My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

I've been making a living playing poker full time for 1.5 years and am mostly playing 2/4NL-5/10NL now.

For some reason I still am willing to pay people off on the river sometimes largely to feed my own curiosity. I "know" I am behind, but still call for a few hundred dollars. I avg a few hundred dollars an hour so it doesn't seem like a lot of money to me, but when I look back on it It is TONS.

It is a really odd feeling. Like my logic just completely shuts down and I make entirely emotional decisions. Afterwards it is like I get thrown back to earth.

It doesn't happen anywhere near enough to make me a fish but I bet it would add 1-2PTBB/100 if I could control this.

I've thought "JUST DONT DO IT" but somehow occasionally when the situation comes up it still happens. It feels beyond rational thought

thoughts?/sympathies?

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

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I avg a few hundred dollars an hour

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Is this even humanly possible at these limits? Golly I think perhaps it's time I learn NLH

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

I easily get rid of these tendencies

Think, raise or fold.

If you are really really really close to raising, then call. Otherwise fold.

If you start saying that word that rhymes with call, then you are destined to lose, or win less than you should.

Most times when i make a crying call on the river, the chippies to towards my opponents. Thinking in terms of raising or folding, makes sure i dont pay off my opponents, while keeping my aggroness up!

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

Sometimes when my friends watch me play I shake my head and say something like "wow, running flush again" and I end up paying off a bet in limit and see the flush. My friends just ask me why I didn't fold if I was so sure.

It doesn't just happen when people watch, a lot of times I pay off when I'm 85%+ sure I'm beat, just to make sure my read is good. Gotta stop doing that, the above post was a good one and I'll start thinking along those lines.

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

nothing constructive to add, but yep, I do this too

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

Sounds a lot like me, good thing I play minbet which means you never have to fold the river as long as your hand contains at least one picture.

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

its the short term vs long term problem.

in the short term, its only one call, and you know if your read was right, meh, at least you were spot on, whereas if you fold, you'll never know.

this situation can repeat itself many times, especially when you know there is a chance he is bluffing.

i try to conquer it by saying to myself 'i am now good enough to make these folds, fold and move on'. but still, when you've been grinding for 3 hours and are fairly breakeven, i find it easier to make these calls becuase i just want to win some bucks - utility of winning $ is greater then of losing $ when been grinding for ages.

Re: My degenerate tendancies....anyone have similar?
 

i have trouble folding medium strength hands against uber donks

YEAH, BUT..................
 

What about the times you make the call and win? We tend to forget about that side of it since we think we are so smart. Paying off on the end can be winning poker too, although some times we feel like an idiot when we do that.
Things are not so obvious as we think, so if you are making a few hundred dollars an hour, I don't read this is a problem. It is just the cost of doing business.

Re: YEAH, BUT..................
 

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What about the times you make the call and win? We tend to forget about that side of it since we think we are so smart. Paying off on the end can be winning poker too, although some times we feel like an idiot when we do that.
Things are not so obvious as we think, so if you are making a few hundred dollars an hour, I don't read this is a problem. It is just the cost of doing business.

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I'm not talking about this at all....I'm talking about calling out of curiosity and wanting to gamble not pot odds.