Lack of disciplie and going against your instincts.

[Unknown Soldier]

yeah that makes sense, interesting idea.

[panda]

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.

[Unknown Soldier]

thanks for the reply panda, some unique ideas there, will give them a look! I actually play tennis anyway, so this book sounds like a good read [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[CrustyFace]

I am in the same shoes unknown soldier. Last night, i completely went against not just instinct but knowledge too. There is this one play i see at stars 5nl who multitables alot, i knew he never bluffs and is tight, always has a strong hand when better, despite this i couldn't fold my AA on the river, despite the board holding2 Ks and me knowing he had AK. I was right of course but i somehow convinced myself i had him.

It sux and im spending today at work thinking about it in a "must conquor this" kinda way. I will beat it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Unknown Soldier]

it certainly is tough sometimes, especially when things aren't going too well for you. I imagine experience (which i havent got a great deal of, I've only played 100k hands of nl which is nothing compared to some players) has alot to do with it too. Good luck with overcoming it CrustyFace.

[jackflashdrive]

I think that it is easiest to go with your instincts when you are playing sufficiently bankrolled. When you are playing with a 100 buyin roll the decisions just come so much more naturally.

[CrustyFace]

I guess with being so well rolled it becomes less about the mony.

[Unknown Soldier]

it shouldnt be about the money anyway, that's another mental block us poker players have to overcome. We play with BBs not $$s.