Stepping down and admitting defeat

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Seems like November is kind of like re-living the mass-downswing that much of 2+2 had back in January.

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Actually, for me it was September. I had a great month of August, playing 20/40 on Party. In September, I went into freefall. I'm not sure what my loss was in BB, as I dropped limits, first to 10/20, then to 5/10. I was near even for October and have made a modest comeback in November.

I think the downswing was a combination of running bad and failing to adapt to changing game conditions. The 15/30 and 20/40 games, and to some extent the 10/20 games have gotten tougher. There has been noticeable decline in the number of super-LAG type players. I think that, prior to September, these were the players I was making most of my money from. I also think that I had started playing on auto-pilot. I found, in September, that I was frequently getting raised on the turn when I had a decent hand, i.e. tpgk, or middle pair ace kicker, etc., getting raised on the turn, and calling down do be shown a better hand. I had fallen into the habit of calling down, or sometimes playing back, with any decent hand. This worked against the maniacs. It was disastrous against the TAG, semi-LAG and weak tight players I was continuing to do it against. I also think that my play had become too predictable. A lot of players were getting good reads on me and taking advantage of my predictability.

I'm back to 15/30 now, but still pretty short banked, so I may yet have to move back down. I think it is still beatable, but the lower population of LAG's makes it less profitable than it once was. I still see a lot of atrocious pre-flop play. I see a lot of people limping, even open limping, with really bad hands. However, I don't see as much cold calling as I would like. In fact, I find I need to put in the occasional EP or MP open raise with Axs or suited connectors, to keep from just stealing the blinds with my really good hands. The post-flop play is mostly pretty reasonable now, but there are some weak-tight players, and some that are too passive with good draws, and stilla few LAG's. But the LAG's are generally not as stupid as they were a few months ago. I really think most my edge is pre-flop now, with some edge coming from proper semi-bluff and bluff frequency. OTOH, the 5/10 games are still quite soft, and the 10/20 still has a fair population of LAG's (especially the 6 max). I'm going to try to get back to 20/40, or maybe 30/60, but if those games get too tough, muti-table grinding at the lower limits may prove to be the better option.