problem with maintaining solid play in mtt's

[lacky]

I'm having a recurring problem. I'll get deep in the nightly big tournements and bust out, get pissed/depressed and just completely donk off in the smaller tournies that follow. Honestly, I've played some of the worst poker of my life tonight, and it's happened before.

I tell myself to play like a super nit when i get aggrivated, but I dont listen to myself. I have ADHD and forgot to take the pills today, so not surprised it's worse than normal, but I still need to find the right frame of mind for mtt's. In sng's I never cared, cause I would just start some more. Problem with these is I really do care when I bust in the big tournies. Then I care less and play poor in the smaller ones I'm still in, even though I know my long term expectation in them is about the same as the bigger ones.

all thoughts apreciated.....

[lewfather]

I sometimes find myself with this same problem, For me it's just a lack of concentration. Also the pressure I was putting on myself to succeed in these MTT's. What I did was tried to relax as much as possible before a tournament and during breaks. I probably don't play close to the same amount of MTT's as you or most of the people here but Last week I went 4/5 cashing in MTT's with two decent cashs.

[ChipSpeak]

I experience(d) the same troubles, I combat it the best I can by taking a tip from a writing seminar. Most individuals are more energetic, focus is sharper, & retain a high level of concentration longer at a certain time of day. Find yours and try playing at this time, being it is usually 2-3 hrs after waking, this can prove inconvenient, but, when you get to the final table, and been focusing for 4+ hours, this small edge is huge. I seem to do well with a nap after work before playing if the evening is best. Treat your MTT's as a major event, try to ensure you are well rested and ready to focus for a long period of time.

Something I am improving at is assessing my mental state before playing, especially after a long mtt, they are draining, particularly online, staring at the monitor for hours is not good for mental fatigue. Make a rule and stick to it that you will not play if you7r level of fatique or anger is high for you, if it's slightly high to start a tourney (even a sit n go) it will obv only increase during the course of play. you know your results in this state, so why play... you love the game because of so many variables, including these very real variables as priorities into your game will improve profit margins dramatically.
Also, taking bad beats well is a huge step to retaining sharpness throughout the course of a session playing. Anger is draining, and is exponential in its effects as anger causes fatique and fatique causes anger. I try to focus on who was ahead when the money went in the pot, as opposed to results. This game is a marathon which lasts the duration of your time playing, math states that we will lose many hands when ahead.

You will save yourself quite a bit of donked money by coming to this site when you've been snapped off... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]