I dont know how you get into so many stacking hands taylor... I can sit at a table for a month and never go all in.

Playing pokerz as a perfessional is about playing quality poker and logging hours. If you are not comfy playing deep then bag it for the day but if you are worried about losing pots and want to make it as a pro - you need to clear up yer thinking. At the end of the year (assuming you are playing quality poker and not simply "gettin hours in") your amt won will be reflected in the amt of hours you played.

Obviously the line of thinking is a big leak. Heres the good news though, you identified it.

You should be playing poker to win the most, not to lose the least.

I see players all the time check back TPTK/two pair, etc in obvious value bet spots and that is because they aren't concerned with winning the most, they want to lose the least and playing passively facilitates that.

If your uncomfortable playing that deep, or if you are overly concerned with booking winning sessions you need to get over that hump. I'm sure a player as good as you can understand that poker is about winning money, not winning pots or winning sessions.

Losing profit back is not the worst thing in the world, provided you lost it back in a +ev way where you ran into variance.

Think of your poker career as one gigantic session, segmenting it into hands, hours, sessions and weeks is going to make you overly concerned with winning today.

Fwiw a good players hourly is going to go up the deeper the stacks get because your going to understand the nuances of the deep situations much better than your opponents, so this thinking is directly costing you money.

Judging by your post in the bankroll thread I know your well over-rolled for 2/5 (you should be cause you play for a living) so why feel butterflies when your up a few buy-ins? You can support losses.

GL getting over it!

Thanks for commenting. I'm not sure if I misunderstand you, but poker is exactly about hours. If my hourly is $X, in theory, if I play 6 hours, I'll win 6X, if I play 3 hours, I'll win 3X. It would be cool if halving my hours doubled my hourly, but it doesn't work like that. I could say more, but looks like Squid beat me to it.

Yea I don't check back TPTK or two pair except in the rarest of circumstances. Usually my problem is going for too thin of value. Also not uncomfortable playing deep. 99% of the time I play until I'm not playing my A game regardless of stack size. I had been up this much once before and kept playing, but for some reason though, this time something got into my head. It was irrational for sure, but if I'm not gonna play my A game for any reason then I should go. Its weird because moving from 1/2 to 2/5 and having wins be 2.5 times as much didn't affect me but just when I have a huge win relative to the stakes for the first time does this happen. I've lost back profit after being up early and felt great about it because the loss came on hands I played well. So basically the point of all this rambling is that I can't pinpoint exactly why I left other than my mind was being irrational.

Thanks for posting everyone, I will remember this thread next time I'm up big and I think it will help.

I know your not checking back TPTK or 2pair I was just using that as an example to illustrate people who are playing not to lose as opposed to maximizing every spot and how that thinking is flawed.

Do you count your stack down and substract your buy-in sometime to figure out how much your up? I used to do this but now I always try and never look at poker journal or count my stack down in downtime for this exact reason. Knowing exactly how much your up or down may influence your decision making in a negative way.

If I think bluffing off 2k is going to profitable I'll do it, just ask squid face lol

haha yea I remember you posting about that hand. I don't specifically count my stack down but I always keep it organized and as a result always know what I'm up. One thing with Poker Journal though, I look at it way too often and sometimes I'll look at it and think "oh, I've been here long enough" and go even though I'm still feeling good whereas sometimes I'll look at it and think "wow its only been that long, feels like forever". There's absolutely no benefit to doing this and it just hurts my mindset sometimes so I'm thinking about trying to find a way to hide it during my session or possibly just writing down my start time and entering my sessions after the fact instead of having the timer running.

Yeah if that's an issue it's much better to enter the sessions afterwards. Also you will spend less time looking at your phone. I know that's a huge leak of mine.

About halfway through your thread so grunching a bit here... Good read, and wish you luck.

Someone mentioned that you should go back and read this or your diary... I wonder if you do? One thing I have noticed... almost every post, you talk about being tired?

What is up with that? You are young (20's), dont work, talk about getting up at noon, dont typically play past midnight...

Why are you always tired?

cush...

Stacking checks gets tedious IMO

check raising tourists does not.

fyp

I wish I had the answer to this as it frustrates me sometimes. I think it stems from not getting good sleep. I have trouble falling asleep pretty frequently and that causes problems. I also tend to oversleep if I have no commitment to wake up for and when you start sleeping 10-11 hours a night it makes you groggy all day. Because of this I have started to force myself to wake up if I get up past a certain time instead of just going back to bed. I think getting on a regular workout schedule also helps because it makes my sleep better and therefore I get more rested. I think I have gotten better with this recently.

And there's this too:

I haven't gone back and read it yet, but I may start if I have any downtime later this week.

Glad you like the thread.

?

Kush

oversleeping is definitely not good.

not to be an ass, but are you overweight? do you snore? could be you have a sleep disorder.

you also sleep in a hotel frequently, right? are you sleeping well at home and not at the hotel?

taylor is a typical young guy... hes not unusually over weight, just normal. he doesn't live in a hotel.

Feeling tired all the time is part of the *grind* for most players,...the burn-out rate is very high.

Ambien sleep pills -allows to relax and not replay the hands in your head as you try to fall asleep. I'm sure I'm the ONLY one who does this, LOL!

Yea I'd say I'm overweight but I don't believe I snore, though not 100%. I sleep in a very nice bed as I put a lot of emphasis on getting good sleep, its like the one piece of furniture in my apartment that was actually expensive.

I used to be more. Was 275 ish in my football days and got up to almost 300 my freshman year of college. Hovering around 225 now and my eventual goal is <200 but I'm doing it slowly so I don't actually have a specific time I want to be there by.

Ya thats why I try to keep a consistent schedule so my sleep patterns aren't constantly out of wack. I really don't want to form a habit with pills so I have stayed away thus far.

In other news I played a session today at Potawatomie. Nothing to note, played well and had a decent profit. There was only 1 table of 2/5 (actually 3/5 but whatever) when I got there, makes me appreciate the game selection available in Vegas. Though they did get a second table while I was there.

Put in just a quick 30-45 minute workout every day and you'll see a huge improvement in your life mentally and physically.

^ Indeed... just get out there and walk for 30-60 minutes. walking will do wonders for you.

i didn't mean to offend you cush. if i did, i apologize. but being overweight and having a sleep disorder, i know how precious a good night's sleep can be.

No offense taken whatsoever, I'm happy to have people offering suggestions when I run into speed bumps, whether on or off the felt.

And even so, it would be pretty silly if anyone took offense to someone calling them fat on the internet having never actually seen them.

Cush...I'm looking for someone to split the gas & motel cost for a ride up to Reno on Nov 17th for a little WSOP cicuit event ($1,675), you wanna go?

long term dieter suffering from chronic fatigue is probably a b-12 deficiency. Especially if you dont get a lot of meat in your diet.

Either try to grab some carnegie deli liverwurst every day or have a doctor stick a needle in your ass.

No can do, family gonna be coming into town that day. GL if you go.

Interesting, I think I'll look for some supplements cuz both of those options seem painful in some way or another haha.