It's alright when I'm winning, but as soon as i start to lose i just think to myself "I'm really bored with this". Now this could be a serious problem since poker's my job! But I'm not too worried actually. I think it's largely because I'm sick of still living at home. I play cooped up in a small room, playing on a 17" laptop. I need a change of scenery, and some variation! It's all gotten a bit monotonous.

I had this realization a couple of days ago, but was sure when i was playing yesterday. The session started out ok, got up a few k then made some dumb decisions in a decent 25/50 hu game. I got stuck like 10/15k, i was a little annoyed, but i didn't seem to care too much. It was a weird feeling and I'm not articulate enough to describe it. I usually kick myself if i do something stupid, but this time I wasn't too bothered and just felt bored with it all!

I carried on playing though and ended up 1 tabling a shorthanded 10/20 game. Was a lot of fun. I was playing like 60/50 and doing weird stuff like open raising to 120 every hand. Or sometimes limping or w/e. Then over betting the flop. Like I'd limp in with Q7o then bet 300 into a 50 pot on a 642 flop or something. Obviously a form of tilt, but i honestly believed (and still do) that i was +ev in the game. I was playing against 4 regs too! It made me realize just how bad these players were. Poker is all about adapting to different conditions. As soon as they played a thinking player who doesn't play 28/22, raise to 70 and cbet 3/4 pot on the flop then they had no idea what to do! They all just nitted up an insane amount. They probably got the impression i was tilted or drunk, but if they had been paying attention they would have noticed I wasn't actually doing anything too dumb, was folding to 3b a lot and rarely played a big pot w/o a hand. So against a player who open raises to 6/7 bb every hand and doesn't play a big pot w/o a hand then 3b them relentlessly! They didn't though, they sat back and let me win every pot.

example hand...



$10/$20 No Limit Holdem
5 players


Stacks:
Hero (UTG) ($4070.00)
CO ($4434.00)
BTN ($3721.00)
SB ($4904.00)
BB ($2650.50)

Pre-flop: ($30, 5 players) Hero is UTG 9 T
Hero bets $100, 2 folds, SB calls $90, 1 fold

Flop: 9 3 3 ($220, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $350, SB calls $350

Turn: 7 ($920, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: 5 ($920, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1400, SB calls $1400

Final Pot: $3720
Hero shows: 9 T
SB had AJ

Hero wins $3717 ( won +$1867 )
SB lost -$1850.00



I was sat there in amazement at how bad at poker these players were. I'm talking about 10/20 online pros! These are supposed to be the top 1% of players in the world, right? Now I know what aejones is talking about when he says all these high stakes players are just awful at poker. I always thought these guys were somewhat decent, but turns out they're just blindly following a set strategy that they have probably learned from 2p2 and training sites. I'd expect that from an average 200nl reg, but not a 10/20 one! So don't be that person! Think outside the box and think for yourself, instead of blindly listening to what we say, and following what we do on our videos. Because if you don't you'll end up losing to a guy that plays 60/50 at a 5max table!

Towards the end of my tilt session one of the better regs sat down and joined in with what i was doing instead of being a massive nit like the other players at the table. We had min raising wars pf and stuff like that. Was a good laugh and my respect for him (was already high) went up. I brought this up because I thought I'd share another little observation that I've had. In general, the nicest guys are the best players and the complete twats at the table are the tagfish. You noticed this? Wonder why. Guess it's because the tagfish spend all their time grinding out 1ptbb, aren't intelligent and let their emotions get the better of them. They're bitter about it all and because of their complete lack of character take it out on other people. So the next time you get berated by one of these guys or they laugh at you if they win a pot against you, don't get annoyed, feel sorry for them!


Back to the boredom problem...

My plan for December is to exclusively play plo. I've been lazy about playing plo and it's a game i really want to get good at. It's mainly because I'm playing small stakes and so I'm not winning too much. But since it would be a bad idea for me to play high stakes nl atm it seems like a perfect time to work on my plo game. I'll still be making and watching nl videos, and I'll still coach and be active in the forums to keep up with my game, I'm just not gonna play for the rest of the year.

Now I'd be very naive to think that the novelty of a new apartment/setup will completely solve the boredom problem. It won't of course so I need to have some sort of variation. Playing plo is one, but more importantly is that I plan to do some traveling and play some live events. It seems like a huge waste being a pro poker player and staying in one place because I have the freedom to travel. I think if i do that then I'll be ok and I'll go back to really enjoying playing again. it is a great game after all.