After a week off, did my poker game suffer?
I played poker online at Pokerstars for the first time in a week last night. My game didn’t seem to suffer, I actually played well and even handled a couple of big losses quite well. I lost to 4 jacks when I was holding a full house, the second time I’ve lost to 4 of a kind in the last two sessions, a trend I hope doesn’t continue. I also joined a table at one point that some of the previous players started chatting about a bot being at the table. The player they said was a bot never responded and very shortly after left the table. Hmm…I saw the supposed bot win a big hand just before it exited too. I hear about poker bots, I just figure a huge site like Pokerstars would have the means to eliminate them? God knows they have the money to spend on eradicating bots. Anyway, back to talking about poker…
I sometimes wonder, should I quit while I’m ahead (up a decent chunk of money that is)? I mean it never seems to fail, as cyclic as poker is, that after an upswing you can expect a downswing soon. That happened to me last night. After about 20 minutes of play I started getting some cards, 30 minutes in I’ve now won a few big pots and all of my tables are up a good chunk of money. Next thing you know, my full houses are losing to 4 of a kind, my two pairs are losing to 3 of a kind. As if everyone could see the downswing happening, donking into me seemed to be a favorite past time all of a sudden. I hung around just long enough to feel myself approaching tilt mode, which I have been doing so well avoiding for a long time. This is when I knew I should exit, before my emotions started dictating play. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I exited at basically the exact time I had lost all the money I had won in the first 30 minutes. So I wonder, after being up maybe a couple buy-ins in about 30 minutes, should I have quit while I was ahead? In the past I usually would, I’m happy to get some time in at the tables and then go be a productive member of society again. So maybe my game did suffer? After not playing for a week, I wanted to play for a while!
Current Bankroll: $63.18 Started with: $2.00
May 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
The cycle is only in you mind. If you draw a trend line, it changes based on the number of hands you include in the sample. But there is only the hand you are playing, that is the only hand you should be concerned with. If you are thinking about the results of your session and it makes you change your play, then you are not playing your A game. Then you are more likely to have a downswing. But while it followed an upswing, it was not caused by it. Remember a cash game is one lifetime session.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:26 am
It’s like if you win a coin toss 5 times in a row by calling heads. What are the chances it will come up tails on the 6th time? 72%!!. Just kidding…still 50%.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:38 am
My post is kind of tongue-in-cheek. I don’t really believe an upswing has to be followed by a downswing, it just sometimes feels that way. I don’t usually have a lot of time to play, so my exiting after playing well for a while is usually dictated by that. Being results oriented was once my biggest crutch, but not so much these days.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
My bad. I’m so serious sometimes.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Well when you’re reading it, there is no way to know it is kind of tongue-in-cheek.