Playing Break-even Poker

Don't you just hate it when you've played a good number of games, and you check your stats, and realize that you've just been playing break even poker for the past few weeks.

For a grinder who plays a huge number of games, this is acceptable because of rakeback. But for myself and my limited number of games, rakeback is very small and negligible. So playing breakeven feels like a waste of time.

This is exactly the situation I find myself in July. Nothing really special. No big win streaks, no big losses either.

Of course, its better than losing. But at least when you're losing, you're trying to actively find the leak and analyzing your hands. When you're coasting along winning some and then losing it back, its like you're lost in a maze and you don't know where to go.

You don't know if you want to change your current playing strategies as it could just be variance and your playing style is already optimal. Changing something might suddenly cause you to play sub-optimal.

I think this is where playing with a group of poker savvy friends become a benefit. At least you can show them your hands and let them analyze it to see if improvements can be made. Unfortunately, my group of friends are all beginners in this game so I have to wait and let them mature before I can even discuss hands with them.

Oh well, at least I'm not complaining about a really unlucky streak. Let's hope it picks up in the next few days. =)