I thought I would start answering all PM questions in this thread since the questions are sometimes redundant...
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1) How did you teach yourself not to look at chips as money?
-- I find after I stack up quite a few times that it's not worth the risk and just go cash out ....
Well, I think there are multiple components to not viewing chips as money.
#1 is to be well rolled. Its a lot easier to play with $2k on the table when you got $20k, $30k, $40k etc under your mattress.
#2 is to just tell yourself,
"I don't care about the money, I only care about the +EV correct play." Tell yourself this every time you wake up, every time you look in the mirror, everytime you brush your teeth, every time you open your refridgerator, every time you start your car, every time you are on the toilet, everytime you log onto 2+2, everytime you are with your girl and bust a nut... after about 1,000 times you will discover that you will actually believe and internalize it.
#3 Experience. The more you play deep, the more you have "X" amount on the table, the more comfortable you will be playing with X amount and greater.
#4
Viewing the game as a job/bank vs a slot machine. When you are truly comfortable and confident in your winrate, then you will view the game as a bank in which you are going to make a withdrawal and/or as a job in which you work X hours and get paid Y/hr. Recreational players tend to view poker as a slot machine. They are waiting for that big bonus hand and once they get it, they now feel their chips are at risk and they get antsy and they want to cash out "before they lose it all..." Think about that mindset vs the mindset of a confident consistent winning player.
I believe (whether right or wrong) that my winning and losing is more a function of my skill (playing, table selection, knowing when to quit, etc). When I'm playing my A or B game, I almost never lose. My winrate for my A game is about 4 out of 5 sessions. My winrate for my B game is about 3 out of 4 sessions...
Give you an example. Yesterday I was on my B game and finished my session up $2.5k. When I arrived I got seated at a HORRIBLE table. THere were 2 pros at the table that were props for the casino, and then there were 2 very good players that I consider almost equivalent in skill to myself. And worst, there were no obvious donks or marks at the table. The rest of the villains were ABC/TAG competent. So, after about 5 minutes I head over to the floor, slip her $10 and say, "get me on THAT table". The table I identified had only 1 pro, 1 decent TAG, and 2 obvious aggro marks and 3 rec fish. I get to that table, and I crush.
My point is simply that when you view the game in terms of your winrate and are confident in your skill a lot of the apprehension about playing with money will start to go away. WHen I recognize I'm at a super juicy profitable table, I have no qualms about being 200bb, 400bb, even 800bb deep because I view that money as a means to win more money. So the deeper I am and the deeper my villains are, the more I believe I can win.
Lastly, I think the biggest component to all this is confidence. And confidence is just a by product of the work you've put in and
experience. In regards to me, if you notice with my shot taking, I'm starting to get antsy around the $13k mark and cashing out. But every time I play, I'm getting more and more comfortable and confident. I'm hopeful that every time I play, my ceiling will rise so that next time its $16k, then $18k, then $20k....
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2) Do you subscribe to the thurs-Sun is much better than the rest of the week?.
Its not so much that I subscribe to it, but moreso that is just what my data says. In the Bay Area, the best days to play are Wednesday - Sunday. Often times, games will run 24/7 Wednesday - Sunday so you can't beat that. Mondays are usually the worst days to play here which is why I usually take Mondays off.