Poker Orifice
FoolsTilt
Platinum Level
This isn't a 'badbeat' blog or a 'please listen & feel sorry for me' blog.
I'm curious as to other's experience on the tables. Namely MTT play and taking the worst of it on the bubble, over & over and what you do about dealing with it.
I've read exerpts from 'Poker Mindset' and Psychology of Poker but know for sure that this is still my biggest leak in my game. This past week I've bubbled (or near bubbled) in 9 of my last 12 MTTs (one cash.. a 2nd). In each & all of them I was sitting in great shape (around mid-field or better), and then take a brutal beat from a retarded caller (ie. on bubble, 7 get paid, I'm sitting in 3rd, two shorties on table, high blinds where game is 'push/fold', keep a tight-ish image, shove BTN with AKs and still get called down by guy sitting in 2nd with only 1bb more than myself who's sitting on 3-3. What is this?). Tons of other examples too.. ie. 5-bet shoving over with AA, or KK.. getting called by AK, AQ, AJ, having them in terrible shape and then losing to runner runner suckouts.
I take precautions and adjust my ranges for players I assume are not familiar with I.C.M. and what they'd need to call with to be +EV, keeping in mind that they're calling range will stupidly be quite wide (even with multiple shorties on the table). Still though.. this past week has been horrible.
What can I do? Give myself a 'pat on the back'... tell myself I got my money in good,.. .they're a careless fool... so be it? Keep my mind on the 'big picture' and not the immediate results (play for the long run)? Understand and accept the realities of poker? Emphasize correct decision-making over making money? I don't know... I guess all I can do is all of the above and keep tyring??
For sure 'removing all emotion from decisions' is key for me and something I have a feeling I will be working on for a very long time (how to deal with that?.. go for a walk?.. go fishing?... just go.. lol).
No doubt I 'dedicate myself to a continuous cycle of analysis and improvement (I review hand histories, do HH sweats, watch training vids., have read dozens of poker books (studied Harrington's books in such detail that I scored over 90% my first crack at Harrington's Vol.3,.. I'm supposedly 'World Class' now and 'making a good living', ha ha... I've even taken it upon myself to do the Vol.3 again a year later and this time the only answers I'm getting 'wrong' are ones I argue in great detail as I feel differently about them than 'Action Dan'). Many other books & guides well beyond Harrington stuff.
Maybe I should just take the micro buyin, cash-added fields for what they are.. a good group of poker players.. but perhaps many being not 'world class', lol. Maybe I should even give myself that final push to get off my arse and take a run at some decent buyins online and hit some bigger live ones too (I'm definitely rolled well enough to be a reg. in the $75+buyins, but I'm a HUGE bankroll NIT... but maybe that's how I got my roll there in the first place??).
I've even takin' it upon myself to set myself some goals for playing poker. This year I'm going to enter the $2,500 buyin BCPC as it's only a 7hr. drive from where I live & last year I won an all-expense paid 3-day weekend to the River Rock Casino & Resort when I took 1st place in a SNG that included Bryan Devonshire, Brad Booth, Gavin Smith, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Dennis Philllips (yes.. of WSOP MainEvent Dennis Phillips that is), and a few others. In the meantime I've got plans of visiting a handful of live tourneys prior to that tourney (not just the crappy local ones here).
For sure I need to kick myself in the azz and get going on a run of decent buyin MTTs on Fulltilt. Maybe it's the fear of failure that's keeping me back?
Playing for recreation has been fun but I seem to have the underlying feeling of wanting to take it further. Maybe I'm resenting myself for not following through with my goals up til' now? BUT.. maybe this is just the push I need?
On another note.... perhaps this series of beatdowns is just another step on the ladder of learning & improving my game. No doubt it's the psychological aspects of the game that are by far my biggest leak (I'm my own worst enemy) so maybe it's a good thing I haven't taken my MTT game up a notch yet.
Hmm.... how do you all work on this stuff?
and...
What are your own personal goals with playing poker?
