You all heard me complaining, whining and moaning for the last few weeks….well, ever since I came back…it’s a mix of “bad luck”, emotionality and selective memory I guess…and I’m trying hard to change my attitude atm. Thinking positive is my new (and old) mantra…and while it’s tough to stay positive when you’re running into coolers left and right and can’t have a hand hold up (when it counts), I’m trying…hard.

Today I made a switch that I didn’t plan on doing…it was some sort of spur-of-the-moment thing…although the (little) reasoning behind it is quite straight forward:

Fact 1: I’ve been running bad the last few weeks – at least in my own biased opinion.
Fact 2: Ever since I upgraded to a 24″ screen I never play less than four tables/SnGs at once.
Fact 3: I love to play shorthanded…more action…you don’t need a monster every hand…
Fact 4: I like to play turbos…not because they give me a decisive edge…nope…because they got the perfect time-frame for me to stay really focussed (max. 45min)…

Combine those facts and you’ve got: pressure. Pressure because it’s six handed. Pressure bcause only the top two pay. Pressure because of the turbo format. Pressure because of the multi-tabling. Pressure because of the rake*…Pressure…

So I thought…are all those facts benefiting your game, which is a rather patient/passive game with select aggression. The answer is a big fat no…and while I’m not willing and able to switch to an optimal game right away (which would probably be a game which is not a turbo, involves more skilled players who can actually fold second pair no kicker, etc), I did make a switch to a “better game” for the moment. To make a long story short, I switched to full table SnGs…still playing four at once…still playing the turbo format…but still I’ve seen an improvement in my results. Now I won’t be fooled into believing that one session (10SnGs) is anywhere near a representative sample, as we all know that’s not the case and short-term luck can bias those results in a huge way…but I’ve seen a change in attitude right away. Now don’t get me wrong…I’ve run into the same cooler and bs hands on and off the bubble in those SnGs – the big difference was the effect those hands had on me.

It would be a lie to tell you that they didn’t have any effect on me. They sure did and I made some nice screengrabs (which I will omit here)…the point is that I didn’t feel the urge to break something…or chase or do something stupid in the other SnGs or the following SnGs, which is huge for me. What adds to that positive feeling is that the payout structure of those 9-handed SnGs fits me well. If I win just one out of 4, I turn a (small) profit – which isn’t a big break in a monetary sense, but it’s huge mentally at least for me. That’s the first difference to the 6-handed SnGs where winning one isn’t enough to turn a profit. Now it’s a given that winning a 9-handed SnG should be harder than winning a 6-handed SnG (1/9 to 1/6)…but in reality it isn’t as the three added wildcards are likely to bust themselves and/or others in the process.

So…to make a long story short, I’ll try to play those from now on and we’ll see what happens…just watch this space, hopefully with more of the “hey look here what I did today/this week, happy”-posts and less of the “oooh, whine, bad beat, unhappy”-posts…oh…and btw…today was my first winning session in quite a while…wheee….played 10 in total…3W, 1x 2nd…which is enough for me to be up 4.9 buyins…not bad 😉

* it’s hard to believe how much rake you’re really paying…all those 50 cent here, 1 dollar here really adds up over time…I know that the higher limit players will probably laugh at those numbers, but for a (really) small time grinder like me they’re mind-boggling…especially if you didn’t even keep track…ever since I got Tourneymanager those are directly on my screen though…and they tell me that I payed 640$ in SnG-fees in the last 12months…now that’s quite a number to overcome if your bankroll is around xxx$ to low xxxx$ 😯