I have been reading through a lot of information on NLHE, and one thing I ran into on Up For Poker was the Ten Commandments of Tournaments. Included therein was the maxim "Thou Shalt Continuation Bet." It's food for thought, and worthy of a comment here that applies to the game as a whole.
I think there is one immutable truth to poker players that we really don't want to admit. Anthony Hopkins has a cool line in Amistad that says it best "Who we are is who we were." Man changes but seldom, and I don't know that people can entirely stop being who they are, even at a poker table, even at a pixellized virtual representation of a poker table behind an assumed names. We fall into familiar patterns. We do things the way we learned and were taught.
Those who know me know I am a Christian of the Protestant variety, and a fairly active one. I actually believe all that crap, as some of my agnostic or atheist friends are known to say ;).
However, I was raised Roman Catholic. And Catholicism is most certainly a faith of rules. Especially if you are an active Catholic, as I was even as a child. I used to be fascinated by the history, the tradition, the structure. Rules, sometimes for rules' sake, are therefore a part of my makeup. Doing things a certain way because that's how it's supposed to be is important to me.
Don't get me wrong, that's not always a bad thing. Other than a few tickets her and there, I've never been in trouble. Having respect for rules and structure is great as a lawyer, because it keeps me asking the right questions and rarely does anything I file ever get thrown back on a technicality. It's great as a husband, because I am willing to set boundaries and limits so my wife feels safe and taken care of (speaking mostly to our finances and the "poker contract" which limits my play there).
However, it has its pitfalls of course. I still can fall into my old mindset of "rule rules rules" and get too rigid where creativity is warranted. Therefore, "shalts" can get me into a bit of trouble.
This translates over to poker, of course. I'm still learning, and sometimes I fall into a "structure" mindset -- I play according to a "script" of how things should be going and basic core "rules".
The example is in "Thou Shalt Continuation Bet" - sometimes when I decide to raise in late position with a sub-par hand (A10, KJ, etc.) on a steal, or with a good hand (AK) that misses, I follow that continuation bet rule, regardless of the texture of the table and the results. Three weeks ago, it was working like a charm. Late in tourneys, of course, it can also work to good effect when people are bubble-conscious.
However, recently I have noticed that if that strategy does NOT work, I bleed chips because I will continuation bet myself back down to a short stack when someone connects when I miss or plays back at me. The rule has choked me.
So, as you can see from a previous posts, when playing suboptimally, I waffle between Fancy Play Syndrome and living by "shalts". I must learn to adapt, but also not to get into the place where I am throwing chips around like a bully when it's not warranted.
The point of the above? Not much more than an extended reflection period, but I think it demonstrates that this is a hobby that cannot be pursued on autopilot. I need to think before acting, every hand, all the time, or I'm just going to have to live with a substantially reduced bankroll ;). I want to get better, and I can only get better by thinking about position, stacks, table image, and all the rest. Maybe if I got me a nice checklist of questions by the monitor I could have my structure while allowing for flexibility...
That's it for now. I may edit as more thoughts occur. See, this is the fun part.
PS. No disrespect to any faith or faiths was meant in this post, so please don't read it that way.
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