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Old 09-24-2007, 11:29 AM
panda panda is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: London
Posts: 127
Default Re: Lack of disciplie and going against your instincts.

US: I certainly have the same problem as you at the moment.

Far too often at the moment I recognise a situation and what is going on, and I plan a hand ahead according. Then for no reason at all I go against that plan. It's like I don't trust myself. This problem only worsens itself as I then berate myself for going against what I had planned.

All in all, I end up a long way away from playing optimal poker through this, even if it only happens one hand every few thousand, it adds up big time. I have rediscovered a few things which helped me somewhat overcome this in the past.

Firstly, there is an excellent book you may well have heard of called The Inner Game of Tennis. You can ignore the tennis parts. The majority is about how we best learn new skills by learning through our mistakes without making judgments on them. It is obviously more complicated than that but it is very useful, not at all dense reading and will not take long to read.

Secondly, my best results (as in, I don't go against my instincts) have come when I have been meditating consistently. Doing so for 15-20 minutes at the start of each day really put my head in the right place, especially for playing good poker and making correct decisions. There was an excellent basic guide to meditating in OOT a long time ago HERE.

I hope some of that helps.
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