I don't get GSN from my cable provider, but fortunately I found this site to get my High Stakes Poker fix. Pokerbay has tons of poker shows at fast download speeds.
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Barry Greenstein says that running bad only reflects on the past and has no bearing on your future play (or something like that).
Well, I'm ready for my bad run to be over. I think I'm making progress.
I thought back to where I was before I started losing. Ah, that's right. I was playing 2/4 and 3/6 full ring. Then I switched to 3/6 6-max, had a few wins and then went downhill.
It should have been obvious -- I'm a better player in full ring games than in 6-max. I've been trying to develop a loose-aggressive strategy for 6-max games, but that's difficult to do once you lose even a little bit of confidence. I almost laughed at myself last night when I was trying to play loose-aggressive but kept making tight-weak plays.
I know I'll have to conquer 6-max someday. I feel like I have all the skills and knowledge to do quite well in those games already. The difficulty is execution. The pace of the games is different, hand reading becomes more crucial, and position is even more important. I can handle that -- for a while. But after an hour or so, it's hard to maintain focus when playing multiple tables.
So it's back to the 2/4 and 3/6 full ring NL games. They're slower-paced. I can take more notes. The play is more transparent. Bluffs are more effective. Hand ranges are narrower. My tight-aggressive style works well. I'm comfortable.
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Bad runs -- and the accompanying loss of faith that comes with them -- have one advantage. They cause self-doubt, which leads to reflection and questioning of everything you think you know.
One thing I realized is that I fell into the trap of pressuring myself to get even by playing a lot of hands until probability evens itself out and I start winning again.
Even though I played well most of those extra hours, what I lost was time away from poker. I don't want poker to use up all my time. Grinding just isn't worth it at the expense of going outside, reading a book or even playing Guitar Hero.
I play my best game in short bursts for a limited amount of time per day. Long sessions cut into my EV, both at the tables and away from them.
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1 comment:
I enjoy the 6-max games immensely and have absolutely no luck at full ring. I don't know what it is, but perhaps it has a bit to do with reading only 5 other players and having a wider range of strating hand selection.
Thanks for the comment.
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