HokieGreg Answers Your Questions
As a result of this forum thread, HokieGreg recently sat down and answered your questions.
HokieGreg Answers Your Questions
gar1_od: I'm a micro stakes player and my question is how do you stay motivated to grind after say winning 3 or 4 games in a row? Normally when this happens I kind of get that fear of losing what I've won and feel like I've done enough for the day, when in reality I know volume is the key but can't get past that stumbling block in my head. I really feel this is one of my biggest leaks at the micros and is stopping me from progressing as a player.
Hokie: Your poker career is one long session. Variance takes far too long to even itself out for us to pay strict attention to our $ results on a daily/weekly or even monthly basis. When you win 4 straight games, you should feel pretty fortunate because your winrate is probably only around 54% so you were not supposed to win 4 straight (the same for when you lose 4 straight). Playing poker for a living is similar to being an investor in stocks or real estate. It is completely unrealistic to allow your satisfaction with daily results to be based on actual dollars - there is just too much variance across small sample sizes.
I'm asking because I think it helps to wake up and go to a public place with your laptop and just grind. It will probably feel like you have something to do on a day instead of waking up in the afternoon and staying indoors all day long.
Hokie: I used to do this for the exact reason you suggest. Their is one big problem with this - public places are distracting and our goal should be to be as focused as possible when we play. Playing in a public place to make poker feel more like a job is simply putting a bandaid on a bigger problem. I believe that if you have sufficient life balance (gym regularly, social life, family, etc) then it is unlikely that you will feel the need to "get out of the house" when you grind. Of course everyone is different and playing in a public place may work for some, but for me this was the case and fixing my life balance solved the problem completely.
vzhong: What separates winning small stakes regs from players who can beat $100s+?
Hokie: The biggest thing that separates $100+ regs from <$100 regs is that the higher stakes regs are typically better poker players. I would guess it is likely that many successful $33 regs are just as good as many $100/200 regs at beating fish. The difference between the low/higher stakes regs, and what makes the higher stakes regs better poker player in my view, is that things like risk tolerance/dealing with variance/ability to beat winning players/shot-taking are all very important skills and lead to higher longterm profits and overall hourly rates.
Do you have any tips how to become better at playing 2 tables. I stop noticing a lot of things about villains' game and end up not adjusting properly. Especially if villains are doing something unusuall, taking non-standart lines. As a result my edge decreases significantly.
Hokie: Focus is a skill. Improving your focus and the length of quality session takes work and gradual improvement. I think the approach to improving multi-tabling in Question 6 works well for this too.