[Irish Se7en]

It's really not that much of a strategy post but it it may include some.

I'll be the first to say that I'm not one of the poker greats on this site nor am I a fish. With that being said, how come on some nights I can play my "A game" and on others play like a total jacka$$ ?

Why is it that he mind is crystal clear on some nights but on others I'm on cloud 9? Sometimes I make the right decisions preflop and other times it's W.G.A.F. lets play? Goodbye chips.

You can play solid and someone donks out on you and you're speechless and all you can say or type is "wow." Then on the nights when you say W.G.A.F. you are the one who donks out and receives the person whom you put a bad beat on chips?

Now I understand that money plays a part when one makes a decision on when or how to play a hand. However, I can honestly say, that I've witnessed people make poor decisions from the $5 SNG's up to the $100 SNG's. The same can be said in the cash games from .01./.02 up to the $1/$2. Now I know that for some these limits might be considered micro limits but poor play is poor play.

I'm a Poker junkie, it may pass & it may not but for now I stll can't get enough of it. Playing, watching and sometimes learning.

This isn't a bad beat post because I'm free rolling at the moment. Playing with cash for selling play chips.

So I guess I'm asking or maybe saying, that Poker is like a box of chocolates and that you never know what you're going to get .

That really is the jist of it, poker like life is full of it's peaks and valleys and normally when one makes the right decisions, things turn out well. Though sometimes we all run into sh!t luck.

Maybe it's time to get my head examined.

[shadesofgrey]

Originally Posted by Irish Se7en

I'll be the first to say that I'm not one of the poker greats...

me neither... by no means great. i can play though.

Originally Posted by Irish Se7en

same can be said in the cash games from .01./.02 up to the $1/$2. Now I know that for some these limits might be considered micro limits but poor play is poor play.

junkie...

Originally Posted by Irish Se7en

I'm a Poker junkie, it may pass & it may not but for now I stll can't get enough of it. Playing, watching and sometimes learning.

how do you EVAR stop learning? there is always more to learn...

Originally Posted by Irish Se7en

poker like life is full of it's peaks and valleys ...

Maybe it's time to get my head examined.

peaks and valleys vs. threaded alpha/beta min/max alg...

[Chipmunk]

I wish I could predict when I'm going to play my A-game. It's so frustrating to play badly and later look through all the hands that were obvious if I had paid attention. Although its equally frustrating to be on your A-game, but card dead, and see how weak players give each others their stacks with middle pairs on scary boards.

That said I think its the luck aspect that makes poker a dangerous game. I'm thinking that anyone can win in the short run if they get good cards, and when you add bad bankroll management then I can imagine a lot of players thinking that they are winning players even though they really are fish. This again leads to the fact that even though I've been enjoying a decent success at the small limits I play, it could all be variance due to the small sample size. I've heard about good players who have 100k-300k hands of break-even stretches.

[Vince]

We had our home game yesterday and I was almost completely cold decked the whole session.
Esfandiari once said:
"There's a huge luck factor in poker. But any player in his life is pretty much as lucky as anybody else. But if you got skills, luck gets, over a long period of time, less important."
Or something like that, but I think that reflects it pretty good.

[VARoadstter]

Hold'em is structured in such a way as to provide ample opportunities to allow a player to make good strategic plays without being totally dominated by your starting hands. That is to say, in a given hand, there is usually a clearly superior play based on the value of your hand (regardless of opponents, regardless of image, etc). In HE you very seldom have an opponent drawing completely dead and in that lies the land of bad beats. It can range from something as simple as drawing out to a straight or flush all the way to hitting perfect-perfect (less than 2% to win) to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.

That's just how it is. The math behind the game provides some safety net for poor play. It just won't work long term.

In a given session it can be maddening to see yourself drawn out on over and over. Indeed, in last night's CT tourney that happened to me on two critical hands and I ended up on the rail When I was a prohibitive favorite in those hands. You still have to make those plays.

