Ok, this is a post asking for any advice on my game.
I think we all go through up and down periods, sometimes yes it's through bad-luck, bad-beats or maybe we happen to sit down with players who we fail to read. They may be poor players who outdraw you with no odds (annoying at the time but we like em really) or we get over confident and lose a hand to a good player who we've underestimated and we've got our thinking wrong.
I mainly play tourneys. I like the MTTs and the SnGs. I'm generally pretty tight at these and will loosen up/ play more aggressively as the field shortens.
I joined pokerstars recently intending to deposit $100 or so. My new drivers licence hasnt arrived yet so I couldnt deposit. Anyway, I swapped $11 with Sonnychiba and went form there. Playing small buyin sngs and mtts ( $5 and under with a couple of $10 sngs) I got my bankroll to $250+. I'd been playing a tight-aggressive game and I'm having pretty good success and have been pleased with my game on the whole.
I'm not sure what happend then. Over a week or so, I just couldnt seem to win an sng or get deep into in an mtt. I can be certain that I have had a bit of bad luck with the cards, missing my outs, getting in with the best and losing to worse etc but I'm wondering if it's more than that.
In the past I've not been an especially confident playing ring games and I tend to look for tourney play. I have been playing a bit more ring games in recent months. Have done ok at Jungle poker, making profit (5c nl usually) and maybe my game has srenthened in that area.
Back at Pokerstars my bad tourney results continued ( I actually seem to be making a better profit at Omaha HL and HORSE sngs than I am at NL right now)
Due to tourney server resets at pokerstars and also due to lack of time to play mtts this week, I've been playing some 5NL and 10NL ring games. I often enter two rooms with maximum buyins. I'm playing well and confidently, infact I felt at times that I've never played better. I'm not losing when I'm on a run of bad cards and I'm winning well if I'm getting good cards and often getting on a bit of a dominant
rush in these games, whilst staying tight and avoiding playing over-loosely or recklessly. I'm not winning big money but after losing around $50 at tourneys in a week, I've pulled my bankroll back to $245 in a handfull of ring games.
I'm feeling confident at this level with my ring play. Infact I considered moving up a level since I'm greedy and want twice the amount of cash for my wins! I'll resist this urge for now - well - at least until I've had a drink
( I hope I've learned my lesson and I tend not to drink now when playing poker) I've never felt so confident before at ring games. Not over-confident, I just feel I know where I am and what I'm doing, and it's working for the time being.
My main conceren is about my tourney play. I think it's quite possible that after a good set of results in late october and early november I have become over confident and have changed my style of play accordingly. I think it's crtainly the case that whilst I do still consider myself a generally tight-aggressive player (I can be tight-passive early in tourneys) I feel that its's possible that I have been playing more on the side of loose-aggressive because of over-confidence.
I will certainly allow a little looseness into my game at these recent ring games. Many of the tables may have 6 or less players and you are often gauranteed many preflop limpers. So I'm quite prepared to jump in with anything at times and lose players with strong play on the flop. I'm not playing 'loose' at all but with stack considerations and when I'm showing down good hands regaularly, I can allow these plays into my game with success.
As I said, I'm not playing 'loose' as such I'm still tight and not throwing money away on stupid calls and poor odds but in comparison to my usual TAG style I've been moving a little in the LAG direction at times.
There are two things that might account for this. One is that over-confidence in my tourneys has promted a change in my play and the other is I believe that making a determined effort to improve my heads-up play recently, has increased my willingness to play some hands/in some positions which I might usually have thrown away.
Now, back to my main point: I'm reluctant to play any sngs's at the moment. I'm profiting at ring games ( which was always a weakness for me) but Ive been on a poor run at SnGs and Tourneys. I seem to have lost some confidence that I'm going to win at tourneys. I would normally enter an mtt and I'm confident enough that I will be there in with a chance at bubble time. After just a week of bad results, I no longer have that feeling right now.
I've been trying to play through it, but I'm at the stage where I just don't want to enter an sng ( unless it's a omaha or horse, where my expectations arent as high and I'm playing for enjoyment) because I feel I will have bad luck or I feel my play isnt getting rewards. SnGs have always been my main earner and I'm worried about what is happening.
Possibly, a small bankroll is also effecting my play at tourneys now. If my cash is heading below $200 I'm getting nervous and if I see that line on my sharkscope graph heading down instead of up I'm getting a little concerned.
Anyhows, I guess this is all a bit of a ramble here but I felt there are some points I wanted to bring to light and ask for any views or advice that forum members may have.
In writing this, maybe I've made some things clearer to myself and answered a few of my own questions, which is good, but I'd be appreciative of any ideas that you may have as to what my next move should be.
I'm happy enough grinding away at the small ring games but I enjoy the tourneys and want to regain my confidence to play them. I'm only talking about a bad run of a week or so but it's dented me.
Where do I go from here? 
) stick with what you are doing.....stay at them levels for a while longer and then give stepping up another bash.....but leave the $10 alone for now and just stick to being successful at what you are doing......as for the MTT placings etc.....if you are playing expecting to win/make the money, then you need to change that ASAP.......as the best person in that game is the one with all the chips at the end......up until then.....you are all equal and no better or worse a player than the person sitting either side of you.
