Superstitions and poker

Hello all. Welcome back. I'm a bit reluctant to post. Why? Silly superstition.

I haven't been posting much on the forums or here. Instead I've been playing. And winning. I've noticed that when I'm posting and playing, I tend to be distracted and not do so hot. I started to post a bit again on a forum, and my BR took a -$650 swing. Thank goodness I was already up big. It took a chunk out but I'm still up for the year. More importantly, I'm up since July 1.

What's the significance of July 1? Well, that's the day that I battened down the hatches and decided to be a more serious player. If you've been reading me for a while, you know that I tend to move around a lot between games and levels. I've also been known to make a fancy play or ten. After I got back from my Vegas trip, I decided to heed some advice. Thanks to Predator and Virge, I have become a winning amateur player. And with the stakes I play, that's saying something.

What changed? I had a semi-epiphany, if you want to call it something. Virge told me that he "hated to play with me because I was too fancy". He made me think. I went back and looked at how much money I was losing making "fancy plays" like check-raising with air. Granted, there are definitely times to do this, but I was doing it way too much in all the wrong spots. Dammit, Virge was right. I took that as a good time to fix those leaks that I've had.

Predator got me more into PLO8. I've been playing nothing but the Turbos over on Stars. I've worked my way up from the $16 level into the $60s with a nice ROI. I have taken a few shots at the $114s even. Right now my bread and butter are the $38s, $60s, and still some $16s. The $27s are poison for some reason. I haven't figured that one out, yet.

So with the two advisers off I went. Losing the fancy plays was tougher than focusing on a single game. I still pull a boneheaded move and raise with a straight out of position with 2 of a suit out there, but I'm getting better. I've started to get comfy 3-tabling. I'm playing enough to maintain a Silver status. I'm finally happy with my poker career.

Let's just hope that I didn't just jinx it. I'll cya at the tables.