The Part-Timer’s Predicament
Was chatting with a friend of mine who was telling me about some exasperating live sessions he’d recently played. In the most recent one, he’d been dealt an especially unfortunate beat that cost him a huge pot — one of those played-it-perfectly-and-got-screwed type of hands with which we’re all familiar.
In responding to his frustrations, I realized that one of the factors that might have made his recent bad run even more difficult to endure was the fact that my friend is a part-time player. In other words, that one huge pot he had lost during the recent session meant a hell of a lot, percentage-wise, since he only had a limited number of hands to play for that session. Getting your money in good then being crushed by some improbable runner-runner is never fun. But when that hand is one of only 50 or 60 you’re getting to play — and the one pot worth as much or more than all the others combined with which yr involved that night — your misfortune (perhaps) becomes even harder to accept.
I’ve read a number of poker books that talk about dealing with losing and like issues — including Dr. Schoonmaker’s recent books on psychology — but I can’t recall ever coming across discussions that specifically address concerns of particularly relevance to part-time players. There are probably a number of other issues part-time players routinely face that the pros don’t, yet there doesn’t seem to have been a lot written about the subject.
I suspect most PokerSift readers fall into the category of the part-time player — i.e., those who have other obligations limiting the amount of time they can play. What other issues would you say part-time players tend to face more directly than do full-timers/pros? (And how do you guys deal with ’em?)
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Comments
Playing on tilt I would think…I see a lot of pros/semipros that, when they take a bad beat, they sit out a few hands, take a walk, whatever.
The amateurs usually jump right back in there, still muttering to themselves, and play at least a few hands rather spewy/tilty. I think this is once again because they can only play x amount of hands and they don’t want to sit out any of them.
I think playing too many hands…when they wait all week for their 2 hours of poker solace, they don’t keep folding just because they get bad cards or have bad situations
I fall into this category and I have to deal with the bad beats that set me back but I don’t think it hurts as much when you are properly rolled for a level that you are playing. The other issue that part time players face is game selection.
Take me for instance; I have about 6-7 hours a week to play. I try to play 6-8 tables of NL100 to make the most of my time. I will load up my current medium size room and find only 6 tables and 3 of them are VP$IP of 13-17%. Do I throw game selection out the window because I don’t have time to play later in the day? Or do I force myself to play in a bad situation.
I normally just decide not to play and I feel that is a HUGE strength versus other causal players who force the issue and play at tough tables because that is their time to play.
I feel this is more important in the long run then losing one big hand!