Today I played 1824 hands. And total progress is 4560 of 500k hands done.
I watched a podcast that Joey Ingram did with poker legend Barry Greenstein, this was some time ago. There Barry talked about him short stacking, buying in at the minimum buyin at cash games, just for psychological reasons. He just did not want that feeling of being stuck in the beginning of the session as I understood it.
When I heard about this first I directly thought that the pros that I have been talking with so far in my poker years, would have frowned upon this idea. That's also how Joey commented it. Barry explained that he always stayed at the table, and usually held on until last. So it was not as he doubled up and left, like a hit and run.
I wanted to try this thing out just for fun. Was there a difference in mindset when doing this? I usually buyin for 100bb but bought in for 40bb. I did have one of those hands that is super annoying to have as a the first hand. I had a straight and my opponent had a set. We fast played the flop, in it went and the board paired on the river. But afterwards it felt good. Hmmm. And the rest of the session felt really good and I did well.
I should have wanted there to be as much money as possible involved in that pot since I got it in as a favorite. But my mind kind of reacted on the result, and when losing in that situation only 40bb and not 100bb that made me feel good. Yes, I realize my brain does not truly understand long term good after all these years. Good to know.
I don't know if I will continue the short stacking but it was an interesting observation. People don't really care at this stake, and there are lots of short stacks. It's like up-voting your own posts here at Steemit. Is it ok? Is it not ok? I don't know.
But I think I will continue starting my sessions with shorter stacks for a while. I often think critically about what people advice me to do, but sometimes I just have to try things out before I rule it out. Maybe later I will rule it out though. Poker is so much about psychology.