What happens when we take time off or play too long

STL FAN

STL FAN

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Total posts
115
Chips
0
Being away from the game and becoming less of a poker player is absurd from my perspective or coming back from a break and seeing things clearer is a miss-conception of how the brain stores information and our ability to recall information. Having a consistent routine of 7-9 hours of sleep and then being consistent on when a person is playing or having a plan to live our lives away from poker that has a similar plan will contribute more to our consistency in the game we play. Our “A” game when we our playing every day or when we have set a time to play we will always have those thoughts in mind when we set down. As time goes forward in each session will our brain adjust to what is happening around us at the table. The unconscious mind will trigger this action when we play even if we have been grinding all day. The conscious mind will remind us to play our “A” game as long as we can.

The interruption of this thought process comes from inconsistency in our game. Time away on the surface seems to jolt our game back to what our perception is of our “A” game. The root is actually the unconscious mind revealing leaks from our last sessions and those mistakes can lead us to taking a break. Mistakes from unconscious thought that are hard to define when playing then the time away hides those leaks until we return. If a person or a coach can define the leaks in our thinking then we as players can fix the unconscious leaks that seem to rob us of our “A” game. What happens more when we come back from a break; we our in control of our emotions and are less likely to tilt. We are focused because we have conditioned ourselves to react to breaks this way.

However, honesty has a price; admitting to a leak that stems from the unconscious mind is hard to define and fix but once this process starts then the exercises at the table start to take on a different theme from previous sessions. This process allows us to see things from a different perspective that allows the brain to store new thoughts and ideas that will help with advancing our “A” game to another level. What happens is the conscious mind and the unconscious minds are firing together inside our brain with a greater regularity than previous sessions. The hard drive in our brain will then store new ideas, theories, actions, etc… and take out old memories that hamper each of us; the conscious and unconscious mind has information to process from both sides of our brain at the same time and we have to make decisions from all of this information on the fly. Sounds easy on paper; but reality in poker it is very hard to be a consistent and continue each time to play our best because our brain does not work as we think when it comes to playing poker. The brain will react to real life situations and academic situations when learning in an opposite manner than what our conceptions of how the brain works in poker.

When researching this more education in psychology from school and reading about how the brain works is humbling because of my thoughts in how I thought I could skew my learning based on what I have done throughout my entire life and transfer this to poker. Our brain and poker does not relate in this way and as the journey continues my conception of “what is” is always an adjustment in thinking more than an adjustment in play rather time spent away or too much time grinding as an explanation of why I am running bad or good.


Breaks away from the game need to happen and I hope everyone gets what they want from poker to become successful at the table. Leaks of mine that I am currently working on; giving to much credit to my opponents and not taking for granted I am always beat. Three and four betting pre-flop and post flop; this helps with randomness, balance, and game flow. This also helps to give different looks to my opponents and not to set back and be too passive. These unconscious thoughts are definable leaks when I put myself in these situations where I am prone to making mistakes.


Getting better comes from me needing to make these mistakes in order to fix them. However, writing my thoughts and feelings about my journey does help but reading a book then thinking I know how to understand and use this in poker is a leak that comes from miss-conception of my ability to learn. At every turn poker can be very humbling but without contributing can I not grow as a player so, there is always multiple sides to the coin and poker can be a double edge sword.
 
gus201

gus201

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
Total posts
216
Chips
0
Well Posted . Youll get there , I know your working hard on your game. Trying to work threw areas your not comfortable with and keeping random. Your game flow will come and it will get better as these things start lining up for you. Stay with it and keep practicing.
Good Skill at the tables Remember what and why your playing in the game:)
 
STL FAN

STL FAN

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Total posts
115
Chips
0
Since I now know to look inward towards mistakes this thought process now can help identify which leak to help improve my game. However, actually the process from a mental perspective will be more of taking our C- game and improving it this will allow for our A game to expand when our worst game improves.

Examples, from a sports perspective when pitching I was only as good as my weakest pitch or strategy against specific opponents. Poker, take the bell curve and on the extreme right is our A game and extreme left is our C- game; the high point of the curve is our solid game. If I was to only work on my A game only to expand this part of my game after a period of time the graph would have a tendency to flatten out. Putting work into mistakes that are being shielded in my play normally; then when mistakes will get fixed the back end of my graph will start to inch forward towards the A game.

Because of us being on our A game for a lower % of the time for example, when every read, every bluff is picked off, our hands hold up, etc… Our solid game which represents our highest point on the graph will start to represent more consistent play and our backend of our game will improve and our overall game will see improvement. The inch worm concept from reading Jared Tendler’s book makes sense in why the mental aspect of understanding how to fix our backend game and why this is more important to focus here instead of the front end of our game.

I was always looking for a better edge to apply to my A game and shielding my mistakes from variance for example. The turning around each time when applying my Superman game then not fixing what was most important the leaks in my thought process of my ethical game Clark Kent; in pitching I knew to focus on my weakness this made me stronger but in poker to focus on weakness I actually had to make mistakes go through variance of learning and improve each day to help my backend game. New focus and commitment is starting to pay off but there is still a long journey to improve and fix mistakes that were not glaring in the beginning but now are starting to raise their ugly head. I am trying not to look like the gangly person at the table that has an arm coming out of his head where their ear should be because of using the wrong tool at the wrong time.


Here is an interesting thought process of how our brain works to learn poker and how it is compared to professional basketball player who works on their game each summer for the upcoming year’s grind of a season. The above statement about my pitching and poker will now take on new meaning it did for me any way.


