The Poker state of mind

[darks]

Yeah, that is something, i've come to understand. I guess that is also a part of experience.

I have read some books, right now i picked up NLHTAP. Going thru it for the second time...

[Poker Plan]

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Sometimes when i go playing, I almost know that today won't be good, but i go play just because i feel i need experience. I guess that's wrong, because on those kind of days i just can't think clearly.


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This is normal.

Keep studying and playing. Over time, you will have (increasingly) more "poker Days" than "non poker days"

You don't really need to do anything specific to get into the zone. It's just that your mind needs time (via many thousands of hands of experience) to learn to know what the zone "feels like".

[JayKon]

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Anyways, i noticed, that not every day is a poker day. Sometimes when i go playing, I almost know that today won't be good, but i go play just because i feel i need experience. I guess that's wrong, because on those kind of days i just can't think clearly.

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If you play on a day like this, I suspect you will play more hands than normal and be less agressive post flop.

[OGS20]

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If you're talking about state of mind I suggest you look up the concept of flow. It was developed by Csikszentmihalyi and he mentions alot of the factors that can put people in the "flow" state of mind.

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this sounds interesting, which book should i pick up to learn more about "flow"?

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http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psycholog.../dp/0060920432

I had to read this when I was doing my psychology degree and found it helped me with pretty much everything I did after. Kind of feel I should be getting some commission for pluggin it on a forum though.

[El_Hombre_Grande]

As you become more engrained with an understanding of how to play correctly, not only will you be able to play correctly but you will also be better able at detecting subtle tilt and less than optimal play. Often, once you detect yourself making a weak call, or calling when you should have pushed, you can immediately switch back to your "A" game. But first you have to be able to recognize the slip. I think its more about recognizing the slip to your B gsme, which (for me at least) is usually caused by the feeling that you aren't being rewarded for proper play, so who cares?

The point is that you need to learn what emotional/psychological issues are preventing you from your A game at all times. For me, once I understood why I would make a bad call, its easy to stop, OK, maybe not easy. But completely doable.

[SuperPokerJedi]

Read Chaucer before playing ! ! ! !

[BigBiceps]

I am usually in the right state of mind before I start playing.

Then when I get allin with AA v KK preflop for more than 100BB and a king comes I am no longer in the right state of mind. (this seems to happen more often in the huge pots than the small ones).

[Poker Plan]

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I am usually in the right state of mind before I start playing.

Then when I get allin with AA v KK preflop for more than 100BB and a king comes I am no longer in the right state of mind. (this seems to happen more often in the huge pots than the small ones).

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This is why NL scares the sh*t out of me [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]
For the moment I'll stick to losing a couple of BB's when I'm sucked out on...... [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[nineinchal]

I hit the breakfast buffet and collect those comp dollars I accumulated at the Borgata. Something about those bagels and lox that gets my mind motivated for poker. The cheese danish and the strawberry jam I add, washed down by that coffee of theirs adds to my proficiency.

[sethypooh21]

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If you're talking about state of mind I suggest you look up the concept of flow. It was developed by Csikszentmihalyi and he mentions alot of the factors that can put people in the "flow" state of mind.

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link?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

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Awesome link - that's exactly it. (And I clicked it 100% expecting rickroll, so I'm already way up for the day.)