Termi8r's Week and the Reverse Downswing Psychology

Published on 10 Sep 08 17:50 by TribunCaesar

It was another week of learning and analyzing for Termi8r. Becoming a successful poker player means putting a lot of effort into everything you do in order to achieve your goals.

by Termi8r

I posted some stats about my SSS play in the blog. I started extremely well and I made $360 within my first 17k hands or so while playing on NL10 and NL30 on Mansion. Afterwards it leveled off until I hit this downswing I’m in at the moment. My PRF is around 6% and VPIP is around 7%. On the NL10 level I am about VPIP of 10% due to some overzealous small blind limping at the start. NL50 has been tragic so far but I could only afford to play 5k hands so there no sample size to speak of.
So many people, when stuck in a downswing period, focus on the bad beats and forget the lucky hands and their badly played hands. I want to make a point of showing the times I got lucky in some hands and other times where I just messed up. So I’m creating a thread called “Termi8r’s reverse (downswing) psychology” where I post all the times I got lucky or played badly. This is to remind myself that it's not all bad luck and to motivate myself to make fewer stupid mistakes.
I came across Leo’s guide to beating the micro limits with SSS. So far I’m doing most of the things he advises to beat the micro limits with SSS. I completed the basics advised on NL10, by studying the articles and learning to stick to the SHC. I'm planning my playing/studying times and creating a blog. I also post hands and watch videos and attend coaching sessions. In addition, I’m learning about equity, odds, outs and the probabilities of winning in certain situations as well as why it is best to stick to the strategy.

Every month, I usually buy one book. This month, I bought a really nice book on the mathematics behind No Limit poker. The book explains how to calculate the probabilities of getting certain cards, how to estimate ranges and shows you how to do expectation value calculations from first principles in different situations. It's a bit advanced for me at the moment and I'll take some time before applying it, but it's quite fun to work through if you're mathematically inclined. Thinking about poker in this abstract and theoretical manner makes you a solid player. I'll try and work through the book, and to apply it to the situations I encounter in SSS. This should help me to better understand why I should follow the strategy.

Bankroll: $200

Goals:
7000 hands
To perfect my SSS game
To have fun

Cheers and good luck
Termi8r