I know myself well....

A very important part of playing poker for a living is knowing how you react to certain situations and being able to control your emotions. There are TONS of people that know everything about the math needed to succeed in poker, what hands to play from what positions, and the fundamentals behind proper bankroll management. However, very few of these people have the discipline to actually apply what they know....all the time. In my mind, that is the single most important factor in determining who the successful poker players are and/or who are going to be successful in the long run. I see success in the poker world as being able to stay in money, provide enough income for yourself to live the lifestyle that you desire (that includes saving for the future and paying taxes), and playing with your own money. As far as playing with your own money, there are some occasional situations where I feel like it is acceptable to play while being staked, but to perpetually be staked as a winning player is very -EV in the long run and should be avoided if possible. I know...being staked means that you don't have to accept any of the risk that is associated with playing poker for a living, but if you are a winning player you have to have enough confidence in yourself to realize that the risk of going broke is actually VERY low provided you have the necessary discipline. Anyway, being staked is almost exclusive to tournament players anyway and isn't really what concerns me. I should probably save my anti-staking rant for another blog, but I have already typed all of that out and I am not going to erase it now....back to my original topic...

Question: What separates successful poker professionals apart from other less successful professional players (who are repeatedly going broke) and/or players that have the necessary skill to make it as a professional, but can't for some reason or another.

Answer: Discipline. Like I said there are TONS of people that know the fundamentals of poker (and in reality there isn't too much more that someone needs to be able to beat lower stakes poker), but very few of these people can actually apply enough discipline to make it work in the long run. Here are some of the areas of discipline that people often fail at:
1. Playing quality starting cards and considering position into your hand selection.
2. Practicing good game selection. Do you have a CONSIDERABLE edge in the game? I stress considerable, because it is tough to be honest with yourself when analyzing your edge in a game and is almost always usually much lower than you think it is. If you need a good rule of thumb...it is probably better to choose a limit or game that you think you can crush than it is to play one that you just think you are a small favorite in.
3. Playing within your bankroll. That means you have ALL of 6 months worth of expenses set aside PLUS whatever rules you should apply to your chosen game (25 buy-ins or 500+ Big Bets are pretty widely accepted). Don't forget that means that sometimes you will have to step DOWN in limits when you go on an inevitable bad run.
4. Always play your A-game. This is possibly the one that is the hardest for people to apply. People have a really hard time not letting outside forces affect how they play. For example, it is pretty much impossible to play your absolute best when you are losing and especially when you have been on an extended losing streak. For me, I know when I am losing it gets tougher and tougher to make big folds and they come almost subconsciously when I am winning and playing my best. Also, even if I have been winning for a month straight, anytime you get put in a spot where you have to make several big folds in a short amount of time they get increasingly tough to make.

This blog is getting WAY to long so I am going to try to wrap it up with some concise words of wisdom....

I know these areas of discipline seem simple enough to follow and most people probably feel like they do a good job of following them. I would argue that most people have a warped sense of reality and/or are not being honest with themselves when they evaluate their choices and discipline or lack thereof. I think the secrets to following these basic rules are: gain a better understanding of yourself, make a serious effort in learning how to identify when something is compromising your discipline, and most importantly learn how to solve that issue before you play anymore poker.

Ok, I feel like most of what I just wrote was pretty much incoherent babble and no one besides me will be able to make any sense of it, but I really don't feel like trying to clean it up so it makes more sense for you. Deal with it :)

The reason I started thinking about all of this stuff was because I sat down to play a long session while I watched some football and within less than 10 minutes my play was already starting to deteriorate. I had to make about 3 really tough folds, I was losing on 5 of my 6 tables, someone turned two pair vs. my over pair, someone flopped a set of 3's vs. my AK on a K high board when we had put a lot of money in preflop (impossible to get away from), and I was already stuck $794. I decided to show some discipline and take a break even though I had only been playing for less than 10 minutes. It made me wonder how many players would just try to keep playing through it and let their play continue to suffer due to their bad start. Now, I have taken a plenty of a break and hopefully avoided playing any poker when I wasn't in my best frame of mind.

I know you would love for this blog to just keep going and going (as if its not way too long already), but I have lots more poker to play today and am ready to get back to work.