Out of the Hole

“If you focus too closely, too intensely, on a problem when it occurs, it appears uncontrollable. But if you compare that event with some greater event, and look at the problem from a distance, then it appears smaller and less overwhelming” The Dalai Lama

So I got well out of the hole and into the black for the month this week by playing games that I haven’t played in a while. I built up some confidence by playing some heads up no-limit tournaments with no blind increases on Stars and winning 19 of the 25 I played. These are great games that really reward skill over luck due to the blinds not increasing. After that, I followed up by winning 2 HORSE MTT’s, one was a $33 tourney worth around $1000 on Stars and the other was a $20 on Absolute worth around $400. I played 5 other HORSE tourneys this week and made 3 more final tables, finishing 4th, 6th, and finally 8th in the Stars $109 buy-in. They were smallish tourneys, the kind I like, ranging from about 60 to 110 players. In the Stars $109 I ran into 2 consecutive full houses to knock me out when I made a flush followed by aces-up in Stud.

I always think that alternating games when struggling can result in a turnaround. It gives you a fresh outklook on things. There are lots of choices: you can change stakes, live/internet, change internet sites or casino, full ring/shorthanded/heads-up, cash/sngs/mtts, limit/no-limit, holdem/Omaha/stud/other, or some combination of these. This is a solid reason for all those specialists out there to learn all games and styles.

Looking at this from a Zen standpoint, this can be somewhat similar to changing perspective. You can even compare it to a morning meditation, which allows a fresh-mind. Except this way, the fresh-mind is forced because you are playing in a game you haven’t played recently. It allows you to forget your primary game for a while and forces you to concentrate on right-playing in a fresh game, and in time you return to your primary game with again fresh thinking.