F Paulsson
euro love
Silver Level
Monster hijack: Strindberg + heliumFine line between genius and stupidity. The jury is still out on where I stand.
(Sorry about that).
Monster hijack: Strindberg + heliumFine line between genius and stupidity. The jury is still out on where I stand.
Excellent thoughts, as always Rex.
In Freudian terms, would this mean playing from the superego, while keeping the id in check?
One of the concepts I liked from Zen and the Art of Poker was that folding is a weapon, and to wield it like a big club.
I'd like to learn more about how to get the ego out of it. I remember reading about one of the good young high stakes players and he demonstrated for his brother how he plays at these high stakes games. He was in a big hand and his brother said aren't you excited? And he said, no, feel my heart, and it was just going at a normal rate. He said when he's watching his favourite sports team he gets excited, but not while playing poker.
That's where I need to work towards. I can still feel my heart race when I get in a big hand, and I am almost as aware of my inability to play properly against players whose game I don't respect, and conversely my intimidation when I play against players whose game I know is better than mine.
There are two very good books to help get the ego out of your play. The first is a book called "The Power of Now", by Eckhart Tolle and the second, which may not be particularly accessible to poker players is "Trading in the Zone", by Mark Douglas.
Thanks Schatz. I will take a look at both, once our library system ends its strike.
I have done more study on the topic of Zen than of poker, but not all of Zen is directly applicable to poker, or is it the other way around? It may be a function of the newness of the thinking process required by poker; I can get "in the zone" when improvising jazz but that's because I've done it for years. My poker skills have a long ways to go to develop that kind of facility and comfort level so I'm sure that experience will improve the situation.