Advancing my game....

I feel like I work pretty hard on improving my poker game and it is really rewarding when you can tell it is working. The most obvious way you can tell that you are improving is by the amount of money you win (or don't loss for some people). To me it is much more rewarding when my hard work pays off by giving me a clearer understanding of the game of poker in general or when I learn something about myself that helps to improve my poker game.

I was perusing the 2+2 forum yesterday after I had one of my worst losing days online ever. I lost over $5,000 yesterday and I just didn't feel like my normal self when I was playing. I made some errors that I would normally never make and I let one hand early in my session affect my emotions the rest of the day. Anyway, I found a gem of a post by a pretty respected poster on there and I think it is really going to be helpful. He gave some rather non poker related explanations as to why he thought he was able to achieve a higher win rate than most regulars his advice really hit home with me. He claims that in order to win at the rates he wins at you don't have to be more skilled than any of the other typical regular players, but you have to have more self control and better awareness of what is going on while you are playing. I have always thought that most people with decent intelligence and a fundamental understanding of poker should be able to make a living playing poker. There are many factors outside of poker skills that determine what makes you a winning player in the long run and those are the ones that most people fail at. He happens to agree with me, but explains it in a much better way than I could myself.

I am going to copy some excerpts from his post and comment on how I think they apply to me. I am sure this will be pretty boring to the people reading this that aren't interested in improving their poker game, but for those of you that are you should pay attention to what he has to say....its some pretty good stuff.

#1 BW: Your mental, emotional state while playing is 80% of the work, and you can work and take specific steps to get better at that. Being in the right emotional state will allow you to open up your eyes to what you and the other players are doing without being stuck in the previous hand you lost, how much you are up, what you´re gonna eat later, etc.

Combine that with some basic technical steps that can be taken and you got the other 20% to at least achieve enough to live comfortably off poker. I believe that with today’s games and climate, anybody with even mediocre intelligence and some discipline could at the very least make a comfortable living playing this game.

I feel like I have better control of my mental state while playing that most players, but this is an area where I can definitely improve on. I know I have said this before, but no more chatting while I am playing and I am going to work on clearing my mind of outside stuff while I am playing. There is jut no excuse to not make an effort to focus 100% of your energy on poker while you are playing. I realize it is difficult to actually give 100% of your focus, but you should at least try to do so.

#2 The big difference between the average 1-2 grinder and the average 3/6 or 5/10 grinder is definitely not raw talent or God-given natural abilities. It is risk tolerance, bankroll management, game selection, tilt control. All very simple things to reign in with a little emotional control.

These are almost the exact same things I have been working on lately without even really knowing I was working on them. My bankroll management has never been an issue. However, I was always complaining how I wasn't comfortable in bigger games and I felt like my hands were face up when I played them. Forcing myself to play in bigger games has somewhat solved my risk tolerance problem and I have definitely been practicing better game selection lately. Of course I was going to feel like my hand was face up when I previously used to take shots at bigger games without giving any thought to game selection. I always ended up in games with the best players/regulars at those higher limits and they obviously had more experience than I did and outplayed me at will. In my opinion improved risk tolerance and game selection are definitely the two most important things when attempting to move up in limits.

#3 Also, as I mention above, I believe hand reading to be a function of your mental / emotional state at the time more than anything else.

Ever noticed that some days you can put people on hands right and left, other days you´re just fumbling in the dark? They haven´t changed, you haven´t changed, your skills have not diminished. But you are probably not in that same emotional state you were in when playing the first game.

Brilliant! Hand reading being a function of your mental/emotional state is some of the wonderfully written poker advice I have ever read. It is so easy to read hands when you are winning and everything is going your way and sometimes seemingly impossible when things aren't going your way. I think that people almost always write this phenomenon off as "running good" or "running bad" instead of placing the blame/success on their own state of mind. When people are losing and get put in a tough spot they just say to theirself..."Geez, I never get put in spots like this when I am winning, this is just such bad luck piled onto my already bad luck". When in actuality, they do get put in those same spots when they are winning, but their mind isn't clouded with doubt and the decisions are seen with so much more clarity. How many times have you been in a live game where you are not involved in the hand and you are watching someone agonize over what is such an obvious decision to you? It is so easy because your mental/emotional state isn't being bombarded with doubt when you are just observing the hand and have no emotional ties to the result.

