Wait, wut? These two statements contradict each other.

The reply was specifically about mixing it up out of the blinds post flop. There's really no need for doing things like raising J-10s UTG or stuff like that in my game.

LOL it's like, "...you gotta watch out for this guy, he only plays the nuts..." "You only play aces or kings?"...blah blah blah. I raise UTG and 6 people call.



I am having to seriously rethink whether I play a winning brand of poker...it's too bad I can't get automated hand histories of live play and I don't want to record a whole session and submit it here for approval, but after a couple hundred hours (out of an overall breakeven sample of north of 1000 hours) I can't imagine it's just variance. And yes, I get there's probably something to be said to breaking even in a $5 drop + $1 tip in a 6-12 game, but I'm also not in an environment where I'm collecting comps on time spent (served?) or anything either. Probably should get back into playing golf more

For reals? Holy crap, are there others in the game that tight? Sounds like a game I never want to play in.

Do you feel like you've had fun over that time? Do you feel like you've gotten better?

You guys are too advanced for me, what happened to ATC OTB AFAICS?

Quite the opposite on both counts, although I do tend to focus on the poor decisions.

Breaking even at poker sounds cheaper than golf.

Sounds like you should take a break, and look at some hands. You might decide **** poker and just make your break permanent, or realize that you had a lot more fun than you realized and return with renewed enthusiasm.

The average person is losing 1.5 BB/hr, so breaking even is above average.

At 1000 hours, 1 standard deviation is +/- 0.3 to 0.4 BB/hr. Scienticians usually ask for 2 SDs before something is considered significant.

Post some hands that confused you.

Talking Stick's 8-16 is usually a very action packed game and I say that being strictly a day game player bec of my situation. Besides the players showing hands that I wouldn't believe they've played if I hadn't seen it w/ my own eyes it seems that 6 players have a piece of the flop no matter what it is. I find that I don't need balancing plays. They don't care that I play TAG, they call pf w/ hands that, as I said, I wouldn't believe if I didn't see it for myself. Consequently, I don't have to do anything to make them think I've got a wider range pf bec they just don't care.

There are some good players that I'm respectful towards but the rest are just bad and bec of all of this I think that post-flop play is a much more important skill than pf, that's for sure.

A different kind of blog post from me today. Maybe a notch above low content. Don't be too harsh.

Anxiety: A New Mental Game Challenge

Someone else asked what the rake is. Is it something like $7 as a dead drop? $8? It is likely that one or two people at a given table could be favorites. People beat 4/8 with a $4 rake forever, so as long as the players are that bad, sure. My guess is that the game is too small for pros, and thus it is loose, full of bad players, and it is beatable. 1/2 a big bet per hour is pretty misery inducing, though -- if your real WR is that low, you're looking at big downswings from time to time... like 500BB.

I doubt there are many long term crushers in the game. Anyone who crushes just builds up buy-ins/a roll for 20/40. The 20 games are good there. Thus, you're not going to stick in a high rake game for long. Either A) the swongs will bust most people or B) the winners move up. Thus, you'll never really see a "meaningful sample" in these games. Some people will be good and run better and post about how 6/12 or 8/16 games can be beaten for 3BB/HR. Just realize there's a lot of survivor bias, because most people who ran a little worse than average just quit.

People who beat the 20 or the 40 would likely sit this game and tell you it is good for > 1BB/HR. It just depends on your skill relative to the competition, and that the table is loose/bad enough to overcome a dead drop. If this game plays tight, you can't win.

I'm sorry that you're having this problem, seems terrible. Nobody's going to be harsh. It reads like you're trying to be prepared and the only thing to say is to be sure that you're always prepared. I'd have every concoction that would conceivably be helpful in the passenger seat at all times. GL, hope things get better.

Yeah this is a tough one. One of my roommates in college was hypoglycemic and he had to be prepared 24/7. He actually bottomed out in his sleep one night (he had to get up in the middle of the night to supplement) and it scared the hell out of me.

GL with it, just stay prepared and you'll get through those new fears.

Drive an electric car and add Range Anxiety into the mix.

