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Pooh-Bah
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: I am such a sexy motherfukkaa
Posts: 3,866
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Pooh-bah: Being in control @ the poker table
Some time ago I wrote a topic about Tilt-management, after that I got into my biggest downswing ever and I wasted a lot of bi's by not aplying the stuff I put in there to help other people, i guess I couldn't help myself.
After being on Tilt for a long time I finally smacked myself in the face and took a long break from poker, just to get my head clear and focus on other things then poker, poker, poker.
I want to take away some of the hurt you might have by playing poker, and I am going to do this by giving you some food for thought.
Poker = Skill + Mental strength. If you are not winning at poker you are leaking in one of those two areas. Skill is the easy part, learn from guys like Sammy-G, Ivi and all the other great strategy posters out here. The mental strength part, that is really the toughest part of them all and everybody that has been playing longer then a year will agree on this.
Look, let's face it. You are at the micro's and you are probably not as good as you might think you are. Here is a relieve: You are probably not as bad as you think you are!
If you play at the micro's you are sitting at a table with a bunch of people that saw Phil Ivey play on the WSOP and think it's easy. A lot of people believe that you don't have to work to reach a big goal, that's why the diet industry makes so much money. The other players you play against are the regulars going trough the same stuff as you. Some guys will be talented, some guys had to move down or are playing a couple of levels lower to release some steam or to have fun. But in general this are the two main groups of players.
Poker is no easy way to richness, if you want to become rich I am pretty sure there are a lot more ways to get there without all the pain and suffering you do by learning and playing this game.
Money can be a reason you play poker, but you should atleast enjoy the strategy aspect of the game, the competitive aspect, the intelligence needed and the enjoyment of gambling, yes, the enjoyment of gambling.
There is luck involved. If you would make a list of gambling games out there in the world, poker might be one of the last on the list but it would still be gambling (its no blackjack or roulette, is what i mean). For me, the gambling aspect of the game belongs to the mental strength aspect of the game. Because you have to deal with the short term luck to really see your skill doing the work in the long run, i believe it belongs to the mental strength aspect.
What I want you to ask yourself to take away the hurt is this:
Wat excactly do I control in this game?
It's something I have been thinking about and i realised that it's the biggest reason most people are in a world of stress.
1.) The cards you get dealt and others get dealt while you are getting your cards dealt is out of your control. So if you have KK and the other guy has AA, please let it go, it's not something you control.
b.) With that, you are not in control of the flop, turn or river. So if you have JJ against a player, probably a bad player, and you call pre flop instead of 3bet, you get a 1049 board, and you get it in or you keep calling when the turn comes a 4 and a 8, there is nothing you could have done if you lose against QQ so you should let it go.
2.) You don't control the other players at your table. You can get really mad that somebody just 3betted you with K4o while you where UTG but the only fact there is is that he 3-betted you and K4 won against AK (i don't know why you would call a 3-bet with AK but it's just as an example).
The same goes for a raise on the flop, a check/raise on the turn, a lead-shove on the river, a leave from a player who just won a pot. Let go.
As you can see, the cards, the board and the other players on the table make up for a big portion of this game. So if you keep getting upset by all these factors you are really in a world of hurt because non of this you control.
There are some things you do control:
1.) Your bankroll. If you know you are somebody who can't handle it having 20 bi's for a level and go on tilt when you lose a pot, why don't you wait until you have the x bi's you need to feel comfortable at a level? There is nobody telling you when you should move up, that's something only you can decide. The general guideline people will tell you is between 15 (aggro bankroll management) and 30 (save bankroll management) bi's, well, that's a very wide range and only you can figure out what will keep you relaxed. I would say: Try 20, if you are all tilted and uncomfortable playing the level, just move the **** back and try it the next time with 25 bi's. No need to try something the same way if it didn't work that way the first time.
2.) The numbers of tables you play. We all know guys who can play 20+ tables, they are good at it because they developed that skill over time. Now you want to multi-table too. Don't fall in the trap of believing you don't have to work hard to achieve a goal. Multi-tabling makes you more money, so maybe you think you should multi-table. The thing is that I have never heard anybody say on this forum that he switched from 6 tables to 20 tables overnight. This is something you control, you play 8 tables now? Cool, try 10 tomorrow, and play 10 for a while.
3.) You are fed up with this idiot loose passive guy on your left, you are fed up with this super aggressive guy in the blinds who keeps 3-betting you every time you steal. You are pissed of at all those ****ing parasites who buy in with 20 bb's because they are to ****ing scared to play with real money. You are tired of all those regulars at your table you know from 2p2 who love to have a reg war. You are fed up with this regular that has a clear advantage. You can't stop thinking about the fight you had with your girlfriend/mom/friend/neighbour and it's messing with your game. You control your own mouse, you can click away your tables to go do something else with your time. Keep your ego at the door.
4.) Strategy. It has to be said. Look, you will mess up, okay? You will 3-bet somebody with a hand that was perfect to setmine with. You will make a raise on the board and insta-realise you should have just called. You will overplay a draw, you will overplay a big pair, you will not be able to fold a flush/set/full house. You will lose money because of tilt. You will be called a spewbox by some, or a nit by others. You will be calling a hand you shouldn't have called with, or open a hand from a position you shouldn't have. You get the idea, you will **** up a lot in this game.
Well guess what, you-are-at-the-micro's-and-you-aren't-as-good-as-you-think-you-are BUT you are also not as bad as you think you are in those moments!
Yes, you control those mistakes, but it's a semi-control. It's semi-control because when you made a mistake you just spotted something in your overall game strategy that you need to work on. At that moment, in that situation you thought it would be the best play possible, realising that it was not is only a moment of growth. Write down on a notepad that you have trouble in those spots and why it was bad to do, and make it something you do control in the future (if you aren't sure: post @ the forum). No need to berate yourself for making a mistake.
You see a lot of verified coaches nowadays at the micro forum, they post vids and another verified coach or player point out mistakes they made in that vid.
A good player will recognize the mistake or debate it why he thinks it was alright and work with the information he gets from it. (see uncontrolable 1-2, somethimes you make a mistake in judgement, poker will always be a game of incomplete information)
Conclusion:
You control your own development as a player. The variance you don't control so making a statement that you will be at 100nl in 2 months is ignorant, you think you can control something like that but beside your skill there is variance. You do control your development as a player. If you keep focusing on how bad you think you are because you make mistakes. If you keep playing while you actually should do something else. If you keep getting upset by those things you just don't control as a poker player. If you keep being stuborn with a strategy (which contains style, number of tables you play, bankroll management) that obvious just isn't working for you. If you keep battling with people that you are right and they are wrong.... well, you get the idea. The only thing you are doing there is holding back your own growth as a player. Your growth is something you control by learning this game, by being open minded en acknowledge your mistakes and use them instead of abuse yourself by them.
Datakid
Last edited by TheDataKid; 12-11-2009 at 06:24 AM.
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