After 15 years of playing recreationally, last year was the first that I started taking the game very seriously (exploring tools, tracking every session/$, studying more, etc....). I cashed my only WSOP event and made $63 per hour on 275 hours (small sample) of 2/5 NL. I have a full-time job, so I can't play as much as I'd like.

I've played 3 sessions this year and have been a complete gamble / spew monkey.

Two examples from yesterday.

MP opens 20, I call A3, good Button raises to $85, everyone folds, I call. Flop KT2 one heart. Button bets $60, I call. Q no heart. Check Check. River 8, I bet $315 and get called by AA.

I straddle UTG, MP raises to $30. 3 callers, I call with 95o. Flop 268. Initial raiser bets $35, everyone calls I call. Turn 8. Initial raiser bets $100. 2 callers. I c/shove $500 and miss river.

I know these hands suck (hand one can just fold to 3 bet PF OOP (or 4 bet bluff with a read)) / hand 2 just don't straddle or just fold to the raise. No need to comment on the hands.

Preflop patience is something that I've completely struggled with. I created this little "checklist" of things to think about before playing. I've reminded myself that preflop is the most important street, etc...but in-game, I keep doing dumb ****.

Maybe it's:

- After a nice profitable year, I'm starting to think I can outplay people with bs starting hands?
- I ran pretty well at end of last year, perhaps now I'm not running as well (although neither of the hands above would have been in the mix)
- I got my medicinal marijuana card and have been smoking high test stuff daily (I never smoke before I play though).

TL;DR: Does anyone else struggle with preflop self-control and have you successfully changed your ways? What has helped?

Yeah that was me 6-8 years ago. I play a lot tighter these days. What helped me change my ways was losing a lot of money doing stupid **** like you posted here. After a while, the money hurts and you start actively improving your game. At least, that's what worked for me.

When I was playing too many hands (probably still do) I always felt that it would be too hard for me to rep strong hands and so I was forced to be on the loose passive side which was fine vs the fish since I always get paid off by them, but the good players were exploiting the shot out of me. I justified it because I was consistently stacking the whales and I wasn't really forced into thinking too deeply past pot odds and implied odds. As the game slowly grew tougher post 2011 my results sharply dropped off due to not actually playing "good" poker. I did need to because I had one of the highest if not the highest win rates at 5/10 in the room. Aside from hating to loose, i think listening to music helped me relax a bit and not have the urge to play as many hands. Usually it becomes a bit harder in longer sessions (which I dont do much anymore) and in super action games, but at least for like a good 4-5 hrs I can often play a somewhat tag game.

The a3 pf call is gonna lose a little money and the call starts looking even worse when you start making such egregious errors post flop
Peeling multi way here vs this size is meh at best
The river bet also is pretty bad it’s a nice easy rule of thumb not 2 use your a hi combos as bluffs since the ev of checking is gonna out perform the ev of bluffing most times here you block his folding range w the a and the 3 and you are just torching $
Hand 2 is just a fold pre do you think ur the only player in the world that can turn 95o into a profitable vpip in a multi way pot?
And then on the flop wtf are you doing putting more $ in the pot. It’s really really bad dude

You can start by downloading poker snowie pf advisor and just following it’s rules pf

You have to leave the casino.

I have the same problem with an impulsive/destructive side. When your impulsiveness gets itchy, it will influence all your decisions. The only answer I find is to force your lucid brain to take control when you notice this happening and make the decision to leave in order to minimize thr damage.

The impulsiveness probably adds some positive aspects to your character. You probably adapt well in a crisis, or are spontaneous and prepared to adapt your plans to the needs of a friend. However, in poker it is terrible so just get as far away from the table as possible. I understand it's frustrating as you have limited playtime as it is, but barring deep psychological conversion it's the only workable solution.

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Here are some of the things I do when I am tilting and starting to have a hard time folding:
1) Get a drink: In those cases I prefer something that can be sipped slowly to help pass the time, like scotch on the rocks or an Old Fashioned.
2) Pull out your earbuds and watch a few Youtube music videos.
3) Make myself a to-do list for tomorrow.
4) Print the lines for the upcoming sports from your local sportsbook or print them online and pull it out to think about your bets between hands.
5) Talk to other players at the table to help pass the time.

Thanks everyone! Some really nice advice in there.

I've incorporated 2 new tactics:

* Now, I look at my hand as soon as I get it, which gives me time to process the situation properly. I used to wait until it was my action to look, process and act. The old way made it much easier for me to spazz.

* I sit with larger denomination chips, which is a visual trick. Instead of 5 stacks of red and one stack of green, I sit with a stack of red, 16 greens and 5 blacks. With a smaller looking stack, I seem to value chips more.

Anyhow, back to winning!

Hope these tactics can help if you are spewing.