I made 3 rules for Poker

I made these three rules for poker in order to continually learn and grow my game; to manage my tilt and bankroll; and, to track my wins and losses to ensure I am constantly monitoring my game and manage any shortcomings.

What are your thoughts and would you add any more rules:

1. Post a hand for review to a number of forums and discuss with successful players in a group chat.
2. Set a limit before each session that is affordable within the principles of bankroll management.
3. Record every game in an app that tracks profit and loss.

Make notes on opponents and yourself. Often people think they are viewed by their opponents very differently than they are.

This, and let me elaborate. The way an opponent plays a hand against you that goes to showdown, reveal a lot of information about what they think about you.

e.g.

* An opponent that slow play big hand against you when it is not standard (e.g. check-call set every street on a draw heavy board), likely thinks you multi-barrel bluff way too much.
* An opponent that check back river with a hand that has little or no showdown value & no blocker to your folding range (i.e. not bluff with an ideal bluff candidate), likely thinks you are a calling station.
and many more you can add...

The bottom line is, give opponents credit to be thinking players and try to understand what they think. Don't just assume everyone except you is donk/fish/etc. when seeing a weird looking play. This will make you regularly think about the problems in your own strategy and improve.

There will be some resistance to #2 .. I don't want to suggest that BR management shouldn't play a role in your sessions, but it should affect your 'stake' more so than each session itself.

You need to be 'well' rolled for the stake you are playing and I definitely set session limits (and BI caps) when I first started to play, but the overwhelming session decision comes down to two things that eventually shouldn't take BR into account. One, are you playing well, and two, is this table a profitable table to sit at? If the answer to both questions is 'yes' then you should continue to play your session.

Once you are comfortable at the table (and rolled for the stake) then the 'only' choice is to stay topped off at max BI and play your game. It may take a process, especially if you are playing live and have limited stake options.

The obvious thought process is that 'it just isn't my day' and you should just walk away but if you are making good decisions for your playing style and the opponents are still 'available' to win chips from, then you should keep playing. Not that you should follow my style, but I've been down 4BI in sessions before and cashed out for 6-8BI by staying the course. There were plenty of times when I would tilt after suck outs and I should've left the table, but once you learn to control your mental game you will know that it's 'most important' to realize that you played the hand well and just didn't get the result you were hoping for.

Are you ready to 'see' that you are playing well? I don't know, but as you continue to study you will be able to make these decisions 'in game' and give yourself a chance at a comeback in these 'good to great' table conditions. GL

I wish that I had followed your 3 rules. You're off to a great start.

IMO I think your rules are good, but I would add to rule one to be careful about being results oriented about the hands you post for discussion. I don’t have any actual data, but it seems to me that the majority of hands posted on the forums here are hands where hero has lost the hand. It is easy to ask “what did I do wrong?” when you lose a hand. It is much less obvious to ask the same question about a hand you have won, but the truth about poker is that you can very easily botch a hand completely and still wind up winning (or play it completely right and wind up losing).

There are some players (I have a tendency to do this; it is one of the biggest weaknesses I have in my mental game) who will alter their game, and certainly not for the better, when they are stuck for a few buyins in a foolhardy and almost always futile effort to get back to even. Almost always the result is an even greater loss. If OP has this tendency, then a fixed stop loss is probably not a terrible idea. Of course a better one is to stop playing crappy poker after losing a few buyins and stay in the profitable game, but that is easier said than done for some of us.

Cutting hairs .. but if OP has (entitlement) tilt issues then they need to be worked through at the table 'one orbit at a time'. Leaving the table doesn't help solve the issue, but it is a stop-gap, yes. One of my anti-tilt suggestions is to play short for 2-3 orbits until you regain your (mostly) full mental focus. If the tilt is the result of a cooler and the game is still good, then you need to figure out how to stay at the table. GL

I used to post hand reviews on the old Full Tilt Poker forum it improved my game immensely. You can get feedback from players who are playing your limit or higher.