Played a live session for the first time in 2.5yrs. Was at fallsview casino in niagara, 2/5nl.

I found I was not able to keep up with the action. Felt like everything went over my head when playing. Barely figured out what people were doing. Only noticed one mark at the table but couldn't figure out how out what strategy was best to take advantage of him. I used to play regularly enough before 3-5 sessions a month and used to be able to carry myself. Admittedly this was in Ireland and not niagara so maybe to style of play was significantly different but always followed the play.

Anyone got some recent first hand experience in relation to this. Does it take x amount of sessions to get back into the flow or has the game changed a bit or am I gone backwards a lot. Played mtts online with some ok success but never a crusher.

Funny thing is that I was waiting for almost two hours and watching some of the play from the rails I was calling hands correctly in my head, i.e if people were strong or weak etc with giving them hand ranges.

Feel like when I sat at the table my focus polarised on my hands and I didn't follow the flow at all or maybe when my money was on the table I was scared money or had a bias. Admittedly the 2/5 is bigger than my usual but with transport etc only the fallsview is a viable option + IMO 2/5 is the smallest game they offer so it has to be almost as fishy as a normal 1/2 game??

Thinking next time I might just focus on 1-3 players and with time expand it to the whole table. Does this make sense or should I just continue as normal and wait for the rust to wear off?

Don't know maybe you runned bad. But I don't understand: did you beat the live game long term proofed? Maybe you are in the wrong flow and playing too much hAnds. It took a me about 100 hours to understand how the card flow is( in term of folding). If you didn't spot a fish than it's pretty likely you are the fish. Change table

2/5 has gotten a lot tougher in the past 3 years or so.

It might pay off in the first few sessions you play coming back to either find tough 1/2 or 1/3 games or focus on weaker 2/5 games.

I personally stumbled into a very tough 1/2 game the other day and had to recoup for a few days from running bad and then being outplayed. I was a little surprised how tough and cumulative the tough decisions ended up being. even at a rare game at these stakes.