Yet another Lithuanian - Almantas

1.Mentally. I tend to overthink things and outplay myself when playing different stakes or different games than I'm used to.

2. I don't A game much either and mostly autopilot.

3.Not much tilt problems. I do burn out quite fast sometimes it takes a week sometimes two but I do end up having to take a day or two off because otherwise I start spewing.

One specific thing I'd be interested in is making some new poker friends. As I currently I don't really talk with anyone playing around same stakes or same games. I tend to shy away of making such connections as a lot of players I've encountered had very negative attitude towards poker, variance etc. But hopefully here is the place for people who have positive attitude towards playing and improving at this game.

Hey Almantas!

My name is Erik and I will be part of the coaching staff focusing on Tilt, A-Game, Mindset, and Lifecoaching. So if you have any questions I will have a thread up soon where you can easily let me know if you updated your thread with anything I might be able to help out with. I'll be trolling around the forums but just so i don't miss anything.

1. Can you be more specific? Do you tend to over think when you player higher limits and/or regs or mostly when playing lower limits vs fish for example?

2. The video series I'm making for the BC will address exactly this issue. Why do you think that you autopilot so much? Do you still feel motivated about the game while playing? Do you actively study to keep the game fun? How would you say you struggle with results orientation?

3. Why do you think you burnout so often? What does it feel like? Can you take me through an average week were you start out well and then feel your about to burn out?

4. I think you are on the right track here. You really want to have a stable group of guys around you that can help analyze your game and help you when things are rough. You will find more guys interested in this at the bootcamp I'm sure. Keep searching!

Cheers!

Originally posted by ErikStenqvist

4. I think you are on the right track here. You really want to have a stable group of guys around you that can help analyze your game and help you when things are rough. You will find more guys interested in this at the bootcamp I'm sure. Keep searching!

Cheers!

For sure, this is what we want to create, an environment for grinders to interact, share and develop together.

GL and get involved in other peoples threads too.

Hey Erik, thanks for stopping by

Originally posted by ErikStenqvist

1. Can you be more specific? Do you tend to over think when you player higher limits and/or regs or mostly when playing lower limits vs fish for example?

Yes mostly when playing higher limits and mostly against other regulars, tho it does happen against fish too. But fish just doesn't put you in tougher spots very often so it's not as noticeable.

It happened a lot last year when I was moving back up in stakes. I just tend to change my game too much when playing higher than my usual stakes without any reason other than me playing higher and end up either calling lighter in some spots or folding more than I should in other spots, being over aggressive sometimes or too passive etc.

It makes me fear moving up because in the past it always took me at least few times of having to deal with big downers and having to rebuild due to this play bad problem.

2. The video series I'm making for the BC will address exactly this issue. Why do you think that you autopilot so much? Do you still feel motivated about the game while playing? Do you actively study to keep the game fun? How would you say you struggle with results orientation?

I just don't feel like I'm capable of concentrating on anything for prolonged periods of time and some days even for short periods. Not sure why it is that way.

Currently yes, I do feel motivated while playing mainly because I switched from zoom to anon tables which is a fresh game for me and that does raise my interest.

I do not really enjoy grinding for long hours, two to three hours once in few days is fun and I do play better that way but then I feel like I'm just a slacker.

I do enjoy studying much more than actually playing, tho somehow I keep slipping off of study schedule and just grind until my game starts weakening.

Don't think there's much problem with results orientation as I tend to not look at my results for weeks or a month. Tho my girlfriend always seems to tell when I had bad few days while I don't really notice it myself.

3. Why do you think you burnout so often? What does it feel like? Can you take me through an average week were you start out well and then feel your about to burn out?

I'm not sure, stress just accumulates and erupts at some point. I'm never able to tell when it's going to happen. It feels like I'm just angry at everything that happens at the table, even if it's something I wouldn't even be paying any attention to it on normal days.

Originally posted by pleno1

Originally posted by ErikStenqvist

4. I think you are on the right track here. You really want to have a stable group of guys around you that can help analyze your game and help you when things are rough. You will find more guys interested in this at the bootcamp I'm sure. Keep searching!

Cheers!

For sure, this is what we want to create, an environment for grinders to interact, share and develop together.

GL and get involved in other peoples threads too.

Thanks guys!

Cheers!

Gl brother lithuanian! After this camp we will surprise the whole country with our results!

Sounds like a good group of people are joining! Lots of motivated people! Hope to learn from you and work together!

Originally posted by tadcka
Gl brother lithuanian! After this camp we will surprise the whole country with our results!
Yea, let's make FNTT happy.

Originally posted by BrokesoBroke
Sounds like a good group of people are joining! Lots of motivated people! Hope to learn from you and work together!

I hope so too. You're a true inspiration with sick below ev last year graph and still going strong and not being sick with this game.

Meh, will pay taxes this year, no happyness for FNTT from my side, everything in your hands

Originally posted by tadcka
Meh, will pay taxes this year, no happyness for FNTT from my side, everything in your hands
Bah ok, ok, then let's make our government happy with our big income tax.

Originally posted by tadcka
Meh, will pay taxes this year, no happyness for FNTT from my side, everything in your hands
You must be not a Lithuanian if you are going to pay taxes

In on first page Gl man will be trying to help you as much as I can (but mainly on the pokerside of things I guess )

You say that you were having problems with responding to BTN minraises, we were actually discussing just that very recently in the strategy thread. If there's anything further you are curious or are struggling with regarding that just ask me by either leaving a reply here or in the other thread.

Hey there Almantas,

I want to help you out with your concentration problems, as well as burnout problems.

