Even Steven...

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I was thinking about the old Seinfeld episode where Jerry discusses his life, of always ending up even. "I lost 20 bucks and I find 20 on the street, I lost a gig and I get another one paying exact same money, play poker and every time, just end up about Even" ...

It has begun to ring true, most especially in my online play and I'm starting to analyze why and it is the most fundamental of problems, namely:

I loose call with inferior hands when there is a strong probability I'm beaten - usually in NLHE games, a set over my top pair or better draws vs. mid pair, etc. - and I underbet my winning hands...

No big mystery there. This is the battle cry of the middling player, who knows this already. So, why do we continue to do it?

It's particularly a bad play in No Limit, but equally bad in Limit to give back your winnings or chase a bad session calling down with a less than premium hand; and even more so, not jamming the premium or ultra winners or even superior draws to compensate for the suckouts and near misses.

It's something I am focusing on in my online play and I would strongly suggest if you are falling into the Even Steven (read: NON PROFITABLE) play, you do the same.

Until next time,

P.O.

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Losing my Addiction?

A long and arduous one, this poker journey. My addiction has taken me to far flung places I never would have thought of visiting. I've chased home and card room games in Indiana, California and a really scary one with a very large Indian guy (think the Hikawi's in F-Troop) barring the door in Northern Ontario just north of Toronto. I've played in card rooms all over the place, with a personal favorite in Montana at a bar with elk grazing out the back window just south of Big Sky. I've pulled off major highways, blowing off meetings, so I can get to a Wi-Fi Hot Spot in the parking lot of a Best Western or in the lobby of a Marriott under the wary eye of the manager, to play in a satellite or big MTT.

It's a grand social experiment, and like many, as you are investigating the people who play this game, it turns introspective when you realize the really twisted, dysfunctional one may be Y-O-U.

But then, you get final table in a big MTT at the casino and the doubts and misgivings give way to elation and feelings of mastery.

And, of course this is short lived as you get stuck and steamed and old lady TILT hits you upside the head and off you go.