What's up guys. Just another micro's grinder trying to make it here (how generic).

I am a 19 y/o (student) from the UK, who has been playing micro-stakes cash for around 18 months(?), and put in around 500k hands lifetime.

This thread will be dedicated to a number of things, perhaps primarily learning to dedicate myself to the game, an outlet where I shall vent my flaws, mistakes and leaks in poker, and ultimately attempt to fix them through whichever method seems necessary, in an attempt to grow as a player. In other words I want to be completely open about my grind, diminishing any (false) ego I feel attached to Poker. I feel any talk of stake, BR, WR etc. is unnecessary (for now), although I imagine this thread may become more focused on such area's as it evolves. If I stop updating this PG&C know I have failed to dedicate myself entirely (perhaps a short-sighted, bold statement, but I see this as an important first step; a journal where I shall document the likes of setbacks, and progress).

Let the games begin!

So, first up is a mental game leak/issue I have struggled with throughout the beginning of 2018. I often delete my current DB, not allowing it to grow to a useful size, rendering the tracking software (HM2) practically useless (I know, a ridiculous leak). Typing about this I realize, this is merely what the leak is costing me, not the root of the problem (I must discover and work on the root in order to find a solution). The issues is tilt; I tilt, and for whatever reason deleting my DB is the solution in the moment. While I certainly don't feel I get angry or massively spewy (like the typical tilt you may imagine), I clearly tilt. This tilt will also be massively impactful on my WR, developing a stronger mental game will be massive for my game (in numerous area's). I have worked on my mental game previously, often finding that I have 'fixed' my leaks, only to find temporary 'solutions', where the underlying problem often resurfaces. I am dedicating the next week (remainder of April) almost entirely to this problem.

Typical causes of my problem:
-Mistakes (have to learn to deal with mistakes; they are constant in this game)
-Tilt (often caused by mistakes; learn to develop a stronger tolerance)

Tasks to complete over the next week:
-Read the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler; focused reading, understand concepts (I make this a point, as I find it easy to read such books and not fully take in it's contents). Develop a better understanding of my exact problem/s using this tool (write about interesting things I have learnt which relate to my leak/s). []
-Watch 'mental game' learning path (essential) videos on RIO. (take notes?) []
-Drop down in stakes for the week and consciously focus on my mental/game. Focus on forgetting about the $ (focus on BBs) fighting tilt in game, understanding mistakes will be made (frequently for that matter), sitting out when tilted etc. []
-DO NOT delete DB over the course of the week (or ever again for that matter!) []
-Continue to study (1h p/d). Understanding the game better will inevitably lead to understanding my (mental game) weaknesses better (as well as the other benefits to studying ofc). []
-Meditate. 5 minutes today, increasing my daily meditation time by (just) 1m p/d until 10m. Continue to meditate post this week for a minimum of 5-10 mins. []
-(5m) Yoga. Daily. (helpful?) []
-Gym (4+ times weekly). (helpful?) []

Any other suggestions are more than welcome.

Additional Task to complete over the next week:
-Avoid checking results entirely (in order to remain as non results oriented as possible. []

Inchworm:
One of the three foundational theories presented in the introduction to Jared Tendler's The Mental Game of Poker is the Inchworm. As described in the book "A concept with a strange name which helps make the process of improving over time easier to understand". This concept really resonated with my experience/s. I feel that my "A" game is doing very well, but what may be throwing off my game/results is the fact that my A game is rarely played, or at least that my B/C/D game is played frequently. I have not improved the back end of my game (primarily being my mental game), bringing down my entire game as the range of my game is wider (as I continue to develop my understanding of more advanced concepts, and ignore my current leaks; namely aspects of the mental game). I urge readers to familiarize themselves with the concept if this sounds at all familiar.
The concept also highlights the fact that often we protect/ignore/deny our weakness (as an emotional reaction). Once again, this related to my current journey (and this thread) massively; one of my main goals for this thread was as an attempt to remove any form of ego from the game and review my game completely without bias. Whilst this discovery may not seemingly have any immediate impact (although arguments could certainly be made that there are), it's impact will be massive on my ability to improve over time. I thought this was worth sharing.

In other news, today, as my first day of the coming week whereby my main focus is on improving my mental game I have managed to stay completely on track with all tasks. I consider the day a success in that I had a losing day (almost certainly, although I haven't checked my results in order to remain aligned with my goals) but my DB remains. (I made a number of mistakes where typically I would tilt & delete my DB.)

