Tonight would have been a great night to get some cards. I had bet happy players on all of my tables gunning for me. Bad thing was, I couldn't catch a hand. The times I did have a hand the action would die and everyone would fold. I may have been playing a little too tight. My VPIP on the tables was between 10 to 14. It didn't stop the one guy that cracked my Aces with a rivered 3 of a kind. Or the guy that landed his straight on the river against my trip 9's.
It could have been worse. After 1050 hands I was down 5.77. I was down 9.63 at one time.
I saw all that action and I wanted to get involved. Most of the time I was patient and was waiting for a hand, but there were a few times that I called a raise with a mid pocket pair only to be squeezed out of the pot by a pot sized 3 bet. That actually happened quite a few times tonight, costing me quite a bit.
I guess after 5 good days I was due for a bad day. Now it's time for my end of the month heater!
Too tight??? I would definitely differ with that, but let me give you something to think about coming from my Poker Tracker actually my opponents that I play and see the most.
ReplyDeleteI have now played just under 12,000 hands at $4NL on this 100k Hand Test database. Out of all the players I see at the tables there are 22 of them that I have 400 or more hands played against. Out of those 22 players only 7 of them have VPIPs of 17% or lower. Every single one of those 7 show a profit.
That leaves 15 players that have VPIPs of 18% and higher. 9 of those 15 players show losses. Those losses average ($7.24) that's nearly 2 buy-ins down for each of them.
Take my own experience as an example. I lost in the neighborhood of say $40 or so at $4NL and it was when my VPIP was running around 17 or 18%. Then on March 21st I started this 100,000 Hand 6 Max Test and in just under 12,000 hands I am showing profits of nearly $34. The main difference..... I brought my VPIP down to 15%.
You have tightened up recently and if you have been continuing to do so I find it no coincidence that by your own words, you just had a very nice 5 day stretch.
Your 5 days and my $34 in profits do not mean we are the best players, it does not mean one or both of us are not running well, and it certainly does not mean that we will not see downswings, but I am convinced more than ever that the tighter you play it, the less intense the struggles are when you do hit a downswing.
Play well.
Flush
That's good to hear Flush. I have found that as I play tighter I seem to stay profitable. I am having a hard time playing the hands that are break even, slight winners or slight losers over a months time. I have been working with a few hands and trying to play them better to make them profitable. In the process my VPIP has fallen. After 900 hands last night I looked and my highest VPIP at the table was 14.
ReplyDeleteI wondered if I was playing too tight since I wasn't getting any calls, but I did have 2 players put it all out there on a chase. They caught. Otherwise it would have been a very profitable night.
I'm on board with you that Nitty is the way to play.
Remember, since this is no limit cash games we play an all-in or 2 that went poorly for us with a specific hand could in fact show that hand to be losing money even though long term would be a winner.
ReplyDeleteAn example of this from my own PT database is a hand like 99. I am losing a total of ($9.10)with this particular hand yet it wins 64% of the time. A closer look shows 2 flopped full houses with 99 that ended up being losers. Needless to say stacks were involved on both occasions.
So, if you have hands that are showing losses, but win say 60% of the time or more look into these hands more closely and find out exactly why they are losing money and if it was truly a bad beat or 2 they suffered you might not want to toss them out so quickly.