This is one of those stream of conscious semi-tilted posts I sometimes write to rationalise losing money and recover from it. Losing is painful for me no matter how small the event or stake. If it is a game of pool, darts, cards, monopoly etc. the feeling is still the same. In other words the monetary loss is not really the source of the pain. I have had problems in the past being a very 'bad loser' and I am not sure of the origins of this behaviour as it dates back as long as I can remember. I spent a long time away from pool tables because of this attitude problem, but have since managed to partly exorcise these demons. For me, losing prompts an adreneline rush and this is the trigger for foggy thinking and bad decision making. Sometimes I will complain, blame others, beat myself up etc but on the poker table bad decision making quickly leads to loose play and loss of money.
I just left a ridculous, cheap and donkey filled poker table after 40 mins because I was losing. If I had stayed longer I was a big favourite to win back my losses and more but I still left the table for several reasons. Firstly I analysed the optimum session length of my most consistent winnning sessions and found that 15-40 mins is optimal and any more or less is linked to more losses. Secondly I have decided to put some balance back into my life and play a little less poker in my leisure time. Thirdly, when you sit and lose for 40mins at a poker table even the biggest drooler on the planet will gain confidence in your losses, notice that you usually bet but this time checked a street and use that as a cue to experiment with bluffing. The donkey in question has probably played 100% fit/fold up to that point and many donks accidentally bluff with the best hand, so it is not worth looking them up with a marginal hand when you can return another day to flop the nuts and stack off with a different donkey who has stubbornly held on with 2nd pair Ace kicker to your set.
Finally another statistic hit me today: I was running a hud and my preflop play stats matched exactly another player on the table sat to my left, and he too was having a losing session of similar proportions. The super tight style was clearly not working at this moment in time on this table, with this group of players for what ever reason. The one thing I have learned not to do in this situation though, is start playing crappy hands. If 3 donks limp and I look at QJo and think 'If I raise the btn I'll have pos'n, the blinds will fold and .....' I know it is time to leave the table and let the adreneline leave my system. Even though isolating in position or going multiway in position can be profitable you are working marginal edges and must accept bigger swings. There is also more multistreet guesswork against groups of players with super wide hand ranges as you rarely get heads up when you raise from any position. The only way to beat the donkeys is to raise massively preflop with good hands (for your position), flop well and then get it in fast on a wet board or build a pot over 3 streets on a dry board. This is how I built my cash game profit, and this is how I intend to keep it.
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