The basketball player picks a part of their game to improve for example, mid-range jumper all summer they repeat this every day and their mechanics of repeating this will start to improve especially when they visually see the ball go through the basket. Poker since the game is abstract and the human beings are there the brain has to theorize about what they are seeing and use the unconscious thoughts to help make the right decisions and conscious thought to help with theories or conversations to help work through to help improve our game or fix a mistake. Poker players need experience to improve or fix mistakes trial error, experimentation, loss of money, emotions, tilt, loss of confidence etc… This is the variables a poker player will go through to fix or experiment with game to improve or get a better edge. This process happens every day and when at the table the poker player has to harness all of experience and skill to be consistent each session.

The basketball player since they have to work on repeatable mechanics and then visually stimulate confidence from a repeatable action as the summer goes along. Before a game the player then can visually see before they start how good or bad their shot is and can adjust to prevent a bad shooting night with more regularity than a poker player. The randomness of the game, the interaction of humans, incomplete information leaves the brain recalling and learning about the game of poker in a much different way. The closet comparison to the basketball player would be when we are on are A game our unconscious mind is on auto pilot and makes the right decisions with incredible accuracy in this zone; the same as Michael Jordan would be when he could not miss his unconscious thought of every shot at a random spot on the floor was being made; without any thought of who was guarding them, or how big the stage was, he was on auto pilot.


The poker player does not use their brain in the same manner to learn, perform, or repeat mechanics of thinking that can be used to warm up before each session. There is no pre game warm up for poker other than rituals that will set the mind right for optimal focus; otherwise, there is no physical warm up that can be done like the basketball player Why? Because poker has many complex and repeatable situations that the unconscious mind without many years of experience to recall cannot decipher the information correctly, consistently each session. Situations and our A game are always a moving target unlike the basketball player who is shooting at the same target that is visually seen and nothing is hidden for them; the game for them is not abstract.
 
skiptomyloot

skiptomyloot

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Total posts
306
Chips
0
it is brain training, ill admit to that. Eversince I started playing, I notice the changes on how I think. Also playing becomes an excercise, I feel like I do need to do it almost everyday, kind of like a person that goes to the gym. Its like excercising the muscle, but for us "the brain".playing too much can also be bad because too much of a good thing usually ends up being bad for me. I personally like it when I do take time off from poker, and do come back because it lets me take time away from memories of steaming or losing from a bad beat. I think its much easier to take in poker when its not forced,rather let it get fixed.
 
STL FAN

STL FAN

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Total posts
115
Chips
0
• Gambler’s fallacy we tend to think that if something has not occurred for a long time, it will soon happen. If you flip a fair coin six times and get heads, the odds that the next flip will result in tails is actually no greater than the odds for heads.

• Attribution error we tend to attribute or assign blame for negative outcomes to others or outside forces, but believe we are personally responsible for positive outcomes.

Critical thinking helps us avoid common fallacies. It also discourages us from rushing to arrive at a fixed, closed or set answer. Many people feel uncomfortable with ambiguity or an open-ended process of searching. They want the absolute correct answer, here and now. Critical thinking warns us that there is rarely one quick, simple correct answer.


Critical thinking points to the value of looking at a question, issue, or evidence from more than one point of view. It tells us that adopting a single perspective or point of view often blinds us to important aspects of a question, issue, or problem.


Critical thinking leads us to uncover hidden assumptions. Assumptions unstated premises or untested starting points are necessary, and we use them all the time. There is nothing wrong with having assumptions. However, assumptions tend to block off certain avenues of inquiry while favoring others. Problems can arise when we fail to recognize or examine our assumptions. Critical thinking tells us to notice assumptions and see that they can limit choices. If we adopt alternative assumptions, the outcome may be very different

When thinking about hands played when drawing to flushes, straights, sets, or hands holding up and getting out drawn. The unconscious mind knows the % when drawing for straights and flushes or hitting sets etc… but do we fall back into the fallacy of thinking for example, when we are not completing the straight or drawing to the flush has not happened in a session or a MTT tournament do we think this time we are going to hit? Then blame outside sources out of our control or the other person when they do not complete as examples. Or when we are in the zone do we think it is all us.

Then at times when emotion is high we are already on tilt but do not realize this is happening? When emotions are calm and every move is right do we think we are poker gods? I have been a mental fish with both of these. Since I am learning how to construct a mental frame of myself and my opponents; the focus on both parties is starting to let me understand how many unconscious leaks I have that show up in the wrong situation.


I am starting a process of identifying my tilt triggers and writing them down as a session continues. Why? This helps to let my conscious mind to trigger my unconscious to help where and why I tilt as it slowly occurs. Because of what I have researched tilt will slowly happen more than instant shove monkey or a punching of a wall. This helps me make a tilt model of my game to help with being consistent and see when I am starting to tilt. This will help to put this model in my unconscious until then I have to write them down constantly until I have this model in my back pocket. The two terms at the start have branches of leaks that are universal in the unconscious mind this is part of my ugliness of my C- game the more I reveal about my game the more challenging it comes to update my game.
 
veltins

veltins

Legend
Loyaler
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Total posts
2,756
Awards
2
JP
Chips
66
Taking a Long break from poker is not bad for the game or skill i definitely think and believe. There are so many other things which are important in life such as careers , families , spending time with friends , having proper rest and other social activities like playing sports etc are very valuable in having a healthy Lifestyle. sometimes even if we r not playing ,at our leisure time we can still watch some of the games in YouTube or pokersites live to see what are current Trends of betting in current poker market. mind ll stay fresh alongwith Body and when we ll be back from break then we ll be hungry and in perfect shape to Play our A game
 
A

aina27

Enthusiast
Silver Level
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Total posts
48
Awards
1
Chips
1
This one well what you expose, with mas work you were managing to improve your aims
 
Mr.$t0k

Mr.$t0k

Rock Star
Platinum Level
Joined
Aug 11, 2016
Total posts
424
Awards
3
UA
Chips
90
all this information is generally justified or is it just the thought of man and all?
 
Top