Maybe It's Time To Get Back To The Basics of Love

I heard a line from a classic Waylon Jennings hit thats says, "Maybe it's time to get back to the basics of love." Well that is what I have done. I plan to revisit and re-evaluate my poker play, and get back to the basics of love. I am going to study the books and watch the videos. I think poker being a situational game, however also being a game of repetition, tends to make standard play just that, standard. I am also going to seek the opinions of the online community as I have often felt the poker books are written by high stakes professionals who play a different game the a low limit grinder. I need to approach successful onliners who are low and middle stakes grinders, and pick their brains. So I will be engaging those members of the forums I belong to to put together, or validate, my game plan. This should be fresh and interesting as I review the many different styles. So get ready for the new hybrid players, who is always adjusting and changing to meet the needs of my bankroll.

I was second guessing my play after losing to quads after filling up. Usually I can laugh that stuff off, but this happened after losing 2 hands both to 2 outers. Anyway, I was in a low point and placed a post seeking some comfort (I guess that is what it was) when I received a great response from a Card Runners member that goes by the screen name TLXLM. Here is the post:

"Convict, you are far to results-oriented. My guess is you spend to much time focusing on things you can not change. Take your first hand as an example, instead of thinking "oh typical, i got a cooler again", "i run like shit" etc. you should be focusing on how you played the hand. You say that you don't know if you should have laid it down. Well, if you don't know then make sure to figure it out! Do some calculations, post the hand in the cash-game forum, do whatever it takes to find out how that hand should be played to maximize your expectation. If you find that you played it well, good, variance didn't work in you favor this time, but there is nothing you could have done differently. If you find that you made a mistake, find out how you should have played it, make sure you remember it, and you will not ever have to make the same mistake again. After i finish a session i don't ever start a new one until i have gone through every hand i played with a net-loss or net-profit of more than 10BB. I analyze them and figure out better ways to play the hands where i feel i have made mistakes. Bad beats and bad runs are inevitable. You can not change that. But if you consistently make +EV plays, you WILL see results. If you can not believe that, you simply should not be playing.

However, if you choose to trust the laws of probability then there is only one thing you can do to get yourself out of a rut: WORK HARDER"

I guess he just breaks it down to the nuts and bolts. Bravo, sir.