Quote:
Originally Posted by DrTJO
Obviously tilt control is important, especially if you define tilt broadly as non-A game play. So, if you have this part of your game sorted, then playing longer when you're beating the game is definitely for the best. You do need to factor in fatigue, for, not only can it make you less sharp, but less able to monitor when you slip from A to B (it's often quite a subtle slippage for me that doesn't involving spewing chips so much as widening your raising and calling range, playing too much OOP, getting too nitty at times, not 3betting, not getting value on the river etc.). As well, if you play long and deep, good players will watch you closely and adjust, so you might have to adjust too---not easy when've been grinding 7+hrs.
Sounds like you're primed for a matharon, though, PkriF, like it
I read The Mental Game of Poker cover to cover several times, and I highly recommend it to everyone b/c it really helps.
One of the best concepts is that you can never play your A game 100%. Everyone has an A, B, and C game by definition. You can only play your top 20% game 20% of the time by definition. The difference between me and Phil Ivey is Phil Ivey's worst possible Z game would destroy my best possible A++++ game.
So instead of getting mad at myself when I play my B or C game, I try to improve my C game so I do less stupid things and follow more of the concepts that I'm trying to learn.
But if you're playing your C game and you realize you can't fix it at the table, and it's a BAAAD C game like your C- game, there's nothing wrong with just cutting the session short and leaving. I try to nit it up and power through it if I can though, because you can learn a lot when you recognize the mistakes you make when you're not on.