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Help always expecting the worst! Help always expecting the worst!

08-28-2016 , 05:23 AM
Hey 2+2 I need some help.
Ill try to explain my problem in the best possible way.

Basically I'm a micro stakes player, I have been playing on and off for roughly 6 years now, every time I have a brake I come back better and my game improves. I know one of my biggest problems but I'm not sure how to fix it.
When I range my opponents hands, and the board plays out, weather it makes it to the river or not, I put my opponent on a range of hands. The problem is it always seems to be the top of my opponents range they have when the money goes in. Now ill watch them play and try to get a feel for what type of player they are. And then my head start to play tricks on me, so as soon as a scare card comes on the board, i basically think flush is in his range, so I fold, this happens in many situations with board texture, but it gets re enforced because sometimes i will call them down and they show up with the nuts and then I think ****, I knew they had to have that hand..... and the cycle continues until I become a scared NIT! Then sometimes I think they definatley must have x Hole cards, and they show up with random **** or bottom of there range.... Then I'm so unsure 'what to do in the next hand against villain i just fold, and feel like im loosing value or opportunities against this player.....

I don't know if this will makes sense to anyone but I really need help with my game, Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Help always expecting the worst! Quote
08-29-2016 , 02:54 AM
Not sure about the details you list, but the "always expecting the worst" as a personality feature is often an anxiety defense. Anxiety is kind of a metaphysical, general, life-directed fear ... which amounts to fear about the self, fear that we/our mind is being threatened, mostly by uncertainty. Thinking extremely negatively "solves" this dilemma (not really but as a defense) ... because our uncertainty about hope versus disappointment uncertainty and vulnerability is now attached defensively to the negative side. It's pessimism. I've always greatly admired optimism ... some people just seem to ooze it.

Do you have any phobias? If so, approach them even if they terrify you. They'll decrease amazingly. The goal is exposing unresolved fear operating in the psyche subconsciously. Negativity is unresolved anxiety talking.
Help always expecting the worst! Quote
08-31-2016 , 07:25 AM
my explanation was terrible, but you hit the nail on the head, i do suffer from anxiety/panic attacks, but I don't know 100% what causes them. I have very high expectations of myself to achieve and sometimes when things look down i can get anxious. How do I go about working on this?
Help always expecting the worst! Quote
08-31-2016 , 10:06 PM
There's two different things maybe. One is (in poker) always putting the opponent on whatever comes. That's a poker issue and there are various reasons for that I'm sure. It resonated with me because I first played Omaha, and you better beware of the nuts at all times, of course. The other thing is wider negativity/anxiety in general life.

Key point: fear is just an emotion. It doesn't bear negatively on you that you are having it, any more than having sadness, anger, happiness etc. bear on you in any definitive way. Anxiety arises from self-esteem issues, but hear the definition of self-esteem ... which is about our basic confidence and worth in life. "I have confidence in my mind to live, learn and cope ... and I feel I am valuable and worthy of being treated well and loved." If one doesn't have that, they are shaking in their boots in life, and any manner of specific issues can arise as phobias and fears that are smoke screens for this underlying issue.

Billions of human beings are on this continuum too far to the left, meaning, low levels of this critical self-esteem (it can be called by other names than self-esteem esp. since avalanche of BS about it by people who attempt to discuss it without defining it, always a losing proposition). Now, of course, many people specialize in something in life, becoming tremendously proficient at it, which can be seen as a specialized type of confidence, but often the general fear about life and self rages on. These types are fond of saying things like, "I could never miss a calculus problem ... etc." Translation: I am reassuring myself and broadcasting to the world my great certainly about my ego in this specific realm. When you hear that, you are hearing a compensation for this core human issue of self-esteem ... and an attempted overriding of it via a specific expertise where "I am mistake free. My ego is perfect here."

You can't fight fear off, run from it, hide from it etc. Not effectively anyway. There is a book called "Embracing Fear" by Rutledge that might be helpful. Don't underestimate approaching phobias as a strategy. It makes the fear flare, brings it into conscious awareness, which is key. Having fear does not say anything negative about you but hiding from it does.

Google great quotes about fear.

Identify and approach some of your fears. Rutledge has an acronym in the book for it.

Last edited by Synchronic; 08-31-2016 at 10:16 PM.
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