Making sense of it all....

The title really says it all. I mean, it's what I do for a living as upper management for corporate Bedrock. So it's time that I apply those skills to my poker play.

If you've hung around here for any length of time at all, you'll know that I treat my poker roll in two entirely different manners. One side is all business. I take that business very seriously and ALWAYS expect to maximize my profitability, at every opportunity. "Business," I'm very happy to report, is BOOOOOMING !

To me, succeeding in "business," is the only way I earn the right to have a little fun. You see, the other side of the bank roll is this fun and happy go lucky world of NLHE. Well at least, it's supposed to be fun! But as I've said over the last little bit, the bloody game is killing me right now. I honestly have never been so frustrated or disappointed in something I've ever attempted to learn before. What makes matters even worse for me, is that I really don't think I'm playing that bad. I mean, I can think of two brutal decisions that I've actually made in the game in the last three, or I guess it's four weeks now. TWO really bad decisions and trust me, I've played a fair bit of H.E. in that time!!!

One mistake I made was Monday night against Nutzy in the TuckFard Open. After he raised every hand for the first 5 or 6, I re-raised to protect my blind with pocket 10's. Once he called my 5x re-raise of his original 3x raise into me, I should've been able to put him on at least the overs. (and I did, but the wrong ones!) I literally made my mind up that he was over-playing big-slick. So when he bet out to the Queen high flop, I jammed the pot to force him into making a decision. His decision was easy, he was holding A-Q and couldn't believe, or didn't consider that I may have overs. I was behind for sure, but he was willing to gamble with TPTK, despite my aggression pre and post flop.

This is an example of what seems to be happening all too frequently for me. I looked at how that hand played out, and I realized that my play wasn't really terrible. I made someone make a choice and there was an insta-call. I mean INSTANTLY called! Never a thought to how the betting and or timing played out in the hand. So I went through my last 200 H.H.'s in NLHE, (where I was actually playing in the hands) just last night. There was an obvious pattern forming for a change and I think I figured out where the leak in my game really is! I'm trying to out play players that just will not understand the play as it's un-folding. I'm getting too cute with bets and timing, and not focusing on the fact that some players think TPTK is GOLD after the flop, despite any form of action or aggression ahead of their flopped pair. So I'm losing pots in situations like this, when I'm already behind. I'm losing to players when the cards matter, because they are incapable of recognizing the "play" involved.

For the other side of these hands, when the cards matter in my favour, I really can't do anything about it. Variance has it's grasp firmly around my throat, (and chip stack!) and when I'm ahead against that same TPTK caller that I now want, I'm losing to turn and river cards at an alarming rate. To give you an idea, I did a little HH homework on top of the last 200 hands I've played. I'm currently at a loss rate of 86% when ahead after the flop. I'm losing 86% of my races when ahead! This must be telling me something, but what? Am I getting into too many races? Am I committing too many chips at the wrong time? Am I playing the wrong players? Picking only those that are always willing to gambool. It geniunely seems like I'm losing to the same type of player to me. Totally content with TPTK and willing to shove any amount available to them into the pot, no matter how many times it's been raised and re-raised.

There's something in that data, some type of message that will get me back on the correct path to learning and success. Until I find out what it's really trying to tell me, I'll be sticking with the "business" side of all things pokery for now. Who knows? At the rate the STUD-Monkeys are paying me off as of late, maybe I should just put my full concentration on that for a while anyways? I mean, it's just good business really.

My sincerest thanks for dropping by....