Poker Pain is Mutual part two
Sometimes you find yourself, questioning yourself on the way to the casino, now you are laying a path for failure and arming your passivity with excuses which is the wrong mindset when you got to play poker
. I think it's paramount importance to play in the proper mindset, but I think that has to be carefully undertaken as a guideline for playing. I listended to a cash game pro on a podcast last year and he talked about variance and playing on Tilt (and what my friend is experiencing and I have too is just Tilt in a long term version of it), and he said, you have to learn to play through Tilt.
If he's in a downswing he doesn't hide from the casino. He knows he has to lose, everybody does, .400 hitters go back to the dugout a failure 6 out of 10 times, so he choses to play through the slide as quickly as possible. If he's losing he's going back to the casino even faster than if he's winning. He wants to get in enough hands that can cross that threshold of variance. He wants to still be able to play well, while on Tilt or on a downswing.
Pretty interesting. His basic point is he can't go back to winning until he gets the losses he has to take out of his system as quickly as possible. When I was able to play more frequently than I do now, I tried that when I'd have a losing session and its tough, but its right. You don't get back on the horse, immediately, you are going to be a little scared of getting on the horse every time you ride.
Now, you can see the conundrum for the player who has a dayjob or a wife or family waiting at home, or ATM limits. There may not be a 12 hour opportunity again. There may not be chance to play anytime soon. So, the losing simmers and festers.
Ugh... Hard to give advice to my friend. For me, when I lose I try to focus on positive decisions. Moral victories in poker are tough but they are important and recognizing that is even more important. When you first learn poker
that isn't something you think about too much as an important skill but it is.
Recently while in Biloxi, when I folded Aces early in a session and a guy showed me his straight (well disguised too) I made a great lay-down, but instead of pumping myself up I was cursing the luckgods for me getting borderlined coolered. Later, I got a set and tiptoed out of danger and didn't even pay off the smallish value bet on the river. Again, my opponent showed me his winner after I flashed him my hand. I brooded about my bad luck, and finished that session dead even. When I left it took me a day to remind myself I won two buy-ins by not going broke and overplaying both hands.
Later that day, after I realized that moral victory was a victory, I got into a game and flopped another set. A tight player led out on an all heart flop. I just called. Turn went check, check. River brought a fourth heart. He bet, and I just laughed aloud thinking I had been counterfeited. I folded and showed my set, he showed me he had flopped the nuts and it was he who was counterfeited.
I got lucky the way the board came out but this particular opponent did bet enough to protect a hand from say the Ace of hearts it felt like he was trying to extract money out of me. He was also really tight, so I had decided i would check/call all three streets if bets were reasonable and hope to improve to a full house. I don't know if I would have had the patience to do that had I not reset my mind and viewed the previous session not through a results oriented perspective rather than a good decisions.
. I think it's paramount importance to play in the proper mindset, but I think that has to be carefully undertaken as a guideline for playing. I listended to a cash game pro on a podcast last year and he talked about variance and playing on Tilt (and what my friend is experiencing and I have too is just Tilt in a long term version of it), and he said, you have to learn to play through Tilt.
If he's in a downswing he doesn't hide from the casino. He knows he has to lose, everybody does, .400 hitters go back to the dugout a failure 6 out of 10 times, so he choses to play through the slide as quickly as possible. If he's losing he's going back to the casino even faster than if he's winning. He wants to get in enough hands that can cross that threshold of variance. He wants to still be able to play well, while on Tilt or on a downswing.
Pretty interesting. His basic point is he can't go back to winning until he gets the losses he has to take out of his system as quickly as possible. When I was able to play more frequently than I do now, I tried that when I'd have a losing session and its tough, but its right. You don't get back on the horse, immediately, you are going to be a little scared of getting on the horse every time you ride.
Now, you can see the conundrum for the player who has a dayjob or a wife or family waiting at home, or ATM limits. There may not be a 12 hour opportunity again. There may not be chance to play anytime soon. So, the losing simmers and festers.
Ugh... Hard to give advice to my friend. For me, when I lose I try to focus on positive decisions. Moral victories in poker are tough but they are important and recognizing that is even more important. When you first learn poker
that isn't something you think about too much as an important skill but it is.
Recently while in Biloxi, when I folded Aces early in a session and a guy showed me his straight (well disguised too) I made a great lay-down, but instead of pumping myself up I was cursing the luckgods for me getting borderlined coolered. Later, I got a set and tiptoed out of danger and didn't even pay off the smallish value bet on the river. Again, my opponent showed me his winner after I flashed him my hand. I brooded about my bad luck, and finished that session dead even. When I left it took me a day to remind myself I won two buy-ins by not going broke and overplaying both hands.
Later that day, after I realized that moral victory was a victory, I got into a game and flopped another set. A tight player led out on an all heart flop. I just called. Turn went check, check. River brought a fourth heart. He bet, and I just laughed aloud thinking I had been counterfeited. I folded and showed my set, he showed me he had flopped the nuts and it was he who was counterfeited.
I got lucky the way the board came out but this particular opponent did bet enough to protect a hand from say the Ace of hearts it felt like he was trying to extract money out of me. He was also really tight, so I had decided i would check/call all three streets if bets were reasonable and hope to improve to a full house. I don't know if I would have had the patience to do that had I not reset my mind and viewed the previous session not through a results oriented perspective rather than a good decisions.
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