Sub-conscious Block

Hyzepher

I have been playing poker for about six months now. This have been six months of serious poker - not really the type you play with your family every now and again but the type where you play to win and winning is all that matters. Not in a fanatical way or conpulsive way but in a competitive way - and poker is a good competitive sport.

Initially I played online - the easy way to play. Deposit a few cents and off you go - mixing it with the more experienced. Then I started to mix it with other boards.ie people at the Fitzwilliam in town - a diiferent experieince but better fun. However, for me the two were never really running in parallel. The Fitz experience was always a frustration for me and I had numerous excuses to why I was always coming up short.

My online experiences have always been good and I can sit down for 2 or 3 hours and win $200 - $300 no problem - as long as I concentrated and didn't succumb to the boredom bug. In fact the other day i won $270 on one pot and didn't really see it as a huge success - just another pot. However, if I had won $270 in the Fitz I probably would be talking about it for days - i did the first time I won in the Fitz (€200).

But I was starting to get a negative mental obstacle about the Fitz. I just couldn't seem to get it together on any of the nights I was in there. It seemed to be 100 miles away from my modest success online. That was until I suddenly realised something.

Even the home games I play - either with Boards.ie guys or my own friends, I always tend to do well - 3 boards.ie games 2 firsts and a forth. Home games with my buddies just end up them trying to stop me winning for the nth time in a row. I am not trying to blow my own trumpet, just trying to get my head around why I cant seem to get the same success in the Fitz. Most of you know me and how I play - so I cant really confess to be the greatest poker player around - I hold my own and that's good enough for me at the moment. It is this block that is really bugging me.

During the weekend I was playing online poker - I had started to get bored with it but recently got a new lease of life about it - and suddently coped onto a potential problem. It seems that I play completely differently to my normal game in the Fitz. This came to light when I was playing a few hands that required some serious thought - a lot of thought in fact before I had to bet some semi-large amounts. Then I suddently remembered similar situations that I was in at the Fitz - then relaised that I had acted in completely different ways on both occasions - with completely different outcomes.

The funny thing about it is that as I began to think back to some of the times I was in the Fitz, I started to remember situations that I had done crazy things - completely out of character (for me anyway). Things like folding AT before the flop, not betting out an open ended straight or 4 flush draw. In fact in 1 or 2 occasions I actually folded an oopen ended straight draw before the turn card.

I needed to know why I was doing these things and more importantly why they seemed to be the right thing to do at the time - why was I believing myself? The fact of the matter is that when playing online or with your 'mates' you are automatically confident. In the Fitz I realised that I react to all the other players as if they are seasoned Pros - whether I know them or not. This restricts my own game as I am awarding them too much respect and end up playing the image rather than my own cards and game.

Now I dont claim to be able to go out and place in the money on all the tournies I play but I feel that I have overcome what has become a serious frustration for me. I love my poker, I love the live play in the Fitz but I was beginning to hate going in and playing - another night of failure or near misses and it all seemed like a never ending pattern. I feel that I will need to play some more to try and get my head back into shape and one or two 'right' plays in the Fitz may give me some confidence.

Of course this might all be crap and I am just ****e at poker

Hyzepher

DeVore

Been there, have the t-shirt. Remember just before the end of the business league?? I got the head staggers cos I'd been beat badly a few times. After that I couldnt bet because I felt like a rabbit in the headlights, I knew what I had to do but I couldnt do it. I started throwing away things I should have called on or playing low suited connectors (which I rarely/ever do).

I know what you mean about giving someone too much respect. I also think you have been playing too much of the crap games in the Fitz where you cant tell what the fnck is going on. I dont think any of us should be sticking 100 notes down regularly to play with the sharks that are quite definitely there but I think you will find the 20-in game more like the home games.

My confidence went for a walkabouts but I sat down at that table for the business league absolutely determined that I was going to win. I made sure everyone knew who I was playing for and played a lot more arrogantly then I normally would. I bullied, stole, balls-out bluffed and trapped like a total cnut. I loved it... best nights poker I have ever played. You just need one of those nights.

For what its worth, I've only played against you a few times but I'd rank you in the top 5 players here. Just realise that its the head-staggers and suck it up and play like you know you can.

DeV.

gerire

I too have been thinking a lot about both myself playing and others around me. Boards players in particular. Ive only really being playing for 4 months or so and it was only yesterday, when somebody else said it to me, that I actually realised Im not the worst player out there.
Won a 250 ticket in January and placed 5th, That was a fantastic result Im still chuffed with it. Got a win from the business league but was not even remotely happy with my own play during the league and put it down to trying to be over confident and bullying the table. Won a 100 ticket, miracously, in the Merrion and finished 6th just out of the money. And all through this time was getting really frustrated with the Thursday free games as they were killing my confidence. Went in the last 2 sundays for the WSOP games and both occasions got to the final table. Came 7th r so in the 1st game and missed out on the ticket by one place in the other. But then went on to play the €20 game and finished 3rd. So Im just going to stick to the stats from now on.

Thursday freebie: Played 5. Tickets won 1. Cost 80
Monday freebie: Played 1. Ticket won 1. Cost 0
Sunday freebie: Played 2. 7th and 4th. Cost 40. Won 80 credits.
€250. Played 1. Finished 5th Won €800 << Dam you davey devil
€100 Merrion. Played 1. Finished 7th. Won 0
€20 Fitz. Played 1. Cost €40 credits. Finished 3rd Won €300.

So Im up and as long as it stays that way Im happy. I hope its a while before I hit my slump again because Im happy now. There is nothing worse than sitting at a table and not knowing if your hand is good let alone what everybody else has. But these are the poker conundrums.
IMO the internet is the best way for cheap practice. But it is very different and much harder in real life.

Lafortezza

IMO Thursdays at the Fitz isn't poker. You can't judge how good you are by the people you play against and especially by the standard of poker that's played. Its a lottery pure and simple.
You'll see players who have barely played the game before (no offence to anyone!) who see every flop and hit cards left right and centre. They build a big stack while you sit there raising with your AK and hitting nothing on the flop and have to chuck it.
You make calculated draws to flushes and straights after the flop, you don't hit, the next guy hits a 2-outer and you curse the poker gods.

If you're winning money online, and you're holding your own against your peers and mates in home games then you're a decent player. Better than decent if you happen to make a bit of money out of playing.

The Fitz on thursdays is far too much of a lottery pre-freezeout. Once the freezeout starts the blinds rise very quickly so if you're even slightly short-stacked the only bet/raise you make is "All-in"...

Iago

I had a similar problem, most of the home games I play with my mates are very like Thursday night before the freezeout, no matter what you throw in somebody will call you.

I manage to make that work to my advantage in the home games because I know their games well and can usually predict what they're holding. In the fitz I noticed that I wasn't doing the same thing, instead I was falling into the whole giving too much respect region and it wasn't doing me any good. I'm still adapting my game to get around that, but I find myself chucking hands and then playing an argument out in my head for a couple of hands afterwards.

I need to get rid of that as it's proving to be very expensive, I'm essentially dead for 2-3 hands..