the "screw it" effect...

do any of you ever find yourself making looser calls after being on a winning stretch..?

I sometimes catch myself making bad calls which I normally wouldn't if I were on my game, and i think it's because in the back of my head somewhere, i must be thinking " i can afford to be wrong here " ???

wtf?? why the hell am I keeping my recent winstreak and bankroll in consideration when making the decision to call a bet that I normally wouldnt?

Sounds like a discipline problem!

Yes. I think I agree with both of you. I find myself sometimes the chip leader by a big margin, for example it is the bubble and I have about 6000 chips to the low stack 1000 chips... they shove over and I call figuring I might get lucky and knock them out with a wild hand... which is just spewing chips.

I've gotten better about it, but still it happens.

I always try to remind myself when I am in that position that even though I will only lose a small percentage of my chips I could potentially double people up.

Maybe in a sit n go for example it might be a good idea to switch your mindset from trying to gather as many chips as possible to trying to make sure they don't get yours. You have to think that the blinds will drown them eventually.

good way to look at things gooser...maybe not to that extent but a good way to look at that type of situation..agree with you all the way..

I used to. Stop obv.

Yeah, it's probably the biggest leak in my game longterm I think.

get up 40bb over a session, start making looser calls cause I'm obviously so much better than these donks running 60/20, get in behind and don't improve, lose 5bb, rinse repeat until I end the session maybe 10bb up if I'm lucky.

It's truely a discipline issue and one that I think the only rememdy for is to stop playing the moment that the thought of "I can afford to lose this one if I'm wrong" enters your head.

Hopefully if you're trying to play a committed schedule of x hands or hours per day the fact that you aren't will start making you unhappy because you can see how it affects your winnings and makes you feel like a slacker, thereby forcing you to start ignoring the thoughts that cause you to have to stop playing for the session....kind of like how you have to put your body through pain before it repsonds when you start lifting weights

Originally Posted by langaan

do any of you ever find yourself making looser calls after being on a winning stretch..?

I sometimes catch myself making bad calls which I normally wouldn't if I were on my game, and i think it's because in the back of my head somewhere, i must be thinking " i can afford to be wrong here " ???

wtf?? why the hell am I keeping my recent winstreak and bankroll in consideration when making the decision to call a bet that I normally wouldnt?

Be careful, tho, 'cuz you can play too tight on a win streak. How do you know if it's the win streak that caused the looseness or the looseness that caused the win streak? Maybe you're playing like scared money (weak-tight) when you're losing and the more LAGGy play is +EV, even when you're down.

I do believe you have a valid point, and probably 90% of the time loosening up on a hot streak is just the "oh hell i can afford to see what he has" thing. But remember that tight ain't always right. Often, villains give more respect to the big stack who's obviously on a heater. Playing looser can be a good strategy for some heaters. And be sure to NOT get too weak-tight postflop just 'cuz you're on a cooler.

By the way, calling is -EV. Any time you increase the number of calls you're making (for almost any reason), it's likely that you're starting to play badly - and getting worse.