Comfort Zone? ( Kinda Long)

[Hybrid_11]

Its late here and my minds been racing due to the beginning of another month, i can not sleep so i decided i would explain my thougts here and hope to get some knowledge

I have been 8 tabling 2/4 the past 2 months with good success. The exact amount is irrelevant to the topic. I have to travel back in time before i can get to the topic tho

I am going to go back 3 to 4 months ago when i took my first dab into 3/6. I had the sufficient roll on empire poker from playing 2/4 so i decided to commit a month to 3/6 to see how i do at the next step.
I ended the month up about 1300 dollars which is not bad at all but over 33k hands it only gave me a .5BB/100 which is not to good. I decided the next month i would stick with 3/6 to see what i can do and took a bad month and ended up losing at 3/6.

The next month I began back at 2/4 but opened up an account with another skin and split my roll so that i could 8 table 2/4 instead since i could provide enough BB on each account to be safe there. I had a great month and did very well 8 tabling 2/4. So much so at times i decided to reattempt some 3/6 now and again but 3/6 was in the red by the end of the month for the few sessions i played. The month i was still up but 3/6 was no help.

This month i decided to focus solely on 2/4 and nothing else and sure enough i had a great month 8 tabling. Now im on the breech of a new month and am preparing to have another month of 8 tabling 2/4 but im kind of bothered by this.

I feel very comfortable 8 tabling 2/4 i have no worrys the swings dont bother me and i can be very successful. I have fallen into a comfort zone, nothing really scares me at this limit. There in lies my problem. This comfort zone has my mind stuck into wanting to just stick with whats easy but the other part of me wants to progress as most poker players im sure would like to do. 3/6 is obviously the next step but i just keep looking back at my earlier results and im just a little worried. The fear of 3/6 is keeping me away as i have none at 2/4. I would like to progress but just cant get myself to commit

Im curious if anyone has any knowledge or advice that might help me in getting out of this comfort zone and trying to reestablish it one step higher if people have had a situation like this themselves.

[Jailhouse]

I went through the same exact thing that you have been going through. I've been playing for about two years and have moved pretty fluidly through each level up to 50-100. In the past I have decided to move up a level as soon as I knew exactly why I was beating the game and could recognize mistakes that other players were making and how to take advantage. I'm sure you've probably reached this point at 2-4. Anyways, I decided it was time for me to take the leap into 100-200 and let me tell you, I went in there confident as hell and after 2 hours felt like the biggest fish on the planet. I thought every game i've ever beaten was a total fluke.

I had gotten slapped around pretty badly and decided to rebuild back down at 25-50. I did just that for about 2 weeks and stubborn old me thought I was again ready for the big game. I decided that I had learned many things since the first shot I took and that I was ready...Not even close...bitch-slapped again. Two months of grinding and I all had to show for it was a shattered ego and very little profit. For the second time I had lost 5 figures in a day and was absolutely devestated.

Rebuilding time once again. And maybe i'm hard-headed or stubborn or stupid but I thought about the way I played that game every day for hours and knew I could figure out how to beat it. Without getting into too much detail, I did finally crack it and through all the pain and suffering I went through, I've gotten my money back and a bunch more and I feel great. Learning how to conquer that game has been one of the most satisfying things I've ever accomplished in my life.

Anyway, I hope my story can help to inspire you. I'm a big dreamer and a risk-taker but I believe that that's the only way to improve at poker. So I would say to keep trying over and over again, and even if you fail, figure out how to improve and try again. For you it might mean playing less than 8 tables or adjusting to player types or something else. But I've found failing to be the best way to learn.

J-house

[jba]

very nice post