How do I trust myself?

L

ludde2009

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Jan 26, 2012
Total posts
67
Chips
0
Hi everyone,
Wall of text incoming, kudos to the ones who read and answer.

Lately I've been going up and down while playing 2 & 5nl. Had a big downswing the other day with -30$, and probably only myself to blame making loose calls and spewing off chips with 2nd best hand oop.

Anyway, sat down at the tables again today when I've had a good night's sleep and really focused. Played my standard 8 tables zoom but this time I really asked myself why I was raising and how I would get max value when holding the nuts.

Played around 10k hands and managed to find a profit of $90 (24bb/100) by sticking to my solid TAG-play.

My question here is: Can I trust myself that I am a winning player?

Total this year I've played:
180k hands on 5nl 3bb/100 ($150 under EV lol)
240k hands on 2nl 6bb/100
10k hands on 10nl - down $62 (next time I'm stepping up is w. 40 BI)

I sure have developed as a player, looking back at the first 100k hands of 2nl or so I wasn't really thinking about my decisions, just playing standard abc-poker.

But these "downswings" or whatever, I know they are self induced - so that's what I am trying to work on.

So how do I go from here to improve? Do I trust my stats and play like I use to (also working on the tilt/spew issue), or should I try a different approach?
 
G

GWU73

Visionary
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Total posts
785
Chips
0
What I like to do is replay my worst hands in poker tracker and look for mistakes. At each action I try to play out the correct play in my head. If I originally did something different that was incorrect, I make a mental note to not do that again. Many times I find that I was just unlucky, but sometimes I find a spot where I did something really stupid. It is a helpful and humbling experience.

I also like to look at my actions as a whole for each street and position.

Finally I like to see who I have lost the most too. I look at critical hands I played with them in and attempt to find spots where I am making mistakes or being out played. I can find patterns about the player that do not show in the stats, like " min bet bluffs, large bets are the nuts, or raises are always big hands'" which allows me to play that player better in the future.
 
Kenzie 96

Kenzie 96

Legend
Loyaler
Joined
May 21, 2005
Total posts
13,686
Awards
9
US
Chips
156
Certainly possible that your downswing is self induced, but you are aware that playing properly is no guarantee against downswings, areen't you?
 
Top