Trust your game :)

Below is a post I've just made to my blog. Not usually one for cross-posting but this has a certain karmic payoff to it



I've had complaints from a couple of sources for not posting here. Hello Irexes Snr.

There was a time when I posted every tournament result and session on here and commented on my luck and results good and bad. It was useful at the time as it helped me to keep my discipline while I was learning about proper bankroll management. However I've got the hang of managing my money now and I don't feel the need to post every development.

More to the point it's not particularly fun writing up losing streaks. Unless it's from a need to self-flaggelate in public in order to atone for particularly poor play then I don't think it serves much of a purpose.

Indeed I have been on a cold run for a couple of months and haven't made any decent return in that time. But on the other hand I have been entirely happy with my play. It's been taking two or three hands to go horrifically wrong to dump me out of tournies or a mighty cold-deck KK v AA type situation. I've also been getting to the last 20 or 30 of tournies and not making the endgame and yet I haven't had that "I really shouldn't have made that move" feeling it's easy to get when you get close to a decent payday and miss.

In summary I think I'm just playing well and losing, which is strangely satisfying. My game continues to evolve. I very rarely end up all in preflop in anything other than a shortstack situation and have developed a range of new approaches to play out of the blinds. I am very detached from the beats and the good results (Zen and the Art of Poker roolz) and am able to enjoy playing while losing and playing well.

NEWSFLASH!!!!!!!!!!

At this point in the blog I stopped writing because I was in a tournament ($33 MTT 280 people) and was approaching the bubble. With 40 people left I had 9000 chips and was way behind the average. Over the next 20 minutes I hit an awesome run of cards and got to 240,000 and kept the chip lead to the final table.

A few knocks early at the final table, but I stayed in the top three until we got three way where I again became chip leader. The longest three-way I've been in took an hour before we made a deal and I took $1720 for 1st place (second and third taking $1250 each).

Fanbloodytastic. Screen shot to follow.

Nice Rex!!!

Thanks Daks

Piccie

Just got Zen and the art of Poker myself; really enjoying it so far.

Big congrats on the win Rex. Well deserved

Well done sir, congrats on the win. Nice post also.

Thanks Chaps,

I'm a big fan of ZATAOP Chuck, and I'd be interested on your take on some sections where it could be interpreted to be talking about periods of bad luck where you should play differently to the norm because it is not working for you. I've seen criticisms of the book that suggest this is suggesting something beyond statistical variance to the almost mystical. The other interpretation is that it's important to acknowledge your metagame situation and adapt to fit with the flow of the game.

Either way it's a top read and has done wonders for my state of mind while playing.

Nice, Rex.

I've still got Zen and the art of Poker on request, still waiting for it to arrive from the library. Waiting is.

You can't beat a long three-way dog

Wow....very nice...WTG! I think I'll order a copy of that book as well.

wow my 3ways usually cost me that much. i rarely get paid for them.

You must be doing it wrong. I was all in a lot and only folded under intense pressure. The button is important, learn how to use that properly and they'll be putty in your hands.

i hope you realize that that was my attempt at sexual innuendo.

I stopped talking about poker several posts ago.

so what are the plans for those monies

gol

More pokery. Not cashing out again til the summer to pay for the family holiday (managed this the last few years), then I build again and try to pay off Christmas expenses (two kids, very pricy).

Gives me the lattitude to play the $10 rebuys with mucho aggression during the rebuy period though, which I like.

do you make more from mtt's or cash? i feel like if i wouldnt get so incredibly unlucky in late mtt's when im very deep (down to the last 1-2%) i would be killing the mtt scene, but the ring games are more of a linear scale.

I very rarely play cash. For grinding out a consistent win rate I play SnGs, they are for me a steady return over a decent sample. I've never really enjoyed cash much so tend not to play.

MTTs are big payoffs separated by big deserts where breaking even is good until the next big win comes along. One lucky or unlucky hand can make a huge differenceas as you say. You can however get a game that gets to final tables enough to make it count and there are so many people who haven't a clue how to play final tables or panic that the returns can be big even given the variance because of the payout structures.

To be honest I'm chasing big wins rather than the steady return and that means tournies. Money isn't a big issue so I can cope with the variance. Long term plan is to fluke a big result in one of the really big tournies (and by long term I mean some point in the next ten years).

I bought the book this guy recommended, really good actually.
http://highrelevancy.com

/frulle

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