Frame of Mind

If a player in my opinion, can count his outs, call a poker hand, he should be able to at lease hold his own.

I try to think of myself as a relatively decent player (far from the best or even good) and I've only just begun playing online. I enjoy the immediate accesibility of online play, and the number of hands i can get in. But there are some times of the day, that i would normally log on to play, and im just not there. Im not able to read the small details of an online player, and im in a hand and have no clue what the other guy has. Im not in the frame of mind. Everything in my gut tells me fold, but i call. for no real reason. big loss or small win, didnt matter, i just wasnt making rash decesions, and i think a lot of players fall to that.

Frame of mind is key. I dont mean "im winning money today" I mean, just being able to concentrate, and do your best game you can everyday. I dont always bring my best game, and my tracking results show it. And you cant WILL yourself into the frame of mind.

I generally log on, play a cash game / look for a good Sit-N-Go multi, or low player count multi-ltable tournament (not into 3,000 players, and a 18 hour investment in time). While im playing the cash game, I see how i feel, how im doing. doesnt matter if im wining or losing. Its the feeling of being in the zone, and reading everything. Writing player notes, or being able to bluff when you shouldnt. Ya know. doing the things that make you win. If after 30 minutes im not in the zone, I unregister from the tournament, and go do something else off the computer.

Not being in the Frame of mind in my opinion is like quick-sand. Once you start losing, and doing bad calls. It just gets worse, because then you add frustration, anger, etc to the mix. can make a bad day to a broke day.

Just my two cents from a meager player

I lose my frame of mind (never heard of that before) whenever I go through a few bad beats in a row. What happens in MTTs is I start to lose that in the deep stages of it (IE having played for several hours without doing anything else).

I agree OP frame of mind or attitude is key. Roy West writes a lot about that in his book on stud. U r right its not whether winning or losing -- are u feeling good or not?

well put gknight, sounds like me to a tee. ive been playing during the day when the kids are at school and wifes working to keep from just sitting around thinking and losing my mind. ive always felt the same way, sure my mind may not be in it 100% but i can look at 2 cards and know what i got.

matter of fact just today i vowed im done with poker for 6 months. it took two sick days to figure it out but i finally caught on. i looked at my stats on pokertracker today for the first time and i am embarrased at what i seen. no matter how bored i get or how bad i want to play, i wont. ill still be floating around on CC but as far as playing im done. when i start playing again it will be with a totally different attitude, and clear mind.

Well put Gknight, and if your in pain Don't play, i did and that was bad

great post. the "frame of mind" quicksand has hit me a couple times. when i take a streak of 3 or 4 coolers in a row, i use so much brain power focusing on why i shouldn't be on tilt, it's almost worse than being on tilt itself.

instead of thinking "alright, just keep playing well and it'll turn around" i literally think to myself "damn.. i know i'm gonna keep playing good, but the coolers are gonna keep coming. it's just one of those sessions"

i'm not sure how to fix something like this, as you said in the OP, you can't will yourself into a frame of mind, you're just in it.

btw, quicksand owns. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1902713