Some good advice in this thread, and also good reminders to not let the short term swings affect your play. Ego plays a massive role in getting in the way of making sound decisions.

Other than maybe the occasional play based on a tight image just stay tight and play through it. Any major change in your play your should already be doing wo the dry run

It’s definitely a bad look to fold too much.. I think it depends on the table tbh most people at low stakes don’t notice.

If you are at a gambly table the adjustment is to just play a lot more IP with speculative stuff

I would say that’s definitely a good example of an ego problem (in a different way though). If someone plays a straightforward, nitty style, and that’s the best they can do, then why are they playing in a high stakes game? That sounds like a player that should be playing lower.

That sounds like more of a being a nit problem than an image problem.

I should have explained this better but I was looking at it in a different way. Some people want opponents to be impressed with them. Obviously, people aren’t impressed by a nit. I suspect some players do get tempted to make bad plays because they want to lose the nit image, have their opponents get a better opinion of them, and be part of the crowd.


If you can play more of those marginal hands well then it’s not going to bother you as much if you happen to be card dead and think you look too nitty. You know you’re not the nit that people might think you are, so your opponents opinion of you would be wrong (if they even pay attention).

the #1 reason most wanna be pro's wash out

we always make small adjustments to our game based on several factors, IE: table image, V's tendencies, stack sizes position, etc......
but playing junk because we are card dead shouldn't be one of them.

try conversing about the local sports or play-offs it makes time fly by

I played last night at the local casino for 7+ hours. My VPIP had to be below 20% so I was playing tight. The best pre-flop holdings I had were QQ and I got it in good against A/K off and he hit his case A on the flop and rivered another A just for kicks. This has been the story for most of the year for me. I've been playing poker for over 20 years, and I would say that I have a decent understanding of the game. I host a home game of he mixed variety etc. I had a very profitable session two weeks ago walking out of the Casino with $1,400.00. I've read and watched numerous pro's takes on positional attack and tightened ranges in these low 1/3$ stakes games, but man, do I just grab my chips and go if I've been sitting for hours and J9 suited starts to look like AK suited? These "card deserts" are killer and have been the status quo for me most of this year. I know that down swings can last a while but after last weeks profitable win I thought I had gotten out of the woods for a little while. Nope, it was all a MIRAAAAAAGE! Advice is appreciated and very much welcomed!

I hate to say this, but you don't have a decent understanding of the game, or at least the role that variance plays. Good players can go through downswings despite playing decently, and bad players sometimes leave sessions as a large winner.

In addition, being card dead for maybe 3 hours is literally less than 100 hands. It's hard to give advice about how to handle these periods, since it's difficult to suggest strategies to fight impulsivity and possible immaturity.

There's great advice on how to, in this now-2 years old thread. Lot of users I miss reading here, tbh. But things like, take the time to concentrate and build up your mental map of the other players. Their ranges, aggression, stickiness, pre and post. Can they make a large bet with total air, and does that bet make sense anyway with their perceived range? Or do they need to actually have some value? Etc.

Or watch the game on TV, and be sociable. Everyone usually likes Sociable Guy vs having to deal with Hoodie/Air Pods/Sunglasses mad they can't grind multitable online as much as they used to.

Oops, and AF is totally right about variance too. 100 hands is a laughable sample. But, if it's the best info we have...

I think you're mixing together two of my points. I mentioned the 100 hands not in regards to sampling about his skills/profits, but about how being card dead for 3 hours is an occasional, expected occurrence precisely because of variance.

I like to threaten the dealer with a gun

I know this is a couple of years old, but there's an important point in here - a weakness for me and probably many others. When card dead and I wake up with a big hand I can often feel a sense of entitlement to the pot - so it can be more of a struggle to lay down a big hand postflop (and it can be tempting to barrel at will when you don't flop your AK or whatever).

I don't start playing trash hands when card dead, but I'm very happy turning my 50% hands into 100% hands or whatever, just to keep busy and engaged. Probably going to be getting involved with more offsuit Broadways, suited connectors and so on. Probably trying to keep my VPIP (per hour or so) roughly consistent no matter what hands I get dealt. But that's just to keep the enjoyment aand keep me sharp and maybe be a little bit Banana-experimental.

Fold!

Well, it's a small sample for evaluating all of those traits, as I think you've pointed out in a few threads. We really can't say on a first impression of 100 hands, whether an opponent is truly an OMC, Laggy Reg, Tagfish, etc...though we will have some data for making some determination about their deviation from a "typical" LLNLHE player. How much faith to put in that determination...is another question. As many threads here show. "I would never have expected X from that player type. Wow." Is common from me, reading a lot of these.

Nor can we evaluate without a great deal of difficulty, whether a dip in our win rate over that short a period is due to variance or indications of one or another leak developing in our game.

I thought the strats in the thread were useful for helping keep us enthused and engaged with what was going on.

Stick to the plan. Tight is the way where I play.

I'm not sure which game you are asking about. I don't know PLO5, but I'm guessing I don't change my range much when card dead (harder to bluff, maybe when the nuts win more often?)

In Holdem, I will change my range every hand depending on the opponent. Most opponents will tell me when to bluff, and when not to.

Does it work?

I find it tough. Sometime I will play a game looking around trying to see if I can guess the action of someone based on body language, or predict what someone will show up with and score, because otherwise I bring out my phone.

As for playing off the image, yeah it's tempting, but at low stakes a lot of people aren't paying attention (or don't make adjustments) to the fact you've folded 30 hands in a row (there's a reason those OMCs on Social Security can still make money on the AA/KK they wait around all day to play). If you do want to play a liitle looser, than at least spend some time working out who is actually making adjustments to the players.

You need to go in with the right mindset. If you head to the room with your head filled with big splashey pots you wpn't play well.

In the NFL, they call it taking what the play gives you. Treat poker the same.

Not anymore with all these woke floor managers

Nothing wrong with changing seats or tables, if either is an option. It may not help, but it can't hurt, aside from having to sit in a new game and start developing opponent reads from scratch again.

Someone mentioned entitlement tilt when dealt a premium hand. It's real. I've found that letting myself get involved occasionally with a more speculative hand helps dissipate the frustration of folding every hand for multiple orbits, if not hours, which leads to getting married to that big PP and going broke with it.

Playing, or even better, winning the occasional pot, even a small one, with a sketchy hand can make it easier to stick to the basic strat of playing a tighter range.

There's you get a whole boatload of Q2off preflop type of card dead and the worst kind the flop whiffs your hand and smashes opponents range over and over again. That's the more dangerous kind getting in trouble deviating from good play.

The first kind I have no problems just keep folding and watching as somebody said hockey on TV. The second you really have to control your emotions and play smart in the moment.