You can call that luck if you wish. It's actually an inherit part of the game. Some people don't play HE for just that reason. There are other poker games that don't involve as much "uncertainty of outcome".

[the3rd]

There are two kinds of variance. The one is inherent in the game. The other is in your brain. It goes beyond not playing when you are distracted. I have to be in a very specific state of mind before I even start playing to be on my A-game.

LNC

[7thSeat]

Since I figure that all player have about the same amount of "luck" over time I would say it is only about skill.

It is not very easy to define skill though, especially in a live game.

Well now I am off to play some late night poker. (Time here is now 20:13).

[99%evil]

The past few months I've been getting clobbered (hence the signature). I've not been playing bad per se...but variance has been kicking my ass in a major way. I've made some stupid decisions, putting my oponent on a hand...but calling for a gamble... (Last week against Tim(guinness)playing 50¢/$1, I've got AQ (about $40) with , tight bad player in front of me raises 4x BB(he's got about $12), I call putting him on an ace...he's getting short and is making a move with ay ace, Tim also calls...Tim will call for the implied odds with anything (he's up to about $200..prick). Flop comes A,7,5 and short stack goes all-in for his last $7, I call and Tim thinks for 10 seconds and announces all-in....I think...He makes these moves with a set or two pair...knowing shorty has an ace, I put TIm on 5,7 and think forever...then call because I'm a moron.) (The week before I hit two pair on the flop with 7,10 to a 7,10,6 flop...I go all in for about $40 with Tim behind me, he calls with 10,9 and of course catches the 8 for a straight on the turn...) This has been my life the past few months...mostly getting in ahead (85%) and losing. This is why I'm taking a break. I don't believe in luck, but I do believe that I'm going to kill myself if I continue to get busted by 2-8 outers every ***ing week.

I have a control problem, I like being in control...and I can't control the cards...I am glad we live in today's day or I easily could have killed a dozen people by now, with absolutley no remorse...someone's got to pay for this. I wonder if the rush from killing is as good as gambling...he who lasts last....

[smoore]

Poker is a game of skill which requires luck. If it weren't for luck, bad players wouldn't play.

Take chess, for example. If you and I play 10 games of chess, the better player is going to win AT LEAST 8 of them, probably all 10 of them. This is bad for gambling because the lesser player would stop betting.

Therefore, in order to have a game in which bad players participate you MUST have an element of luck, or they'd never win, ya know?

[Clipper]

I feel your pain. Poker can be one wicked b*tch of a game. If you stick with it long enough, you will see times when it seems like you can't do anything but win. Then you can literally go for weeks or even months with what seems like a total cold deck. But I think if we are honest with ourselves we have to admit that most prolonged slumps (I have had one earlier this year after having a child - I realize now why the pro's say not to play if distracted by personal issues, right after major life events, etc.) are often because of a combination of bad luck and bad play. Yes, you heard it. I have played badly for a stetch of a few months earlier this year.

Here is what I have learned from running bad. Normally, this follows a period when you were winning with ease for a period of time (very hot for a few months in my case). I found that I had not been working on my game. I was not reading, studying, discussing, etc. I was just playing and had drifted away from what works. I don't take winning for granted anymore. I won consistently for 4 years, then wham, it seemed like a life-long cold deck sentence.

It could just be a bad stretch of cards, but that not be the entire story. When things are not going right, make sure you do the following:

- FORGET THE FANCY STUFF, just let the cards beat them into submission. This sounds ultra simple, but it works at lower limits (especially since major sites have recently increased major TV advertising in US). Mainly play big cards, real big ones.

- DONT BLUFF BAD PLAYERS. It does not matter if you know he should have laid it down. I have realized that if he does not know to fold, I am the donk for bluffing him.

- DON'T PLAY IF YOU ARE TIRED. Last year, all of my largest losing sessions came when I was very tired. You need to be objective and disciplined. If you are not 100%, don't play.

- GAME SELECTION. Find an easier game - online or live. Playing good players is basically like swimming upstream.

Do these things and you will not question the poker gods (luck) as much.