Can't ever be bad to re-evaluate your play constantly. But 25k-30k hands of limit holdem can def be variance. The large rake makes breaking even in that game somewhat of an accomplishment imo. I did not beat 4/8 live.

Like callip said, are you having fun? It sounds like you are even when you come looking for O8 pity itt lol

Traffic here is enough to give anyone anxiety, and a serious health condition just adds to that.

I have a few suggestions you may have already thought of:

Talk to your doctor, both to make sure you're managing your blood sugar as well as possible, and to see if they have any suggestions for tackling the anxiety.

Make sure you always, always, have sufficient foods on hand to stabilize you. Just resign yourself to being a "murse" user and put all your crap in there.

When you do hit the road (with all your supplies), try listening to podcasts to keep your mind off the situation. I commute in Seattle-area traffic every day and find that podcasts help so so much. If I don't have one to listen to, I'm often road raging in minutes. With podcasts, it doesn't bother me.

I am pretty much breaking even at 8-16 lifetime over 500ish hours but I have very good results at 20-40 over a much bigger sample. Escaping the rake trap was critical for me. I do think I could beat 8-16 now because I'm better than I was then. But if you can break even at 6-12 my guess is you could win money in most 20-40 lineups.

I'm not a doctor, but Reasonable Guy's suggestions seem super reasonable. DK, sorry that medical stuff is making you miserable. Hope you get to a place where it sucks less and then make progress from there.
Agree with this, as it is also super reasonable.

Without real evidence, I also believe that most people who "should" play smaller stakes rake trap games probably need luck to beat them and get out. Then, once you're a skilled 20/40 player, you could actually go back and beat them... but you'd never really bother. Most of us got lucky to just run hot and win higher. That, or we got lucky in the internet boom where beatable games existed top to bottom for a while.

If I had to give someone advice to get into the mid stakes, I'd steal from JonLocke and just tell people to liberally shot take the softer 20/40 games until they manage to run hot long enough to stick. Having the disposable income to have buyins at 4/8 and 8/16 (or 10/20 or whatever choice you have), seems like almost a necessity. Extreme game selection at the higher limit can really help, if it is possible. Also, be pretty willing to pass on a game that's uncomfortably big if you're not sure you're a winner. OTOH, if you can avoid hit and running 1 rack wins... Could you be 1 4 or 5 racker away from just being a reg?

That would not be true at Bay 101. The 6/12 has a lot of guys that were playing 3/6 within the last few years (I recognize them). They are still playing the same way, just at higher steaks. 20/40 people seem to be a lot more serious.

To be honest, one of the reasons my playlists are filled with ****ty music is for a long, contentious commute. Podcasts are things that you kind of have to pay attention to, and if they're serious then you have to deal with trying to understand how cholera is still a thing in the 21st century, while some ******* who drove in the breakdown lane to avoid traffic tries to merge back in to avoid the cops.

I find it so much easier to just put on teh Ke$ha and just accept up front that I am neither doing anything productive nor intellectually stimulating.

Different strokes, but for me, unless I'm really digging the music it doesn't keep me from getting frustrated.

What happens with the podcasts is that when there's a situation that demands more attention (merging *******s, etc.), I naturally give it to the driving, then focus back on the podcast. If I feel like I've missed out on the podcast I just hit the "back 10 seconds" button a couple times.

I think I may have found the ultimate BBB bet your hand scenario.

Typical 8/16 kill game, if not slightly more donktastic than normal. Kill on the button. Laggy ex-dealer guy raises UTG, unknown UTG +1 3! (it is 12/24 and he started the hand with about $80), I look down at KhKs next in and 4!, truly awful Persian guy cold calls l, button who is also terrible calls, BB calls, UTG caps, we all call.

Flop is QJThh and it checks to me (lol), I bet and everyone calls (one AI). Turn 6h I bet and everyone again calls. River 4s, I bet, Persian guy calls and everyone else folds. AI guy flashed me AhQs and the Persian guy I mucked.

Pretty sure I would have not bet the turn when I first started playing. Or maybe the river.