missing in the action - Fiskantes

Hey there Fiskantes,

that sounds like a really interesting and diversified lifestyle of yours :).

I REALLY love the fact that you have a clear vision and that you are proud of it, as it is a crucial thing in life and so many people lack it. I see that you are a really organized person, which helps a lot as well :).

Regarding the mathematical situations, discussing them with friends will certainly help you out, yes. But there is another thing which you might want to try (even though you're not very good with software), so perhaps you could try to do some equity estimation drills?

Regarding the limited amount of time, I understand how you might feel about that. If you have many projects going on, your time will be very limited. This means that you need to get the most out of the time which you invest into poker. And for that, you need to have a lot of energy, be able to maintain focus and have really good recovery. Do you perhaps struggle in any of those areas?

Perhaps there are some times of your day that we can optimize to enable you to find more time for poker, would you be willing to share with us what your usual day looks like?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

Hey guys, nice to have such a warm welcome here

Can you think of anything on top of your head that fits into this approach? And what do you think about the approach itself?

Well, tbh I can´t...there are lot of things my game needs to improve, but when it comes to naming them in details, I have problem to come up with one Maybe spewy calls and spewy stackoffs sometimes, when I am not focused and don´t read ranges precisely. But this issue is too general I guess.

The approach itself seems really effective though, it just needs outstanding working ethics, which I lack tbh

But there is another thing which you might want to try (even though you're not very good with software), so perhaps you could try to do some equity estimation drills?

In fact I did equity estimates in past, playing with Equilab etc, but I did not have any structure or plan what I wanted to learn, I just randomly watched equity of various ranges and various boards. Oh, and also it was pretty boring, I much more enjoy sweat sessions, videos and learning by playing.

Perhaps there are some times of your day that we can optimize to enable you to find more time for poker, would you be willing to share with us what your usual day looks like?

We actually talked about that a bit in tradimo forum. I will ellaborate on current state later on

BTW I am reading Mental Game of Poker now, and from I have read so far I would say that huge issue for me is big difference between my best game and worst game. When I am on my A-game I make disciplined folds, good bluffs, read ranges and adjust correctly, when I am on my worst I make spews that any NL10 BE reg would consider bumhunting me after seeing it. ♦

Well, tbh I can´t...there are lot of things my game needs to improve, but when it comes to naming them in details, I have problem to come up with one

This is key imo. If you don't know what your biggest weakness or leak it's a good thing to make it a priority to find out Here are some questions that might help you find things you are struggling with you mindset, tilt and a-game.

What are the times when you become the most negatively affected by the game?
(You can use both the emotional impact itself multiplied by the actual frequency of these spots.)

What type of tilt or mindset issue is losing you the most money every month?
(Not putting volume, bluffing fish, calling 3 bets vs regs too light, etc etc)

What parts of poker is affecting your happiness the most? (Saying losing money is not allowed )

What parts of the mental game of poker do you feel resonates most with you as player and as a person?

Like on how you are putting effort in this thread. Hard work pays of so keep at it

Hey again,

ahh I remember you from the Tradimo yeah :). Sooo, what's the current state of yours :)?

-Primož

Hi there Fiskantes, how are you, well I hope?

Have you come up with any answers to Erik's questions so far? I read you find time to for study and play an issue, but updating your thread keeps your progress recorded and moving forwards.
Just a reminder.

Regards,

Mal.

Hey hey, I am still here, just was not in mood or did not have time to post something relevant.

It´s time to answer Erik´s questions as I really thought hard about it:

What are the times when you become the most negatively affected by the game?

Definitely my own bad play. When I do big mistake or don´t follow my reads or just gamble, I start to be angry really soon. This mostly applies to bad calls as I am bit of a station, and sometimes bad bluffs (when I get called, when I make bad bluff and opponent folds, I am not that upset).

What type of tilt or mindset issue is losing you the most money every month?
(Not putting volume, bluffing fish, calling 3 bets vs regs too light, etc etc)

In this order:

1. Light calldowns and bad bluffs (Hating mistakes tilt)
2. Donating passive dead money (floating, calling 3bets OOP too light)
3. Not putting volume (more of a time issue than mindset issue).

What parts of poker is affecting your happiness the most?

1. When I do many mistakes in a row and can´t force myself to quit session early.
2. Long streaks of bad variance (3 weeks and more)

What parts of the mental game of poker do you feel resonates most with you as player and as a person?

Haven´t read it all yet, but mostly I like the idea to find and solve underlying mental causes of tilt.

