Operation: 'A' game

[Ravageur]

Also...I can't believe you haven't noticed my screen name yet.

[griffey24]

Also...I can't believe you haven't noticed my screen name yet.

lol.. oh I have.. I have haha.. it's pretty sweet!

I was hoping to avoid the levelling of you knowing that I know your name.. but I guess thats unavoidable with the name you chose haha.

[griffey24]

A Game vs C Game vs Tilt

The last two weekends variance has been catching up to me hard. This isn't surprising, as I had been running very well the last several months. I had been mentally preparing for it. But I did notice one big change that happened in my mentality. I went from my 'Winning Session' mentality to my 'Losing Session' mentality.

Winning Session Mentality = "He wouldn't bluff here, he's repping so thin"
Losing Session Mentality = "How can they always have it? he's repping nothing"

This change in mentality doesn't seem too harsh or drastic. After my last 10k hands the last few weeks, though, I'm pretty convinced that this is the chance in mentality going from A Game to C Game. I'm also convinced that this change in mentality is far worse for your game, and far more costly than the transition from C Game to Tilt (pending how bad you tilt).

A Game -> C Game

A Game: You've won a couple buy-ins and feeling pretty good. Horrible card comes on the river and you check and they shove 40-50bbs. It's a pretty lame spot, you're at the top of your range but you can only beat a bluff, and there just aren't that many bluffs to be had. You fold, it sucks, but it was the best play. This scenario comes up 10 times in total over your 2k hand session, and you make the proper fold each time.

C Game: You just lost KK to AA all-in pre, while on another table you got set over setted. The same same card comes on the river as the above scenario, vs the same player who just set over setted you. He shoves the same 40-50bbs. It's a pretty lame spot, but really, "How can he always have it? There's no way he can keep being such a luckbox, if he's getting so lucky I wanna see it. He must also think since he just showed a set, I'm gonna respect him more so he's probably levelling me. I gotta call."

You just got coolered or sucked out, admittedly. You can even use this logic to justify the bad call, since it was unlucky, but it was a bad call. The worst part is its going to happen 10 times this session, and you're gonna call each and feel bad for yourself about how bad you're running. Each time will probably bring you closer to tilt as well. At the end of the 10 hands you're down an extra 4-5 buyins from your C-game than you woulda been from your A-game.

C Game -> Tilt

Tilt: The 10th hand comes, and you triple KK on a dry T72 rainbow, bet a J turn and 5 riv. He shoves river and you woulda folded in your A-game, but "How can they always have it?", you call and see 555 and wow that's tilting. Next hand you call a 3bet with 7s6x and flop comes 446 dry. He cbets, you shove over for 110bbs and he snaps you with AA. You realize that was a super bad hand, and insta-quit all your tables. You just lost 110bbs. You're down an extra 1 buyin from your Tilt vs your C Game.

Net unnecessary loss during session: 5-6 buyins.

If you're a quick quit while tilting, then the 1500 hands you play during a bad variance C-Game is way worse than the final tilt which causes you to insta quit.

The second the thought of "How can they always have it?" creeps into my mind, is my new stop loss criteria.

/ramble