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#1
10-08-2007, 10:52 AM
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The wrong mindset, sneaky tilt and fixin your leaks
First of all, this will be a long post, and Im not going to post cliff notes. I made this post since I think some people might find it helpful. It will mainly deal with the mindset of a player who is looking to improve, but is to stubborn. It is also aimed towards players who are in downswings or whatever.
1. You have leaks! Admit it! I think the number one reason for long breakeven stretches or downswings is a big ego, or being too stubborn. Well, Im guilty aswell. Few of you may know, but I am climbing out of my 30 BI downswing at the moment. Yes, 30 buyins. This was mostly at $100nl and $50nl. During this stretch, I did not moved back down fast enough. I lost 20 buyins at $100nl. Obviously, I was running a wee bit bad, but I had a lot of leaks. It took me 2 months to finally admit my play had become a play of a losing player. I sucked. The day I accepted that fact, was the day I became a winning player again. How? Lets move a long. 2. The wrong mindset How often havent you started a session, got it allin, and before the cards were dealt you ‘knew’ you were gonna lose? Now you are in the wrong mindset; you are already on tilt.. Same thing for trying to get unstuck. ‘I will not have another losing session, I will grind it back, right here, right now!’. Another wrong mindset; you will start to force the action. Furthermore, some people think its their right to win a pot when they put their money in while ahead. When you get into a 80/20 situation, you will lose the pot once every 5 times! That could be right now! So what? You should be looking forward to the next 5 pots. And even those you can lose. Alright, on the to next 20 pots! It will even itself out in the end, just make sure it doesnt affect your play! So you haven’t hit your draw for the 5th time. Damnit, that must suck, but hey! It happens. Just dont overestimate your odds next time, and get into the ‘gamblers fallacy’ mindset (Oh my god, Im due to hit my next 15 draws!) Because the long run... well, its long! Gelford also made an excellent ‘rule’ about having the wrong mindset: [ QUOTE ] Do NOT refer to other players as Donks, Retards, Moron, Ghey or whatever you might think of. Think of them with regards to their characteristics, like tight preflop, but tends to chase postflop or loose aggressive preflop and flop, but shuts down on turn or tight aggressive preflop, but tends to bet cbet larger on whiffed flops ... etc. Losing to a retards is a one way route to Tiltville ... losing to a loosepassive player whom you played perfect, but unfortunately his draw hit making it a nice hand is more tolerable. [/ QUOTE ] 3. How to spot when you are in the wrong mindset Tilt comes in many forms. Im sure everyone knows that. One player will start open shoving hands, the other will move up to chase losses. Yet another put his bankroll on blackjack. Another form is ‘sneaky tilt’, as I like to call it. You are slowly making a lot of small mistakes. Below I’ve made a list of these small mistakes. Perhaps its usefull for you to write it down, and try to spot these mistakes at the table. - You start to loosen up, but in the wrong positions. – You’re trying to get unstuck, and are playing more hands because of it. - You are bluffing in the wrong spots. “Jesus, this is 3rd time he has raised my damn cbet. Thats it, arrrrrr in!” Yeah well, he had top set and you had Queen high. gg. - You’ve been carddead, and finally pick up TPTK against a loose / passive opponent. But, he all of a sudden shows a lot of aggression. Fold it! Hand values dont change whether or not you get a lot of good cards in a session! - You start to overestimate your implied odds. “Well, if I can call a 3bet with JJ, why not with TT? Well, TT is good, so why not 77-99? And how about 33+ ?” Same goes for drawing to a str on a rag board OOP.(you hardly ever get paid off unless villain isn’t very good, or has a good hand (set)). Well, I think you get the picture here now, right? - You think people are bluffing you all the time, and turn into a calling station. “Dude, the flop is T high, you are cbetting your AK huh? Well, lets see how tough you are, I call with 77! Oh, a 2nd barrel? Nice bluff, Ill call! Hmmm, only a 1/3 PSB on the river? I cant fold that, lets see what you got!” By this time you’ve put in over 60 – 70 BBs with a hand that can only beat Ace high. - Bluffing calling stations. You are firing 2 – 3 barrels on a 2tone flop, turn blank, and river blank. What do you think villain calls with if you fire a 3rd barrel, and you are holding TPWK or second pair? 3. Ok, I admit it, I must be playing bad. But how do I fix it?! These are just a few suggestions I think are very helpful. Some like it, others dont. - Take a break. I cannot stress this enough. When you’ve been playing for days / weeks / month without a small or big break, and you are breaking even, or losing, you need a break. - Review your hands in pokertracker. I wont go into into detail on how to do that here. I will give a few pointers though: *Dont review your hands right away after a session. This may seem strange, because after a session you still know how the table played right? Yes, but that also where you can make up excuses for hands you played wrong. “It was obvious he was bluffing here again!” – while his line just screamed a set *Dont just review your biggest losers, but also you marginal winning ones. Were you able to extract more value? *Take a look at Pokeys post. