Post #4: Sit in the Seat Mentality
A reflection on a previous stable trip with a different stable. One of the most eye-opening discussions I've had in order to understanding the importance of volume.
“You’ll do great, all you have to do is sit in the seat.” This statement is one that will be kept with me for the duration of my entire life. Whether it’s poker or not, the idea of “sitting in the seat” will always be relevant to myself and my current/future endeavors.
In November 2019, I went on a trip to the Hollywood Hard Rock with people who are now my lifelong friends to play some live 2/5. I met them through the coaching stable I was in at the time, and actually had a hot start to my November online results, winning 15bi at 200z over 10k hands. Sunrunning and having the utmost confidence in myself, I originally declined going on the trip, even though it was only a 30 minute uber to hang out with other “stakees” and my previous coach who is only a few months older than I am, but has played poker for about 4 years now. He has moved up to playing in the biggest live games available (as big as 100/200) and plays the highest stakes available to US online players. However, almost if fate had a role in me going on this trip regardless of how I initially felt about it, I lost 20bi the weekend before it was scheduled. Deflated, I instantly typed in the group chat, “Alright guys, I’m going. Got smashed in zoom, time to play some live cash.”
For all intents and purposes, this was the first “stable trip” I have been on and one of the earliest poker trips as well. Fourteen days of better cash games due to the tournament series was the perfect thing to get me off of my online monotony and mix it up in the slow moving, social game of live poker. As you probably know, it’s much easier to translate an online skillset to the live arena, than it is to go from live to online. Additionally, with the understanding of the meta-game and realizing what’s going on, a fundamentally sound online player with a good pulse for the table can be ruthless. The win-rate available in the live arena are such that could never be replicated online. With live crushers winning at around 10-15bb per hour at 2/5 through table selection, time of play, and massive exploitation, their BB/100 rates are immense. Online players could never achieve these win-rates due to the nature of the games and disparity in skill. In a sense, this live poker trip was a vacation to me from my daily online routine of loading up 4 zoom tables and playing 3k-5k hands per day. I was excited to play 2/5 1k cap games as well, because I was playing 200nl (1/2 online) at the time, so this was effectively a game with 5x the leverage. I took some shots at 2/5 before this trip, so I’ve had some prior experience, but nowhere near close enough to really say I was a “2/5 player.” I had a nervous excitement for the ability to have this opportunity, but was scared I wasn’t going to succeed and be able to turn a profit.
The trip was for roughly two weeks, where eight of us got an airbnb and were there to wake up, go to the casino, and make the most of the tournament series cash games going on. I got to the airbnb and as soon as I had my first conversation with my coach, that’s when I heard the statement, “Just sit in the seat, and you’ll do great.” I never really thought much about the value of playing poker itself, I just knew that I loved playing poker, and always have had fun at the live tables because of the social aspect, as well as knowing how soft the games are that I’ll be able to perform well given my online background. I thought that if I grinded enough and put in the volume, I’ll be able to reach my goals of not only being financially stable through poker, I could reach the stakes I wanted to, with enough hard work and learning. I didn’t do calculations of my win-rate and the volume I put in, I just played and downloaded my hands and looked at the graph move upwards incrementally over time. I didn’t understand the EV I was making by being a winning player, regardless of how the session ended up. Hearing this whole “sit in the seat” idea made me realize that as long as I’m in the game, in action, I’m able to generate my EV, and through enough time, that EV will manifest itself (granted I actually am a winning player in the stakes I’m playing).
During the trip, I played long sessions for most days, racking up over 100 hours of play and winning $4151, basically getting myself out of the makeup I garnered from getting smashed in the zoom pool the week before. I was proud of my results, but I was still always nervous prior to playing, because I didn’t want to effectively make mistakes at higher stakes. I thought I was going to be able to play as perfect as I could and make all the right decisions. Never pay off a river, or always get my bluffs through, but obviously my play wasn’t “fantasy land,” and I made a bunch of mistakes. After coming home to the airbnb after getting smashed in one of these sessions, I was told the following, “It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them. Don’t let them get you down, just be able to take away the important parts on why what you did was a mistake, and move on.” In the live environment, most of the time playing an aggressive strategy will work out well, due to the averseness of risk the majority of the pool operates under. Therefore, when I sent HH to my group, I was constantly told I should be checking in some spots, instead of betting, even though I got the desired result of getting folds. While winning the hand is all well and good, being able to take the lesson of the mistake and leaving behind the irrelevant result is paramount.
I grew up during this trip. I spent two weeks with players who’ve been in the game for much longer than I have, with each of them gaining success in their own right. Whether they were playing 5/10/25 PLO with a rock, or chilling out at the airbnb 4 tabling 500-2k NL/PLO, I was able to get a lot of my questions answered on how to succeed and elevate through the ranks in poker. I didn’t necessarily “profit” due to makeup, I learned a valuable lesson of being able to get myself in the proverbial (and in poker, the literal) seat and generating the EV, versus trying to book a “winner” every session. Even now, I’m not the best at this, when I win 5bi+ at 200nl/500nl, I feel like my job is “done,” for the day; the truth of the situation is I’m leaving EV on the table, regardless of whether I’m going to regress to my true win-rate or not during the session. I’ve still got to grow up and slowly reach a professional mindset in the game of poker, but I’m still enamored in the learning process that I don’t take it as seriously as I possibly could. However, that’s another post for another time.
Onwards and upwards.