Why do I win in my first hour and then lose??

[PokeHer]

This is not me bitching about bad beats etc. I seriously have a problem in that after my first hour I begin to lose. I play party 1/2 right now, and play 3-4 tables. I usually go up about $30-50 in my first hour. After that, I slowly and steadily lose. This trend has occured everyday since October 4th for over 5000 hands (i know not a huge sample size...). I do not loosen up or play any differently as far as i can tell.

So basically I was wondering if anyone else suffers from this, what it could be, and if there may be a way to fix it. so far all i can think of is setting a timer for 1 hour and taking a 30 min break or so and then repeating that.

[CaptObvious]

Their could be a couple of factors, really. You're style of play, namely. Are you Loose-Aggressive, and pick up a lot of pots early on? Tight Aggressive and win hands? Typically in a tournament, say re-buy tournaments a lot of people will play looser in earlier rounds then tighten up as time progresses.
Try tightening up your game considerably after an hour. Stick to the Hand Rankings to a tee, and see how that plays out for you.

Good luck.

[PokeHer]

According to Bison's rating system, I am TA-N, but close to TA-A... my total aggresion is like 1.89. So, I dont think its my style, but i will try tightening up. it may also be good for me just to move to new tables where people wont know how i play

[patrick dicaprio]

if you are playing tourneys and done loosen up as the blinds get big then there is your answer.

Pat

[PokeHer]

i am playing 1/2 limit cash games

[jaeon]

i'm seeing the same pattern in myself. i'm thinking it may be fatigue in my case. if you leave the table and go do something else for 15 minutes (take a walk, a shower, do crunches, sit-ups), then go find another table, this would account for fatigue AND the table figuring you out.

another thing i'm thinking it might be with me is that i'm more prone to reckless play when sitting on a large chip stack. i lose my humility or something. if you've started over at a new table, you're back to a normal-size stack again. i'm finding this helps me to be a much more disciplined player.

these methods can work in online ring games, but anyone have any ideas how to combat these tendencies in tourneys? i find myself doing fine in the first hour or so of an online tourney, then crashing and burning in the second or third hour.

[tbhouston]

low limits you will really see some swings...especially on party. You should try out the 25nl tables i think you would do better there.
-tbhouston

[Lawrence Ng]

You need a bigger sample size of course, but you ultimately need to look at the overall hours. Believing that you only win the first hour, then the lose the rest is just ignorant and an excuse for the real problem at stake.

[Always Rockets]

I find that if you gain a certian amount of chips early, then you either do two things- play more hands because you have more money to start with, and then find yourself in the hole, or you tighten up and play not to loose your winnings...for example, if you sit down with $100, and you win $25 quickly, you may fold to a raise that you would've called earlier- thinking about conserving your winnings rather than winning the hand

Don't know if this applies, but just a couple thoughts.

[Always Rockets]

also maybe with more chips you chase flush/straights more?

[jaeon]

[ QUOTE ]
also maybe with more chips you chase flush/straights more?

[/ QUOTE ]

i chase definitely. i also find myself busting out by calling all-in bets that i would have shied away from when my stack was smaller.

[Always Rockets]

so as long as you recognize the problem, its easy to correct!

[jaeon]

[ QUOTE ]
so as long as you recognize the problem, its easy to correct!

[/ QUOTE ]

hehe. would it were that easy, my friend. but admitting it is the first step to recovery. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[6471849653]

Play at PokerStars; it's just the opposite there, though your $30-$50 is barely a fluctuations yet as it's a constant factor, though I would expect most people to lose that much per table before they start to win, as that's how things normally go at full ring games; the shorthanded games are though better but there's no future to them as the rake is too tough at middle limits.