....................................................

gadget:

Thanks for showing interest

As for updating, I also update my blog in Czech community from time to time and I use TheLastNail´s academy for evaluation hands (it´s restricted Elite CG forum similar to this). But I will try to update this thread at least once a week, I promise

Some news from my poker journey:

I have shot NL200 with pretty aggro BRM. I felt really good about my game, but hit my stoploss. NL200 is not that hard, just people are more solid, not calling so much, which allowed me to bluff more (but as I was shotting, I was playing mostly for value obv).

Now I moved back on NL100 and intend to make some fundamental changes in my game. I got DB analysis from BogdanPS and he found some bigger leaks in my game, such as opening too loose from UTG, MP, calling too loose vs 3bets OOP and not cbetting enough from UTG.

From sweat sessions and hand evaluation I was able to determine some more flaws - for example unbalanced passive and aggressive lines OOP, misunderstanding and misusing some concepts as overbetting for value/as a bluff.

I would say that I have really broad knowledge about many concepts, but the knowledge is often not deep enough for me to use them effectively. That´s why I will tighten up preflop before I will fix at least some of these leaks.

Ughh, such an ugly wall of text, so here is Hind helicopter:

Hind helicopter is really badass...they call it flying tank.

Originally posted by Fiskantes
Hey hey, I am still here, just was not in mood or did not have time to post something relevant.

It´s time to answer Erik´s questions as I really thought hard about it:

What are the times when you become the most negatively affected by the game?

Definitely my own bad play. When I do big mistake or don´t follow my reads or just gamble, I start to be angry really soon. This mostly applies to bad calls as I am bit of a station, and sometimes bad bluffs (when I get called, when I make bad bluff and opponent folds, I am not that upset).

What type of tilt or mindset issue is losing you the most money every month?
(Not putting volume, bluffing fish, calling 3 bets vs regs too light, etc etc)

In this order:

1. Light calldowns and bad bluffs (Hating mistakes tilt)
2. Donating passive dead money (floating, calling 3bets OOP too light)
3. Not putting volume (more of a time issue than mindset issue).

What parts of poker is affecting your happiness the most?

1. When I do many mistakes in a row and can´t force myself to quit session early.
2. Long streaks of bad variance (3 weeks and more)

What parts of the mental game of poker do you feel resonates most with you as player and as a person?

Haven´t read it all yet, but mostly I like the idea to find and solve underlying mental causes of tilt.

Nice to see that you put some thought to this. Now when you have a bit more structure you can just chose one issue you want to dig into!

So what will it be?

From mindset issues I am mostly affected by mistakes tilt and from technical aspects of my game it´s definitely calling too light (especially in late positions when my ranges are weak)

Originally posted by Fiskantes
From mindset issues I am mostly affected by mistakes tilt

can relate to this myself

Originally posted by Fiskantes
From mindset issues I am mostly affected by mistakes tilt and from technical aspects of my game it´s definitely calling too light (especially in late positions when my ranges are weak)

What is your current take on you making mistakes on and off the tables? When does i show up most often and what are the emotional and negative thoughts that come up when it happens?

Interesting that you ask, I just now went on unpleasant downswing (15 BIs in 3k hands) and after long time being relatively calm and focused I found myself in a serious deep tilt.

It was accumulated from last 3 weeks where I was not running good and it escalated in latest 2 sessions.

It started with having really bad run, I literally could not win a hand. From frustration that I am getting outflopped or sucked out I started to play more LAGgro and bluffy and end up doing some spewy bluffs and calls (connected with running into top of opponent ranges).

To answer your question, I experienced

1. Inability to quit session earlier, chasing losses

2. Marginal stackoffs in big pots

3. Thoughts like "that´s unbelievable, they always have the nuts", "Fuck, he played this hand so badly and I still paid him off" or "OMG, now I have to fold again to this donk", " I can´t hit a damn thing all day and others keep stacking fish", or "I knew he has the nuts it but I still had to call, I am such a donk"

4. Checking charts and getting upset seeing my hardly grinded BR melt away

5. Off table I even had to do 50 pushups and punch the wall to release accumulated negative energy

6. Dominating emotion is anger connected with frustration

Last 3 days were really hard for me, I even cashouted rest of my BR which I had left on poker room (I have most of it on Skrill) with intention to quit poker for a longer time. Now I calmed down a bit and wanna do something about my situation. (I had even 50 BI swings before, and I was never able to play well during them, after like 3 weeks and 20 BIs down I start to lose control).

Originally posted by Fiskantes
Interesting that you ask, I just now went on unpleasant downswing (15 BIs in 3k hands) and after long time being relatively calm and focused I found myself in a serious deep tilt.

It was accumulated from last 3 weeks where I was not running good and it escalated in latest 2 sessions.

It started with having really bad run, I literally could not win a hand. From frustration that I am getting outflopped or sucked out I started to play more LAGgro and bluffy and end up doing some spewy bluffs and calls (connected with running into top of opponent ranges).

