Patience in No-Limit Holdem

"No-Limit Poker is hours of utter boredom mixed with moments of sheer terror.

No-Limit Holdem is a game of patience. Patience in waiting for the right hand. Patience in waiting for the right board. Patience in waiting for the right time to make the right move. It's part of my problem with this damn game...

Said, woman, take it slow
It'll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
Said, sugar, make it slow
And we come together fine
All we need is just a little patience
(patience)
Mm, yeah

When you play limit holdem, aggression is king, just as it is in NL. In limit, you value bet every last miniscule edge of equity. It's a game where someone like me (a hyper aggressive type) can just beat the opposition into submission, beat them (usually) to the point where they just can't imagine calling off another $20 to try and catch a 3-outer (even though the less-evolved actually do that--and have the balls to make their hand). NL is a game based more on patience, and yes, getting your money in with the best of it.

I been walking the streets at night
just tryin' to get it right
hard to see with so many around
you know I don't like
being stuck in the crowd
and the streets don't change
but baby the name
I ain't got time for the game...

The difference in NL is that there are so many more plays to make, so many more ways to bluff at something, so many more angles. Implied odds turn the game into a downstream thinking game, much like chess, whereas in LHE, many decisions are based on pot odds, then and there, with implied odds a distant second. I've come to realize that NLHE, while at it's basics is stupifyingly simple, is truly a game complex in both its many thought processes and it's many levels that those processes exist on.

It's not as simple as ABC. It's just not enough to make a move--you (as mentioned previously) have to be mindful of why you make the move, and of exactly what you hope to accomplish with said move downstream. Not just on the next street--on the next street, and even the next hand.

So, let's review. NLHE is a game where you can set up moves for a whole session with moves you make in one hand. It's a game where you not only need to master the thought of what's happening now, but what's going to happen 2 cards and 2 betting rounds from now. Add on top of that the whole fish factor, and...

Damn. This is a tough game.

Current State of the Shark:

Playing somewhat scared. Not of losing bankroll, but of monsters under the bed. Usually a trip to the Taj tends to restore confidence in my game, but all it did for me was re-affirm that sometimes, yes, Virginia, there are indeed monsters under the bed. Big hairy ones, with scales, flippers, and for Chrissakes, green friggin teeth... As I mentioned in the trip report , it starts to suck when you think, "naah, he can't have _________ (insert suckass hand here)," but that little buzzer is going off, so you lay down your made hand to see that in fact, yes, he does have ________(insert same suckass hand here). How many players do you know that can lay down top set in LHE on the flop? All for an appropriate fear of monsters under the bed. It takes the fun out of the game when you just have that feeling that it just isn't your day--and it turns out to not be your day.

I know it's just a correction or something like that, but it seems like playing scared makes me less effective of a player (really--no shit), and it makes me not enjoy the game I have come to love.

Remember, though, in the end, it's just poker.