I’ve done really well lately, and no, I’m not above bragging.
Out of the last 10 tournament’s I’ve played, I’ve finished 6th once, 5th once, 3rd twice, 2nd three times, and 1st once. That’s eight final tables out of ten. The streak started with the 6th and 5th place finishes and continued to improve from there.
Part of being a good poker player is believing you are good and having confidence, otherwise you’ll let people roll over you. The flip side to that is arrogance, which will surely make you lose. You need to recognize other good players, and give them the respect they deserve without giving up your own confidence. Yes, there’s a lot of psychology to poker (Live poker more so than online I think).
Here’s my problem. Since *most* of what I play are “free” tournaments, do I count a winning streak as truly good poker playing, luck, adjusting to bad players, etc…? Undoubtedly it’s some of all those thing and more. It’s hard for me to deny that such a streak isn’t just pure luck, but to brag about being good at free poker seems a bit silly to me, which of I can’t help do anyway. Also, I’m a one trick pony. I play play really good Free No Limit Tournaments against a field of around 50 players. What happens when I change one ore more of the variables. Could I go deep against a larger playing field, for real money? (Actually, I did play an online tournament the other week with a $2 entry against over 1000 other players and placed 5th getting $130 for the finish, but I can’t seem to come close to repeating that one). I’m sure I’d lose my ass if I actually played any other game: Omaha, Razz, Stud… I’ve proven I can hold my own in a No Limit cash game once, but could I do that regularly? What about Limit? A good poker player should be well rounded, not just in one game, in multiple Limit structures and not *just* tournaments.
Not that I wouldn’t be fine just being awesome at Tournaments. They do have the biggest payoffs, but to compare it to my other love, dancing, that would be like being able to really good aerials without being able to do a decent swingout.
But back to the streak. I do think I can accept it for what it is: I’ve brought my game to a new level. Once again I really want to test out whether this would translate to real-money games, but since the nearest legal gambling location is around 420 miles (Biloxi and Tunica are both about equal distance — Atlantic City is 800 Miles), it’s not likely I’m going to find out soon, or make a regular event of it. I could tag along with some of the local players who make trips from time to time, but that takes money I don’t have right now. I know what kind of Bankroll I’d need to play comfortably, and I just don’t have it… I could play with a short amount of cash, and probably have a good time, but repeating my experience in Vegas where I paid for the entire trip by cashing in my first tournament, and continuing to cash in everything I played from then on, is just unrealistic.
I guess I’ll just have to keep at what I’m doing. I’m building up quite a stack of gift certificates to the places I play at, at least there’s that.
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