pokerJAH;290631 wrotekind of a bump....after my 2/5 session last night, I was starting to think part of my game I need to improve on is my expectation from each given session. I think most players win a certain amount on some nights, and then their expectation is to get back to this profit range with every session. So if you play 2/5 and you have had numerious sessions where you are winning $700-$1,000 (after say 4-5 hours), when you don't reach this milestone, you start to play looser to try and reach this point. This is more where you are up say $200-$300 and its within reach to make this amount. You need to be satisfied with a $200-$300 profit for a 4-5 hour session as this is still a decent winrate for the hours you have played. I think I do this way too much and it probably accounts for why I have a lot of breakeven sessions. Since I don't mind burning off that last couple hundred on the expectation I might have a big night.
Anyone else notice they do this?
I used to have this attitude years ago, but haven't for a long time. Having a good/great long-term winrate means that you realize:
1. That winning sessions are easy when you have the cards but you always have to go over whether you maximized your profits (bet sizing is a big thing to work on for most players),
2. Sometimes a small win is all you can get in a session due to a number of factors: cards, toughness of a table, bad beats, etc. It may feel like you just wasted 5 hours to make only $100, but that is part of the variance that contributes to your overall winrate.
3. Losing sessions happen due to the factors in 2. It is much easier to lose a large amount in a short period of time than to win that same amount. If the table is tough or your table image is not appropriate to how you want to play or if you are tired, etc. then accept your current loss and come back another day.
4. Once you realize 1-3 and you have played enough hours to establish a winrate then you realize that playing poker is like going to work from a financial perspective. If you put in 10 hours you expect $500 profit (if you are winning $50/h long-term) and will get that over the long run. As long as you are playing very well and are a winning player then the small ups and downs (losing $800 in a session or winning $800 in a session) don't affect you...put in the time and you will profit.
When I play cash I expect to win every time and I do profit in most sessions. However, the thing that has really made me the most profitable player I can be is never tilting/leaving when I feel tired and like I could tilt (what you describe is a form of tilt) and taking pride in my losing or break-even sessions where I can't find spots where I could have made more money but can find spots where I could have easily lost more money. Minimizing your losses, or in your case keeping small wins, by avoiding tilt is what separates small winners or losers from those players with a decent winrate.
