I have taken a few shots in higher buyins. I find myself making dumb mistakes that I don't normally make. Any advice on how to trust your abilities and to view it just as another MTT. I have good results at the 1.50 to 4.00 MTTs range. What level should I be buyin at if I was to take more shots?
Thank U 4 Posting
You have to dive deep into what the mistakes were and why you made that mistake.
First of all you say "Just another MTT" that suggests you view the buy-in as important but when you click the register button it is gone. Good players are going to cash 1 in 6 tournaments. We need to know this is the truth and live by it. You may need to spend some time preparing yourself mentally for this fact.
Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" vol 1 -2 would be very helpful to you.
In the books you will learn strategies that prepare you to be in your best mindset while playing.
One of those strategies that will help you right away is to take the time in game to remind yourself the buy-in is gone. You know that it effects your play, so before it does, before you are in that hand that you make that mistake, prepare your mind to be thinking of only the correct play.
Activate your reasoning brain refocus it on the task and the emotional brain cannot take over.
As we sit there waiting for a hand our mind will drift to emotional thoughts like-
If we win this we can move up full time
If we min cash we can take another shot
It would be so great if we ran well in this
We need just one big hand and we can cash this.
This leads us to thinking thoughts like these in the hand.
If I can get this player to fold now to a big
bluff we can final table
I should fold but if I hit I will have a final table stack
They will fold to an over bet and we can take this pot.
We have to refocus our brains so that it it is ready to make rational choices during
hands because while we are under pressure in the hand, that is the most dangerous time for emotional reactions to effect our thinking.
We do this be focusing on tasks that activate the rational brain before we are in a hand.
Taking the time to look at all your villains stack sizes
Reviewing your notes on all the players on the table
Taking the time to clarify those notes
Estimating players ranges in the hand that you a currently not in.
Thinking about what your strategy would be in the above hand with X range.
Making a plan on the most effective strategy for stacking each player based on their player tendencies.
Thinking about our range adjustments based on our stack depth.
Again Jared's books will help you do this.
Hope this helps