OK, I am kind of combining the first two of the topics I wanted to discuss in future blog posts. I just told my friend in an IM that non-card poker lessons are the second best things in terms of helping your game, but they are easier to teach and benefit from.
Note: As I am writing this, it seems as though this post is turning into lots of smallish anecdotes/brief ideas, instead of more formal paragraphs. I'm not sure I like it, but let me know what you think.
I sat down at all my tables after I came back from a night out, and I was ready to play. About 40 minutes later, I quit. The games just weren't good. Did I want to play more? Yea. I played a little PLO, and then stopped that because I was getting bored. The point is, get up when the games aren't good.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen tables full of 6 regulars, battling to see who's penis will slap the others' and escape untangled. Most of the time, one of those guys will have a small edge, and the others will just be attempting to run well. Either way, there are better games out there. If there aren't, why are you playing? There used to be so many days where I looked back and said, "Well, I guess I should've just stopped playing." Do you really want to play that badly? Go play omaha, or, *gasp*, go drop down a level and play there.
That covers not playing when the games aren't good. I will briefly touch on: not playing when you aren't in the mood, and playing when you are focused.
People play poker when they aren't playing well all the time. I used to do it. Two months ago I was sick and decided to load up some tables because what the hell else was I gonna do. Well, -6k later and I called myself a moron and closed up the tables. I curled up in my bed and had a fun time watching TV and not losing 20k more.
The times I go out and don't drink, I usually come back around 1-3 AM and play poker until 3-5 AM. In order to do something like this, you really have to be ready to pack it in at any point. When I'm driving back home, I question myself if I am ready to play. If I am the least bit tired, I just don't play. 90% of the time, when I am ok to play, I have to be ready to quit if I make a few bad mistakes, or the games dry up because all the normal human beings go to bed. Consider how alert you are around the hours you play if you cannot control yourself once you sit down.
I was talking to a friend of mine a couple weeks ago, who said he was playing poorly/tilty but there were two megafish at the table so it was still +EV. Oh ho ho ho ho, this is soooo wrong. I told him get the hell up, and he did, after dropping two more buyins doing ridiculous things against the fish.
On that note, I look for signs of me not playing well. When I start to tilt or make a couple bad plays, my body and face physically get hotter or redder, and the slightest layer of sweat emerges over my face. I have learned that once I feel this it's time to get up because I'm not playing well.
Also, "getting back to even" has cost me loads of money fwiw.
Now, because we cannot predict how many hours of the month we will be playing, because we don't know when we will play poorly, etc, I really dislike the idea of setting "requirements" of x hands a month, or y hours a month. It implies that there will be a certain amount of tables being played, and a certain amount of hours per day. This will inevitably result in forcing yourself to play, which will result in not getting up when you should, and not sitting down when you should. If you could only play 20 hours of A-game poker a month, what is the point of slaving over 80 more hours if you will either lose a little, break even, or win a minute amount each session. There is none. Furthermore, you are allowing poker to control your life, which will only lead to tilt, antisocial behavior, and problems in your life that you don't want. You don't need to set number goals for yourself. You know what you are capable of. If you don't, you can experiment a little bit, and see what your limits are.
I talk about when it is time to not play moreso than the opposite because the mental aspect of poker is severely overrated. A couple weeks ago, I grinded well for about 5 days straight, playing good lengthed poker sessions. Then, I was in the middle of 2 heads up matches on UB against opponents who weren't bad but I had an edge of them, when I noticed my session was approaching four hours (my normal is 1.5-2 hrs), and my eyes were starting to get tired. The fact that my session went to that length was ok because I felt fine that particular time, but I continued to barge on because I had a small edge of my opponents, and I knew it. Well, within 15 minutes I went from +3.5k to -7.5k (at 10/25), because I was dumb and tired. Even if you are in decent games, if you are at the table when you shouldn't be, you will lose.
Two nights later, I was driving home, and a feeling came over me that I was going to crush the games that night. I told one of my friends and right after I wrote the away message I won a 11.5k pot at 10/25. I wound up about 15k in one hour, which included climbing back from a ludacrious 7 buyin loss to this crazy guy HU. When he flopped two pair with Q9 vs my TPTK with AQ in a 3bet pot, representing about the 20th sick/huge cooler/suckout of the match, I quit before my head exploded.
Although this post was somewhat choppy, I think the main points of when to play and when not to play are pretty clear. I hope you enjoyed this, but next time I think I'll write something more card specific ;).
Run better than I have been,
Greg
