moving up

[Harv72b]

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i think what dave and eagle were trying to tell me is that luck was the major factor in my winning session, and poor play and ignorance was the major factor when i busted. thier probably right.

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What they are trying to say is that results don't matter. They'll take care of themselves, given enough time. All that matters is how well you play. If I win 100 BBs in a single session, I tend to feel great about that, obviously. That doesn't mean that I'm not upset after the session because I missed a bet on a boat vs. trips hand, or because I folded the best hand to a maniac's turn raise. My goal whenever I sit down at a table is to play a perfect poker session, and no less. If I play perfect poker and lose 100 BBs, that's just poker. If I play imperfect poker and win 200 BBs, then I'm trying to figure out how I could've made it 210.

Anyone can read a few books, log a few hundred hours, and become an average poker player. What separates the average poker players from the good ones is a constant desire to improve their own play, regardless of results. That's why the Phil Iveys and Daniel Negreanus and Doyle Brunsons and Allen Cunninghams of the world are so great--because they are constantly pushing themselves to be better.

Almost anyone can log a winning session, even a huge win, and even without it being pure luck. If you're the 9th worst poker player in the world and sit down at a table with the 8 players worse than you, you have an edge in the game and with neutral luck or close to it, you will come out ahead. That doesn't mean that you're good...just that you were better than your opponents in this particular session, and you ran well enough to take advantage of that. You will still have made a number of mistakes during the session, but come out ahead because your opponents made far more mistakes...and the only way that you will be able to continue winning at that table is if you look at those mistakes and work at correcting them, faster than your opponents can fix their own mistakes.

You're not dumb, you're (probably) not a bad poker player, but you just need to understand this mindset and try as much as possible to divorce yourself from the monetary results. You can't control what cards fall in any given hand, or session. All you can really control is what you do with them.