By nath on December 3rd, 2007 (more posts by author)

November was not my best month in poker. Buoyed by my success at 1/2 and my desire to take it slow and play overrolled, I found myself, either consciously or not, slacking. Since I was sitting overrolled, and I had been winning, I made a fatal mental mistake: Assuming that just showing up would get me the money. It did not.

I wasn't bringing my A game, and my winrate was slipping noticeably. Once I realized this, I also realized something about myself: I [i]need[/i] to move up aggressively, because I have to keep challenging myself to stay engaged. If I play a game overrolled, I become less concerned with winning or losing, and I stop trying, assuming that if auto-pilot I'll make money. Realizing this was important and caused me to change my approach; I now intend to move up aggressively whenever possible.

I did take a couple shots at 2/4 HU and ran pretty badly at them. One of them was against the notorious mu_empire (well, notorious if you read BBV); an insanely aggressive player (who was playing like a total spewtard when I played him). Nothing like getting someone to stick in 200BB PF with K2s and T8s and JTo and losing.

The second guy I played was a super-passive player who just hit a hand every time. He won over 80% of our showdowns, and it didn't matter if he had top set or bottom pair, check/call, check/call, check/call was his line. He only raised when he had the stone nuts. And I almost never made hands worth value betting, and when I did, he either folded or called with a better hand.

So I went back to 1/2 for a while. I started finding HU draining to play consistently, so I mixed in some 6-max as well.

I feel like the HU experience made me a much better 6-max player, and I noticed immediately. With the added information of other players and position to consider, my hand reading skills were much more effective at being accurate, and, more importantly, I was taking the aggression to a new level. I had just started by the time the end of the month came on, and it was going fairly well.

Tournaments killed me in November, too. A 21st in the Stars 2nd chance and a 10th (final table bubble!) in the $11 rebuy weren't going to get it done. I only played a few tournaments, but tournaments can really cut into a cash bankroll. So I've been resolved to play them less, or find a good backing deal for me.

Anyway, I feel like I've been playing really well these last couple of weeks, like an element of fear that was in my play has gone. I've been much more aggressive than I was being, and the results are bearing it out.

Yesterday I took second place in the Stars $215 heads-up tournament. The loss was disappointing because I got in with 77 vs. 99 in a spot where I thought my push would fold out a lot of hands, but he had a bigger one. Well, it was still a cash for $7600, which is a nice payday all things considered.

I've also been on a bit of a hot streak at 2/4 6-max the last couple of days... it's amazing what a little game selection and dedication to your craft will do for you.

Anyway, November was a disappointment, but December is already off to a hot start. I'd like to keep it up, and the way I'm playing now, I expect good things to continue.