My Love Relationship With Tightness

I needed to be a rock. Within the ‘80s and ‘90s, to be referred to as a rock was the best achievement in poker. I craved that badge of honor, and the promised riches. A rock was a strong participant, imperturbable, aggressive, fearless, and above all − tight. The participant who mastered tightness additionally mastered endurance. And again then, endurance was championed as a very powerful trait as a result of few individuals had it and you possibly can not be a profitable participant with out it. Tightness was endurance. Tightness was cash. Tightness was freedom.

I’d been enjoying loosey-goosey poker for 10 years in low-stakes dwelling video games earlier than I even discovered what a rock was. I didn’t know I used to be a unfastened participant as a result of I’d by no means met a decent one. After which, once I lastly noticed tightness in motion in Vegas, and I began studying about it in poker books, I felt like I had discovered one million {dollars}.

A number of years later, my tightness was tight sufficient to earn a residing. And after that, I did make one million {dollars} enjoying poker, grinding mid-stakes reside money video games for 20 years. I made all that cash, week after month after 12 months, although I by no means performed as tight as I assumed I ought to. Not for greater than a pair hours at a time. Which meant I may have made tens of 1000’s extra {dollars} per 12 months, yearly. And that reality bugged the shit out of me, 12 months after disappointing 12 months.

Whereas that was occurring, the video games saved getting harder, and by that I imply tighter. And I saved getting tighter too, proper alongside the enhancing world, such that my earn price stayed the identical.

That takes us as much as ten years in the past, in 2009, once I started an experiment primarily based on this considerably foolish query:

What’s the tightest I may play at NLHE and nonetheless earn the 10BB/hour I’d been making all alongside?

For instance, if I folded 99% of my palms earlier than the flop, no quantity of expertise and spidey sense may flip a revenue. Similar with 98%, and 97%, and so forth, till… ?

The reply landed on me like a giant fats duh. I may and will play precisely as tight as I did throughout the hours once I thought I used to be enjoying tight sufficient, after which by no means differ from that, like, ever. No extra gaps in consistency, no extra preflop leakage, in anyway, as outlined by me.

I took a vow.

And right here’s three explanation why…

To show to myself I may do it

I’m aggressive, however solely internally. Enjoying poker is like going {golfing} on my own. I plop a shot into the pond. I chip one in from the perimeter. None of it issues as a result of there’s nobody else there. I can beat myself up over unhealthy photographs, or not. I want not.

I take the identical strategy at poker. I’m at all times making an attempt to play a little bit higher than earlier than, but when I don’t, that’s okay. And since I’m solely competing towards myself, I can invent challenges, at poker, and golf. Perhaps I’ll play the subsequent gap utilizing nothing however a 5-iron for each shot. Or possibly I’ll putt with my eyes closed. One time I took on an enormous problem. I went {golfing} on my own and for some loopy cause I made a decision to hold my golf bag (as an alternative of renting a cart as ordinary). It was a hilly course. I went dwelling after six holes.

At poker, the last word problem can be to play completely leaklessly ceaselessly. It’d be like a climber taking over Everest, or a swimmer crossing the Channel, or a sleep-deprived golfer lugging a floppy 35-pound bag round whereas enduring slopes and daylight. Even when one doesn’t climb the mountain or survive 9 holes, there may be honor within the try.

To by no means once more really feel the ache of leaking

What does it imply to play leakless poker? To me, it means following my very own guidelines. Earlier than I may actually and precisely consider my leaks, I must set bars for particular beginning palms in particular conditions, and say that if I performed any palms worse than the bars I had set, then that was a leak. What I’m speaking about right here is exterminating my small leaks, the gray-area leaks, those that creep up and add up. Having well-defined leaks is a prerequisite for leaklessness.

Leaking had grow to be extra painful than shedding. Painlessness would require leaklessness, so within the quest for painless, I had no alternative however to purpose for leakless.

To prep for dotage

Once I took the vow, I used to be 50 years outdated, and my cogs had been already displaying indicators of slippage. To trip off into the poker sundown − to have an edge in each sport ceaselessly − I would want my sport to be easy, strong, and spunky. That was my finest shot at remaining worthwhile.

So in 2009, I took a shot at terminal tightness. And I managed to climb the primary foothill. I went to Vegas and I performed poker for 5 days, eight hours a day, and I received the interior competitors towards myself. I didn’t leak as soon as earlier than the flop, and it wasn’t even that tough to do, as a result of I’d been working as much as it my complete life.

Now it’s 2019, and to date so good. I haven’t been an ideal rock these final ten years, however fairly damned shut.

However what of creativity? And aptitude? In case you solely play sure ranges in sure conditions, then the place is the crafty? And daring? And outmaneuvering your opponents?

All of that enjoyable stuff is and ever shall be central to my sport. I’m a gunslinger. It’s simply that now I don’t shoot as typically. The energy of my beginning palms, on common, is at an all-time excessive, as is the proportion of streets on which I act final. As a result of my bullets are optimally worthwhile, I don’t want to fireside as many.

Throughout most of my lengthy relationship with tightness, we had been simply holding palms. Now it’s a full embrace. And I need to say, it was well worth the wait, and the work.