Self Discipline & Poker

Been playing poker for about 8 months now and have found it an exciting and absorbing game,

I have sometimes struggled with self-discipline in that I play at times and on occasions just for the sake of playing without any real purpose or aim. I find when I do play this way I end up floating and playing some very poor loose, unprofitable poker partly due to being frustrated at playing when I really have other important things that need to be done.

At the times I have planned before hand to play at a certain time. Read up on some poker, learn from watching some pros. I have had some high quality highly enjoyable sessions which have been a real pleasant surprise and have been profitable such as last week a 2nd place finish in a MTT 4k guaranteed and a 10th place finish in a 10 k guaranteed. In these sessions I have stuck to a plan and a goal to get to final tables/ be profitable at 2$-5$ buy-in tournaments.

The times where I have played on a whim without proper quality time to play etc. I have started to waste money and undo some of the quality poker and winnings I have made in the past. e.g. messing about with speed/cash games with too high stakes 10/20p and starting tournaments when distractions are likely,

I just wondered if anyone had experienced similar difficulties where quality poker as a proper engaging profitable pursuit transcends into some addictive form of gambling.

I'd also like to know if someone has some suggestions as to how to combat this and keep poker as poker. I am self-employed and work at home I think the excitement of some decent results has also lead to it being a bit more addictive.

Thought it would be useful to share my experiences and discuss an important issue others may face.

when you are jumping into a game on a whim maybe just play a single table sng with the same attitude as the mtt being just to make the money first and formost knowing it will take an hour to win it not 10 minutes . your only risking your buy in and not splashing away hard earned cash in a ring game. i did this when i played online and just felt like a quick session.

great post this is a very true statement. We always need to give our selves enough free time to participate in a long tourney and need to be at optimal playing ability for the games. Having patience and looking for a tournament that looks to be very profitable for your particular playing style is a thing worth doing.

suggest a software called

tilt breaker....

well, it is always there is a watch dog beside u.....to prevent u from doing something obey no discipline....not only ontilt, but gambling, and ....a lot

if u play high or middle stack, it is very worth to buy on...but I am playing min-micro....

XXPXXP said:

suggest a software called

tilt breaker....

well, it is always there is a watch dog beside u.....to prevent u from doing something obey no discipline....not only ontilt, but gambling, and ....a lot

if u play high or middle stack, it is very worth to buy on...but I am playing min-micro....

Click to expand...

I've never heard of that product..I visited the site and thought it was interesting, specially considering that when I tilt I lose more than the value of the product, so, maybe it's worth it..Thanks for the tip!

Thanks xxp. this looks perfect for the bad poker habit i have described. Will bookmark this

oh man i so need this hahaha
very nice program

thx for the suggestion xxp!

Dont enter a mtt unless you have 4 -5 hours to play,otherwise stick to sng's

I liked your post very much. You put some real thought into it, and made some good points. You're going to fit in good here at CC.

I like to use the Carbon Freesteps for those times when I want to play but don't have the mindset for a cash session...

AugustWest said:

I like to use the Carbon Freesteps for those times when I want to play but don't have the mindset for a cash session...

Click to expand...

Speaking of those Carbon Freesteps SNGs... It does seem like a good idea to practice sngs and many of them as they fill up super fast and are varied with hundreds of player so making the final table every time you play one is hard at first escpecially in the first round where players will throw all the chips in every other hand for no reason at all. But wading them out an only playing premium hands seems to work great all the way the first stage....

Second stage is also very easy for 33% of the players to make it to and all entrants have now one the first stage so are ready for round 2 with most of the players directly entering into a second SNG without a break and are either in their prime and ready to be patient through another one or possibly about to go on tilt as time is important to them. But again second stage is a pretty simple Sng to make it through to the top 3.

The third stage is all about reality it real play kicks in and tells if you have been with any of the competitors before in a previous stage. Also players in this stage will fire away big bets to scare off of pots with mediocore hands because they believe they have a table image at this point when in reality NO one has a table image at a SNG untill establish by the chip stack size. So again this round is the most critical to not tilt and stick to your guts plans, nut hands only and mediocore hands when the equity value deems worthy pot over all just a chip in a chair can let you last till the top 3 and survive atleast to repeat stage 2 or 3 instead of falling off like the rest to stage one..

I've been playing these late at night watching movies just for side practice but my real question is about the $1 prize.... Has anyone claimed it yet? is an actual dollar credited to your accout or is it a tourney ticket/points.

1$ added to your balance.