Quote:
My tilt is zero control whether I will play my "A game" vs. "B game" vs. "C game", even though I make a conscious effort to play only when I feel really good and alert (good sleep, good food, no partying, no drinking, no arguing with gf in the last 24 hours, etc).
But I notice occasionally I make really dumb mistakes when playing (as if I have brain freeze for a micro-second). I instantly recognize these crazy mistakes, but it's usually too late.
It's like I momentarily go on auto-pilot and lose focus; e.g., slow-playing top set on a wet board instead of pricing out draws.
Has anyone else had this problem where they instantly recognize when they've made stupid mistakes, but have later been able to improve their concentration? How did you do it?
I'm assume Tendler's two books discuss how to maintain focus, but I thought it would be more valuable for actual poker players to discuss how they addressed this problem, if any.
Thanks.
Hi bdc:
Poker is mainly a game of knowledge where you need to know and understand a finite and manageable number of concepts that will govern how you should play a hand. However, just knowing the concepts is not good enough since some of the concepts that can come into play on a particular hand can seem to contradict each other.
So, to handle these situations well there are two things that need to happen. One, you get experience playing. And two, when situations occur where the contradicting concepts give you trouble and perhaps lead to an incorrect play, you spend time away from the table thinking things over and reviewing various ways to play the hand.
I doubt very much that shortly after the hand was played you can quickly come to an accurate conclusion that you made a mistake. If that was the case, it's highly doubtful that you would have made the mistake in the first place and may be influenced by a negative result such as getting a set beaten.
See my book
Real Poker Psychology for more discussion.
Best wishes,
Mason