Breathe - P

Hey,

Last entry blog marrage asked me:

(D)on t you think it s better to stop playing after you won a big pot for 5 or ten hands(except premiums hands) ? or you think that all the hands are independent? … (W)hen I play I try to stop for a little time when I win a big pot for trying to don t loose the money I take time to earn, with a cooler that can happens just after. If the cooler happens in another moment that's the game that's poker!
I think it's the better choice to avoid tilt for me and my game !And the disciplinary is the most important for me and I lost a lot of money in the past because I did not respect my goal(time,max money ..)

I am not affraid to loose a big pot because that s the game my poor Lucette!

First I have to remark that what I’ve wrote is more a way of thinking than a real response to your question. I’m not an expert on the game, but I like to share with you my approach to poker…

There are a lot of aspects of this game that are related to your question, so I’ll try to stay simple. You shouldn’t change the way you are playing just because you won a big pot and you don’t want to loose that money.

Most of the time if you are playing SSNL, you don’t have to mix your game a lot because players have little conscience about others game. They know what table image is but they hardly change their game against a particular player because he is too tight or too loose. On SSNL players play the way the know how to play and they usually keep it that way. So if you change a winning aggressive game you are just loosing the money you were winning with your original strategy.

That being said that doesn’t mean you couldn’t change your game for other reasons. One may be that table image is acknowledged by some of your opponents i.e your strategy on a table is to go maniac style, raising and 3 betting a lot in position. Then you see that people start not to believe your raises anymore (some table image reaction should be possible). Well, then you can adapt your game, to a little more tight style, which often gets paid ^^.
Another example is when you are trying to balance your aggression, trying not to be spotted as a maniac. i.e. you see a guy that limps a lot, but you are afraid of others limper that like to follow him, well once you try a squeeze, once you fold, once you might limp (ok this I don t recommend lol)

All this changes on strategy are mostly related to metagame, and should not be taken for granted. You have to know why you change your style and why you should keep playing the way you do. Winning a big pot shouldn’t be a reason for you to change your style, but of course it could lead to new settings on the table (i.e. deep stacks, short stacks, tilt, ego, etc.) and that may be the real reason for you to change your style.


GOALS- Poker is an ocean of possibilities; you can play the same table with same players and stacks one day, and still play different the next one. Metagame could lead you to change your game and still not necessarily made you a worst player. In fact the idea behind changing your style is to winning the more you can on a given situation. That being said you have to keep on mind what your goals are, and stick to them. Whatever your target (and strategy) on the session is, you should stick to it. I really think that regular winners follow their own rules dictated by experience. The only reason not to follow this rule is when you are EXTRA motivated. And still you have to be very careful.

TILT- As you said, after winning a big pot, you avoid going on tilt, playing only premiums. Ok now we are going to talk about tilt. We all know that it is a dangerous part of the game, and if you go on tilt easily, then you do the right thing avoiding those situations in a short term. But the truth is that you have to learn to accept variance on the game, and the only way to do that is playing the most you can. Experience is IMO a great medicine against tilt, so you got to little by little try to avoid less those tilt situations until you are comfortable enough to play on any circumstances.