The Boring Bits

Unlike it's heavily edited and largely fake television counterpart - picture players paid by organisers and sponsers to turn up, play a 'poker tournament' in where you compete for airtime in order to get more sponsers and 'tournament' invitations - real poker can be mind numbing at times. Especially at the low buy-ins where the way to beat the loose players that are found there is to play tight.

This sometimes means playing a table for an hour and not playing a single hand. Something I've questioned lately whether or not this can impact my ROI negatively - and how to counter it if it does.

I know I've been affected by boredom before, I end up playing marginal hands and chasing action that I know I shouldn't, this kind of play only serves to make your downswings more severe. I think it could also be a factor in my last 5 games in which I've gone 7 - 6 - 7 - 7 - 7, continually busting out this early is a sign i'm not being patient enough. Two ways I could remedy this imaptience is to move up to a larger buy-in or play more tables at once.

At the moment I can't move up a level as I'm currently sitting on:

Games Played - 152  
ROI - 3.74%
Winnings - $81 USD

Down from being up $140 only 7 games ago. I refuse to move up to the $20 buy-in sit and go tournaments until I've made $200 profit at this level and I'm due to get a nice upswing soon which should take me to this target if I can keep my impatience in check. 


So should I play more tables? Even if it was just two tables instead of one I would be able to increase my profit faster and therefore reach the next buy-in level in a shorter amount of time. The more I think about it the more I think I'm capable of doing it - I've seen what this $10 level has to throw at me and I'm not to concerned by it. Mastering this level is more about mastering your own game than the games of your opponents which are often terribly weak. The only drawback to playing multiple tables that I can see is that my ROI will take a small hit - I think I can absorb a small reduction while still keeping a positive return so I'm going to try playing two tables at once.

Although I have been getting bored, boredom wasn't the reason for this loss - Sometimes there is just nothing you can do.