Play SUPER tight
It's going to suck and be boring, but I need to really lock it down preflop. I have just been getting into too many dicey situations post-flop and making mistakes, and those mistakes put me on tilt. So I need to just play as few hands as possible and hope I can hit something over the course of the session.
AND, when I do play hands, I need to make sure I can get away from them after the flop or on the turn if it gets bad. I know that's always a big problem for people when they play super tight. You play tight for hours, get A-K, and just lose a monster pot because you don't see the warning signs.
Try to stay cool, have no monetary expectations, and let the game come to me
It's very possible I'll lose. That happens all the time. And I might sit down and go down a bunch right away. You never know. I just need to deal with it and not let it affect me. When the session is over that's the only time the money in front of you counts. I guess even then it really doesn't matter if you are thinking about it all as one long session. So I just need to stay cool.
Treat everyone else as robots or trees or a video poker machine
Other people are going to crush, even if they don't deserve the winnings. And other people are going to get hit with the deck CONSTANTLY. I might see someone go on the sickest run ever today. They will be laughing it up, thinking they are the shit, and so on. I need to just ignore that. Everyone else at the table isn't even a real person. When I sit down, I'm immersed in this crazy game where things happen outside of my control. The only thing I can do is try to play my hands well.
Low variance
Back to the playing super tight angle, I'm going to try to take lines that reduce my variance. I think that might not overall be the most profitable (although it might be for me). The one thing it should do is cut down on my tilt when I lose a bunch of hands.
Post-session analysis
I am going to rate myself either an A, C, or F on three factors for each session:
- How well I ran (luck factor - am I hitting flushes? Am I hitting flops in general? Am I getting drawn out on?)
- How good my cards were preflop in general (did I get a lot of big pocket pairs / AK?)
- How well I think I played overall (did I make good decisions?)
I'm hoping the dollar value of my session correlates mostly to how well I ran and how good my cards were, and in each session I can honestly say I played well. Of course, it's going to take some additional analysis to determine if I'm actually playing well or not. And I need to try to be as objective as possible.
Wish me luck! I think we are going to play 1/2 at Red Rock tonight (although we might go elsewhere). My mission is to play as well as I can and really think about my decisions, and ignore how much I'm up or down during the session. Easier said than done, but I will try my best. I'm not drinking, I have had a long break, and I feel focused and capable of doing this. Let's do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment