Game played: only NLH 6max nl10. Graph doesn't need commenting:
Wassup guys,
As any other player, I am affected by tilt(and being a big donkey more than others), so it's no surprise it happened again and considerable portion of my little bankroll got wasted again yesterday. I did some thinking and came up with yet another plan how to improve my game and reduce tilt. I named it "10 day challenge". Here are the rules:
1. NO watching movies, NO games other than poker, NO facebook.
-very hard to keep this one and it's more like a punishment than challenge
2. Every day get up at 8am.
-perhaps the most difficult to keep. Huge, huge punishment.
3. Before each session 40 push-ups, 40 sit-ups, 12 biceps curls and short meditation
-can't stress how useful is this. Slapping oneself a few times before session is just not enough.
4. Play only 4 tables
- I usually play 6. The idea is to pay more attention to learning.
5. Everyday have a differnt session goal. For example day 1 is mastering the preflop game, mainly sticking up to exact opening, calling, raising ranges.
- and conciously paying special attention to current session goal throughout the entire session
6. Play at least 3 sessions a day.
-let's be honest the word at least is kinda redundant as I can't imagine playing more, but who knows.
What do you think? What's your routine? Any comments much appreciated.
BigDonkey out
I was thinking recently about what distinguishes succesful poker players from the bad ones. What is the most important trait for being good at poker?
As many good players have indeed pointed out in the past, it is how you cope when the variance is not in your favor. In other words it's not that hard to play good when you run good, but to play good when you run bad. At least for me, this is perhaps the most important part of the poker mastery. Knowing what are the right plays in a given situations, outplaying the "weaker" opponents, etc. - none of this can help you when you lose every coinflip, when your opponents hit their 2,3,4 outers most of the time and you lose your focus and go for bankroll destroying tilt which can easily cover multiple sessions. Even if you are poor player with poor skill just by good table selecting and consistent strategy even if you run bad, you will be more profitable than 10 times better players who cannot control their tilt.
The single most important way how to eliminate the consequences of running bad is to not pay any attention to winrate. Not just treating the chips as chips and not real money for which you can buy this and that, but to completely honestly doesn't give a fuck if you are winning or losing the chips. Focus on every other aspect of the game from physical and mental readiness, through table and seat selection to actual betting decisions in each hand situation.
And this guys, in my opinion is the most important aspect of the game and the key to become succesful at poker. It is also the most difficult to master.(No success here yet)
Everybody knows this, most think - Duh, sherlock, but knowing and doing are 2 different things and it's never bad to be reminded of this repeatedly.
Let me end this article with quoting my friend's comment about his tilt:
"When in tilt and playing 6 tables, I go allin with complete crap, because I bluff everything and what is best, that I don't even know that I'm in a hand I realize when the pot is 100bb and I have complete air and try to take it down somehow"
