I play live. When waiting for my main game or when I'm bored I'll often play smaller games. Most of the time I play well and I play my best, but sometimes I just spew massively for the hell of it. It's not tilt in any way, it's just because I don't care about the money and maybe a bit of showing off. I play like 70/60 and 3-bet people constantly etc. It's fun putting myself in all of these crazy post flop situations and trying to make reads on people. Post flop I'd actually wager I'm a winner overall. But ya, it's massive spew and it's a big leak. And it needs to stop.

I also do the same thing sometimes in my main game if I've been on a crazy heater the previous days or weeks. Sometimes I'll just come in that day and play it like I do the lower stakes game and gamble it up constantly.

Obviously the easy answer is: don't ****ing do it. But I've tried that and I keep doing it, so I'm hoping maybe people have some suggestions or tricks. Maybe others have done this too and broken the habit.

Thanks

If you are playing 1/2 pretend that the bet is really 10/20. Mutiple everything by 10. Obviously it is your own fault if you play like this and lose.

Don't play smaller games, and whenever you win smth big, just spent 30% of it on smth usefull, so that you basically feel like being stuck again. Old-school-gamblers would buy a rolex or so.
Thought, that is just symptom-treatment, and ofc doesn't change the problem in your head.

I've a similiar issue. I made 2k over the week then started spewing just cuz I can afford it.

My guess would be a drop in dopamine receptor levels to a point where winning no longer feels rewarding.

In this case, I'll just take out the money and spend it or secure it in investments.

i feel for you OP...

Well,spewing where the money is insignificant might blow off some steam and make you more focused on your main game/stakes.So i guess as long as it keeps you playing your A game where it really matters,then maybe its fine.(?)

Never thought of it like that but I do keep playing my A game in my main game. Think I could find a cheaper way to blow off steam though.

Think I thought of something that might work. I normally play pretty close to everyday. The money aside, I just like to play live poker. I see lots of people I know and it's just fun. Even playing the small games.

I'm going to punish myself and not play again until Wednesday. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday with no poker. Boring days. No fun. Then if I do it again I'm going to do the same thing and force myself to take long breaks.

Hopefully the 'threat' of that and not getting to play will keep me in line in the future.

I hear ya. When I drop down from 2/5 to 1/2 it just drives me nuts. Same thing, I get bored and start playing like an aggromonkey.

I'm doing two things to counteract this.

First, I take some time to prepare mentally for 1/2 games, go over strategy in my head, take a few minutes to relax/unwind, shake off any sense of time pressure. Get psyched up to play.

Then, I buy in short, which pretty much forces me into something approximating optimal strategy for that game, at least until I have some reads.

Finally, I find something to do while I'm waiting for cards. 1/2 is brutal if you're card-dead, you can't just "make something happen." Tried doing the iPad thing for a while and it does work. Then I remembered why I enjoyed poker way back when I started playing: best way to entertain yourself at the table is make friends and talk to people. Time flies by, sometimes it's almost like "dang, I got a hand, I'll finish that story in a minute."