Sticking To It

I’m fresh off of a losing session where I made some mistakes that I’m not very happy with and I think they happened because of a couple of typical situations that come up for lots of players. First off, I play pretty long sessions, usually 10-to-12 hours at a time. Some are shorter because of a stop-loss I instilled when I was rebuilding my bankroll that has served me well, but most fall within that 10-to-12 hour frame. I play long sessions because, like almost everyone in the LA/Orange County area, I live a decent drive from where I work. The closest casino to me is 35 miles away which, luckily, is only a 40-to-45 minute drive most of the time. Even so, 80-to-90 minutes of commute every time I go to work is enough to make me want to work longer hours on fewer days. In addition to that, I like hanging out with my family. I like to take care of my son and spend time with my wife. So if I can go in to work fewer days, but during hours that my family is usually sleeping, it makes it easier on all of us. We get to spend good chunks of time together doing family things and it’s worked out quite well during the first year of our son’s life. As a result of playing long sessions, I have to make sure that I’m able to keep a steady amount of focus for a long period of time, something that can be quite draining. I like to spell myself by taking a walk around the casino every other hour or taking a round off to play a game on my phone that lets me zone out for ten minutes. I know this means I’m missing hands, but if it helps me to focus on the other hands that I’ll be playing, even just 10 percent more, it’s worth it in my opinion. That said, it’s still difficult to hold the required amount of focus and discipline for twelve hours at a time, and that was my first mistake. I found myself not being sharp with my decisions towards the end of tonight’s session and that led to missing a read that I normally wouldn’t have missed.

The second situation that caused my mistakes was something I like to call “Not Again Syndrome.” Some of you may know this as bad timing or the second-best blues. I spent most of my day making the second-best hand but still treading water. I folded Q-Q on the flop for one bet against an under-the-gun (UTG) raiser on a J-5-3 rainbow board when he bet 1.3 times pot, and he showed me K-K. I couldn’t find a fold with the one-card nut flush in a three-bet pot on a paired board. I had Q-Q to the super maniac’s K-K in a 250 big blind (BB) pot preflop. When I finally flopped set over set, I didn’t get it all-in because the guy who flopped bottom set somehow checked it last to act on a 10-9-7, two-diamond board. After all this, I found myself with bottom-two pair in a five-way limped pot on a Q-8-5, two-club board. I had the 8 in my hand. I led for $20 into a pot of $20. One guy called and the third limper made it $125. My instinct was to just fold right there and I really think I should have but I made it $260 and called when my opponent moved all-in. I thought he had $900 or $1,000 and, ridiculously, I didn’t even ask for a count, I just called. It turned out he had $1,260 and Q-5. It should have been an easy fold to the four-bet or an agonizing fold to the first reraise. Instead, it was me paying off a $1,260 bet and quitting minutes later because I finally realized that my discipline was out the window. The only good thing I did in the last 30 minutes I was at the casino was to walk out the door earlier than planned.

I find myself wondering what I can do to avoid this situation in the future and I’m having some trouble coming up with a viable solution. I could definitely avoid it by planning to play shorter sessions, but I really like the way I have my schedule set up and I don’t think I want to change it. It’s really nice to have so much time at home with my family and I think it’s worth the occasional lapse in poker judgment to have that extra boost of balance in my life. I could leave early when I am starting to feel like my decisions are suffering, but often the point when I realize that is just one hand too late. As I’m writing this, I think I’m realizing that it doesn’t really happen often enough for me to adjust my whole approach to my sessions and scheduling. The best thing that I can do (and that others in my situation can do) is look for the warning signs a little earlier and either quit sooner, grab some caffeine, or take an extra walk or two to clear the sloppiness from my brain. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG