Critical Self-Analysis

In a rare moment of openly critical self-evaluation, here are leaks and how I can improve my play. What are the causes of most of my losses and losing sessions?

Playing Tired --
On-line, I only play at night, after the kids are in bed. This is usually after 9:30 or 10:00. At this point in the evening, especially after a full day of work, I’m always tired to some degree. I should avoid playing on those nights when I’m really tired. I also have a tendency to play after midnight if the table is really good, or if I’m behind. I should set a mandatory quitting time at midnight and stick to it. If I’m ahead at the midnight hour is approaching, I should just stop and book a win.

For the rare live session, I only play on weekend evenings, and occasionally the Thursday night tournament at Ameristar. Since live sessions are such a rare event, I just play no matter how I’m feeling. To avoid being tired during these sessions, I should focus on getting some extra sleep in the few days before a live session. Maybe this means no on-live play in the night or two before a planned live session.

Play immediately after a bad beat --
This only applies to on-line play. Immediately after a bad beat, I am more prone to loosen up and ramp up my aggression. Its not really ‘tilt’, but it has some of the symptoms of tilting. For example, in my last on-line session, I took a beat with my QQ vs TT. After carefully coaxing his stack into the pot though action on all streets, villain spiked a ten on the river. A few hands later on another table, I overplayed J9 on a jack-high board, and villain called with KJ, beating me with a better kicker. On the river, he checked and I pushed (my remaining stack was about 60% of the pot size) -- my judgment was clouded and my only thought was that he missed a flush draw. I would not have built such a big pot with J9, and I would have checked behind on the river, if I had not just taken a bad beat. My punishment for this leak on this particular hand was nearly a full buy-in. Ouch.

Playing above my bankroll --
On-line, I still have the urge to play at the higher levels, since that’s closer to my play in live games. My July disaster as a result of playing above my on-line bankroll is well-documented in another post. I have to stay at the appropriate level until I build the bankroll back up, no matter how good I think I’m playing on any particular night.

Taking advantage of a problem --
One trend that I’ve noticed in my play is the psychological affect of the magic $1000 mark. If I have $700 in one particular account, for example, I play my very best poker in an effort to get that account up to $1000. This applies to tournaments, SNGs and cash games. Then when I get it up to $1200 or $1300, my play becomes more sloppy, because the next thousand-dollar increment, at $2000, is much farther away. To both combat this problem AND to take advantage of it, after I cross a $1000 increment, I should transfer funds to another site to keep that account a few hundred below the next $1000 mark. This way, I’m always striving to cross the $1000 threshold through better play, which is just within my reach. As I write this now, I realize how silly this is. But, its still true. I can take advantage by turning my problem into a game strategy.