Pulling out of the cold streak

[Bluff1]

About 2 months ago I reported that I was running extremely bad. Those who replied ask me to give an update on whatever happened. People told me to take a little time off, I did. Al Capone suggest that I play anything other than NL sng’s such as limit stud hi low, I did that too. I ripped the stud hi low game on stars to recover half my loses but still my sng wins were few and far between. My brank roll was diving. I got in the mind set of saying when I lose to this amount I will drop down and such. An awful mind set to be in. I was desperate and thinking maybe poker wasn't for me after all. I started looking over my sng records and analyzing them with all my brain power. I found for the most part it was just bad beat after bad beat although there were a some huge leaks in my game. I was on the ropes and decided to change my style. I started playing extremely tight, and has hyper aggressive as I could get. I also stopped calling raises as much and went with the reraise/fold strategy. Since the changed I have really been on fire, and recovered all my loses from my drastic cold streak. Once again I'm thinking maybe I can play a little poker after all. I would like to thank those for the tips they gave me to help me pull out of my bad run.

[Guy McSucker]

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I also stopped calling raises as much and went with the reraise/fold strategy.


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This is interesting and important I think. Can you give some examples where you would previously call a raise but now would fold? Or reraise? If you've got actual hands, that would be very informative I think.

Glad to hear things are on the up!

Guy.

[Bluff1]

Hi Guy,

Before in the early rounds I would call a lot of raises with almost any pp trying to flop a set and double through. I found that for the most part this is a bad play. The money isn't really deep enough, even at the early rounds at stars, to make this play worth it. Plus even when you do hit your set sometimes the board is too scary looking and you really can't make the moves with a set in a trny that you would a ring game. I also stopped calling raises with Aq as much as well. Even if I'm in back position I usually just muck this hand as well, unless it is a loose raiser. But if I have no read or against a typically player Aq usually gets folded. Of course later in the trny I will move in a lot with Aq. Over my last 12 trnys I have averaged seeing the flop only about 8% of the time. I make up for this with a ton of steals preflop when I'm the first one in. So I usually play really tight until the 50/100 blinds or so then I start opening a lot on my steals. I just keep coming and coming with steals and take a lot of pots down preflop. I do get reraised every now and then and then I'm just look at the pot odds and my hand and make a choice from there. I raise the same throughout the trny with my trash hands as well as my strong hands so people never have a clue to as what I'm holding. Finally, I have also gotten to were I defend my blind with a lot of reraises. It usually one takes one or two before people get scared to play at your blinds with trash.

[OneStuckFish]

The only way you can play a sit and go and only see 6% of the flops is lose. I considered myself one of the tightest players I know of preflop, yet still, if you make it in the money (3 handed), youll have to see many flops, and heads up, at least every other one. This kills your preflop percentage when the table is full or near full. I'd have to say its nearly impossible to win a sit and go with only 6% of flops seen. Congrats on pulling out of your streak. Math says it has to happen, and the bad runs I believe are where most good players, that could be great, end up giving up, or tilting themself broke. I still couldnt imagine playing this game for a living, it must be true..."its the hardest way to make an easy living"

[Bluff1]

True my preflop % raises during the short handed play but on average I have only been seeing about 8% of the flops over my last 12 sng's, very small sample of course. Shorthanded it gets very aggersive preflop and usually is a move in game by time you get there at stars.