Tommy Angelo talks about “lopping off your C game”. In other words, recognizing when you are playing at your lower performance levels and are not playing your “A” game or even your “B” game.

The idea is to stop or to not start when you feel you are not at your best. If you can avoid playing your C poker game then your overall results will improve. For example, your analysis of your poker hand histories tells you that you win 8 BBs/100 playing your A game, 5 BBs/100 with your B game and 2 BBs/100 with your C game. If you focused on only playing your A and B games your average would go up, perhaps to 6 or 7 BBs/100, but at least better than 5.

Two tricks to it. One is being self-reviewing enough to figure out when and how your C game usually takes over. It could be when you’re tired, already angry or frustrated, muli-tabling too much, or after losing a big hand to a bad player. Different people react differently, so what causes your C game will be different from what are the most common causes for someone else’s C game.

The other trick is recognizing the situation when it arises, and then a third may even be actually stopping or not playing. This can also be tough, especially when it’s something like losing a big pot when your bad opponent has a better hand than you expect, or he sucks out on you. Or playing too long, but the table is juicy. You tell yourself not to tilt, or to hang on just a little longer to get some money from the fish but doing so in either case may be fruitless.

This came to mind for me today. While watching NFL games on Sunday I thought I’d go to the site where I sillily deposited $10 thinking I was getting a special $50 bonus. Over time I had built this balance up to $19. Why I like to have a site where I play micro-micro stakes or play underrolled for the site when I don’t have to on PokerStars or Full Tilt is beyond me sometimes, but I do. Anyway, I opened up two 0.05/0.10 6 max No Limit Hold’em poker tables while following the football game.

The play was bad, but I didn’t play well.

• TT UTG, raise, 3-bet by MP. The table was very loose aggressive but I neglected to check this players stats. He was loose, but not aggressive; 60/3. I flat called, then check-raised a low flop. He reraised and I pushed; he had AA.
• 77 in the BB, UTG (100/70 stats!) raises, gets called all around, flop is T72 with a flush draw, SB who has almost no chips shoves, I min-raise, MP calls. Turn is a T. I have a boat, but stupidly I make a 1/3 pot bet, MP folds. I’m repping a T on the flop, I expect him to have the flush draw but even a 2 or underpair given the way this table plays. I can’t bet that turn. The chances of him having anything worthwhile is tiny, I’ve got almost the nuts, beat the flush draw, and I’ve been too quiet to make it seem like I’m stealing.

I also paid off one player twice not believing what he had, and got sucked out on by a Q3s that called my CRAI (check raise all in) on an Ace high flop chasing his flush draw that filled on the river. Only good hand was QQ raised UTG; two loose-aggressive players raised/called behind me and I shoved, getting called by A7o and doubling up.

The point of all this? A while back I did well building a small bankroll at another site by playing these types of games but I played for only 20-30 minutes at a time no mater what because of time restrictions that occurred for me at the time of day. This time I played too long; probably 2 hours while watching the game. It cost me almost nothing; $16, though that’s almost the entire bankroll there.

A few lessons from this session:

1. One is that it cost me $16 by not playing my A game. No big deal given my overall bankroll but I probably could have done something else. Mind you, I rarely play my A game when I play these situations, but it wasn’t even my B game. I probably started at B and dropped to C and lower after playing too long.
2. Another is not to impose table characteristics to individuals, eg. I should have paid more attention to the 3-bet preflop from the non-aggressive player.
3. And the other is from my CRAI; the other player should not have assumed that I play like he does. Either that, or he just likes to gamble thinking either he might catch an Ace, or a 7 if I held AK, or he just won’t back down.

In one sense I knew that I wasn’t going to play my A game, so I mitigated the damage by playing where I knew the players were bad. On the other hand, I could have found something even cheaper to play.

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