Why do I suck on Friday nights?

[sternroolz]

Others have mentioned bluffing and if you play live I agree.

Weekend games are looser/gamb00ler type games. Fridays, the fish are at the end of the workweek and blowing off steam.

If you play a LAGGY style of play, that may work during the week when you can push the many weak tighties off lots of hands. However, this style of play gets its butt kicked at full tables that are loose where someone will call you down no matter what.

You need to drastically alter your game to TAG or simply quit playing on weekends.

[HSB]

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Maybe try one of the following:

2. Try moving up stakes on friday just to try and force more concentration... then move back down as needed.

F

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I like this idea. I have intentions of making a move up soon. I may play around a little more there on Fridays.

[HSB]

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You need to drastically alter your game to TAG or simply quit playing on weekends.

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I'm crushing saturdays and sundays, just have an issue with fridays.

[AKQJ10]

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2. Try moving up stakes on friday just to try and force more concentration... then move back down as needed.

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I'm pretty suspicious of solutions based around "Try moving up stakes when condition x", where condition x is some condition you think may adversely affect you.

If you think you have trouble on Fridays for whatever reason, it seems the only direction you'd want to move is down until you've isolated the problem. Playing for higher stakes when you think you're playing worse is how good players go broke.

I understand that because lack of focus is one proposed cause, moving up is thought to restore focus. But IMO it's unwise to posit a solution that might fix that one particular problem, but lose money if the problem is something different (say variance or OP struggling in LAG games). Just as you don't decide "He must have aces" and play your hand accordingly, but rather devise an approach against a range of hands, you also shouldn't decide "I must be losing focus" unless you really have reason to think that's the issue. You're combating a range of possible issues.

[HSB]

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You need to drastically alter your game to TAG or simply quit playing on weekends.

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I'm crushing saturdays and sundays, just have an issue with fridays.

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Of course I then go out and have a crappy saturday...

[HSB]

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2. Try moving up stakes on friday just to try and force more concentration... then move back down as needed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty suspicious of solutions based around "Try moving up stakes when condition x", where condition x is some condition you think may adversely affect you.

If you think you have trouble on Fridays for whatever reason, it seems the only direction you'd want to move is down until you've isolated the problem. Playing for higher stakes when you think you're playing worse is how good players go broke.

I understand that because lack of focus is one proposed cause, moving up is thought to restore focus. But IMO it's unwise to posit a solution that might fix that one particular problem, but lose money if the problem is something different (say variance or OP struggling in LAG games). Just as you don't decide "He must have aces" and play your hand accordingly, but rather devise an approach against a range of hands, you also shouldn't decide "I must be losing focus" unless you really have reason to think that's the issue. You're combating a range of possible issues.

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Excellent post, and I appreciate the input. However, three things suggest that it's a decent idea to try.

1) It does feel like loss of focus is the reason.
2) I do play tighter when I play at a higher level than I am used to.
3) I am perfectly capable of giving it a couple buy ins and going back to my regular game if it doesn't work.

[AKQJ10]

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3) I am perfectly capable of giving it a couple buy ins and going back to my regular game if it doesn't work.

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That is key. If you can discipline yourself to not stay too long, then you should be fine dabbling in bigger games.

That said, your sample size will be excruciatingly small, so it won't really prove much unless you start winning immediately and sustain it for a while.

[Goodnews]

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Nah, I don't have any friends.


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I think this is a more interesting problem.

[JJNJustin]

I usually have poor results on Friday and Saturday nights.
Maybe because all the suckers are out partying and the loser poker player nerd people have nothing to do when they are off work so they come and play cards. Maybe the party people have no parties to go to on the weekdays so they come and play poker.

-J

[TheHip41]

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A couple weeks ago I totalled up my wins and losses by day of the week for the past few months and discovered that Mondays and Fridays were big losers for me. Mondays I can understand as I often go to bed too late on Sunday and should probably just never play after getting no sleep and spending a day at work.

But Fridays?

I'm not drinking. Not particularly tired. It's not bad luck, I'm doing dumb crap like bluffing people who don't fold, and pushing with the idiot straight. I'm doing it tonight, and I did it last Friday. Granted, it's just two days but Criminy, I have lost almost half of what I won last night.

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probably just variance