Overcoming Gambler's Mentality

I have been slightly consumed by poker thinking since I woke up. In the past when I was playing sngs, very profitably I might add, but I still had the issue of getting in enough table time to really start making some cash. In college, I would have bought a 12-pack, sat down, logged on, and played for days. Now, I just cannot do that and even if I had the time I dont know if I could. I am encouraged that I am finding the game much easier now and feel completely in control at the table. I think that will help encourage me to play more because I do not feel such a sense of, well, doubt. I know it is so important to log hands and generate a large sample in which to base any conclusions regarding profitability. It took me a long time to do that with sngs and I believe I just never turned the corner and had the confidence in myself to say, yes you are a winning player so continue to grind because the more tables you play, the more money you make.

I wrote about this previously, but I call this the gambler's mentality. I enjoy games of chance, mainly blackjack. However, I understand the house has an edge and over time I will loose all my money. So, when I run hot in poker, I get the urge to leave and take my money. While in poker, that urge to leave is counterproductive. If you are on a heater, you should stick it out. Either your play is very good, your luck is turning, or whatever it is stick with it! This is my next obstacle that I plan on addressing.

Recap:

1. I am a winning player
2. I need to log hands to generate enough hands to determine an approximate winrate
3. I need to log hands to build my bankroll and move up
4. I start by 2-tabling and add a third as I learn about my first two tables
5. I am developing a solid TAG style. I feel the aggressiveness of my style now more than ever. I am putting the other players in the positions that I hated when I was playing previously. I put in the raises against the OOP players and find how powerful it is making others make the tough decisions.
6. I need to learn to extract the maximum value on hands. I think that will be the subject of my next lesson - Extracting maximum value.

The next several months I will be logging as many hands as possible to determine my winrate. Keep on checking in. This is the start of my journey and I would like to share it with as many as possible. I started out with a lot of jumbled ideas that I needed help organizing. In one session I feel I went from a slightly losing player to a winning player. The fundamentals/foundation is the most important part of your game and I believe I am showing that with every post. Follow along and leave comments...I will be playing tonight, so stay tuned for updates.

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Update.

Just fired up 2 tables and getting situated.

I stacked myself...pushed too hard trying to make things happen...need to slow down.

What I am struggling with is how to balance aggression with maximizing the value of each hand. Seems when I bait them to play, they hit. However, when I bet my made hands they fold. So, it makes me want to bet more so they dont draw on me, but then I feel like I am not getting the most out of every hand. How frequent would you say stacking someone is?

I can see how poker is completely a game of playing the rushes. I was hitting nicely last night and tonight i felt like not enough action was coming my way...so I was trying to force things, but you have to fight that urge because the cards do come, you just have to wait and not dig too deep a hole while you do!

There was a 5 mins stretch where I was getting at least one playable hand on one of my tables, my small PPs were hitting sets, I was getting solid prospective hands folded to me in late position...it all comes together for a few mins and you must capitalize and recognize when it slows back down.

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I started 2-tabling tonight and tried to get a feel for my first 2 tables. I never got into the groove really as other things are weighing heavily on my mind lately. I used some pretty bad logic and figured I was trying to push things too hard and decided to fire up another table. That lead to quickly firing up 1 more. So, I was 4-tabling about half of my set tonight. I believe I started at 7:40ish and will be finished up here just around 10. I am anxious to see how many hands I logged tonight as well as my return. I think my heater came at just the right time and I was cooling off as I closed down my tables. Was fun to go from down about a buy in and a half to two buy ins to being positive on the night I believe. I am really regretting that decision I made to get involved with TPTK. I knew it was screaming fold, but I pushed too hard. It is taking me far too long to get someone to commit their stack when I have a monster...I need to make sure that when I do get a chance to stack someone that I am not just digging out of a hole I created for myself with a stupid play earlier!

I almost proved I didn't have what it takes to be a constant winner by playing to recklessly. I recognized it and settled into a comfort zone. For me, it will be a key to start my sessions in a more centered mindset as I do not have the ability to sit down and play my A game immediately. I also folded a speculative early in the SB and would have stacked 2 players had I called...That might have frustrated me a bit.

Regardless, here are the stats for tonight:

580 hands in about 2 hours, so 4-tabling was a nice way to boost my number of hands considerably. I won a little, but not much. My PTBB/100 dropped a little to 3.63BB/100, but I would have a much better return had I just listened to my gut.