In poker, patience is a virtue

Turns out, I didn’t lose my poker game forever. I just misplaced it temporarily.
And what a relief that is.
The live score I bragged about in my previous post was the spark that renewed my confidence online. Since the start of January, I’m up $400. Sweet.
The only reason I’m even playing these days is, I’m just 1,000 PokerStars frequent player points short of earning a $250 Future Shop gift card. (At this point, I have to kind of chuckle. When I started this blog, I was talking about paying off my mortgage. These days, I’m just trying to nurse a few bucks in my PokerStars account long enough to win a freaking electronics gift card. For sure, that whole dream-big routine has given way to more modest goals.)
In order to get to my points goal, I’m being very consistent about my sit-n-go sessions, playing one $22 and one $33 single-table tourney at the same time. Sometimes I just play one of these dual sessions; some evenings I’ll bang out a couple of ’em.
At any rate, I’m nearly two-thirds of my way to the 1,000 points I need, and I’ve profited the aforementioned $400 in the process. Once again, sweet.
The biggest difference between my play this month and my ridiculously unprofitable November-December run is, I’m being much more patient. In retrospect, my mindset at the virtual tables gradually slipped too far to the aggressive end of the spectrum. The edge between winning and losing poker is razor-thin, and while aggression can be a profitable tool when applied correctly, the calibration of my game was just slightly off. I got in far too many marginal situations.
To be philosophical about it, I think sometimes poker players make the mistake of assuming the play at the table revolves around them. It’s a product of the individualistic mentality that our culture breeds in us. In poker, at least for me, that manifests itself in trying to prove I’m the best player at the table by trying overly tricky plays. That’s a high-variance strategy. I’m finding success by keeping it simple in the early going, in accordance with Collin Moshman’s excellent instructional manual, “Sit ‘n Go Strategy.”
The sickest/best thing about this positive uptick in my bankroll is, I haven’t even run particularly well. I’ve had countless SNGs where I’m suppressing a bad word after some donkey sucks out on me. If I were running well, I could be up $700. If I were running real hot, I’d be up $1,000. I’ve put myself in position to win a lot of tournaments, and I haven’t been converting at the rate I’d usually expect. But it’s a far better feeling to bust in unlucky circumstances than to bust while playing badly. My mood is vastly more upbeat when I know I’ve played well.
Bankroll = $5,900. Loving poker, loving life.