pH imbalance

My winning streak came to an end last night. In hindsight, I should have shut up about it until it was over! I've mentioned before in this blog about the need to have a certain amount of poker hubris in order to do well; it's a very fine line. Let's call poker hubris pH for short. Not enough pH, and you won't be able to demonstrate the requisite amount of willingness to your opponents. Too much pH, and you end up making inexplicable bets and hemorrhaging chips. Last night, I had too much pH; way too much.

On one hand at the first table I joined, I lost $20K after leading most of the betting rounds with essentially nothing. Looking back over the hand, I honestly can't fathom what I was thinking, if I was thinking at all. The only positive takeaway I have from last night's session is that I correctly folded a lot of hands before the flop.

Another detrimental result of my pH imbalance was that I decided to join a second table after hitting the felt at the first, even though deep down I knew it wasn't my night and that this was a bad idea. The problem with impaired judgment is that it compounds; you can't judge that you're using bad judgment when your whole judgment apparatus is out of whack. I hit the felt much more quickly at the second table. Even my impaired judgment was able to recognize the wisdom of calling it a night at that point.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 85 hands and saw flop:
- 10 out of 14 times while in big blind (71%)
- 4 out of 12 times while in small blind (33%)
- 36 out of 59 times in other positions (61%)
- a total of 50 out of 85 (58%)
Pots won at showdown - 3 of 13 (23%)
Pots won without showdown - 9

delta: $-80,000
balance: $1,223,010