People would **** their pants laughing at what a big loss is for me. Most dream of crushing so hard the table breaks and they walk away with a mountain of chips where I play to minimize my losses which includes not bringing my wallet to the casino. I am a gigantic tilter so I just remove that option from being possible. Ive lost count of the number of times someone at my 1/3 game said they never tilt.

I have spent a LOT of time working on my mental game. Making sure I take breaks often, and do meditation/breathing exercises, both at the table and during my breaks. Checking in on my emotional state at least once every orbit. Making sure that I have a plan for each player at the table and that I'm maintaining focus and attention. Disconnecting from the $$ value and focusing only on the chips. Standing up and leaving when I get tilted, even if the game is good.

It has drastically reduced the amount of time I spend playing my D game. And I do still tilt.

Most people would be well served by spending more time on their mental game, and less time studying GTO charts or whatever. Tilting in one big pot every 100 hours can cut your winrate in half easily.

There are plenty of people who are small winners playing their normal game, but big losers once they tilt. A lot of them lie to themselves about their winrate - "well, I'm not gonna count that last hand because I was clearly tilting"

If you have an emotional attachment to winning this session, or this week, or this month, it will make you tilt. If you feel great about yourself when you're on a heater, and tie your self worth as a poker player to how much you have won, you will tilt when you start to lose. Let go of your attachments to winning, and focus on making the right decision. Track your wins and losses, but don't look at them except for maybe once a month (or even once a year!)

TMGoP is a fantastic book and the second is good too. Anyone who thinks they need to work on their game (and most people who don't) could do with a read or two.

My game barely ran for the first 2 weeks of the month. Was forced to either not play or go short handed for a decent chunk of hours which I am certainly not as good at.

15 sessions / 9 winning
48.5 hours played
+2262 profit

I am working on getting in better shape so I can play longer. Ive been leaving really good tables earlier then I should be. Anyone have some tips for staying focused for longer periods of time?

Good night sleep. Eat a decent meal. No sugar or caffeine in the session or wait until near the end. (The crash from sugar or caffeine used to cause me a lot of issues) Comfortable clothes. Relax and be sociable. Take breaks if you need to

AAJTO - when i transitioned from on line to live I had conditioned myself to play 3-3.5 hr sessions. I would literally be dazed and confused at the 4 hr mark. I just tried to play a little longer while playing A poker every week. It takes work to be able to lengther your ability to maintain attention. Kind of like going to the gym. You dont magically go in one day and go from benching 185 to 315. It takes committment and focus. Same on the felt.

Ramp up your hours gradually. Take an orbit off every couple of hours and walk around to clear your head. You will get better at maintaing focus and playing longer with directed effort

September: 13 Sessions (7 winning, 6 losing, all at $2-$100 Spread-Limit Hold’em), 68 hours, $1,482 profit ($21 or 10.5 BBs/hour)

But I think my time on the grind is coming to an end—Funemployment has been nice but playing poker all day is starting to bore the hell out of me.

I like that idea of incrementally adding another 15 minutes every week or 2. I find the 4 hour mark is when my focus starts going down. To the other replier I actually don't eat anything before or during a session so I have that down. I drink lots of water but maybe having a small snack like an apple might help me out.

I think it is very important to eat a meal before you play. Anhour or three before. Imagine not eating before a race or a big game. They all eat some lean meat, vegetables,and a carbohydrate. Your mind needs fuel too. The apple is a great idea if you start going downhill. I find if I eat a fairly healthy meal without sugar or a lot of gluten I am often able to play upto 10 hours with nothing else. And if I need something else a quick candy bar,protein bar ar piece of fruit does the trick for the last couple of hours of play. Getting your diet right might be the best thing you can do for your energy and focus.

After a long break, I started playing the day shift in my local room. Started doing 5 hours and did 7.5 yesterday and felt I could have gone longer. For me, oatmeal and a protein for breakfast and about half way through my session I break for lunch. Avoid complex carbs and fried foods. I've done salad and a protein or a soup from the Asian restaurant and felt fresh for the back end of the grind.

I also keep protein shakes in my car if need be. And like other posters have mentioned, getting in better physical condition will be helpful too.

I get cold sitting in most card rooms and I find that a brisk walk outside a few laps around the parking lot in the sunshine and warmth, does wonders for me and my game. In one room I play, there's an oldster that brings a dog and I'll take that dog and run him in the fields behind the poker room. All this really clears my head, helps me get mentally get past mistakes I've made, and I can return to the game feeling recharged.

