2008, to date

New to LiquidPoker? Register here for free!

Forum Index > Poker Blogs

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 04:15. Posts 1049

2008 has been a rough poker year for me. The first few months I ran very badly at both 2/4 and 3/6, somewhere in the area of $30,000 below expectation. The psychological ramifications of this run combined with the increased difficulty of games on Stars led to a pretty sizable loss of confidence in my poker game. Playing poker without confidence is a pretty ugly thing, and certainly helped to ensure that I continued to win at a pretty lackluster rate.

As I've written in previous blogs, I also saw my interest in the game continue to wane. Poker felt like a grind, I didn't enjoy thinking about the game away from the table [or even at the table!], and the emotional swings were beginning to wear on me. Given that poker is my only source of income [and that I had made a number of important decisions under the assumption that I would continue to earn $$ at a steady rate over the next few years through poker] this was a pretty miserable state of affairs.

The past few weeks have been better. For whatever reason, I'm finding myself willing and somewhat interested in continuing to learn and improve as a player. I've watched somewhere between 15-20 mid-stakes videos during this timeframe [most notably the 'Movin' on Up' series by FoxwoodsFiend, a couple 6-max videos by MYNAMEIZGREG and a pair of videos by Raptor.] I'm thinking about situations much more clearly, hand reading better, and generally just making more solid decisions [all very vague, I know.]

My goal over the next few months is to once again make 3/6 6-max on Stars my regular game. This is where I spent the vast majority of my time playing during 2007, and there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to continue beating the game at a solid clip in 2008. The games are getting tougher, yes, but I have an extraordinary amount of faith in my ability to adjust and thrive.

Had a good session earlier tonight, also sat at a couple of "50% Liquidpoker" tables with JohnnyCosmo and Adam001 some portion of the time.

I'll continue playing a mixture of 2/4 and 3/6, playing more and more 3/6 as I feel myself comfortably able to combat the majority of the regulars there.

0 votes

Last edit: 24/04/2008 18:19

adam001 Canada. Apr 24 2008 05:52. Posts 289

nice, what did u have when i made it 120 twice in a row and u 3b twice in a row =P. thought for sure ud give 2nd time inf credit

HOLLA

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 05:59. Posts 1049

2nd time I had something I was willing to felt.

MARSHALL28 United States. Apr 24 2008 06:30. Posts 1897

it soudns like u and i have had similar scenarios ... of course mine being much more related to stupid decisions regarding money, but i can definitely relate to the confidence issue as well as the psychological ramifications of a downswing which I've talked about endlessly in my own blog.

regardless, looks like things are going better and i hope that continues for u, i remember reading something you wrote and thinking you were a real smart dude.

Trey United States. Apr 24 2008 07:04. Posts 5616

sick, how many tables do u generally play? keep up the good work, you play really well from the time we've played together.

TianYuan This user is a quality poster

Korea (South). Apr 24 2008 07:04. Posts 6817

How good do you think Deucescracked (I assume that's where the Foxwoodsfiend vids are from) is? Compared to CR or Leggo.

Nice to hear things are turning around =]

Hm.. Off-suite socks..

Yugless

United States. Apr 24 2008 07:18. Posts 7174

i ran like poop at the end of last year and have hardly touched 3/6 this whole year. i should probably venture back but it seems like every table is all regs, 3/6 is like the new 5/10 (for FR anyway) .

Baal - look is talking hah.

CamilaPunt Brasil. Apr 24 2008 07:27. Posts 2422

gooo pillars u can do it

nolan Ireland. Apr 24 2008 09:24. Posts 6205

FWF vids = at DC?

And Marshall, you're not even comparable to Pillars situation stop talking stupid.

On September 08 2008 10:07 Baal wrote: my head is a gyroscope, your argument is invalid

Trey United States. Apr 24 2008 16:39. Posts 5616

On April 24 2008 08:24 nolan wrote:
FWF vids = at DC?

And Marshall, you're not even comparable to Pillars situation stop talking stupid.

ya they are

and lol @ marshall

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 18:23. Posts 1049

On April 24 2008 06:04 Trey wrote:
sick, how many tables do u generally play? keep up the good work, you play really well from the time we've played together.

Thanks Trey. I generally play 10-12 tables. I've considered cutting down a bit, especially when I play 3/6.

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 18:29. Posts 1049

On April 24 2008 06:04 TianYuan wrote:
How good do you think Deucescracked (I assume that's where the Foxwoodsfiend vids are from) is? Compared to CR or Leggo.

Nice to hear things are turning around =]

I've basically *only* watched the last four videos of the 'Movin' On Up' series so far. There are just a wealth of videos on that site, though, and I really like their formats. Most of the videos are part of an ongoing 'series' which focus on a particular aspect of poker [either a certain stake, or a certain game type, or a certain concept, etc.] I haven't watched enough other videos from DeucesCracked to make any kind of reasonable comparison to CR or Leggo, though. I have a yearly subscription to all three of those sites [plus Stoxpoker] and I feel like it's a no-brainer investment for someone playing 2/4 NL and above [assuming you're willing to put in the time to watch and consider the information the sites provide.]

Once I get a bit more experience with DeucesCracked I can send you a PM about the overall level of quality.

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 18:35. Posts 1049

On April 24 2008 06:18 Yugless wrote:
i ran like poop at the end of last year and have hardly touched 3/6 this whole year. i should probably venture back but it seems like every table is all regs, 3/6 is like the new 5/10 (for FR anyway) .

Yeah, I actually played a decent amount of FR in 2007 as well [and had a better BB/100, though a worse BB/hour rate there.] This year I'm mostly playing 6-max, so I can't speak much to the level of competition at full-ring. It's not surprising that games are getting tougher across all variants, though. The poker boom is still young enough that many regulars have yet to hit their skill ceilings + recent increase in access to quality poker strategy [CR, Leggo, DC, Stox] + UIGEA [and the subsequent decrease in 'fresh fish'] = IT'S HARDER TO MAKE THE MONIES.

Last edit: 24/04/2008 18:45

Pillars United States. Apr 24 2008 18:47. Posts 1049

On April 24 2008 05:30 MARSHALL28 wrote:
it soudns like u and i have had similar scenarios ... of course mine being much more related to stupid decisions regarding money, but i can definitely relate to the confidence issue as well as the psychological ramifications of a downswing which I've talked about endlessly in my own blog.

regardless, looks like things are going better and i hope that continues for u, i remember reading something you wrote and thinking you were a real smart dude.

I haven't read too much about your situation, so I can't really speak towards the similarities.

The effects of a downswing can be very brutal though, yes. Loss of confidence + lowered threshold for dealing with bad beats + reverting to sub-optimal play [becoming overly weak-tight, or maniacally loose-aggressive.] Not to mention the impact on your overall quality of life [and the effect *this* has on your psychological health and ability to play your A game.]