Nick is a cash game player, content creator and part of 888poker’s Stream Team. Each week he shares his thoughts and experiences as a player dedicated to the daily grind. This week he faces up to an unexpected realization: his game might actually be improving…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken about some of the key moments from my run in the 2024 WSOP Main Event, specifically the biggest fold and most insane bluff of my life. It’s over the course of these articles, and through my experience playing this year’s showpiece, that I have stumbled upon something of a revelation: I’m pretty sure I’m not as bad at this game as I thought.
If you follow any of my content, you’ll be aware that 90% of it is self-deprecating and full of criticism of my own play. I think the majority of this is justifiable, and since I certainly don’t put as much into improving my game as I should, there are clear weak spots that are fairly easy to identify.
One area I have been especially critical of is my tournament play. I rarely venture into any in-depth MTT analysis, and tend to lean on the various (potentially flawed) principles I’ve been introduced to over the course of my career in cash games. Most notably, I have little to no knowledge of how to manage a short stack, other than the seemingly obvious spots.
Thankfully the WSOP Main Event is the deepest structure in the world, and a lot of time is spent navigating deep-stacked situations. I have a decent amount of experience through the live cash game arena, which regularly plays around 300 big blinds deep, if not deeper, particularly in the UK. I think the fact that I spent very little time short-stacked in this Main Event has potentially led to a false dawn of belief in myself, but since I am very rarely positive about my abilities, I’m choosing to run with it.
Changing as a player
I played a lot of very uncomfortable spots this year, particularly in the first level of the tournament. Having negotiated all of them, some better than others, and reflecting on these hands with players I believe to be much better than myself, the consensus has been fairly positive. Of course whenever you fold kings preflop in any situation, even if it is Day 1 of the Main Event, there’s going to be some raised eyebrows, but even that decision wasn’t born of fear.
I remember when I first began playing more live poker after the pandemic, feeling panicked and rushed almost every time, often leading to a cloudy and sometimes non-existent thought process. If I compare those times to now, it’s a night and day difference. I feel completely capable of composing myself and reaching the best decisions possible, even if that might end up being a mistake.
I think I’ve realized that I’ve spent so long beating myself up and being self-critical, that I never gave myself a chance to notice that I actually might have improved along the way. Be that theoretically, exploitatively or just in my ability to calmly follow a good thought process, I’m without doubt a different and better player. I’m certainly not polished, but this Main Event was the first time I was noticing simple, sometimes glaring, mistakes from my opponents, and punishing them accordingly.
A new mentality?
When I take a step back to reflect on it, it’s no wonder that I’m feeling better about my game. I’ve played a lot of huge live events with 888poker, and grinded both online and live almost full time for three years. I’ve had access to the best training sites in the business, and been lucky enough to have the support and coaching of some of the most respected players in the game. In fact, if I hadn’t improved, it would be a pretty sorry state of affairs.
I’m certainly not as good as I should be but, for the first time in my career, I don’t think I’m a waste of space, and that’s genuine progress for me. They always say it’s crucial to be honest with yourself about your own game, and not tie the evaluation of your skills to results. That’s really important when it comes to ignoring leaks and bad play, but it goes both ways: if you’ve made improvements, that’s something to be acknowledged too, and even celebrated.
So who knows? Maybe this is the start of a new mentality that could translate into results sooner rather than later. Or maybe I’ll just spectacularly punt off the Main Event at 888LIVE Manchester next month and I’ll be back to lambasting myself on a daily basis.
Only time will tell.
Follow Nick on X, Instagram, Twitch and his YouTube channel.
Additional image courtesy of 888poker/Gema Cristobal.
