Shouldn't Have Bragged... or The Early March Downswing...
Posted by Unknown in report
Well, as good as February was, March starts very sorely... And it's always the same: I plunge, feel depressed and toy with simply quitting altogheter in a last, futile 'up-yours' to the poker gods (who can't give more than a rat's ass about a lousy micro-stakes grinder like yours truly).
Quick, painful graph from February 29th (curse this damn leap year :P):
I definitely have to keep that overconfident demon under leash. I remember my chess game being exactly the same; I'd work hard to patch some leaks and learn some new concepts, trying to reach a deeper understanding, saw my game improve, fell into a comfort zone, played very strong for a short while and then BAM! Overconfidence, cockness and basically self-enamored... Well, the same thing happens periodically in poker. And a couple of days ago, I kinda bragged a bit about my cash game play being pretty solid since that late-2007 downward spiral, while going 'yum-yum' about a certain type of players... Well, the poker gods DO NOT like it when players brag (I know I know, you're going to through Phil Hellmuth Jr. and his 11 bracelets at me as a counter-argument, to which I'll simply answer: "Hellmuth. /shrug". lol), especially wannabe players like yours truly... And then, the spiral starts, getting me to play scared after a couple of bad beats, and then very scared and with the least bit of confidence, doubting every single decisions. Which gets me to play very passively (never good) before I finally grasp what's happening and resort to playing my game... That would normally get me out of the funk, be it that I'd really resort to my game, and not yet another lousy loser variation on my game; mainly playing impatient, trying to steal more than my fair share of pots, hoping I can somehow impress other players by my play and/or bully them out of pots. I keep on avoiding passive/trapping play, get myself to be a very straightforward bull, and when I do get some kind of hand, I get married to it for all the marbles, totally oblivious to a golden rule of mine (in life, not only poker that is): never ever stop reassessing... And then, near the proverbial rock bottom, I wonder 'have I simply gotten lucky?!?!?' Lucky enough to crawl back from the felt?!? Might actually be... Oh well... to be continued...
