I have come to realize I spend hours playing very well and analyzing the play of each person at the table. I see the guy look at his cards when the three of a suit flops and know he doesn’t have the completed flush and isn’t sure if he even has one of the board suit. I see the guy eyeball my stack as soon as the straight completes and know to get out of his way. I play position well and blah blah blah.....
Then for some insane reason I decide out of the blue I want to play J9 off from utg. Just to ensure that I am going to lose with it I bluff into three people when the flop completely misses me. I am not on tilt, have a great image but just decide it is time to spew my stack away. Sometimes just a small portion, sometimes maybe all of it. It is a total drooler move and I know it as soon as I do it. I will then build my stack back up rinse and repeat. Three sessions in a row I have done this and I don’t know why I make this terrible mistake. It is as if I am just bored, addicted to action, but really bad action.
Please, please anyone who can offer insight I am begging for it. One thing I have noticed, it does tend to happen late in sessions when I have been too tight to buy lunch at the cardroom. Could lack of eating really be a part of my problem? I think that is a stretch.

Firstly, the repetition of this occurring when you have not eaten and this occurring late into a session cannot be ignored and brushed aside.

Poker as a decision making game requires mental capacity. This is a simple observable fact. Not eating and perhaps playing sessions for too long depletes your mental capacity. Which in turn makes clear rational decision making more difficult.

You can read about this with specialised brain science but it can be easily observed as you have done.

Now when it comes to making the mistakes you describe, this all clearly indicates a lack of attention actually during when you play (This is not a dig but this happens to practically all of us).

Perhaps the most amazing advantage of live poker is that you have time to not play automatically. That is, there are discernible time intervals between having to make decisions.

In these intervals one has the opportunity to bring awareness to what is happening in reality. And deal intelligently with any mood that is being constructed in the mind.

In the example of opening J9o UTG, there is a possibility to be aware of the thought to open this hand before acting it out automatically. That possibility is there. And is not a complex thing to do actually. But don't just take my word for it.

You can test it and find out.

What all of this does require, however, though is an understanding of the importance of awareness and attention. That is the understanding of awareness as a necessity for functioning intelligently when playing poker.

It could be due to fatigue and boredom but it could also be a kind of overconfidence tilt. You play well for several hours, presumably making money along the way, and you build your confidence as a result. Eventually you hit a point in the session where you become too confident and try something high risk. If your spew is usually a result of becoming too loose and aggressive (such as opening J9o utg and running a multistreet bluff against several opponents), that would support my theory. However, if your mistakes are often due to making loose calls, then it's probably more due to fatigue.

With a hand like J9o UTG, if ANY of the villains have Q9, K9, A9, JT, QJ, KJ, AJ, 99, TT, JJ, QQ, KK or AA, you are CRUSHED. Now add on hands like 88-22 that are slightly ahead of you. Now add on hands like QT, KT, AT, AK, KQ, AQ (did I miss any two-broadway hands ahead of this one?) that don't necessarily have you crushed but are ahead of you. Plug that whole range into pokerstove and realize what % of hands that is.

Now calculate the probability that at LEAST one of the other 8 villains HAS one of those hands. I'm not positive on this math, but I THINK the way to do is to calculate the probability that they DON'T and subtract that from 100.

Suppose those hands are N% of all cards. Then the probability that ONE villain does NOT have of those hands is 1-N. The probably that TWO villains do not have that hand is (1-N)(1-N). So on and so forth, the probably that 8 villains all have NONE of those hands is (1-N)^8. Subtract that number from 100 and that's the probabiliy that one of the villains has you beat.

I'm sure you have a vague or even strong idea in your head that J9o is a crappy hand to play UTG (honestly, I wouldn't even play that on the BUTTON in NLHE unless stacks were at least 200bb deep AND I had at least a 3-way pot AND I was a VERY good postflop player), but I'll bet that if you took the time to do the math and learned just HOW horrible it is, the next time you had a chance to play it, you wouldn't.

