[Closed] 100BB down on 2/4ct

Hello Kreatief.

Losing is a part of Poker. Since you just started poker and are therefor fairly unexperienced, losing streaks of 100BB are quite normal.

Playing by the starting hand chart is not the whole deal. Most money is won and lost after the flop. Practice postflop play. Post hands here on the boards and listen carefully to the given advice. And so on ...

My strong guess is, you already know, you need to improve your game and how to do it, but you would really like to see better results rather today then tomorrow. Learning poker needs a lot of time, and poker is a game of chance. Some people catch a lucky streak in the beginning and seem to climb the ladder so fast. Don�t get that wrong, most of them are just really lucky.

My advice is: Try to detach yourself emotionally from the game. Don�t compare your results to those of others. Choose a pace for learning and playing you feel comfortable with. Let the hands play out as they play out and don�t think about how lucky or unlucky you got. Simply try to make the best play in every given situation regardless of earlier results.

Success favors the prepared mind ...

Success favors the prepared mind

Where is that from? I like it, cause it fits so good to poker!

As for your answer: Thank you. I guess I do understand what you wanna try me to tell. Although its hard, my main goal the next time will be, to detach myself emotionally from the game, just as you said. I think that this might help the most.

I think, I will write down my daily experiences concerning my emotions and feelings during a session, to control myself, and see if this helps me.

DKT

Its a deviation of a saying i found in "Zen and the Art of Poker". The Original is: "Luck favors the prepared mind."

Btw. because of the date you registered and because of your nickname i guess you are german? If so, why don�t you post on the german board?

Hehe.

Cause I dont like the way the german board gets overflooded, and because I nearly always write english when I am in the inet. Its a little practice, and I dont need one hour to check all the new messages when coming back to the german board after ten minutes

DKT

True ... lets enjoy the silence as long it remains ... ♦

To get back to the topic again:

I was thinking about one point along time:

I am working all day, so I just have 1-2 hours a day to play poker. Since I am playing on microlimit, and mostly two tables, I just play about 100-200 hands within a session.

I noticed that this is mostly a reason for a negative session. And as I remember brockies words, for him, 200 hands, is no session at all.

I was asking myself if it does make sense to play that short sessions. Of course, if you are lucky, you can win more money with such a short session than with a long one, but mostly you need some time to win the first hands.
The next point is that I mostly play in the evening, 18-20 o'clock. This is truely the worst time to play poker, and I notice that all the time. When I win some sessions on the weekend, I nearly always lose all that money and more during a week.

What do you think about short sessions, do they make sense?

DKT

The length of sessions i play varies from just an hour to three hours in a row. There are times when i might even play just half an hour and than stop playing because i notice i am not really focused.

The length of the individual sessions has only a very small impact on the overall results. The only thing suffering from short sessions is the ability to get good reads on your opponents. In contrary short sessions give you the advantage of being really focused.

I simply tend to look at poker as just one big neverending session. In fact poker is overall just a series of random events. So session length shouldn�t really matter.

I guess the psychological disadvantage of it, not being able to immediately win back the losses, is what bugs you. Dealing with that is just another part of detaching yourself emotionally from the game. You simply have to accept that you have almost no influence on short term results. Therefor short term results don�t matter.

Don�t get me wrong. I play poker now for more then one year. And although i know and understand all the things i am writing here logically, i still sometimes fall into the same traps as you do ...

Thank you very much Stargoose,

I will keep that in mind, and try to do what you said.

DKT

I'd like to add, the only real "bad" factors about ultra short sessions would be:

a) Are you really "in the game" with your mind? If you squeeze in fifteen minutes of poker because there is nothing else to do, you might end up not playing concentrated enough, thus losing money where you might otherwise not have.

b) Blinds - if you play short sessions, you usually want to get in the game immediately, and post the BB right away and play. This is a monetary investment that you have to make every time you begin a session, unless you wait for the BB to come around to you.

The latter is something I'd personally recommend. For starters, you save that additional investment (it's just a single BB, but then, money is money), AND you get to watch the table for a few games, until the BB comes around to you. If it starts near you, I'd even suggest waiting a full table round until you begin playing.

You'll have a much better feel for the current playing style of the table, maybe pick up some chat that might tell you who's currently on tilt, who keeps calling, who enters the flop with rags over and over. This is information you will find valuable when you actually get dealt in and put your own money up against these players.

Play your solid game, but do not neglect the human factor. Get as much info as you can. See who keeps winning, and mark them with corresponding notes. If you find two or more such players, find a new table BEFORE EVEN GETTING IN THERE.

Sure, you might win. But then, you'd probably win more against a table with no or only one such "good" player (relative to the average player on your particular limit). As is said in the beginner section: you want to play when you have an advantage, and leave when that advantage dissipates.

Hope this helps.

It's really hard to get notes after a single orbit.

In the history of warfare, God has always sided with the strongest force

Or something like that... If you are truly going about this the right way, luck will even out over time. 2k hands is short term, just put it out of your mind.

i just want to add, that u should think about continue to play at two tables.
from my own experience i can tell, that i started to early with playing at two tables.

it strongly divides your attention. betting habbits of your opponents, and a general image about a player is a lot harder to get when u are only watchnig half of the time.

every time i won a good chunk of money at these tables, i was like: hey, now i double my earnings by playing at two tables. but it doesnt work like that. i wasted money being too aggressive without paying attention to my opponents.

imho u can only be a grinder, when playing at multiple tables.

Especially at small stake tables, there are both: real fishes, and pretty good players. so sort em out in your mind, and act accordingly. this is not very easy in the beginning of playing poker, but its essential to become a good player.

I don't think 2 tables really distracts you THAT much, unless you're playing short handed. It becomes obvious who the fishes are, and who the real solid players are. Also, since it's 2-4c, it's not like you have to be really tricky to win. Just make good, high percentage plays, and work on your postflop skill. I actually get less focused on 2 or fewer tables, causing my mind to wander.