus on the table when I’m playing a hand and follow most of the action when I’m not. I don’t want to get TOO intense when playing and take the fun out of it but I’ve got to get out of the “just click the buttons” mode I had fallen in to.
Think about every decision. Again, I was making plays without thinking what I wanted to accomplish beforehand. This weekend, I even got into the countdown timer before acting a few times as I replayed the action in my head or did some mental math. Trust me, taking extra time is an historic event for me!
Semi-bluffed! I made maybe 8 attempts at pots no one was showing any interest in and I took all but one down! It seems once you show down a few big hands, the steal opportunities very frequently pay off.
With these changes, I thankfully had a good weekend results-wise but I think even better was that I felt much more connected to the tables and my opponents. And I felt I actually played pretty good! And that’s a feeling I haven’t had in a long time.
Now the challenge will be to retain these guidelines over time and rebuild my confidence. When I objectively think about it, there’s no doubt decent play is enough to beat Party 2/4. I just cannot become lazy or over confident. This was certainly a humbling experience but frankly, in a strange way I’m glad it happened.
Lastly, I want to thank those who PM’ed me offering some excellent advice. This is a great community here and I greatly appreciated the fact that some made the effort to truly help a fellow member in need.
I’m back!
Back to poker,
Auto Pilot No Goot – When I started $2/4, I would play two 0.5/1 tables and one 2/4 with nearly all my focus on the 2/4. That worked well and I eventually added a second 2/4 table. Eventually, I ended up playing four 2/4’s and I wasn’t really paying close attention to any of them. I am not good enough to beat four 2/4 tables without concentrating.
Terrible River Play – My river PokerTracker aggression factor was below 2 (1.6 to be exact) over the past month. I missed more value bets than one would have thought possible. Throw in a few bad beats and I became even more tentative. This was a very significant portion of my slide and one probably overlooked for too long.
Lack of Reads/Notes – Related to auto-piloting, I had gotten lazy characterizing my opponents. I hadn’t recently updated player notes or exported any PokerTracker data.
Too Loose Early – I was limping with any suited ace and small pairs and even some smaller suited connectors. I know these hands probably can be played profitably by a better player from EP in the Party 2/4 game but they were money losers for me.
Not Semi-Bluffing Enough – Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, not EVERY 2/4 pot goes to showdown. Especially with limping hands, I had gotten into the habit of quickly scanning the board and if I hadn’t connected, I’d just click the Check/Fold button and stop focusing on the play. I know in the months prior, I would probably take down a few smallish pots per hour with a turn bet with pretty much nothing.
So I did get some time in this weekend and made some adjustments.
I reverted to the Tight Game preflop strategy as outlined in SSHE. Right or wrong, it’s what I going to use until I’m back on track. Then I’ll decide whether to lossen up a bit or not.
Three tables only – This probably doesn’t sound like a big change but it allows me to focus a lot more on individual players. I’ve tried playing just one and sorry, just can’t do it. TOO SLOW.
Limit sessions to one hour, then take a break.
Absolute total focus on the table when I’m playing a hand and follow most of the action when I’m not. I don’t want to get TOO intense when playing and take the fun out of it but I’ve got to get out of the “just click the buttons” mode I had fallen in to.
Think about every decision. Again, I was making plays without thinking what I wanted to accomplish beforehand. This weekend, I even got into the countdown timer before acting a few times as I replayed the action in my head or did some mental math. Trust me, taking extra time is an historic event for me!
Semi-bluffed! I made maybe 8 attempts at pots no one was showing any interest in and I took all but one down! It seems once you show down a few big hands, the steal opportunities very frequently pay off.
With these changes, I thankfully had a good weekend results-wise but I think even better was that I felt much more connected to the tables and my opponents. And I felt I actually played pretty good! And that’s a feeling I haven’t had in a long time.
Now the challenge will be to retain these guidelines over time and rebuild my confidence. When I objectively think about it, there’s no doubt decent play is enough to beat Party 2/4. I just cannot become lazy or over confident. This was certainly a humbling experience but frankly, in a strange way I’m glad it happened.
Lastly, I want to thank those who PM’ed me offering some excellent advice. This is a great community here and I greatly appreciated the fact that some made the effort to truly help a fellow member in need.
I’m back!