Night 4 of Cash

The first two nights felt awesome. I was running the tables and my reads were crystal clear. I played last night and also felt like I had a great session. There were a selection of hands that I felt like were good opportunities to learn (some winners and some losers). All three nights I was up in the session. BUT, I am really trying hard to focus on the long run and not the financial success of each session.

Tonight has been a bit on the rough side. I'm a little tired and I have been bleeding a bit. I don't think the first half of the session was bad because of being tired, but it has started wearing on me a bit. It's nothing too out of the ordinary, but it's one of those nights where AK keeps missing and my c-bets are getting raised/floated and my double barrels aren't working (and I know the triple won't work). Or when I decide to triple, I'm getting called down...or I get KK and everyone folds to my raise. I'm getting 3bet when I have crap and they are folding when I have big hands. I'm really trying to not nit up and stay aggressive, but at the same time pick my spots, but I think I might be forcing a bit toward the end of the session. I'm playing a bit more passive pre-flop but then I'm attacking post flop without telling an accurate story. I think partially because I accidentally saw how much I was down for the session earlier, it has made me a little hesitant to 4-bet. Okay, enough venting.

As per the advice in the latest book I read, I am using this session as an opportunity to push through and focus when the night isn't so hot (which I do believe in so long as you are keenly aware of your mental state). By hunkering down and focusing it will only make me stronger. I've got about 100 or so hands to go to hit 800, so I'm going to finish strong.

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So the last 100 hands were pretty much like the first 700. Tons of action when I'm bluffing and zero action when I flop the virtual nuts. Oh well, such is variance. If I had to grade the sessions on overall playing ability (and NOT results or running good) I would roughly say:

Day 1: B+
Day 2: A-
Day 3: B
Day 4: C

I'm giving myself a C mainly because of mental state. I realized toward the end of the session that I was becoming passive pre-flop and a bit spewy post flop. I needed to probably 4-bet in a few spots (I only 4 bet once tonight and got jammed on) mainly to make them think twice before 3 betting me. I did, however have some good moments as well. I made a really good Ace high call in a relatively big pot when my read was that their pair got counterfeited. I also did a good job of moving tables when there weren't enough fish.

So it wasn't all bad. But I definitely have some things to work on when sessions aren't going my way. I mean, it's not like I started going crazy and spewing chips. It was more of a slow bleed. I need to recognize when the bleeding is growing and then make the necessary adjustments (and also learn what those adjustments need to be).