Thursday, June 12, 2008

Having to regulate myself...again...

Bull$hit like this.....(I had a great read on this guy and knew I had him crushed based on previous history)



cause graphs like this...



When I'm playing well, I'm playing real well. But I'm like a firecracker, one bad beat or questionable play by my opponent...and BOOOOM. As you review the graph, notice how it is like a roller coaster?

Fortunately, I know the problem. A recent post by Leatherass on his Stoxpoker blog (is that site worth joining by the way?), discusses how poker is essentially two elements: the tools to play the game and the mental capabilities to master it. When he discusses the mental capabilities, he starts referring to sports psychology and the ability to think through difficult situations or while being under immense pressure. In the realm of poker, newbs like me feel immense pressure that they must immediately earn back what was wrongfully taken from them. That pressure blocks our abilities to think clearly and move on to the next hand. This is known as tilt.

So improving our mental game will improve our results assuming we know most of the poker basics. Sounds easy, right?

Ha...I wish. I know enough to stop playing once tilt starts to set in (obviously still need to stand up just a tad quicker based on the graph above). My problem is learning how to prevent tilt in the first place.

I have a limited time frame in which I can play each night (about 2 hours after work until fiance gets home). I don't want to have to sit out for half of it because I can't control my emotions.

Leatherass mentions that in order to succeed you need to have a pre-session routine that gets you in the right frame of mind. I'm going to try that. Here will be my routine:

1) Load up a full 6max table with at least 3 players with 3/4ths to full buy-ins. Start data-mining it and join the wait list.

2) Re-read a sheet of favorite posts I have created that describes the rules to be a successful online poker player (corny...yes, effective? we'll try anything once)

OMG !!!! AS I WAS TYPING THIS:




FUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I hate nights like this.

Stop-loss at 5 buy-ins now hit for the night. The two beats now posted and then two coinflips of QQ vs AK (ace on river after getting it all in on turn on all undercard board) and JJ vs AK (4 card flush, runner runner style, all-in preflop). So pissed right now can't even finish this post.

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So took a 5 minute break to take the puppy out to piss. Came back and made back most of my losses in less than 10 minutes. Sick sick game we play. Sick sick game.

DubsPoke

3 comments:

  1. Yes, I believe StoxPoker is worth it.

    I posted some free videos from Stox on my blog a while back. I'm not sure if they are still avaialable; but should help you make up your mind.

    http://will-wonka.blogspot.com/2008/01/mr-irrelevant-and-free-poker-videos.html

    Feel free to click on my SToxpoker banner, if you decide to join.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, just found your blog, it's a really good read. Those hands are nasty but getting your money in good is all you can do. Good luck building the roll!

    ReplyDelete