Rules of Engagement

by Landlord79 on 09/27/07

Rules of Engagement

For all of my loyal fans out there who check my blog every day hoping to get a line or two from me, =) sorry that I haven't written in a while but it's the end of the quarter and it's crunch time at work, we've also had lots of stuff going on at church, so I have been uber busy and have taken any spare time that I have to actually play poker instead of write about it. (Wow, that's a long sentence.)

I want to talk about managing when you play poker to optimize your win rate and minimize your losing sessions. I really feel that the players who can better manage themselves will end up making more money at poker and that they'll be the ones who are still around 10 or 20 years from now.

Everyone has his or her own quirks as far as what works best for them concerning optimal playing times. For me, I know that I play bad when I'm tired or rushed. On my trip to Biloxi, MS earlier this month, I was coming off a bout with strep throat. I was still on anti-biotics from the weekend before and wasn't fully recovered. I
figured that a few days of recovery would have allowed me to think clearly enough to play poker profitably. Boy was I wrong. Looking back, I now attribute 50% of my losses to mental fatigue and just plain not feeling up to doing the work of playing good poker. Sure my cards ran bad, that's the down side of variance, but I believe that my losses would have been a lot less if I would have been on top of my game that weekend. This fatigue carried through the next week as I proceeded to go through the biggest downswing of my life, which bottomed out at 10 buyins.

Another area that leaves me feeling tired and doesn't allow me to play at my best is playing poker after sex. I've paid the stupid tax on this lesson at least 2x already, and Saturday night, I tried my luck at it again. I guess that I thought that I had gotten good enough at poker to over come this weakness. I had cut my 10
buy in down swing in half for this month and was on the road to getting it all back when I found myself in a "Right Moment" with my wife. Once the action was over, I decided to do my next favorite activity and play some poker. Boy, what a bad idea that was, I proceeded to drop 2.5 buyins in the course of about 3 hours. I stayed up much too late and played way too long and I paid the penalty for it! I can honestly say that I have never paid for sex, but it has for sure cost me plenty of money!

I've also found that I don't play well when I'm on a time crunch. Situations of "Oh, I've got an hour before I have to be at so & so" are just not the right time to play. I've found that I make hurried calls and take the razor thin edges that are better left unplayed.

I also don't prefer to play at LAG tables where everyone is floating and calling down light. I like to be at semi-educated tables where the players have read enough Skylansky material to fold much too often. I'm not a chronic bluffer, but I do prefer heads up pots against people that I can predict what they are going to do. When I am getting floated and called down w/ 2nd pair or worse, I just need to get up and find another table.

So, what I'm going to do is reiterate to all of my loyal blog readers what my guidelines are for being at my peak when I play cards. This is mostly for my benefit, but I'm going to share it w/ you guys just so that you can help keep me accountable.

1. Don't play when I'm tired, this includes after sex, when I'm short on sleep, and after a very stressful day at work.
2. Don't play when time is an issue. This includes when my wife is pestering me and when I have to be somewhere in a short period of time.
3. Don't play at wild tables. The discipline to get up from these tables should add at least 1BB/100 Hands to my bottom line.

For the month so far, I am up ~$200 online and haven't been back to the casino for some live action since my Biloxi debacle. I was up ~$500 online prior to Saturday night and also lost $170 on Monday afternoon during a time crunched session. Combined, I'm at ~($870) for the month, and would have been half way into that Biloxi loss if I would not have broken my first two rules.

Update as of 10pm, I picked up about $50 tonight in a 2 hour session. It's not much but it's another win!

LL79

3 Comments

Comments

EdmondDantes says

Good rules, except I'm ALWAYS short on sleep and a little stressed. Plus, with my nitty style, EVERY table looks wild. I'm not even gonna go there about my wife hunting me down... In any event, nice post. Glad to hear the bankroll's on the way back!

09/27/07

Mr_Taterhead says

SEXY TIME!!!!!!

09/30/07

afstuddmuffin says

i would have to agree with your rules
i feel that my agression factor is a lot higher when i'm stressed or
when im pressed for time.. i find myself calling and chasing more
taking a bigger risk than i should when im tired. The times that
i notice this the most would be playing a 2000 person + tournament
and 4 hours have gone by, its late, and im tired. a clear mind is definately
the best time to play! GOOD BLOG!

10/27/07

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