O-Poker

Play “YOUR” Game

(This post is in reference to cash games – I haven’t been playing many MTTs lately.)

Things have been clicking again. Why? I have been asking myself that question over and over. What am I doing now that I wasn’t doing during my bad run? There are a few things, but one stands out above the rest.

I am playing my game/style and not trying to play how I think others would play.

I am not sure why I was playing differently, but I was. I think that I was trying to play a style that was different from my normal style of play. I was risking too many chips unnecessarily. I was making too many “big calls” when I knew that I was beat. I was trying to push around/bluff calling stations.

You have to play “your” game. There is always room for improvement through poker books and poker schools, like cardrunners.com and pokerxfactor.com, but you shouldn’t make drastic changes. You can test different moves/plays that you learn from these books/sites and keep the ones that work best for you. There is no reason to try to play the exact style that works for others.

I think I got caught up in the Hyper Loose Aggressive Hype. The short handed no limit cash game style that works best for me is a heavily situational style somewhere between LAG and TAG (leaning more towards the TAG side). I pride myself in be able to adjust to the table, recognize betting patterns, induce bluffs, and make the correct size bets that will maximize profits. Instead of thinking through things, I got into the bully mode. There is nothing wrong with the bully mode at the appropriate times, but you have to know when to turn it off. I was having trouble finding the switch. I found myself getting pot committed with my draws and losing the 35%-50% situations a lot more often than winning them.

I will continue grinding at the 2/4 short handed NL level until the end of the month and see if thinks continue to go well. Hopefully, I will continue to play “my” game.