I'm gonna try to post my daily results, just so i have a bit more accountability. So here is today.


Heres something i wrote on the plane, i don't feel like editing it at all so it may be a little incoherent cause i was fricken tired when i wrote it.

Translating poker theory into poker play

To a certain extent, I think this issue plagues all poker players. Brilliant people, who have a great understanding of math and poker theory aoften are terrible poker players. This is counterintuitive, however it is often the case. This happens because there is so much more than just "knowing" the correct theoretical move in a certain situation. You also have to go through with it and carry out that move, and actually carrying out the correct play is often much harder than thinking of it. So many things can influence this action: your mood, how you have been running, your perception--or in many cases misperception--of other players, whether you are tilting, whether you are a passive or aggressive player overall. I mean, I definitely run into players that just mystify me with their play (they are either very bad or very good), however most of my mistakes, and I believe most mistakes that poker players make, come from knowing the correct decision, and then making the wrong one anyways. For example, one of my favorite mistakes to make, is making a blocking bet against a passive player on the river, planning to fold to their raise, they then proceed to raise or go allin, and I somehow convince myself to call anyways. So what makes me make those mistakes? I think its because I want to win every pot, I mean winning money is obviously preferable to just giving up on money, so by thinking in the short term, it makes sense that I would want to call, so I can win, rather than lose the pot. So its important to really think of longterm expected value, rather than trying to satisfying my short term want of winning the pot. If one really focuses on the long term, it will almost definitely help oneself as a poker player. So how does one do this? It certainly isn't easy, but I have thought of a few things that can help:

1) Don't look at the cashier, I mean you will always have a general idea of where you are at the day, but if you don't know the specific number of how much you are up, or more importantly down, for the day then how much you are about to win or lose in the next pot will likely affect you less. Its always a surprise as to how much money you have won or lost in a day when you check after you are done playing. Also, it is just one less distraction for you while you are playing.

2) learn how to deal with running bad. When a poker player runs bad, this is where one usually doesn't carry out the decisions that we know are correct. There is no magic solution to this, but playing at stakes you are comfortable with and conservatively bankrolled for are a big help. If this means simply not playing once you are down X amount of dollars in a day then so be it. It will prevent you from putting in the long hours, but putting in 8 hours a day where you were tilting during 5 is usually much less profitable than playing 3 hours of solid poker.

3) You are playing poker for the very, VERY long run. Really learn this and focus on it. One cannot force making money, one can only facilitate it with good play.

Me r not able to tink of anything else now so that is all.

cheers,

bmxicle