How to discipline yourself ?

[RyoSaeba]

When I play a real world game or an online game, I do very well. But, there is a moment where I begin to loose my game, to go all-in with nothing and to do crappy moves...

How can you sense you are doing everything bad ? How can you stop and manage yourself to play your usual good tight/agressive play ?

[StayHungry]

If you're asking this kind of quesion, it really shows you're thinking incorrectly. You shouldn't be thinking so generally. What I mean is, instead of saying "I get bored and tilt off money", you should be saying "this table isn't good" or "I'm really not up for this, im too tired" ect. Saying you generally start tilting is a beginner statement. If there's money to be extracted from a table, you either can or you can't. If you can't, it should be because you're physically or mentally drained or have something personal on your mind. If a tables fishy and you still find yourself tilting and bluffing, you should stop playing if you can't help yourself.

[CasinoR7]

Don't play tournaments if you are bad at them, but are winning in cash games. You can be playing good poker for hours and then be eliminated just before you are in the money. It is frustrating.

[RyoSaeba]

Ok, I understand what you experience. I have a different feeling about my game, I mean I can play very good for hours (not more than 6 hours through) and after this point, I begin to do crappy things like reraise even when I read a strong hand of my opponent, or making c-bet and pushing even when I am paid...

That is a real pain to not know how to control myself.

[ottsville]

[ QUOTE ]
I mean I can play very good for hours (not more than 6 hours through) and after this point, I begin to do crappy things

[/ QUOTE ]

So, stop playing at 5 3/4 hrs...

Discipline is about doing what is uncomfortable at first in order to change the habits you have. Whether you are trying to get in shape, pass an exam, or learn poker, the basics are the same - doing what MUST be done in order to attain your goal vs doing what you WANT to do or are accustomed to doing.

There's various routes to becoming disciplined - positive reinforcement for taking the right steps or negative reinforcement for bad steps for example. The key is that becoming disciplined is a process. It's something you do step by step. You might start by quitting instead of playing to get back to even after playing poorly. Then quitting when you lose that first pot to poor play. Then when you get good at that, you might begin to quit before your play deteriorates.

There's lots of posts about this in the psych forum.

[ottsville]

The one post I read that I thought was gold was:
"Play naked. When you catch yourself making stupid plays, crack yourself in the cajones with a rubber band...."

[CasinoR7]

Are you talking about strippoker?

[ADK]

dont masturbate for a month

[Poker Plan]

[ QUOTE ]
dont masturbate for a month

[/ QUOTE ]


....you'll explode.

[Win.by.TKo]

Let me see if this thread can be saved.

What I *try* to do is similar to what I do in my chess tournaments. Namely, when I notice a change in the game, no matter what the cause is, I will step away from the board, think about how things are now. Where do I stand? What is my opponent trying to do? What is his goal behind these tactics? What can I do differently to improve the situation? I think about all my possible adjustments. Once I have an idea in mind, I then return to the board ready to play the situation as it lies. This helps me forget my blunders (or good plays [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )to get me here.

To do this, I have to sacrifice some time off my clock in chess. In poker, I may lose a few blinds. It's worth the price.

Every time something major happens on the board, the game has changed. What was happening no longer matters. It's what is happening now that counts. It is the new situation that I need to be aware of, so I can play accordingly.

It seems to be working for me in both ring and tournament poker. I hope it helps everybody else, unless I'm at your table.