How do you cope?

Yohan friend join me on skype if interested

Question: How do you stay sane during a session?

Im playing some rock music like KISS/SoaD/Tenacius D or what i like and sing with them.

Great stuff. Allows to totally focus on game and dont care of outcomes of the pots. Also good stuff is to have some experience in grinding Turbo SnG's.

+

It really helped understand few things and switch bad mindset habits.

@sim5sim5
Need your Skype for that. Friend request in PS.

@Rantrave
Great idea to have some disturbance while playing. Clash ok? Will Stones work? Perhaps Money Money Money ♦ with ABBA?

For the record:
We had this discussion on Skype. I said I might be down on my last 50 AA. I wasn't, but here are my AA (no cheating, promise) since I started this thread:

That is 28 losing AA, and counting!

/Johan =

> If you play micros and you are loosing badly (by badly I mean -1BB/100 or more) over 20k > hands you are almost for sure doing something terribly wrong and you have to improve.

spot on! I think winning FR players who make the transition to 6max and lose, should go and analyze their postflop game and fix the leaks, rather than whine over bad beats.

I don't think you have understood what this thread is about. Fixing leaks does no good if you can't control your temper while actually playing.

/Johan =

Originally posted by YohanN7
I don't think you have understood what this thread is about. Fixing leaks does no good if you can't control your temper while actually playing.

/Johan =
Absolutely correct.
The mental leaks lead directly or indirectly to all of the others.

Whether it is temper, fatigue, anxiety or frustration, the poker leaks can't be fixed until the mental ones are.

In FL, it seems to me that frustration would lead the pack.

well yohan .. what he says is actually quite helpful and In my opinion very relevant. You say fixing leaks does no good if you cant control your anger. You just said your biggest leak of all. controlling your temper IS definitely a leak! and will show in your game. fix it and then you can go fix the other leaks.

Originally posted by YohanN7
I don't think you have understood what this thread is about. Fixing leaks does no good if you can't control your temper while actually playing.

/Johan =
Johan,

Didn't mean to deviate. Point is: Fix the root of the problem, and you'll be fine.

To be specific to thread topic, there are 100's of articles and several books that address it (John feeny's is a good one). My take is in having this simple poker concept in mind always. You must know the play you are making is +ve and know precisely why it is +ve. That's value betting/raising (or even calling). Then if you go on to lose, you know that you have made the right play and the money will come back to you sooner or later. If you are lost in a hand or only semi-sure, then I don't think you'll have the equanimity and the beats will sure drive you crazy.

Limit holdem, 6max in particular, is where you find many bad players all the way to higher limits, but is also a game where your patience in often tested by the beats. So you must be on guard always and keep a tight check on yourself. Remember that having a 24/15 stats is not enough if you are messing up postflop.

You must know the play you are making is +ve and know precisely why it is +ve. That's value betting/raising (or even calling). Then if you go on to lose, you know that you have made the right play and the money will come back to you sooner or later.

Yes, this is something I have known about since I was in my early teens, possibly even before that.

Limit holdem, 6max in particular, is where you find many bad players all the way to higher limits, but is also a game where your patience in often tested by the beats.

This observation is the relevant one. Beats are so frequent, and good and bad strategies are so extremely close in value, that I don't want to expose myself to the frustration anymore. I'll play and discuss Limit Holdem forever, but I'll actually play it very very little.

/Johan =

if i had to be a little harsh here i would say that would be running away from a problem. but If you dont want to play. dont play right But if you only dont play because you expect to be frustrated i would say you are "running away" or neglecting a problem that can be dealt with . (I think you could be a terrifyingly good FL player if you really wanted to)

I have skimmed the thread as I am lazy but feel a link up with some of the mental coaches around would be beneficial here.

I worked with a guy called Elliot Roe who you can find on 2+2, but the guys like J Tendler and a few others here I am sure will give you a good balance when playing.

My story is not of a massive shark playing the nosebleeds, I am a micro guy who wants to do better, but was holding myself back mentally. I now listen to a pre session mp3, play my games, then listen to a post session warm down mp3 to finish. I do this most sessions, not all, but the change in my mindset is amazing. I have not gone on mad rage monkey tilt in the last month.

I can also say that my real life has improved too as I no longer stay upset at something that happened in a $1 SNG ♠_biggrin:

Good Luck at the tables.

Johan,

> good and bad strategies are extremely in close

Rest assured this is definitely not true - preflop or postflop. Pls refer to SSH book.

In any case you go with the games you are comfortable with. Just keep in mind that, as Avataaren said, you are trying to run away from the problem rather than addressing it.