Often I'll just listen to music or a football game during these walks. Sometimes I'll do what ever work calls need to be done. I generally try not to think about poker during the walks but sometimes I'll call my coach and run a hand past him while the details are still fresh in my head to see if I need to adjust something in my game.

I sold my company and went on a two year poker binge in 2008 - 10. I was playing 5 nights a week, up to 12 hour sessions, mostly in home and underground games bc the nearest legal poker was AC, 5 hours away. That meant my schedule was early evening until the wee hours of the morning and I often was walking in the door when my daughter was leaving for school.

It got to where I didn't like poker anymore bc it felt like a job instead of something I was doing for fun. While my hourly rate was decent, I didn't want a job. I took a break and when I returned to poker, I only played 1 or 2 times a week except for the occasional LV or AC week long trips. Poker became fun again and even more profitable on an hourly basis.

First 300ish hours since picking the game back up in Feb after a hiatus.

First 2 months had to relearn a lot, also ran pretty bad.

Enjoying playing! Hopefully move out if 1/3 into 2/5 this month

@ Bacon

Nice start to your post-hiatus comeback!

Ghasnevergonemorethan2weekswithoutplayingapokerses sioninthelast~12yearsG

But it isn't nearly as good as a post-coitus comeback.

I’ve switched to a new casino. They are still limited to just $2-$100 spread-limit, but this one offers uncapped buyins—my old one was limited to $300.

I’ve only gone twice, and stuck to a $300 buyin, but I’m wondering if I should switch it and go in larger? If I’m ever in a spot where 4 max bets could go in on the River, I’d hate to run out of money! But at the same time, the $100 cap really does make the max buyin sorta academic, so maybe I just stick to what I’m comfortable with?

Sounds painful. Spread limit is terrible enough but now you have deeper stacks with more weird math involved where every draw has to call. Im sure there is huge profit in a game like this if you are willing to put the work in cause everyone will be playing NLHE when its not a NLHE game.

I know back when I played Limit I made sure I started every hand with enough chips to cover a situation where the maximum number of limited bets went in. But that was in lol Limit where making a mistake of getting in that last lol "big bet" on the river with the worst of it was hardly a hugenormous mistake. Pretty sure your structure is a slightly different beast, although I'll admit I've never played spread-limit.

Can you top up whenever you like? If so, I'd recommend BIing for the normal amount that you feel comfortable with, and then topping up later if you see fit.

GcluelessspreadlimitnoobG

Operation “shake things up by going to a new casino” has been a smashing success!

This week’s run-good has pushed my winrate on the year up to 30 BBs/hr. You guys are sleeping on $2-$100 spread-limit just because it’s “not real poker” and all that nonsense.

I’ve….actually decided to quit playing every day. Major burnout—it’s just not fun. (Walking through the doors of the casino each day was becoming a soul-crushing experience.)

Here’s a link with my final stats. I only played $2-$100 (with $1-$2 blinds), so 24 BBs an hour in 177 hours. Money was nice! But time to get back to reality. (I was laid off 3 months ago and still don’t have a job…I’m hoping this will get me to focus on that, since I no longer have this ‘Plan B’ of poker winnings.)

This will be good news for everyone who was sick of my Spread-Limit posts clogging up this forum, lol.

Spread limit hands can be instructive to no limit players, especially low stakes, because you will often find yourself in games so passive that any bet in excess of $100 might as well be all-in. Your chances of getting called won't be much different.

If you are trying to get 3 streets with a marginal hand out of a calling station or trying to take a pot down on the flop your SL game isn't going to produce too many scenarios that won't mimic NL precisely.

I like your spread limit posts

This is kind of depressing. I thought people did much better than this. I've been at 11bb/hr over the 300 hours since I've started playing again. I make AT LEAST $50 in mistakes every time I play and there's a lot of areas where my game can improve. I was hoping that 15-20bb/hr is where the really good players started.


As far as a sharp mental game, I've found that following the break schedule that you'd get on a typical job helps. A 10 minute break every 2 hours and a 1/2 hour break every 4-5 hours helps keep fresher. Of course, with something like adderall, you could stay mentally sharp for 15 hours

Yeah. I hope you have a change of heart. I enjoy reading your posts.

My guess is that you probably just sunrunned over a very lol sample size. I mean, I highly doubt anyone is going to claim anything remotely close to 24 bb/hr is sustainable in any LLSNL (and assuming typical high raked) game, let alone one with capped betting (which really handcuffs you on later streets regarding getting maximum value). But still, awesome results over that period, nice job.

Good luck with the job hunt! And no harm with returning to poker as a enjoyable side gig once you get the job nailed down (if you can learn to stomach it again).

GcluelessworkingforalivingnoobG