To answer your question, I experienced

1. Inability to quit session earlier, chasing losses

2. Marginal stackoffs in big pots

3. Thoughts like "that´s unbelievable, they always have the nuts", "Fuck, he played this hand so badly and I still paid him off" or "OMG, now I have to fold again to this donk", " I can´t hit a damn thing all day and others keep stacking fish", or "I knew he has the nuts it but I still had to call, I am such a donk"

4. Checking charts and getting upset seeing my hardly grinded BR melt away

5. Off table I even had to do 50 pushups and punch the wall to release accumulated negative energy

6. Dominating emotion is anger connected with frustration

Last 3 days were really hard for me, I even cashouted rest of my BR which I had left on poker room (I have most of it on Skrill) with intention to quit poker for a longer time. Now I calmed down a bit and wanna do something about my situation. (I had even 50 BI swings before, and I was never able to play well during them, after like 3 weeks and 20 BIs down I start to lose control).

Ok so you had a strong negative emotional impact from the game. It's important to go back and see what the first mistake we did that made the tilt start to grow. During the beginning of this 3 week downswing that eventually led up to this huge tilt. Were you actively and consciously looking into yourself and the situation before things started to go out of control? Or did you only realize what had happened now when you calmed yourself down?

These question are important if it isolates the fact that we overlook or are "overconfident" when things a re going well.

Even when I was writing previous answer I was not totally cooled down yet, still had some emotional leftovers, so my answer maybe influnced by it.

Now after some time I am seeing it more clearly.

What is most upsetting from the whole experience is losing control...that I allowed myself to got into that huge tilt and was not able to stop playing soon. Because I thought of myself as mentally strong (according to past experience) this was really cold shower for me.

That´s why I decided to take a few days of break and start using TiltBreaker (software which manages your stoploss and BRM) until I solve the underlying mental issue which caused this behavior.

As for past 3 weeks I thought that I am playing well and just get coolered a lot (10 BI under EV etc.) so I was calm and really proud of myself that I keep playing reasonably well.

The problem showed in last 3 days where it all escalated and broke into my mind.

Were you actively and consciously looking into yourself and the situation before things started to go out of control? Or did you only realize what had happened now when you calmed yourself down?

During these crucial 3 sessions I was aware that it´s wrong. In the first one I was even able to stop soon, take a break and then continue again calmed down. But the second went bad too, so I just quit soon and after some sleep I felt mentally recovered again. But the last one started in the same fashion and I was overthrown by anger, this time I could not stop soon and started to do more and more mistake. All the time I knew it is wrong. I tried to observe my mental state like a third person:

I don´t know what the trigger was exactly, maybe some unsuccesful bluff or cooler. But I know I soon started to feel a bit like on the fever or something. My adrenaline level was probably much higher than usual and I could recognize strong physical feeling in my lower chest, basically physical anger. I cursed and sight whenever I lost some bigger pot. When I finally quit, this "chest anger" remained strong, I did 50 push ups and took a shower but could not get rid of it. Finally I delivered a few full power punches to the wall, I hurt my right fist but with the aggression relieved and physical pain I was suddenly free from that anger. I calmed down almost immediately. This was really strange and strong experience for me. Last time I experienced something similar was like 8 months ago when I lost 13 BIs in one day, turned off the tables and smashed my mouse into pieces.

Maybe I can go through the hand history from last session and try to tell when exactly my mindset started to fall apart.

Edit: Now I realized another big mistake, I played around 8-9 tables, usually I try to go max. to 6.

Sorry for long post again guys ♦ , and thanks for your time Erik I know you are working hard helping everyone in Bootcamp and I really appreciate your input.

Originally posted by Fiskantes
1.The problem showed in last 3 days where it all escalated and broke into my mind.

2.During these crucial 3 sessions I was aware that it´s wrong. In the first one I was even able to stop soon, take a break and then continue again calmed down. But the second went bad too, so I just quit soon and after some sleep I felt mentally recovered again. But the last one started in the same fashion and I was overthrown by anger, this time I could not stop soon and started to do more and more mistake. All the time I knew it is wrong. I tried to observe my mental state like a third person:

3. Maybe I can go through the hand history from last session and try to tell when exactly my mindset started to fall apart.

Edit: Now I realized another big mistake, I played around 8-9 tables, usually I try to go max. to 6.

Sorry for long post again guys ♦ , and thanks for your time Erik I know you are working hard helping everyone in Bootcamp and I really appreciate your input.

Hey!

My pleasure as always!

1/2. The issue need to be resolved after session 1. Period. There is no need to focus on session 2-3 when the solution is to deal with it it early. What are the earliest signs you can see. In your poker game, emotionally and physically. Write them out. Start building a tilt profile!

