Hi guys, im 21 from the UK and i've been playing poker online for nearly 3 years now. My main game is now 100NL 6max and i've been trying to put in more volume over the last couple of months and have made great efforts to live a healthier lifestlye eg. going to the gym every other day, eating correctly and getting enough sleep.

I'm currently beating this limit at an above average rate over quite a large sample. The problem I have is that most weeks I can grind for like 3-4 hours for a few days in a row but then on the 4th or 5th day I just can't motivate myself enough to sit at the tables. This usually happens when i'm playing well/running well because I find that i'm more motivated to grind when breaking even or on a slight downswing.

But I think my issue in short is that when i'm making money i feel like a downswing is just around the corner so i play less poker to, lets say "delay the inevitable"

Have any of you guys gone through anything similar? I am currently reading "The Mental Game of Poker" and it's help me in other areas of my game but any advice on how to better my mindset in this area would be hugely appreciated.

Always try to remember and really understand

1. The way you have been running does not affect the future in any way. A big downswing could come as well after breaking even for a while as after winning for a few days.

2. The more hands you play the more money you make (assuming you're a winning player).

You obviously know those things already but somewhere in your mind you do not understand them, otherwise you wouldn't have this problem.
As it is described in The Mental Game of Poker, you have to get them in the unconscious competence.

Thanks for your advice oh and make your 1000th post a good one lol

For me, it's a little different story.

When i start a session, after losing maybe 3 buy-ins for the first hr, i would cont to grind till i hit a little profit and stop.

I don't know why am i like that

Because we love the feeling to book a win, even though we know the more hours you grind the more money you make. But the feeling of being up a ton at a certain point but having lost it by the end of the day is just horrible.

If it is about that feeling. Maybe you should compare it.

Let' s say you are up 6 buyins and quit. Normally you would quit but now you decide to play a little longer. Would you feel better about yourself if you would win another 6 buyins or is the same? But when losing those 6 buyins you feel like ****.

If losing those 6 buyins is that much worse than the (greater) feeling of winning another 6, you should quit. If it is slightly worse or the same you should always continue as long as you play your A game.

Hope it makes some sense.

Greateight:

I think it is the same. If you are down, it doesnt matter any more if you are are down 3 buyins or 8. So when you are up again you feel great about yourself for having booked a win and quit. You would hate it if you played any longer, lose those 3 buyins back and go on tilt and lose even more.

Winning can have that effect; then one should just keep in mind that the more one plays the more one makes. The fear is about losing when winning and the more one can remove that fear by reason, the less it will be there. One also figures to have fear during one session, when having won. Then the big drops, the horrible drops also produce fear and the solutions to that are the stop limits and bankroll management - moving up and down according to bankroll, so one is playing with an infinite stack. In all cases the fear is about losing and is somewhat based on wrong ideas and somewhat on the facts of the situation, and then e.g. on money managements that make one feel less safe. One learns the fears by losing. Getting comfortable at the limit one is playing at, the fears drop to a minimum for the reason that there is less to fear then, less danger, like when one goes somewhere that produce any fear or so, but then gets used to it by being there at that time later or then one has more experience about it and the fears will be less as one is more confident and feeling safer.

and then he replies, "thanks, I will" lol....

On topic though: it's a very relatable story, when you're up and winning you're afraid you might lose some of your profits back, and when you're down you want to win it back and play more and more until you're at least even...

I think it even might just be best to give into this feeling, because when you're playing when your heart's really not into it you probably will lose, like a self fulfilling prophecy...

I agree with what the others said. You probably just want to feel good about the evening and a small win will fulfill that need. This evening I played and went in the toilet at first, and just like you I made a comeback and wound up taking a relatively small profit, and on the way out of the casino I was walking on sunshine!

Redant!

have to admit this is a big problem for me.
can grind for 12-14 hours to get even. but 2 or 3 times a week i log out even after 15 minutes just so i can feel good for the rest of the day with atiny win. very embarrassing to admit.

This is a standard mental game issue. But, really, the key is that you're identified it. Of course, you know the remedy.

You need to remain tough as nails and say to yourself:

1. Previous events shouldn't have any bearing on future events in poker if we're playing optimal;
2. I may be susceptible to overconfidence tilt. So, check Tendler, to practise what he preaches in this respect;
3. I'm doing what I normally do when preparing for a session, that is, I'm well rested, have exercised, eaten well, analysed previous sessions etc.;
4. Don't worry about it, because of the above; in other words, keep grinding, improving and winning.

Maybe you need a checklist, adapted to your own predisposition and tendencies, so you can cross this mental threshold, as a matter of habit.

That is one of the beauties of this site is that you can recognize your own weaknesses through others verbalizing theirs. I too would just like to book a win many times, but clearly there are not times that is wise to do. If the table is ripe, then it would be smarter to take the risk of losing for the opportunity to have a much larger win.

The checklist idea is stellar.

Redant!

I'm a PhD student in psychology, and what you're expressing is called "regression towards the mean." Look it up on wikipedia, and it's completely normal!!

It's the idea that if anyone does something extremely successful or extremely unsuccessful, it is less likely that that success or failure will continue.

For example: If you get 96% on a test on a RANDOM subject, what is the probability that you will get the same or better score an a different, random test? After an infinite amount of tests, you will regress back towards the mean/average.