Here is some more of his thoughts on results being tied to your emotional state of mind:

BW: Realizing that most regulars actually were not that solid and didn´t have their own game (most just basically have picked up somebody else’s preflop game that they´ve seen on a training video and have no clue why they are doing what they are doing - postflop they are usually spewy as xxxx). When you start zoning in how to scalp the regs, that´s when you start improving and that´s when you start beating the game for more than 1 ptbb / hour. And the basis for all of this was realizing how much of my game was dependant on playing when in the right emotional state, and learning how to maintain that mindframe.

Most of you guys have no basic technical problems when it comes to this game. You understand pot control, way ahead / way behind, position, equity, pot odds, 3-bet equity, etc. The reason you struggle with the more subtle technical aspects is that they usually require a good and clean state of mind whilst playing and analyzing. If you are on constant subtle tilt you will never understand your own image, your opponents projected image vs the way they actually play, what your history with a specific opponent really means and CORRECT adjustments (as opposed to a couple of 3 bets and now you´re waiting to shove any 2), and what all this basically boils down to; hand reading and putting your opponent on accurate ranges, and knowing what to do with those ranges. These qualities will separate a 2 ptbb winner, from a 5 ptbb winner. I believe that although I display a 4,7 ptbb winrate, I could have easily avoided many situations where I KNEW I was making the wrong play and made it anyway, and could easily have had a 5,5 - 6 ptbb winrate. I take responsibility for these results.

#4 BW: I go through a studious prep pregame, and I have papernotes around me that I use whilst playing. I have very specific tradition throughout the day. I always start, for instance, by reviewing yesterdays hands.

As for a check-lists, start small. Whenever somebody calls or raises you preflop, jusk ask yourself about his range of hands. You would not believe how many pros fail to ask themselves this one simple question (which they always used to when they were improving). We all know we should, and yet when we sit down we start autopiloting our usual abc game. We´re on the ball the first 5 minutes, and then go into droid mode. Just start out by doing this every time you have any preflop decisions. Then extend to the flop. Then extend to asking yourself about your perceived range (2nd level). If you have been autopiloting for the last 2 hrs, you will have no idea what he perceives your range to be, because you have no clue about your own image. You can add levels as you go on, but do not overdo it. And the absolute most important thing when faced with a big decision, is to first breathe and relax for a couple of seconds.

Have you ever noticed when you get sucked into a hand? Like you have an overpair and you get raised on the turn, you know you´re beat, and beofre you know it you have called anyway? Or what i call the bluff-vortex, when you start with small flop raise, and before you know it you have fired three barrels and you´re all in and get snapcalled by the nuts? What the hell just happened? A 200 bb pot lost out of nowhere!!? If, at any point, you would have just stepped back, taken a breath and realized how little sense your line makes or how narrow his range must be, you would have saved a stack. When you look at it in retrospect, it is very clear to you. This alludes to my earlier point; most of you guys are fine when it comes to the technical aspects of the game, but you need to hone some of the mental and emotional ones.


This is all great stuff, but he most important part that I took from it was developing a routine prior to playing that gets me in the right state of mind to play. I usually have a small pregame routine that I do most of the time, but I needed to expand on it a little bit. I usually take my adderall and get in the shower before I start a serious online session. Today I took an extra step to help clear my mind before I played. I took my normal shower and then set a 10 minute timer on my computer while I laid on my couch with my eyes closed thinking about the most common mistakes I make when playing and how I could avoid them. I also tried to reenact some situations where I felt I made really clear decisions that sometimes seemed tough to me. I tried to focus on the emotional state I was in when I made those decisions and get myself to be in that same mind frame before I started my session.

#5 BW: I try to live my life in accordance with many buddhist philosophies. The greatest lesson that can be applied to your poker game is the buddhist lesson of being mindful and aware of one´s thoughts and actions at all times. I believe that this is the one single most powerful tool in any game (or profession) and the separator between many of the nosebleeders, the midstakes grinders and the low-limit strugglers. Unfortunately as simple as this teaching is, it is not easy.

I think this is so true of all of the most successful people in any sport. I think a persons mental makeup/approach to a sport is way important to their natural ability. For example: Everyone on tour can hit the same shots Tiger does. Jordan didn't make a higher % of his shot attempts than other shooting guards in the league. Peyton Manning is slower than your average NFL QB and he throws aren't ones that can't be made by the rest of the QB's in the league. However, all of these people just have WAY better control over their emotions than their opponents do and this is what makes them the best at their sports.

I am sorry this was so long winded, but I really needed to get these thoughts down while it was fresh in my mind.

Oh ya, I had one of my best days ever today after my semi-meditation to start my session: +$7,221, Ballin!