TOP: poker is one big game

[4_2_it]

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However, you must be disciplined enough to play every hand correctly, regardless of whether you are winning or losing.

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This sums it up. Poker is about making correct decisions every hand. If you are tilting , then you are not making correct decisions and should stop playing until the tilt has subsided.

I track my winnings like everyone else, but I always look at a graph that shows my bankroll from when I started until today. That helps me put things in perspective. A couple of bad sessions barely registers as a dent in the chart.

[LastEmu]

Being a new player, one of my bigger problems is that short-term money making goal. I don't exactly have a number on it in my head, but if I lose a buyin, or if I double up, my style changes.

After I lose the buyin, I find myself playing to break even for the day, even though I tell myself that doing so is wrong. After I double up, or see my stack far above the max buyin, some reflex clicks in and I play far tighter than is profitable, as if the money I have made in those few hands is "enough."

How do I fix this, other than smacking myself across the face every time I realize I am doing it?

[flytrap]

I don't have a goal for money won, but I have a goal to play at least 120 hours each month. If I have a big tourney win or something I'll cut back a bit. Generally if it's a poker day, I'll play 4 tables until I have 1000 hands, which takes about 4 hours. Then I take a break, and come back for 1000 more hands, regardless how well/poorly I'm doing that day.

[Garon]

Hi Pokey,

This is the advice I gave in my stock trading classes and it applies just as much to playing poker ...

Q: What's a good/reasonable goal I should set on how much to make when trading stocks?

A: Your goal shouldn't be to make a certain amount each day/week/month. Your goal should be to keep learning and to trade well. If you trade well the profits will follow.

Just substitute playing poker for trading stocks.

Garon, NOT a broker (and never was) [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[wrkingtobegreat]

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Originally posted here by Gigabet
The problem comes to life when a person starts their downswing, which we classify as "losing," they begin to suspect that they may "fail" and rather than become susceptible to the shame that comes with "failure" they decide to quit. They stop because they fear things that aren't even real

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This is so true.

Personally I no longer care about much. A little over a year ago I crashed my car driving home round twisty country lanes at ~90mph trying to get home to go to a NYE party.

I rolled my car 7 times - ending up upside down in a ditch. Had car come to rest on the floor the roof would have stoved in and I would have got more than a bit of a headache. I walked away with a little more than a scratch down one arm and consider myself very lucky.

Of course I have probably overcompensated but I don't have any hangsups now about rejection or possibly being dissappointed in the future. I go for everything.

A lot of people fear failure and the shame that goes with it. Once you realise that for the most part what other people think about you is irrelevant and you should not base decisions based on what other people might think at some point in the future you have a lot more fun.

Ahmer Vahedi - "in order to live. First you must be willing to die."

I say in order to truly live you must first have almost died. Only when you have nearly lost everything - and you really understand how very fragile life is and how you need to squeeze the very most that you can out of every day that you have, then you start to really live.

Poker is no different I think. Only when you truly do not care one iota about the chips you have on the table and can happily push them into the middle when you are sure you have an edge. Only then can you really play.

If you are thinking about this session and your results this week so far then you care too much about what is on the table. Poker is one big game and the only result that matters is the one on the bottom line when the day comes that you finally call it quits.

I read somewhere that you should play as tho it means nothing to you, despite the fact that obviously it means everything.

Am I on the right track here - or way off base?

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This is inspiring matrix.