Monday, November 9, 2009

Comment response

"Yorkshire Pud said...
Can I ask why you seem to play $3/$6 when you are
rolled for $20/$40

Is it you don't feel ready to play even say $10/$20,
I'm just interested that's all "


There's a few reasons why i'm not playing higher but probably mainly because of the psychological effect of having even a minor downswing at those stakes.

If I were to lose say 100BBs at $10/20 then that's $2,000. If I could see it as just chips, that wouldn't be a problem, but at the moment, $2k is $2k to me. Let alone what would happen if I went on a 300BB downswing which I have done a few times at $1/2 on hugely fishy tables.

So say if I drop 300BBs at $20/$40, that's $12k or over half my roll. I suspect that would be crippling psychologically. And it is not really an 'if' but more a 'when'. Sure I could easily win 300BBs before that happens, but i'm absolutely certain that the 'high' that i'd get from winning that much would be nowhere near how far negative the 'low' would be if I lost that.

That being said, I was checking out a $8/16 table the other day, but it just wasn't quite fishy enough for my liking. If i'd jumped on then, that would be the largest stakes i've ever played.

I'm probably playing more $4/8 that I have been in the past now, but also probably more $1/2, mainly as i'm playing a lot on Bodog at the moment where there are never many tables running and their 6max tables are limited to $1/2 then $4/8 then $8/16.

I suspect i'll start playing more $5/10 in the near future though, and play a bit more on the larger networks which have more table availability to actually increase the chances of finding more fish.

I'm still not concerned with how quickly I rise through the stakes - I play for the fun of the competition as much as anything so as long as i'm enjoying the stakes i'm playing, i'm happy. (and winning doesn't hurt either ....)

4 comments:

The blindman said...

I had a 200BB downswing over a few hours last week. That was at 2/4 and 3/6, which was bad enough. I couldn't contemplate those sorts of swings at 10/20.

That said, I'm sure that the best opportunities are sometimes at the higher stakes. Some of the fishiest tables I have ever seen have been at the 5/10 Euro level.

Take shots when the conditions are right. With your excellent table and seat selection policies, you should be pretty fine.

TiocfaidhArLa said...

That kind of logic is the difference between winning and losing players.

Another reason for not moving up is that it would upset your straightline chart by going exponential. Nice work.

parttimebonuschaser said...

I suspect also the fact that my start at $4/8 was a 150BB downswing may have also slowed my rise through the stakes. (which I still haven't recovered from fully at that level - although I would be positive at $4/8 with rakeback).

It could easily be confidence shattering if you're not careful

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the response, much appreciated, I actually thought it would be something along those lines to be honest.

The Poker Mindset is a good book to read about mental side of poker.

Hopefully you get over it and start crushing the bigger games as you obviously know what you're doing!

Good luck