In my last article, I wrote about various techniques that I find to be very helpful in terms of busting out of the slumps that every poker player encounters. I skipped over something that I find to be a large factor in losing streaks in that article, for a couple of reasons. One is that I wanted to treat slumps and losing streaks as a natural part of the variance of poker (which is true), and not distract from that fact when presenting solutions. The bigger reason is that I was running out of space, and knew that I couldn’t give this other topic the attention it deserves. So we start anew.
The brutal truth is that a lot of us don’t understand why we’re playing poker. What’s the best possible outcome for you in the long-term? You can be:
- looking for a fun activity regardless of winning/losing
- trying to make some money on the side
- grinding out a living that’s better than other careers that are available to you
- shooting to get rich quick and ride the poker wave to immortality
- challenging yourself to become the best player possible by sitting in the toughest games you can find, knowing that you’re walking into the lion’s den and may leave your money behind
This is just a sample of a large number of reasons to play. None of these are wrong as a generality, yet almost certainly only one of them will be right for you. And if you don’t focus on the right reason for you, you will go through longer and more draining slumps than the mathematics of variance says you should. I guarantee it. You’ll be Reduced Down to Zero (I’ll refer to not knowing why you play as RDZ Syndrome for the rest of this article), financially, mentally and emotionally. It’s not about being broke…it’s more than that. Poker is often like swimming against the current even if you make every correct short-term and long-term decision. Playing poker while suffering from RDZ Syndrome is like tying a cinder block to each ankle before you get in the water.
Notice I didn’t say anything about ability so far in this article. From my experience, you can be the most talented player alive and still be stricken by RDZ Syndrome. I also haven’t included one of my most common preaching topics, that of bankroll management. If you’re playing poker to take a shot at the big time, and it doesn’t matter if you go broke, you’ll probably break every law of bankroll management and it’s still OK. There are poker players that are completely comfortable with themselves if they’re broke, and their financial status doesn’t affect their game in the slightest.
The most common manifestation of RDZ Syndrome are players who take shots in the high-limit cash games before they are capable of competing at that level, regardless of the reasons why (skill, tilt, bankroll, etc.). It’s a common tale, one that is scattered throughout the history of poker, but by no means the only one. One that fascinates me is the people who chase Tournament Leader Board rankings without considering the problems that can come along with that. If you are not capable of balancing the big-picture pressures of putting up TLB scores with the hand-by-hand decisions in each tournament, you will certainly not be playing your best, and probably end up losing money. Sheets, whom I have a lot of respect for as a player and a person, was kind enough to share his statistics during August 2005, when he and many other top players took part in the PokerStars TLB race as part of the prop wager with Gigabet. At the end of the day, Sheets was profitable, but nowhere near where a player of his skill could be with better game selection and he definitely would have been less fried at the end. And that’s Sheets. If you can’t play like him (who can?), and aren’t as balanced in terms of life and poker (who is?), you’ll lose, and for what end? The rewards that come with winning a weekly or monthly TLB sometimes do not come close to covering the losses you incurred by playing too much or too high.
Full Tilt has recently started their own TLBs, both for multi-table and sit-n-go tournaments. The rewards for high placement on the SNG TLB are increments of your most common buy-in, starting with a 20x prize for winning the monthly TLB. Not a bad deal…if you play $200 SNGs more than any other, you’ll get $4000 back for winning the month. But if you look at the TLB standings and check out the top players’ results on Sharkscope, you’ll see that most of them are losing players, some of who are not just losing, but are flat-out getting KILLED. You’ll see several ROIs in the range of -20 to -25%, which is just atrocious. Having played a lot of $100 and $200 SNGs on Full Tilt, I’m very familiar with how many of them play, and know that they would be profitable players at the $30 to $50 level. They are out of their leagues, however, in the $200 and $500 SNGs, which they’re obviously playing to chase TLB rankings (the higher the buy-in, the more points you earn). These players are losing $10k or more a month just to try to win $4k. I’m pretty sure a couple of them are RDZ after just a couple of months of the TLB’s existence; at the very least, I know I don’t see them around Full Tilt much anymore. I have no doubt that other players will soon be following in their footsteps, out the door and into the street.
If those players have an unlimited bankroll, and a matching desire for the glory of winning a TLB, that’s great. Like I said before, there’s no universally wrong reason to play poker. And if you want to try a new challenge by seeing how far you can go in a TLB, a “best effort” wager with other P5ers, etc., that’s great too. It’s something that I’ve done, and would recommend to anyone else looking to change up your approach to what can often be a monotonous grind. But before you invest too much of your bankroll and yourself, take a step back and figure out exactly what your primary reason to play is. Avoid potential pitfalls like TLBs, VIP status, bonus whoring, “last longer” bets and other prop wagers, or even the push to be ranked by PocketFives.com, if those siren songs aren’t right for you. Keep your eyes on the prize. Write it down and tape it to your monitor, so you never forget. Otherwise, RDZ can be just around the corner, waiting to suck you into its clutches, from which you may not ever be heard from again.