Mental Strength

[john kane]

welcome to my July.

I've been playing as a semi-job the past 3 years whilst at university and over every holiday.

Usually I would play 20-30hours every week (took about 12 weeks off for holiday/exams. Last few weeks have been terrible. I can muster about 10 hours a week, always quitting sessions after an hour when i've lost some $$ and just can't be bothered to play the game. fwiw i 8 table 2-4nl, and have done so for the past 6+months (before i 6 tabled 1-2nl).

I have the same problem and do not have a solution. Right now I'm on a 50K breakeven spell, the worst spell in my last 350K hands I've played the last 12 months or so.

I genuinely have no idea, one wrong big pot call just frustrates me, and so i quit.

I think sleeping for longer hours definitely would help, plus setting times where all you will do is play poker.

[paulnic]

the fact is poker is easy when u are running well. if we are hitting all of our draws etc poker is the best game in the world and 12 hours can go by like it was 10 minutes. however when the cards go dry and we hit a rough patch the game starts getting boring and our concentration drops and understandably so. if as a poker player u can play the same way whether you are (hitting your draws\winning) as when u are missing your draws\losing u have reached the holy grail imo. if u can forget about results and concentrate on the process of playing correctly EVERY single hand u WILL be a winning player. this is what seperates the best from the good\average players, they get satisfaction from getting there money in with there 10% edge and dont worry when they lose. granted they are probably stinking rich so 1 buy in doesnt affect there lives but it is all relative.