After putting in slightly over 3k hands in the first 2 days of the week, I deleted my DB. My tolerance has already shown to be much higher (currently going through a DS, reached -1000bbs before 'breaking' where before a mistake costing as little as 50bbs would trigger a delete). I am not feeling too sorry for myself, as this has shown progress. I also needed to withdraw $ from my BR for RL. The combination of DS & withdrawal means I will be moving down in stakes. I will continue the remainder of the week as I have and try to get back on track in alignment with my goals (and ultimately learn from this experience).

Here I have attached my graph for the 3k hands played in the last couple days: https://gyazo.com/b8780b73e2a93ef6768e8aefd689511c

Hello NL10 my old friend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLfCnGVeL4.

Don't call raises preflop. Fold or 3bet almost all hands except pps. And that means fold.
Tighten up. Good luck!!!

Mental Game of Poker 1 and 2 are great books.

Injecting Logic:
Injecting Logic is described by Tendler as one of the two main strategies needed for solving mental game problems. The injection of logic is the short-term strategy which contains mental game problems while playing and also takes a small step towards resolution.

I have recently created a few logic injection statements. Each targeting tilt at the table accumulated from different area's. An example; Problem: Tilt | Problem Case (Root): Mistakes (one of my most apparent mental game leaks) | Consequences (of tilting): x | Injecting Logic Statement: Mistakes are one of the few constants in poker. Accept that, learn from them and move on. I created the logic injection table as a new sheet in Excel which sits alongside some ranges I use which I have constantly open whilst playing, this allows me to find my statement as soon as tilt (for whatever reason) shows up.

I am yet to use this technique (yet to tilt at the table since implement them!), but will keep the thread updated as to the techniques effectiveness.

To solve a mental game problem permanently, you need to get to the root of the issue, understand the logical reason it happens, and find out why that logic is flawed.

A statement made by Tendler in The Mental Game of Poker which really resonated with my experiences, and my previous lack of understanding as to the solution of mental game problems.

Mental HH:
1.Describe the problem: I go on tilt when I make a mistake at the tables. The costlier the mistake, the more tilted I get.
2. Why does it make logical sense that you would react, think of feel that way? Costly mistakes impact WR massively. Perhaps over confidence(?) in my game makes me less prepared for such mistakes.
3. Why is that logic flawed I do make mistakes, therefore believing that I can avoid them entirely is flawed thinking. Every poker player in the history of the game makes mistakes. (Since better understanding this, I find myself making fewer mistakes; perhaps relating to the tilt of tilt – anger being created by recognising you’re angry, triggering more tilt).
4. What is the correct way to handle the situation? To accept that I will be making mistakes at the table, and that (over) confidence does not benefit my game or my WR. Once accepted, I can avoid the consequential tilt, and work to improve on these mistakes (both at and away from the tables). (“diminishing any (false) ego I feel attached to Poker; one of my original goals of this thread).
5. Why is that correction correct? Over-confidence is only harmful to my game; mistakes and losses are inevitable, and over-confidence finds these to be a problem, triggering tilt which in turn often leads to more mistakes and losses; a completely irrational evolution of events which harm a number of aspects of my game, such as motivation and WR to name a couple.

Tasks to complete over the next week:
-Read the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler; focused reading, understand concepts (I make this a point, as I find it easy to read such books and not fully take in it's contents). Develop a better understanding of my exact problem/s using this tool (write about interesting things I have learnt which relate to my leak/s). []
-Watch 'mental game' learning path (essential) videos on RIO. (take notes?) [x]
-Drop down in stakes for the week and consciously focus on my mental/game. Focus on forgetting about the $ (focus on BBs) fighting tilt in game, understanding mistakes will be made (frequently for that matter), sitting out when tilted etc. [x]
-DO NOT delete DB over the course of the week (or ever again for that matter!) []
-Continue to study (1h p/d). Understanding the game better will inevitably lead to understanding my (mental game) weaknesses better (as well as the other benefits to studying ofc). [x]
-Meditate. 5 minutes today, increasing my daily meditation time by (just) 1m p/d until 10m. Continue to meditate post this week for a minimum of 5-10 mins. [x]
-(5m) Yoga. Daily. (helpful?) [x]
-Gym (4+ times weekly). (helpful?) [x]
-Avoid checking results entirely (in order to remain as non results oriented as possible. []

Incomplete/failed tasks:
-Reading The Mental Game of Poker by Tendler; I have read around half of this book thus far, and will continue to read it daily until it is completed (in another week or so's time)
-Do not delete DB; I deleted my DB a couple of days into the challenge. After that I have not even considered it, and am feeling confident that it will not happen again.
-Avoid checking results; obviously when I deleted my DB that 2nd day I checked results, other than this, I have not (semi-complete?)

