I wasn't going to post about this. It's really kind of embarrassing. But, I have to laugh at myself. So, I'm sharing it for whatever insight into me may be gained.
First, though, a hearty thanks to John, Pauly, Sir F, Asphnxma, and Junction Joe for the morale boost in the comments. Same goes for Phil and Sean, both of whom were very encouraging today.
I'm feelin' the luv...
So - today, in an effort to, perhaps, gain some insight into my difficulties with inconsistency, I embarked on a marathon. A m a r a t h o n at the $10 S&G tables at Empire. Here are the results (forget the drumroll):
20 S&Gs
14 bustouts
4 firsts
2 seconds
Net = +$40
If I'd have stopped at 10, the results would have been a little more impressive: 3 wins, 2 seconds. A few of the losses were bad beats. Some were mercy killings. The good news is - get me to the money and I'll have you for lunch. And more then one of those wins, I came back from ye old 'chip and chair' to get there. It's getting to the money (say it with me, now) CONSISTENTLY that seems (cough) to be the problem.
Some losses I may be able to blame on cold cards - big pairs were rare, for instance. Plus, at the $10 level, you just can't bluff a pot that often and get away with it. Your big raise from UTG will get called by any Ace or Face more often than not. Plus you will be called down with draws and 'second bests.' So much of the edge you might gain at a higher level with trickier plays just isn't available at the micro level.
I played S&G # 21 at a $50 table. I thought, what the heck, let's bring it full circle. The bankroll, that is. Sadly, I didn't find it much different than the $10 tables. I held my own for a while - it was a tighter table, I'll give it that. But a higher level of skill was not overly evident - save for aggressiveness. A few folks at the table had at least grasped that concept. I finally busted out of that one in 7th when my pocket [77] went down to cleverly disguised [QQ]. No help for the Klingon.
So, there's definitely a hole in my play at the S&G level. And I'm not sure how to analyse the data (re: hand histories) to figure that out. At any rate, it was a grand experiment and I topped off the day at a table with blogger brethren and left that table with a $1 more than I sat down with. A rarity given the competition.
So from zero to zero in 21 S&Gs flat.
