Back In The Driver's Seat

Even though I already have a full UK driver's license, it has been over 2 years since I last sat behind the steering wheel, which incidentally was when I actually passed. So I've had to don the L plates on whilst I'm driving, and getting used to navigate my way on the roads. I'm not afraid to admit that my current driving ability is poor, and that I need to improve. Also, the same could be said of my current poker ability.

Last post I talked about running breakeven on the tables, but I didn't go into much depth, besides mentioning the fact that left unchecked for an extended period of time, it can negatively affect your mindset. Infact, I'll dare go as far as saying that being longterm breakeven on the tables is actually costing you money, and the need for self realisation that you suck, and have huge leaks in your game.

The reasoning for this is actually, quite simple. When you're playing poker to win money, you choose to sit in games with weaker players, i.e. the fish. Thats because you're expected to be at a positive expectation (+ev) when you play against the fish, zero ev vs regs of a similar skill level, and -ev vs sharks. In most cases, even with 1 big fish and 2 sharks at the table, your overall expectation should still be positive. That's because the mistakes the fish is going to make vastly outweigh the mistakes that you'll make when you're in pots vs the sharks.

And lest we not forget, Poker is a game of decisions. Those who can make the best decisions and the least mistakes, will be the top winners. Everyone makes mistakes, even those regs like Nanonoko who crush the games, but the mistakes they make are usually small and big mistakes are infrequent. If you find yourself breakeven and you are a reasonable table selector, chances are you have making many mistakes and have big leaks, even when it comes down to exploiting the weakest of players for maximum value. Simply just sitting on a table with many fish isn't enough. You need to know how to exploit the mistakes that the fish will make in order to profit.

For the past week and a half, I've been working a tonne on my game, especially the basics. In the past, I've underestimated how important the foundations are to success later on, and this has hindered my progress thus so far. So I'm back to playing ABC poker, and learning the reasons behind the decisions we make on the tables. I've also dropped to playing far fewer tables for now (5-6) so I can focus more and implement my decision making process at the tables.

For so long I've been mass multi-tabling upto 24 tables on autopilot, without really consciously thinking about my decisions. The best decision I've made so far this year was that as of the end of last month, I no longer wanted to be a non-thinking mass multitabling breakeven rakeback monkey. Thus my poker journey begins (again)...