Managing False Starts

Poker Strategy / Short-Stacked Shamus / 15 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

Most experienced poker players recognize the importance of learning how to quit sessions when it is in their interest to do so. Psychologically speaking, it can be incredibly difficult to leave a game when down. One becomes figuratively "stuck" -- that is, having lost money -- which then leads to being literally "stuck" in one's seat. Thus does one remain trapped at the table, fighting to make it "back to quits" and thus often playing less than optimally as a result.

That's an issue with which just about everyone is familiar -- the challenge to learn how to quit. But what about learning how to start? Just as there is a high percentage of players who might be said to experience problems quitting, I'd suggest there is also a good number who have difficulties at the beginnings of their sessions, too.

The phenomenon is perhaps most especially true for online poker, but affects live players as well. What I'm referring to is that tendency to begin our sessions playing a style that is much different from our usual one -- namely, to take a much looser, "gambly" approach when we first begin than we generally employ otherwise.

Excited to be playing, we see more flops. Or perhaps our bluffing range widens as we look to claim some early pots and swiftly increase our stack. Or for those of us who are are otherwise selective with our risk-taking, we are somehow more willing to commit to what appear to be "coin-flip" situations in which we might double up or get felted early on.

Say you've just fired up a no-limit hold'em table. Rather than wait for the blinds to come around, you go ahead and post the big blind from middle position. Never mind ready and set, you say. Let's go!

You receive your first hand and it's Ah-7s. You're a smart player. You know to throw away such stuff with four players to act behind you. But when it folds around you decide you're going to play it, and so make a standard raise. It folds to the cutoff who reraises, and everyone else gets out. Again, you're no dummy. You know a cutoff three-bet means trouble for your hand. But you want to play.

So you call. An ace flops. Hilarity ensues.

Am I describing something you've experienced? You start out wild and crazy, then after winning or losing a significant amount finally settle down to become the rational, thinking player you normally are?

The fact is, we're all at least somewhat keyed up to sit down and start playing, and often that stimulation manifests itself early on with a lot of "mixing it up" and loose play. It's a much more common phenomenon than we perhaps realize, affecting both casual, "recreational" players as well as full-time grinders. I would suggest it more frequently happens with online poker players, given the ease with which the online game allows us to transition from, say, crawling out of bed to taking a hand. However, live players will also demonstrate this tendency to start sessions with a greater openness to risk-taking.

Most would probably agree that the end-of-session problems with quitting are undoubtedly to be considered detrimental, a form of tilting that can be especially hard on our bankrolls if we find ourselves unable to control it. But while many might admit that they indeed sometimes (or often) start sessions erratically, fewer are ready to acknowledge that represents a significant leak.

In truth -- it should be said -- playing a looser, more risky game at the start of a session isn't automatically a problem.

Let's say your default style is a tight-aggressive game. It isn't necessarily a bad thing to start a session playing more loosely, thereby establishing an image which counters the way you actually play. Observant opponents notice you early on playing hands out of position and/or showing up with less-than-premium holdings. Then later, once you've calmed down, they pay you off after you've begun restricting yourself to betting and raising with higher-value hands.

You might in fact benefit from your crazy starts. Heck, you might even double-up early and put yourself in an advantageous spot to win more than you would have by starting more cautiously. However, if you aren't consciously trying to establish a false image when you begin all loosey-goosey, you're probably increasing the likelihood that you'll be playing less-than-optimal poker early on. And thus barring some good fortune, more often than not you're starting out in a hole, your image being that of a losing gambler whom others are now thinking of as a potential target.

If you're an online player who keeps hand histories for later review, take some time to look at how you begin your sessions. Decide whether or not this issue of starting out in maniac-mode might be something that is negatively affecting your win rate -- not just at the beginnings of sessions, but overall.

If you do seem to be having an issue with "false starts," one step to help manage this problem is to train yourself to spend a little time thinking about the game before you sit down to play. In fact, reviewing hand histories from a previous session -- say, looking at how you started the last time you played -- can be a great exercise to help ready yourself prior to taking those first hands when you do sit down.

Such is easier said than done, I know. Especially when we're talking about online poker where it only takes a mouse click or two to move from checking email to fighting the urge to open-raise from middle position with ace-rag. But just as a runner will stretch for several minutes prior to hitting the pavement in order to prevent injury, so, too, might you consider at least a few minutes of mental "warming up" before sitting down to play.

Even after reading over hands -- or, say, doing something else to get mentally ready such as reviewing a chapter in a favorite strategy book -- you might still sit down and find the conditions favorable to start getting randy with raises right away. But chances are, if you have taken that time beforehand to "warm up," you'll be making those plays more consciously and thus increase the likelihood of their being successful.

That is to say, try to manage those "false starts" in such a way that gives you a better chance to "run better."

Or at least prevents you from falling on your face right out of the starting blocks.

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