Remember the good to forget the bad

VMVarga said:

I'm just coming out of a month long slump--down $55 from mostly $2 buy-in mtt at ACR, only two cashes from about 40 games, numerous bad beats and failed draws--and I noticed that it is much easier to maintain mental toughness and positive outlook at the end of a bad day at the tables if you can somehow focus on all of the great plays and reads you made throughout the day rather than the really bad beats, especially the ones that knock you out. Even if you only made one or two great plays in the face of several dozen terrible beats, it can help.

I was thinking about that today as I got knocked out after turning the wheel straight and being DOA to the 6 high straight, as my opponent was holding 66. I realized that it is much harder to remember the good hands and great plays you made earlier when you run into bit of a cooler. So I thought that next time I will make notes on the hands where I felt I made great decisions and reads, that way I can go back and review them after those inevitable game ending hands that can ruin your day if you let them.

I don't have a natural talent to maintain a calm and cool head when the worst luck comes my way. It is something that I have to constantly work on. This game can be cruel, and it has a way of sometimes rewarding the worst kind of play while punishing the best. To have any success you really have to stay positive and keep moving forward while focusing on the task at hand: playing to the best of your ability while making the fewest mistakes possible. To achieve this kind of mental game is a form of success in the game in and of itself.

Does anyone else have any little mental tricks to help themselves avoid anger and tilt either during or after playing?

Click to expand...

VMVarga said:

I'm just coming out of a month long slump--down $55 from mostly $2 buy-in mtt at ACR, only two cashes from about 40 games, numerous bad beats and failed draws--and I noticed that it is much easier to maintain mental toughness and positive outlook at the end of a bad day at the tables if you can somehow focus on all of the great plays and reads you made throughout the day rather than the really bad beats, especially the ones that knock you out. Even if you only made one or two great plays in the face of several dozen terrible beats, it can help.

I was thinking about that today as I got knocked out after turning the wheel straight and being DOA to the 6 high straight, as my opponent was holding 66. I realized that it is much harder to remember the good hands and great plays you made earlier when you run into bit of a cooler. So I thought that next time I will make notes on the hands where I felt I made great decisions and reads, that way I can go back and review them after those inevitable game ending hands that can ruin your day if you let them.

I don't have a natural talent to maintain a calm and cool head when the worst luck comes my way. It is something that I have to constantly work on. This game can be cruel, and it has a way of sometimes rewarding the worst kind of play while punishing the best. To have any success you really have to stay positive and keep moving forward while focusing on the task at hand: playing to the best of your ability while making the fewest mistakes possible. To achieve this kind of mental game is a form of success in the game in and of itself.

Does anyone else have any little mental tricks to help themselves avoid anger and tilt either during or after playing?

Click to expand...

MrPokerVerse said:

Sometimes knowing you made the right call is the only thing to hold on too. Poker can be hard to deal with when you can do everything absolutely right and still come up short.

Accepting that is hard at times, especially when you going through some bad variance. Have to remind yourself that you want people to make bad calls. Being ahead in the hand but not getting the right results is a victory.

Click to expand...

The Boss said:

Biologically and psychologically speaking, we are more prone to remember unfortunate events in order to avoid repeating them hence the "survival" factor we humans have. One mental trick I have after playing is analyzing the hands I played and figuring out whether I made the right play. Another thing too is attitude in that you want to look at your performances in the long run.

Click to expand...

Robin Moura said:

yes remember the good times helps to forget the evil

Click to expand...

vov4ik said:

if I play an inexpensive tournament of 0.25 cents -0.50-and $ 1, then I play passively and don’t spill over to such games, and when I play 2-3-5-10 $ tournaments then I try to focus on playing a game and making fewer mistakes in the game, if my- card plays well in tournaments, that’s great for me, but if the card plays bad it means I’m not lucky in such a game, I continue to play on and try to win in such tournaments!

Click to expand...

thaliko86 said:

I have gone through similar moments and are in fact disheartening, if not faced in the right way, my friend. Something that helps to better deal with the phases where it seems that nothing we do will work to be sure that it is only possible to measure whether a player is good or bad in the long run, just as if a play carried out at any given time is profitable , or not. I see many players discouraging or "losing faith" very quickly in similar situations without being able to understand that evolution as a player comes from a constant work of study and consequently learning; is undeniable: it is and always will be part of the process. When I go through such moments (whether short or long), I just try to think that I may have lost, but that I have tried to execute the lucrative logos in the long run. At some point we will have to deal with down swing, bad run and the existing variance due to the randomness of the deck. So the point is to move on, leave the last session behind and prepare for the next!

Click to expand...