Thanks for listening. Interested in hearing a bit about your story.
I'm curious as to other's experience on the tables. Namely MTT play and taking the worst of it on the bubble, over & over and what you do about dealing with it.
I've read exerpts from 'Poker Mindset' and Psychology of Poker but know for sure that this is still my biggest leak in my game. This past week I've bubbled (or near bubbled) in 9 of my last 12 MTTs (one cash.. a 2nd). In each & all of them I was sitting in great shape (around mid-field or better), and then take a brutal beat from a retarded caller (ie. on bubble, 7 get paid, I'm sitting in 3rd, two shorties on table, high blinds where game is 'push/fold', keep a tight-ish image, shove BTN with AKs and still get called down by guy sitting in 2nd with only 1bb more than myself who's sitting on 3-3. What is this?). Tons of other examples too.. ie. 5-bet shoving over with AA, or KK.. getting called by AK, AQ, AJ, having them in terrible shape and then losing to runner runner suckouts.
I take precautions and adjust my ranges for players I assume are not familiar with I.C.M. and what they'd need to call with to be +EV, keeping in mind that they're calling range will stupidly be quite wide (even with multiple shorties on the table). Still though.. this past week has been horrible.
What can I do? Give myself a 'pat on the back'... tell myself I got my money in good,.. .they're a careless fool... so be it? Keep my mind on the 'big picture' and not the immediate results (play for the long run)? Understand and accept the realities of poker? Emphasize correct decision-making over making money? I don't know... I guess all I can do is all of the above and keep tyring??
For sure 'removing all emotion from decisions' is key for me and something I have a feeling I will be working on for a very long time (how to deal with that?.. go for a walk?.. go fishing?... just go.. lol).
No doubt I 'dedicate myself to a continuous cycle of analysis and improvement (I review hand histories, do HH sweats, watch training vids., have read dozens of poker books (studied Harrington's books in such detail that I scored over 90% my first crack at Harrington's Vol.3,.. I'm supposedly 'World Class' now and 'making a good living', ha ha... I've even taken it upon myself to do the Vol.3 again a year later and this time the only answers I'm getting 'wrong' are ones I argue in great detail as I feel differently about them than 'Action Dan'). Many other books & guides well beyond Harrington stuff.
Maybe I should just take the micro buyin, cash-added fields for what they are.. a good group of poker players.. but perhaps many being not 'world class', lol. Maybe I should even give myself that final push to get off my arse and take a run at some decent buyins online and hit some bigger live ones too (I'm definitely rolled well enough to be a reg. in the $75+buyins, but I'm a HUGE bankroll NIT... but maybe that's how I got my roll there in the first place??).
I've even takin' it upon myself to set myself some goals for playing poker. This year I'm going to enter the $2,500 buyin BCPC as it's only a 7hr. drive from where I live & last year I won an all-expense paid 3-day weekend to the River Rock Casino & Resort when I took 1st place in a SNG that included Bryan Devonshire, Brad Booth, Gavin Smith, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Dennis Philllips (yes.. of WSOP MainEvent Dennis Phillips that is), and a few others. In the meantime I've got plans of visiting a handful of live tourneys prior to that tourney (not just the crappy local ones here).
For sure I need to kick myself in the azz and get going on a run of decent buyin MTTs on Fulltilt. Maybe it's the fear of failure that's keeping me back?
Playing for recreation has been fun but I seem to have the underlying feeling of wanting to take it further. Maybe I'm resenting myself for not following through with my goals up til' now? BUT.. maybe this is just the push I need?
On another note.... perhaps this series of beatdowns is just another step on the ladder of learning & improving my game. No doubt it's the psychological aspects of the game that are by far my biggest leak (I'm my own worst enemy) so maybe it's a good thing I haven't taken my MTT game up a notch yet.
Hmm.... how do you all work on this stuff?
and...
What are your own personal goals with playing poker?
Thanks for listening. Interested in hearing a bit about your story.
