My problem

VizziVizo

VizziVizo

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Hello everyone!
Soon I will play another poker tournament (pokerstars), the last few lost and now I realized that this is not the downswing and nothing else the whole thing is that I was not prepared for the tournament mentally.
I need advice on how to be prepared psychologically for the tournament, what to do to collect the thoughts and play the tournament with a "cool head"?
 
A

Ambur

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Jared Tendler is the person whom can help you out!
 
Acesinthebig

Acesinthebig

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You're going to take bad beats and have lots of down swings when you play MTT's but the key is to have a short memory and continue to play solid winning poker. The worst thing you can do is take your bad beats from one tournament to the next. Good luck Brother!
 
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B4v1

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Not saying it's not possible but for most of us we will cash less than not. You're only one person against everyone in this tournament field.
My best advice is to watch some of the videos of "gripsed" on YouTube. Very good advice.
As far as the mental preparation for the tournament goes. You need to go into each tournament with a plan and stick with it through out. Don't feel discouraged over the last tournament you busted out in 20min ago. Go into that tournament and play every hand the best you can "process oriented". If on the other hand you are "results oriented" you are only judging your success and failures by what place you come in. You can bust by losing a flip with aces but that doesn't mean you played bad.
As far as the emotional state for me. I try to be as emotionless as I possibly can when I play. Even when I win tournaments, I don't jump up down in excitement and when I lose as a heavy favorite coin flip, I understand that there was a probability it could happen and I move on. Put in volume to overcome the variance. I promise you will grow as a player seeing patterns constantly arise and making your best judgement to deal with them. Be the poker player you want to be 10 years from now. How will you study, would you make that call? Would you have made that stupid bluff?
Hope this helps and I wish you the best!
 
quicktor01

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To watch videos is a good advice) Good luck!
 
bkniefel

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Not saying it's not possible but for most of us we will cash less than not. You're only one person against everyone in this tournament field.
My best advice is to watch some of the videos of "gripsed" on YouTube. Very good advice.
As far as the mental preparation for the tournament goes. You need to go into each tournament with a plan and stick with it through out. Don't feel discouraged over the last tournament you busted out in 20min ago. Go into that tournament and play every hand the best you can "process oriented". If on the other hand you are "results oriented" you are only judging your success and failures by what place you come in. You can bust by losing a flip with aces but that doesn't mean you played bad.
As far as the emotional state for me. I try to be as emotionless as I possibly can when I play. Even when I win tournaments, I don't jump up down in excitement and when I lose as a heavy favorite coin flip, I understand that there was a probability it could happen and I move on. Put in volume to overcome the variance. I promise you will grow as a player seeing patterns constantly arise and making your best judgement to deal with them. Be the poker player you want to be 10 years from now. How will you study, would you make that call? Would you have made that stupid bluff?
Hope this helps and I wish you the best!

"Be the poker player you want to be in 10 years." - Very good advice

The reason why I liked that is because of the attention to detail that you described in your post. Noticing where you stand in action, what you should bet pre-flop, on the flop, why they called/raised, etc. Well written friend. :)
 
STL FAN

STL FAN

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Hello everyone!
Soon I will play another poker tournament (PokerStars), the last few lost and now I realized that this is not the downswing and nothing else the whole thing is that I was not prepared for the tournament mentally.
I need advice on how to be prepared psychologically for the tournament, what to do to collect the thoughts and play the tournament with a "cool head"?




Here is some information about me, trying to give advice to someone I do not know personally is not good advice; it aligns itself with the person who is giving information and I do not know if this would fit your personal preference of playing.

The person who recommended Jared Tendler is great advice to read also; Haseeb Qureshi too. I improved because I was looking for a different edge but mostly I was looking inward for answers. Psychology offers more than just understanding why or why not I was not fulfilling my goals; mostly because I did not have any.

Journaling my thoughts about my experience, I started to see my routines were forming patterns in my play, thinking, why I was not seeing my play transfer into success, analyzing, breaking down my actions at the table that have been continuously not in alignment with what I wanted to accomplish at the table. These are some examples, however, journaling my thoughts let me understand mentally what I needed to do to improve my focus at the table. Our “A” game is a moving target, knowing what to do in every situation is a moving target; proper focus is a moving target. My admitting this help me grow but seeing it on paper was the start of a proper mental focus. Journaling has helped me the most and writing good and bad thoughts help me understand it was more than just playing the game.

