The Pitfalls Of Running Good

I guess most of these things are true, but I also think they are not as bad as they sound.

If you are running good, the opponents are frequently intimidated, and they try to avoid you. This means that you’ll win a lot of pots with not-so-good cards, and even your worst bluffs will often succeed.

Another factor: when you’re running good, your opponents run bad, and a bad run will affect even seasoned veterans. They will make more mistakes, lamenting over past hands.

Of course, all good runs end sooner or later, and then you’ll have to be switch back to cautious mode.

Ed; very good article with good concepts. This brings to mind a fellow I have played with for 4-5 years, he is a good player plus he had been running better than the odds for his draws for about 3 years. He pushes hard with smaller and medium Pocket Pairs and for years he would hit sets more than anyone I have ever seen. He started expecting to keep hitting like that. He is now running with the odds and losing he doesn’t understand and has failed to adjust to reality. One night stick as a classic he was getting a lot of pocket pairs and his Pet move is to over bet by a factor of 4-5 times. The whole table knew what was going on so rather than players folding or getting one caller he would get 4 or 5 and he lost a pile. He kept up with his pet play despite the fact players had changed to attack it.

Beware the reverse tilt. Hubris will get you every time. And still, it is good to be reminded of this.