Consistence is what I've been striving for. How do the pros consistently end up at or near the final table in those mega tournaments?
In every poker book I've read the writer insists that you are always learning something new, like chess you find yourself progressing through levels, up and down the scale, right when you think your at the top, something else presents itself and you go... WOW! why didn't I think of that before?!
It's different for everyone, poker is such an individualistic game and luck is such a huge factor that you really need to learn the skill of maximizing luck itself.
The statistics, the math, the probabilities show we each have roughly an equal amount of luck. The pros maximize their time at the tables when they are running good, and minimize their time at the tables when they are running bad.
Staying withing your bankroll management scheme, keeping your emotions under control, your sense of awareness heightened so that when you play TAG, you can read your opponents or better yet forcing them to make mistakes to your profit. Getting in that zone, you're happy, you're confident, you're winning, you're lucky!
If your not 100%, your not making the reads, confusion is more common than not .... QUIT QUIT QUIT!
At least this is where my heads at currently, if I'm not winning I take my ball and bat and go home. I look to get all my finances in order, my wife's honey do's taken care of, my truck washed, see that my son is on the right track. Stop and smell the roses, count my blessings, commit some random acts of kindness and get myself in that "I'm lucky" frame of mind.
I'm confident I have the skills, my awareness is very heightened, I expect to win..... circling my opponents looking for opportunities to exploit, TAG, smash and grab, hit and run, stick and move. I find my frame of mind HAS to be right or I'll make costly mistakes. So I endeavor to keep myself as positive and squared away as I can.
This has been helping my game tremendously, when I win, I'm consistently winning, if I'm losing I quit ... consistently.
It seems rather simple but that's key for me, knowing when to play and when not to play "consistently".
Very hard to do actually... if you love just "playing" you'll more often that not lose more than you win. You also have to love to "win" ... MORE than loving to play. Emotions, self control, discipline = consistency.