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...&PHPSESSID= - Get AIM pokerbuddies, preferably someone who is better than you, ánd someone who is worse than you. Helping someone out with hands is a great way to brush up on your fundamentals, while people better than you can more easily spot some leaks of you that you have been overlooking, even when you went over the same hands at least 3 times. - STOP LURKING! – Get in there and post, post and post! Its obvious that Im referring to posting strategy, not posting “ZOMG I LOST ANOTHER HAND WHEN I WAS A FAVORITE TO WIN”. Replying to other people’s hand will get you more insight than you might imagine. How many times havent you looked over a thread and thought “Meh, that’s standard, just fold / call”. But then you want to post your reply saying the OP has to fold, and you start to analyze the hand. You are putting villain on a hand range, and all of a sudden, you see OP actually has to call here. This used to happen to me at least once every 3-4 replies. Now that has been brought down to about 1 out of 8 – 9 replies, but it still happens. - Learn to use pokerstove, if you haven’t already. This program has brought me so much more insight into poker its inbelievable. Google pokerstove and d/l it! 4. Ok, I’ve analyzed my play, and am ready to go at it again! Great! Are you feeling refreshed? Good. This time, approach your sessions a bit different than during your downswing: - Cut down on tables. This comment is meant for all the 8+ tabling HUD bots out there. I dont care how many hands you’ve logged, you arent paying a lot of attention to overall dynamics anymore. A perfect example is the video of ipokedher (Or something like that) where he ran like 45/30 and completely owned the table. - Drop down and regain confidence. Yes, you have to. I know you are able to beat $xxx nl, but the last xxk hands you haven’t been doing so good, have you? - Look out for situations where you might go back into the wrong mindset again, and give yourself a pat on the back, a smile or whatever, when you avoid a mistake which you would have made when you were playing bad. I hope you learned something about this post, and hope it may help you in the future. Remember, ‘downswings’ will happen again, and they will never stop coming for you. Use it as a learning opportunity. What doesnt kill you, makes you stronger! 
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#9
10-08-2007, 12:02 PM
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Re: The wrong mindset, sneaky tilt and fixin your leaks
[ QUOTE ]
- Get AIM pokerbuddies, preferably someone who is better than you, ánd someone who is worse than you. Helping someone out with hands is a great way to brush up on your fundamentals, while people better than you can more easily spot some leaks of you that you have been overlooking, even when you went over the same hands at least 3 times. [/ QUOTE ] How do I do that? Good post btw
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#10
10-08-2007, 12:23 PM
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Re: The wrong mindset, sneaky tilt and fixin your leaks
Great post! I believe that tilt, the "wrong mindset", and all the detramental psychological stuff that can affect your game are all based on focusing on immediate results rather than the expected value of your actions. Probably THE most important thing that helped my poker game was starting to think of each play I made in terms of expected value. Immediate results are irrelavant, because I know that if my play at the table is by and large +EV, I will be successful in the long run by definition. If you can truly accept this, then you are MILES ahead of most people who play this game. It also puts the focus on your play and your play only. It isn't about luck or getting the right cards anymore, since that all evens out over time. You are forced to take responsibility for your play and realisitically assess whether you are making the right plays for each situation that you are faced with. I cannot stress enough how important it is to begin to think of EVERY play you make in terms of its expected value.
Therefore, when I consider making a play based on things like "I haven't gotten any playable cards in a while" or "I've been sucked on five times this session, my luck HAS to change" or things like that, I make sure to ask myself "what is the expected value of making this play?". If it is negative or I cannot tell, then I just fold. And if I find myself not even being able to assess whether or not a given play is +EV, then I am probably on tilt, and I take a break.
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