Very happy with the progress made in this last week, I will continue to study and develop my mental game, as well as focus more on other area's of my game (will keep thread updated). I have had 2 losing days in the last 5/6 days, proving that I can now go losing days without considering deleting my DB (massive progress!) DB:
https://gyazo.com/55a7df34102d7b2f19106977534512f4
https://gyazo.com/073d023e5ecadc4256d915c0713c3e7f

Volume goal for May: 50k hands

Update:
Focusing this weeks study time on squeezing (as well as continued mental game study). For squeezing, I will be reading dedicated chapters/sections from such poker books as Grinder's Manual (V2), watching RIO training video's, as well as saving squeezed pot HHs for review.
Unfortunately I went on a big losing session yesterday which ended in deleting my DB. My threshold is clearly much higher than previously, but the solution has not been yet trained into my unconscious competence. According to the ALM (adult learning model), when learning something, it must first progress through the conscious competence stage, during this stage emotion can still shut down higher thought, resulting in problems showing back up, aka when tilted, my leak still arises. I am continuing to work on the mental game, now employing a mental game review (table), whereby I take notes on emotions and their strengths, tables played, a description of the session thus far and so on IN GAME (in intervals of 30 minutes). I hope this can give me a unique insight into my mental game.

A change in interpretation:
I've found that mistake tilt is my most prominent and damaging mental game leak (the main cause of my tilt). After reading the section dedicated to mistake tilt in The Mental Game of Poker, I understand now that mistake tilt (learned to unconscious competence, like in my case) highlights a distinct lack in understanding of the learning process. Mistakes are useful; they can be analyzed, and 'fixed'. Allowing mistakes to tilt me is completely illogical. I will attempt to look at mistakes as a positive from here onward; something which I can learn from; a part of my game which can improve my WR massively.

Sorry mate but I seriously can't get my head around you deleting your database despite making it a clear goals. Should be the easiest goal to achieve and takes no effort. You've pretty much hit the nail on the head with regards to seeing mistakes you've made. Should be embraced and not be embarrassed about. All microstakes players make mistakes in every hand they play , that's why we are playing microstakes but you will never improve just brushing it under the carpet. GL mate

well said, and exactly what/why I'm trying to focus on these mental game leaks. Understand; In my study of the mental game I'm trying to develop a strong mindset in reference to every aspect of poker, ofc focusing primarily rn on this current problem I face (deleting of DB!), but indirectly studying these other relevant aspects of the mental game.

Deleting my DB is a clearly illogical habit I got into recently, and has very quickly become a serious leak of mine, requiring more attention than it would seem. I'm determined to overcome it and develop a strong mental game. Ty for the GL!

What game are you playing, like NL10 or something?

GL on learning, IMO just stop deleting the database!!!
-$100 at NL10 in 2k is rooky numbers in degen losses game

Also, read the full book. Say, decide you'll read the full TMGoP part. 2 today b4 you go to sleep
and then just do it.

Unfortunately It's not that simple, as mentioned in fighting this leak I am combating much more than appears on the surface; a number of mental game issues lurk beneath!

I am playing in the micro's; specifics are unimportant rn (until the thread evolves to a more theory based discussion).

I am also unsure reading a book like TMGoP (pt.2) cover to cover is the correct way to approach this unique part of this game.

Thankyou for the GL/support

An update for the current week:
I am currently shot taking a new stake (a stake I have beat a couple times before). I intend to play just 1 table (as apposed to 2+) in order to increase focus primarily due to my aggressive BRM, until my BR is more conservative for that stake. I am replacing my (theory based) study for playing whilst I am in this stage (1-tabling, in order to increase volume). Bear in mind; 1 table zoom (higher volume than regular), I will also be continuing to study/focus on the mental game.

I am removing 'BBV' from my HM2 HH save options, and adding 'Mental game triggers', so to remove focus from pointless bad beat/brags/variance, and add focus to my specific mental game triggers, so that I can further study these spots of the table (mistake tilt etc.)

Thought/quote of the day: "it can be tough to face the weaknesses in your game, but it's better than pretending they don't exist" ~ Jared Tendler, TMGoP (specifically in reference to overconfident/entitlement tilt). I felt this summaries the current purpose of this thread fairly well.

I feel I have almost entirely overcome this mental game leak. I will most likely create a new thread based more on my journey in poker with theory/stake/WR etc. talk. I will reopen this thread for discussion if I feel necessary (returning leaks/any other topics of conversation I want to discuss/post about). gl @ the tables