Stream of Consciousness

Fish meaning a player who is just swimming around waiting to be gobbled up by more proficient players. An easy target basically.

And obviously a shark meaning a more proficient player, that swims around eating up the fish. (and the chips)

Now none us would refer to ourselves as fish, right? So do we think of ourselves as sharks if we are not fish?

Well the news is folks that you are both. The definition of your status in aquatic terms is defined by what waters you currently find yourself swimming in.

In a $5 SNG I would consider myself shark-ish, in a $50 SNG I become vulnerable to a large shark attack and reluctantly admit that means in the $50 pond I am probably a fish.

Just as in real life aquatic terminology there is a food chain, so it is in online poker. There is always someone higher up the food chain than you. To survive you have to choose very carefully which waters you swim in.

To make that choice there are several factors to consider but the two most important ones are the ability to realize your skill level and to play to your bank roll. These two variables go hand in hand and are inseparable as a factor when making the decision on where to go swimming.

What I mean by ‘inseparable’ is that you may have the bankroll to swim in bigger waters but not the skill and conversely you may have the skill to swim in bigger waters but not the bank roll. You need both these variables to even think about swimming downstream to the big open waters of the ocean.

Yet it still isn’t as black & white as that, even with those two variables covered there is more..

For example, when I play a $5 or $10 SNG the buy-in doesn’t concern me. I can play as aggressively as I want, I will make moves on players and play poker rather than play just my cards. I have the skill set and the bank roll to do this.

In a $50 SNG I also think I qualify on those 2 variables, I have the skill and the bank roll, yet it is harder to play my skills because I have one eye on the buy-in amount.

Right there, at that point I become a fish. I may well have the skill to swim in that bigger pond but my inability to dismiss my buy-in has just effected my play and my skill set is now beneath the level I am playing at.

I have yet to learn to dismiss the buy-in price. So we now have a third variable, the discipline to truly play to your bankroll. This is a difficult mental step up.

It is not a poker variable but an everyday emotional one. Poker-wise I know I can play at the level of a $50 table, poker-wise I know my bankroll affords me to play at $50 tables, but emotionally $50 bucks is $50 bucks and it is hard to dismiss that figure in real life terms.

I have to learn to be able to separate real money from my poker money, which sounds like an oxymoron, but it isn’t. I have to learn to treat my bank roll like a limited amount of points I am given to go play poker with. I think once I can make this distinction then maybe I won’t revert back to a fish so often in the bigger buy-in games.

Ok well enough of that stream of consciousness …

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Way to go the Forum! Winning the OFC forum challenge very comfortably.

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My poker, well I am still struggling to find the hard core enthusiasm that seems to have leaked away. Playing the odd forum game and the odd SNG with the boys, but nothing spectacular..

Perhaps it is time to make a new target… Hmm I’ll think about that one..

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Good luck on the felt folks.. till the next time..