You need to start using a post session analysis. Waiting until you calmed down is underestimating tilt, it will stay with you and hide in corners of you mind were you can see and then it come back and explodes in your face.

3. Yes dot hat, go over all session and try to remember as much as you can and backtrack to see what actually wen wrong in the session.

And dude, punching the wall is a very clear sign that you need to take this seriously . I don't know if we talked anything about meditation and mindfulness yet. Believe me when I say : You need it! It will directly deal with you excess emotions. It might take some time for you to get a hang of it but add me on Skype and I'll send you an mp3 guided by me and well see if that helps: or Here

This is where you have the chance to take the bull by the horns and put in some work that will pay off greatly for you in the future. But you will need some willpower to get started. It's game time!

Are you game?

Sorry for no response in couple of days, I had a lot on my mind, not thinking about poker much (pause from playing). Basically I am starting with some trading project which may even lead to establishing a hedge fund in a year or so

But back to the topic! Thanks for your answer and of course I am a game ♦

Ad post session analysis - yeah I read about that in Mental Game (about notes on mindset etc.), but haven´t started with it yet. The thing is my time is limited and when I finish my session it´s often very late and I am rushing to get some sleep. But it´s something definitely worth trying, maybe at least in some very simplified form...any ideas?

As meditation/mindfulness: I am going to watch your vid now and post some thoughts about it later.

Just in general I am not sure, if meditation is my cup of tea ♦. Does it work for everybody? I always thought it is for people who incline more to spirituality and eastern philosophy and way of living :). Also is it a solution to underlying cause of tilt, or only something which just pushes it away?

I thought about buying a punch bag which can help me to exercise and deal with my anger if it occurs again, what do you think?

Edit: OMG, almost forgot to post something badass...so here is Tiger tank. It doesn´t shit around...it punches through!

Originally posted by Fiskantes
1.The thing is my time is limited and when I finish my session it´s often very late and I am rushing to get some sleep.

2.As meditation/mindfulness: I am going to watch your vid now and post some thoughts about it later.

3.Just in general I am not sure, if meditation is my cup of tea ♦. Does it work for everybody? I always thought it is for people who incline more to spirituality and eastern philosophy and way of living :). Also is it a solution to underlying cause of tilt, or only something which just pushes it away?

4.I thought about buying a punch bag which can help me to exercise and deal with my anger if it occurs again, what do you think?

1. Try just for five minutes to write down things you think you should look at a later time. don't keep it in your head. Step into the role as the coach, what would eh say?

2. Great!

3. Ok so the word meditation brings a lot of baggage and notions of what it is with it. Another word that means exactly the same is "focus practice". And yes it will bring a much calmer non reactive person to the tables which is great to combat tilt. The harder it is the more you have to gain. Try the ten minute one twice a day for one week and see how it goes. And its not the result of the meditation that we are looking for. It's the effort and that we practice. It's about the journey.

4. Sure beats breaking your hand. If you feel you have to then sure. But it wont solve anything, only protect your hands. Up the stakes a little bit instead. If you punch anything you have to do 50 push-ups? That is one of my favorites but I do it with burpees D:

Duh! Obv get a tiger!

Hey Erik,

so I watched your mindfulness guide and I really like it! It´s simple, easy to follow and effective. Kinda reminds me of autogenic relaxation, which also takes around 10 minutes, but it is more complex and strict (you have to focus your attention to hands, legs, stomach etc. and relax them one at a time).

I will definitely start doing this exercise before every session, and also everyday as the first thing when I sit to my PC.

Try just for five minutes to write down things you think you should look at a later time. don't keep it in your head. Step into the role as the coach, what would eh say? smile

I will try but don´t promise anything ♦ I suck at keeping records or following ToDo lists or whatever... I am creature of chaos ♦

Sadly push-ups did not help me, so I will maybe go for punch bag...but it´s not like I have to punch stuff anytime I get sucked out or coolered, it happened to me for the first time I play poker. Only similar case is like 3/4 year ago when I smashed my mouse.

Anywaaayz, still not playing, I wait my skrill acc to be verified, all my money got stuck there expect some 90 bucks on Stars, where I now mess around on PLO10 (pretty funny game ). Also I cashouted majority of my BR for my trading project which may really change my life if it will go as expected
That also mean I would have to start with the rest on NL50 again, ♠_confused:

Just for lolz:

Originally posted by Fiskantes
Hey Erik,
so I watched your mindfulness guide and I really like it! It´s simple, easy to follow and effective.

Great to hear! Keep working with it and tell me if you see any changes in your overall calmness. If you want you can do it first thing in the morning as well. This will set the tone of the day.