About a week ago, in quick succession, I won 2 – $11 Sit and Go poker tournaments at pokerstars.com. I was feeling good. What a sap! Too much confidence is a bad thing.
I haven’t played all that much, but I haven’t won at all this week! Not once. As of this morning, our stake is below $100 – down $150 from where we started in August. Helaine has played too, but the bleeding is coming from me.
Any time you play a game of skill and luck, luck will win out from time-to-time. You go in with two high cards, catch two pair on the flop and still lose to some schmo who stayed and played 10-2 off suit and hit a flush on the river with the 2!
It happens. Even though I was beaten by a 10-2 off suit, I still want everyone with a 10-2 to play as much as they want. Over time it’s a loser.
Not all of my losses can be contributed to luck. I sense I have started to ‘slow play’ good hands a little too much – hoping to get more in the pot. The downside to slow play is often you give your opponent enough time to make a hand and beat you.
And I have let myself go into hands I shouldn’t have. My brain knows when in doubt, fold. My fingers don’t always follow. The value of discipline in poker is underrated.
These little, single table, tournaments aren’t won by winning as much as they’re won by not losing.