Other than the occasional tournament, I’ve been playing mixed games almost exclusively for the last month or so…with well-above-expectation success. In a run of about 20 sessions, I was around 11 BB/hour over a total of about 50 hours of play (probably just shy of 3k hands). That’s running good, but I’m also finding some truly abhorrent levels of play. If you play a lot of 5/10 or 10/20 limit Hold’em, you’ll find maybe 10-15% bad players. In a HORSE session at those limits, the percentage is closer to 50%. I’ll be sure to post some hands in the near future which go to prove my point: if you’re limiting yourself to Hold’em, you’re missing out of most of the profitability remaining in online poker.

With success, though, comes a sense of entitlement. My last two sessions have been losing ones. Some of that is just about missing draws, especially in Stud 8/b…bricking the river to a flush and/or straight draw for the high as well as a baby for the low is an expensive way to play. But I’ve always been giving some opponents less-than-due credit. Sometimes people are going to make the right read that their 10-low in Razz or split Aces in Stud have been good the whole way. Sometimes people are good poker players and worthy adversaries.

Putting my confession down in words that I’ve let my head get away from me, and not giving credit where credit is due, will hopefully get me out of that habit. Play the players, good and bad, and keep your head on straight.