Gold from mid/hi

[Surf]

[ QUOTE ]

I definitely believe this is will help people achieve the detached state that you described in your post. After you play for a while without looking at the cashier, you do lose track of how you're doing and can focus on making good decisions.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree completely. The first hour was agony for me, and since then I've been playing the most calm, tilt-free poker that I've played in quite some time. I just don't care whether I'm up or down, I only care that I make the best decisions possible with what information I have available, using whatever strategy/calculation (eg, calculate %-age I have to be good to call river bet, etc) that I have at my disposal.

Surf

[Surf]

Great post GoT. A few people have already gotten this thing going, Entity and I are going from Wed to Wed...I think Sthief was trying to get a few ppl together to go in on a pool, winner take all. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Surf

[sweetjazz]

FWIW, I think this is a great post, and I agree with the philosophy. I think it's not a bad idea to not look at results, but ultimately, the true zen state should be one in which we see our results but they do not affect our thinking or state of mind. When we lose 50 BBs, 100 BBs, 200 BBs, what have you and we see it right in front of our faces and have it counted out in front of us, and we still feel happy with how we played and the decisions we made, then true zendom has been reached. Just my opinion.

What I find more cathartic is posting my stupidly played hands and hands where I either pooched something basic or completely botched the hand because I was completely lost. Besides getting helpful replies, the shame factor makes me want to play correctly. I may send my reputation on these boards (which is far from stellar if it exists so far) to a pitifully low level, but posting hands I played badly helps me come to peace with my game. By dwelling on them and trying to recognize what led me to the error (both the theoretical knowledge that I lacked or failed to apply correctly and the psychological factors that may have caused me to choose my suboptimal play), I hope to make better decisions in the future and so reach closer to zendom.

Zendom for all, and all for zendom.

[Monty Cantsin]

[ QUOTE ]


I think true immunity to results includes being fully aware of them and not letting it affect your emotional well being or your pursuit of makeing the correct poker decision.


[/ QUOTE ]

Well put. I think we're in the minority here, though. And I do think the no-peeking approach is probably a useful exercise, and I hope it helps the people who are doing it. It's just not for me.

Like Orpheus leading Euridice out of Hades, I just have to look.

/mc

I like it too. I was completely non-results-oriented like 2 weeks ago but then I had a horrible downswing and lost the mentality, now I m gaining it back.
I still know pretty well at the start of the next session if I won or lost in the last because you see the amount when you buy in :/

[Entity]

[ QUOTE ]
Like Orpheus leading Euridice out of Hades, I just have to look.

[/ QUOTE ]

And then poof, the bets are gone.

Rob

[Surf]

Bump.

Every time I start to feel uncertain because of variance I come back and read this post, and all is right with the world again.

Surf

[krishan]

Funny stuff. So last night I put a good solid session in. And I catch the deck hard. Top pair every time I raise. People folding to my turn bets with ace high. Lots of premiums. It's beautiful.

This was the first monster streak since I stopped looking at results. I decided I would innocously check out the position stats tab (I was hoping to see results) but I had already hidden the BB and money won columns!!

How embarressing. So I post to invite the mockery of my peers and to pose a question. There are numerous advantages to not looking at your results when you are running bad, perhaps even average. Are there negative consequences to peeking when you are running well?

Krishan

[beachbum]

[ QUOTE ]
Are there negative consequences to peeking when you are running well?

[/ QUOTE ]

For me, absolutely. I lose my tenacity when I'm up big. It's human nature.

Analogy:
Think about a golfer that usually shoots in the mid 40's. He's out one Saturday afternoon having a good time with his buddies out on the course. The other cart has the scorecard. He knows he's doing well but really isn't all that aware. They total the scores up after 9 holes and he finds out he just shot a 37.

What are the chances he does this well on the back 9? Not very likely. I think he'll be lucky to break 50 since he'll be so focused now on how much better he's doing than he should, that he subconsciously plays poorly to bring his results back in line to where they "should be".

[naphand]

From a Zen perspective your are totally correct Maxx. Hiding from the results is not achieving a detached state of mind.

One is the consequence of ignorance, the other the consequence of complete understanding.

However, if in practice a pseudo-detached state can be achieved by hiding the results (albeit by brute force), this may be enough to realise the error our minds/intellects have been making all along. The realisation of this may just well the "realisation" required to escape the so-called "prison of the intellect" and become detached for real (without the need to hide the results).

Any Zen practice has as its ultimate goal the freeing of attachment to "things", and pretty much ANY practice that achieves this is Zen.

Good luck to you all. And hey! the lesson learned can be applied to other bits of your life too....