Adding additional information would hinder the mental capacity to improve. Start simple and then add information after a person has transferred any information to unconscious competence. It sounds simple but to admit that I was the reason I was not being successful this was the first step to improving the backend of my game; my “C-“game. Here is where the routines, patterns, and tendencies reside that need improvement. Down swings are going to happen, I just say variance was going to happen eventually and today was just the day it happened. This helps mentally not to blame outside sources as a reason for bad results and then it helps not to attach skill as the sole reason of success. I also realized a person has to have the proper amount of emotion to stay focused being emotionless is not conducive for long term success. Hope your year is filled with success.
 
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B4v1

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"Be the poker player you want to be in 10 years." - Very good advice

The reason why I liked that is because of the attention to detail that you described in your post. Noticing where you stand in action, what you should bet pre-flop, on the flop, why they called/raised, etc. Well written friend. :)

Thank you very much! Also, great advice about wondering why they called/raised. Asking why they would do that, helps a lot from the donk bets to the pushes on a blank on the river. It allows you to think on a much deeper level instead of just going off hand strength.
 
PapaC

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Maybe the best way is to make up your mind how you are going to play the MTT before you start and stick to that all the way. I do my best when I decide to make myself play my game all the way, which is very tight. When I play loose, I lose every time.
 
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seghill

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In most mtt it will take 4 hours - so mentally and physically you have to be prepared to be patient remembering in that time good hands should come and your read of the table to be able to exploit other players will be vital
Patience is essential
 
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Haki

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I suggest you to watch Jason Carver on twitch. He's streaming every day for quite some time. It starts at 18 CET.
 
TeUnit

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maybe watch some tendler videos and maybe try more tables,-i find if i have less time to focus on the outcome of a hand i have less time to get worked up about it
 
IntenseHeat

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I wish I could tell you how to get yourself in the mood. That's something that I have to figure out for myself as well. What I can tell you, though, is not to try to force it. If you're not feeling it at the moment, then let it go. If you try to make it happen when you're not feeling it, you may find yourself playing with sort of don't care mindset. At least that is what I find, anyway. My attitude will be like it would be great if I did well, but if I don't care if I get knocked because I'm not really into it anyway, right up until I make an I don't care play and get knocked out. Then I get upset with myself because I don't really believe in playing bad. I don't care if it's a freeroll or a 100K Guaranteed. I believe that if you play smaller tournaments with like you don't care, you will develop bad habits that will carry over to the bigger tournaments and creep into your game when you need to play your best.

Like I said, if you're not feeling it, just don't play. One of the best examples I can give is playing the 100K GTD on Sundays. Like a lot of players, I tend to want to avoid paying the full buy-in if I can. In the past, I have won tickets through satellites, but don't actually use them until just before the event starts and I'm sure that I'm going to play in it. I once found myself with three tickets to the Sunday 100K. One week I didn't feel like I had gotten sufficient sleep the night before to be able to stay focused and play my best. The next week I felt myself starting to get a headache and knew that staring at a computer screen was only going to make it worse, and decided it wasn't worth it. In the end, a month passed from the time that I won the first ticket until I finally used it. The point is that if I'm not up to playing my best, whether it be due to ailment, fatigue or mindset, I simply won't play.
 
ern11

ern11

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Now i read Jared Tandler. Tiresomely for me, but need.
 
dino

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take a few deep breaths, take a long walk and clear your head of any/all negative influence
play your best game
 
2Pacavelli

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My tip is : playing hard bankroll management , and play tournaments with smaller field , so the variance and tilts will be lower
 
BentleyBoy

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Hi. First of all, don't consider losing as something that has happened specifically to you. Lots of people will not have cashed in that last tournament so you are not alone. Even the great players do not cash out in every tournament.

So! What is it that you are not preparing for?

Do you know how long the tournament is due to last for? Three to four hours or almost a whole day? What time of day is it going to cut through? Have you got other 'stuff' to do? Is you day free of everything else other than the tournament you are due to play? Do you have family or family committments that get in the way (I do, it's a pain to work around).

Determine a strategy. Try and stick to it.

Maybe adapt your strategy based on the style of play at your table, but constrain that change within a wider strategy of play for the whole tournament.

If and when you do lose out, don't dwell on the loss, but review what you did and how you could change your play. It may be that you were just hit with bad luck on the community cards and your play was great. That's life. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that you can do about Lady Luck. If it was bad play on your behalf, there is LOADS you can do about it. But don't dwell on defeat. Learn and look forward to the next opportunity to improve in the next game.

There is a great saying, that we never learn anything if we don't try new things or make mistakes. We must of course ensure that we do learn from our mistakes.

I also like the advice of no jumping up and down when you win! Keep it cool and calm and life will become better at the table.

Good luck.
 
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