1. Could you perhaps describe your usual day, so that we can analyze it and see what could be improved?

2. Do you feel like you are not concentrated because you are distracted by other things, because you have too many other thoughts in your head or because you are tired?

3. Do you take breaks during your sessions? If yes, how often, how long, and what do they look like?

4. Would you like to improve your volume (make sessions longer)? Or are you satisfied with it?

It seems to me that your burnout is mainly a result of lack of recovery, so we can talk about that once you've posted your usual day ;).

We can also work on establishing some solid studying habits which will help you improve your game consistently, not just after you play bad for a bit ;).

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

Originally posted by imfromsweden007
In on first page Gl man will be trying to help you as much as I can (but mainly on the pokerside of things I guess )

You say that you were having problems with responding to BTN minraises, we were actually discussing just that very recently in the strategy thread. If there's anything further you are curious or are struggling with regarding that just ask me by either leaving a reply here or in the other thread.

Hey IFS! Thanks for dropping by. You really edited your post 7 times? Now that's some dedication to posting

I'll check out that thread. Thanks.

Originally posted by Schnitzelfisch
Hey there Almantas,

I want to help you out with your concentration problems, as well as burnout problems.

1. Could you perhaps describe your usual day, so that we can analyze it and see what could be improved?

Hey Primo,

Currently my usual days are very uneventful and inactive tbh. Usually it goes like this:

Wake up

1 to 2 hours session

Meet up with GF for few hours

Then 1 to 4 hours session depending on how good I play. If I feel like I'm playing badly I'll take a break and start another session later or just take the rest of the day off.

Afterwards few hours for cooling down from poker and then sleep for 8 hours.

My diet is quite normal, once in a while I eat some junk food but that's not a regular thing, don't lots of carbs, get good fats and protein. I also drink fish oil and take vitamin and mineral supplements.

Currently I'm very physically inactive tho which does begin to feel with lower levels of energy. With that said I used to go to gym 3-4 times a week a year or so ago, ate almost paleo w no junk at all and while I did feel extremely energetic and my mood was great at same time it didn't help much with my poker and even made it worse to some extent as I didn't want to be sitting in front of pc for hours and instead do things which was a big distraction which did make some contribution to me quitting poker too.

2. Do you feel like you are not concentrated because you are distracted by other things, because you have too many other thoughts in your head or because you are tired?

There's not much going on in my life so for the most part other thoughts aren't distraction. Sure there are times when that happens too but mostly I just feel like my mind zones out. And I do feel tired fairly often and have some anxiety before starting sessions, especially after few days of playing. It's like with every day of playing it builds up.
3. Do you take breaks during your sessions? If yes, how often, how long, and what do they look like?

4. Would you like to improve your volume (make sessions longer)? Or are you satisfied with it?

I feel like my sessions are long enough for the most part. I'd like to improve my overall volume and been doing that since new year by increasing monthly hours played by 10 every month which seems to be working out fairly well so far.

It seems to me that your burnout is mainly a result of lack of recovery, so we can talk about that once you've posted your usual day ;).

We can also work on establishing some solid studying habits which will help you improve your game consistently, not just after you play bad for a bit ;).

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

Yeah I do not feel well rested fairly frequently. And I would absolutely love to finally get into a good habit of studying and not slip off of it as usual.

Thanks for your time.

Almantas

Hey again,

I think that 10h/month gradual improvement of volume is a really good idea. Keep it up!

What exactly do you do after the 2nd session, when you "take the time away from poker/take the rest of the day off"?

If you spend most of the time inside/in front of the pc, that could very well be a cause of burnout.

I see that your nutrition is pretty well balanced, so that's definitely good. However, inactivity will probably decrease your energy levels by quite a bit. Seeing that you've had negative experiences with actually having too much energy, perhaps a balance between these two extremes might work for you?

What you can try is going outside more. Out of the apartment, on fresh air. Walking around a bit or even jogging should help you recharge pretty well and maintain the energy levels where you want them to be.

This is going to be easier and easier to do as spring is coming, it's going to be warmer outside and perhaps even going for a walk outside together with your GF/having a picnic could be pretty nice.

As for the study habits, the best way to establish them would be to do them the first thing in the morning if that suits you. You can prepare the study materials in the evening before you go to bed, and put the PC in hibernate mode. Once you wake up, you can study for X amount of time daily (start with at least 15 or 30 minutes and then increase it gradually) and get this ugly task over with.

Let us know how it goes!

-Primož

Yes, I stay inside, in front of pc after I'm done with poker. There's not much to do besides staring at the pc screen at night on winter

I'll decrease the amount of time spent staring at the pc screen, maybe add some home workout and see if it changes something.

And I'll do the study 30 min first thing in the morning, will serve as a good warm up for sleepy brain too.

Thanks.

Hey,

Skiing, ice-skating, running in the snow, romantic walks with gf, snowball fights, making snowmans... ♦!

And you can read also, have sex, throw partys with friend at home, go out with friends, go eat with friends, spend time with family, take up a new activity to force yourself to get out of the appartment... etc ;). Opportunities are limitless!

Gl, let me know how you progress :).

-Primož

hey Frost, will follow this!
GL

Originally posted by Schnitzelfisch
Hey,

Skiing, ice-skating, running in the snow, romantic walks with gf, snowball fights, making snowmans... ♦!

And you can read also, have sex, throw partys with friend at home, go out with friends, go eat with friends, spend time with family, take up a new activity to force yourself to get out of the appartment... etc ;). Opportunities are limitless!

Gl, let me know how you progress :).

-Primož

Oh making snowmans, we made some creepy looking snow creature few days ago.

Originally posted by BC1989RF
hey Frost, will follow this!
GL

Hey man, thanks!

Btw, I'm lurking your blog too.

Double post!