In renamed the post, hoping to get some feedback.
The intention of this post is to:
- motivate myself to reflect more about my own state of mind and my own game
- get some outside impulse for improvement
- to set some goals, and be reminded of them
I didn't know if this should be in the blog section or here, so I put it here.
I have been playing poker for several years (5+) now, mainly as a recreational player. This means that I did some basic study, reading books, watching video, etc. not much more.
I am playing mostly 6-max NLHE. Occasionally I play some MTTs, or 45+ SNG’s
I am playing typically 2-6 tables, watching TV and/or surfing the internet. Playing volume is about 11k hands per month for the last 12 months
Around of mid of last year I was playing NL5 with about 5.5BB/100 for the first 6 months (40k+ hands).
I tried to move to NL10, and after a few struggle, I was running at ~3BB/100 well into this year.
For the last couple of months, it kind of all fell apart. I lost 32 buy-ins (24 BI-ins below the EV line) running at -10BB/100.
I dropped back to 5NL, however the trend is continuing, actually it is becoming much worse.
I definitely got into tilt-mode. I have become scared of big pots, afraid that opponents will suck out on me. I started calling turn and river donks and raises, against my read which tells me that I am beat, just to confirm how unlucky I am running ‘(most of the time my read is good).
As an analytical person I have started taken reading on tilt and mental game (“The Mental Game of Poker”) and realized immediately how prone to failure my whole approach is.
Additionally I went into my stats and hand history and found several significant leaks.
Here some points:
Looking at HHs I actually found something extremely interesting maybe related to mental issues:
Looking superficially at all NL 10 sessions this year (about 400) I had 130 sessions where I lost > 200BB.
- Of these 130, I had about 50 sessions with a large downswing of 1BI or more around hand number 100
- Also , of these 130 I had about 55 sessions with a large downswing of 1BI or more before hand 40
Looking at the same amount of winning sessions, I found only 4 where I lost 1 BI inside the first 40 hands and 6 where this happened ~ hand 100.
Without quantifying it I would generally say, that around hand 100-150 I tend to play bigger pots.
What can that be?
- Starting a session with suboptimal conditions, concentration may be a problem.
- Losing at the beginning of a session puts me maybe in a mode where I immediately chase my losses?
- After a while, especially in sessions without incidents where there is only pure grinding, I get bored, losing concentration and/or patience
Taking this and what I think I learned from my stats, here is the plan:
- I will limit the number of tables I am playing to max. 3
- Once I have settled at 3 tables, I will leave all waiting lists and not re-join any before I close 2 tables
- I will not surf the internet
- I will set a timer with a mandatory 10min break after 45 min or or 100hands where:
- I really take break
- Ask myself how I feel and how I play. If I feel like I am chasing a loss, or frustrated by an early loss or suck-out, I will stop for at least 45min .
- After each session I will make some notes on my state of mind, my level of play, etc.
- Post an update in this forum at least once a week
First steps regarding my game:
- I will increase my blind defending range vs LP (currently cold call or 3bet a combined 28% from the BB and 22% from SB, resulting in -80BB/100 and -20BB/ 100 )
- I will increase the range vs. SB as well ( 35% defending with -55BB/100)
- I will stick to keeping pots small with mediocre hands especially OOP
- Not bet without a plan at least for the next street
- reduce cbet Flop (currently at 72%)
- Increase WWSF (currently at 46.5%)
That's it for today. I appreaciate any comments or suggestions you may have
