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View Full Version : Having Trouble Winning More Than A Certain Amount


TomBrooks
02-24-2005, 10:35 PM
Party and Skins .5/1 Limit Hold'Em

I have begun sensing I may have some kind of mental barrier to winning more than a certain amount of money in a given session.

I have been playing 4 months, the last three at Party and Skins .5/1. I always start with the standard $25 buy in. When I'm doing well on a particular table, I rarely seem to get my stack above $50. This seems a little odd to me, because sometimes I don't have much trouble getting up into this ballpark, but then I often seem to stay around there, or often my stack will go back and forth in the $35-50 range. If I am beating the table nicely up to that point, why shouldn't I continue to beat it?

It could be new players come into the game and change it, but I don't think thats a decisive factor in many cases. Maybe when players seeing me winning and only showing good cards they tend to tighten up when I'm in the hand. I haven't specifically noticed that but I'm often 2-tabling and I'm barely good enough to mind my own cards and not skilled enough to get a lot of detailed reads on two tables at once.

I have been sensing the possibility of two internal factors. I don't feel strongly about either one - they are more like suspicions as I try to become aware of what's happening.

1. I may be loosening up when I'm well ahead - taking more chances and gambling more - thinking "What the heck, I'm playing with their money now."

2. I might be feeling a little guilty or wanting to be a nice guy, as if taking more of the other players money wouldn't be nice, or maybe they won't like me if I win too much.

Does anybody ever feel anything like that? Or has anyone found that in a winning session they usually tend to win a certain amount but rarely go beyond that?

=TomBk

PS: As I write this, I'm up $50 to a $75 stack on the table I'm playing. I've only gotten to this point in 3% of the 192 winning sessions I've had. Maybe thinking and writing about it is helping me to make some kind of correction. (Or maybe it's a coincidence.)

BlueBear
02-24-2005, 11:21 PM
The real barrier that you have is your desire to obtain winning sessions and being to focused on it. Also known as results-orientated poker. This kind of results-orientation play would cause you to play a different style depending whether you are winning or losing in a session.

I would strongly suggest just focusing on playing your best game at all times and let the number of winning sessions take care of itself.

royaltrux
02-25-2005, 02:31 PM
Another point is that maybe you got a rush of cards at the begining of your session and then get the normal random mix of bad and good cards.

I find when this happens I do overvalue my eariler play and loosen up to my bankroll detriment.

revots33
02-25-2005, 02:56 PM
[ QUOTE ]
1. I may be loosening up when I'm well ahead - taking more chances and gambling more - thinking "What the heck, I'm playing with their money now."

2. I might be feeling a little guilty or wanting to be a nice guy, as if taking more of the other players money wouldn't be nice, or maybe they won't like me if I win too much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think #1 is something many players fall into - loosening up because we're playing with "house money". If you catch yourself doing this, stop. Keep playing your best poker regardless of how one particular session is going.

As for #2 - poker is a competitive game and there's no reason to feel guilty about winning or outplaying your opponents. Everyone is trying to take everyone else's money. My advice: be polite, friendly, respectful - but be relentless and keep scooping in the chips! Good luck.

TomBrooks
02-25-2005, 03:35 PM
[ QUOTE ]
be relentless and keep scooping in the chips!

[/ QUOTE ]
Be relentless! Hooah!

Reef
02-25-2005, 03:58 PM
I think you're self imposing a limit as to how much you're "entitled" to win on a single table. I think when you finally do triple up at a limit table, your confidence in this area will grow, and it will happen more and more often.

Mayhap
02-25-2005, 04:25 PM
You should giddyup on out of that stack size gestalt.
Relax and play your A game.
/M

Wyrm2
02-26-2005, 11:18 AM
I used to have a pretty serious case of the "it's house money" thing, and in fact it is the one factor that still throws me off my game the most. A couple of suggestions.

1) Cover your current money with sticky notes. To do this you do want to buy in for more then $25, I would buy in for $60 or so, and then never even look at my stack. Believe me, you know if you are down the 50 BB it would take for you to be really short stacked.

2) More dramatically, pick up and leave when you catch yourself doing this. I just cashed and got up everytime I was playing (online) and caught myself playing loose on house money. My biggest weakness is playing 1 and 2 gapper suited cards when it is inappropriate, which isn't the end of the world, but it will hurt your bottom line. When I caught myself doing that, I played uber-tight until the blinds, then got up and went for a walk for a while... usually I settled down after a while.