[Absolution]

There is an article here somewhere in the magazine about the stages a poker player goes through. I think it goes something like this for most people, although I skipped stage one:

1) Get to know the game, play too loose, call down too much and eventually start to lose money.
2) Start to study and understand why you are losing money. Tighten up and start winning a small amount.
3) Continue to study and loosen up a bit to push marginal edges and make more money.
4) Start to think you're an expert and loosen up even more, thinking you will outplay everybody post flop. You realize that poker is one long session and that you're just having a bad run. You continue to lose.
5) You realize you've gone too far the other way and go back to studying and tighten up again.