Here's another challenge for you: With J9o, ask yourself these questions:
1. What are you REALLY hoping to flop? 3 cards the same suit as the J? The 9? Another J with no overcards? Another 9 with no overcards? T8x or QTx with or without a twoflush? Cards like T7x, KTx et al that give you a gutshot with no twoflush? For each of these possibilities, calculate the probability of flopping each of them, and then consider how comfortable you're REALLY going to be either taking the hand to the river or getting everyone else to fold, especially considering the high probability you'll be playing the whole hand out of position.

Again, I'm sure you have a vague to strong idea of how bad the hand is, but I'll bet that if you did the math and saw just how quantifiably bad it truly is, next time you were tempted to play it "for fun" you'd decide you'd be better off saving that bet for the roulette wheel.

A tendency of a tired player is that 1) They will call more 2) They will be more stubborn on bluffs... Both of which leads to not methodical mistakes, but massive spews.

If you insist on playing longer sessions, tattoo on your wrist or something to remind you of the need to eliminate most of your calling ranges with more bet/instafold, and to just bet for value and eliminate all bluffs if necessary. Better to play exploitative and be able to play long, then to balance, spew, and go home. GL.

Chiggs,
Thank you for the response. You are spot on with your analysis. Since posting this I have done two things religiously:
1.I am taking breaks and eating something during said breaks. My win rate has been noticeably changed for the better.
2. I am looking for reasons to fold crap pre-flop instead of trying to find reasons to play crap pre-flop. I am paying more attention to my play as well as that of others. Drastic improvement.
Again, thank you for taking the time to respond and to help me with my game.
Cheers....

Darth,
Very interesting thought process, I never would have thought to consider this but yeah you know I do tend to get overconfident when winning and I guess I may be jousting with hands that are obvious folds earlier in the session. Thank you very much for the response. I have taken this advice to heart and will keep an eye on my game for this form of tilt, you may just be on to something.

4timmy,
Thank you for your response. I agree long sessions definitely lead to poor decisions hence massive spews. Being self-aware of this is so important. Thank you again for your insight regarding this.

I try to keep it to 4 hours for this reason. I also do the mantra, "position, position, position."

Hi Bipolar:

In my book Real Poker Psychology there’s discussion of something I called “searching.” This usually occurs when a marginal player becomes frustrated that he doesn’t do as well as some of the better players that he’s aware of. It’s seen most often when the marginal player is doing poorly in a game and thus begins to search for other strategies that he hopes will improve his results.

While your description is a little different from this, it looks to me that you may be a searcher. What you need to understand is that changes in your strategy should only be made after much thought is put into it, and that usually should be done away from the table.

So, in your example of playing J9o UTG, there may be situations where adding in a marginal hand up front can help your overall win rate. But unless you have this well thought out, making these type of adjustments at the table should lower your expectation, and keeping this in mind should also help you from falling into this trap.

Best wishes,
Mason

Mason,
First off thank you so much for your insight. I will immediately pick up this book along with DUCY which I felt was very appropriate after reading Theory Applied. This is what sets 2+2 apart. Thank you so very much for contributing to my personal journey to becoming a poker player that can contribute to my families well being after a devastating change to our life.
Cliffs Notes, my daughter and I were struck from behind by a vehicle traveling at greater than 100 mph. Rylee my 6mos old was in her car seat and by the grace of God was very minimally injured. I was far lass fortunate. Lost my left eye and had significant head trauma. The traumatic brain injury led to severe bipolar tendencies among other things. 28head surgeries and counting, along with severe neuromuscular deficits. Therefore, had to make some serious life changes. I had always played poker, but now it is my main source of income.
2+2 has been the leading source of knowledge for me. It is a Godsend between the forums and the books. My game is light years ahead of where it once was and I am now viewed as a very solid player. All because of 2+2, thank you so much Mason. You have no idea the impact you have had on me. Poker is not just my hoppy, it has become my profesion due to my limited abilities to do much else. People are not anxious to hire a slow speaking, bipolar individual with one eye; however, everyone sees me as an easy mark at the tables. That is until I am stacking their chips. Thank you so much Mason!

Hi Bipolar:

Thank-you for your kind remarks and I hope you continue to heal. However, you're describing a person, yourself, who may have issues beyond what I understand. So, my advice is to continue to study and to make sure that you're enjoying your time at the poker table. If you can do this, it should increase your chance that success will come.

Best wishes,
Mason