The "Think-Swing"

(first: sorry for my bad english)

Im lately thinking about some kind of a phenomen I observe at myself...

I play 0.5/1 (6max) and this phenomen just seems to occur in Shorthanded for me...

After getting used to the limit I did quite well; - playing constantly every day and winning - and after some days of winning I just lost - And it would be, looking at my graph, ridiculous to blame some kind of a "downswing" for these funny downs always in my graph - its just going down *wham* ...

I observed this often after doing quite well for a week or so...

And now I couldnt play for like a week (Partysplit etc.) so just played a few sitngos at pacific; mostly concentrating on school etc.

And today I played again... like 1000 hands - and guess what? Like 100BB down...

I dont know if it relates to the fact that its shorthanded or something else. Sometimes I think that for a particular Limit at shorthanded you need a particular, call it "feeling" for your opponents etc.

Another thought of mine is that its because these little 0.5/1 bets that are not really a lot for my BR and that the thought of 200$ Eurobet reload bonus and signup bonus at party etc. makes me kind of "wasting" my money - calling down crap - trying stupid moves etc....


U ever observed something like that for yourself? - I dont really get it because a night of good sleep and getting all my thoughts togheter - having a real aim in front of my eyes (reaching this or that, particular amount or something)- I again am able to do quite well and have 1000hands 6BB/100 sessions...

Or do you have any tips? Its just freaking enerving ...

Thx for your answers

[soko]

100BB in shorthanded is nothing, there is a huge element of psychology involved in shorthanded games and you have to remember peoples style of playing and make sure you don't become to predeictable as it's easier for other people to watch and remember what you're doing, where as full 10 seats everybody sits back and waits for the nuts. There is definately a "feeling" involved with deciding wether to call down with middle pair or not that takes alot of experience to get ahold on. Maybe re-read SSHE and check out the "playing with overcards" section for more information. Don't forget to calculate basic things like your pot odds when deciding to call down.

[sholvar]

hey kay ^^

I try to loose this think-swing-phenomenon by reading how other guys have bad downswings, so you help me to except a downswing on a page where i only play to get the bonus but now payed 15% more then the bonus can give me.
This is really annoying. Hope I helped you, like you helped me /images/graemlins/wink.gif

till next time in every language you want /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Harv72b]

Your English is better than a lot of the posters here who claim it as a first language. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I've been through the phenomenon you described many times: most recently yesterday, when I lost about 70 BBs in full ring games. You just hit those swings where the cards aren't falling for you, and your opponents notice this and start calling down with all sorts of weird crap. This, of course, leads to even more suckouts and losses. The effect is magnified by playing in short-handed games, where your opponents are often even worse (just because you raise from UTG doesn't mean the guy on the button's going to fold his J4o, and when the cards are cold, he's flopping a J every time to crack your pocket tens) and you see many more hands per hour. And yes, there is a lot of psychology to playing short-handed--these same donks that you're up against are typically only playing one table, and with only 5 opponents to keep track of, they will notice patterns in your play. Of course they also aren't using PokerTracker or looking at the hand histories, so they don't know that they keep catching 2 outers on the river to beat you....they just know that you keep betting and they keep winning the pots. This encourages them to keep challenging your hands, wheras if the cards were falling well for you and you were scooping pot after pot, you can take advantage of your aggressive and "lucky" table image to win a lot of pots that you had no business taking down.

There are two schools of thought on what to do when you run into a streak like this: some say that you should just stop playing for a while, calm yourself down if necessary, and then get back to the tables to try and get on track again. Others say that, as long as the game is good and you're not on tilt, you should keep playing no matter how badly the cards are falling. Personally I believe in the second thought here, but I've experienced enough downswings to be able to (usually) play through them without letting it affect my game. If you find yourself playing too many hands, or playing your big hands too passively because you just "know" that someone's going to suck out on you, you need to stop playing immediately no matter how good the game. You no longer have an edge on your opponents when you're tilting like that.

Yeahh,... ok!

I wasnt able to play at the weekend so I really started refreshed this evening and I really did quite well!

Im kinda certain now that its just the lack of an aim and that all what it takes to is to sit down before the session and think to myself "ok,... you are TIGHT and AGRESSIVE - Outcome is not important - PLAY PERFECT POKER - be patient - get out of trouble - dont let your ego play poker - what is my aim? - this and that is my aim - ... That seem to work quite good for me...

Thx for your answers!

cya

[jjacky]

i think you made some very valid points.

when i run very badly for a short period of time, i strongly believe that my edge becomes smaller due to emboldened opponents. i read about it several times recently (for example in "professional poker" by marc blade and at least one article by dr. Al). if i lose heavily, i usualy call it a day (because my own play detoriates pretty often in these situations), but if i continue playing, i do change the tables at least.

[jjacky]

hi kay, hi shol,

nice to see you here /images/graemlins/smile.gif
hopefully us ps.de people will become more active at 2+2 soon.