Txeremi - limit donk

1. Volume. Never been a grinder and I struggle to put decent volume. I like playing fewer tables and be aware of everything but I'd really like to be able to grind more. This is probably because I am a good quitter and every time I feel unfocused or tired or misplaying some hands in a row I end the session and

2. the solution would be to be able to play A game for longer I guess.

Hey Txeremi!

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. When you aren't able to put the hours in is it mainly because you have a hesitation or bored of grinding or is it because of you quitting the games as soon as you star to feel tired or unfocused. Being a good quitter is a difficult concept. You might be good at spotting when you aren't able to play your a-game for example. But if you aren't able to consistently bring yourself from unfocused/making mistakes back to your A-game then you are not really a good quitter. you are a "have to quitter" Hope that makes sense. Does that feel like something that might be something you struggle with? Are you actively working on improving the skill of getting back to your a-game and playing longer session while still being focused etc?

2. When you are playing your A-game, how does that usually come about? Can you see any patterns? Are you actively doing all you can pre session etc to make sure you are calm, focused and motivated enough o play your A-game? Do you have a warm-up routine? Are you working on learning and improving in certain predetermined spots or concepts in each session?

Gl

Hey there Gerard,

I'd like to help you with your volume problems :).

Could you please tell me how much volume you put in right now daily/weekly, and what would be the number you would want to reach?

Also, are you satisfied with how long you can keep your focus and concentration, or would you like to improve your amounts of energy/focus throughout the day?

Could you perhaps describe what your usual day looks like, so that we can see if we can change some things and enable you to stay focused for longer periods of time?

I think that table selection is good and important, although it really depends on what you want from poker. I can see that you'd like to crush regs though. Since they have more experience/knowledge, the best way to do that would be to analyze them or improve your game to a level higher than theirs.

How/how much do you usually work on improving your game? Would you like to change that in any way (study more perhaps? study differently?)?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

Nice graph.

May be the regulars in Spain play so abc, what you can easily exploiting and the fishes are so huge what we never-ever seen before, or you are a genius! ♠_thumbsup:

Sorry for the delay guys, have been really busy this weekend.

@Erik

1.You're right, I am a "have to quitter", but I am pretty good at knowing in which state I am. But when my game deviates I just have to quit and come back later, which means lower productivity overall and I don't know how to improve this, I just don't know.

One thing I have achieved is not looking at the results while playing, only at the end of the day, but I'd like to improve this and spend several days without looking at them. I think it's the best single solution to the results orientedness but it's tough to do when it's 2 clicks of a button away. However, I like to see how my non sd are on every single day because I think I can spot easily when my nons are going down that I am probably not focused enough and that I am passing up spots I shouldn't.

2. When I play my A-game I feel like super confident, and I don't care about doing something wrong if my gut tels me to do it, I have basically no fear of the outcomes of the hands and I just focus on everything that matters and I don't feel fear against stronger regs. I just play. Also when I used to coach fixed limit I noticed that every time I played in the coachings my game was so much better because thoughts got out of my mind through speech and I've tried to mimic this a lot of times when grinding but I don't want to spend all my poker life talking haha it's exhausting man. How could aproach this problem differently? When I'm not verbally expressing my thoughts tilt gets me easier, maybe because everything is more clear and I gain perspective.

But I don't think I've found any pattern that brings me to my A-game every time I want. I have sort of a warmup session, mental warm up session. I just try to think in the way I want to feel while playing and just say to myself that I am good enough to face anyone and that I have to trust in me, stuff like that. But I guess I could do a lot more, don't know the right way though.

@Schnitzelfisch
I am usually playing less than 100 hours a month, around 80-90 and about 30-40k hands because I don't mass multitable, I don't want to anyways.
I'd like to play aound 50% more, and more if I needed to.

I am a person that can focus for a ton of hours doing other stuff like studying, I can study 10-12 hours straight when I have to but I can't do it playing poker, I loose focus too fast. Don't have an stable version of me playing poker. Not worried about my energy levels.

And my day schedule is pretty different month to month, I've just finished my degree so I am going to have a lot more time every day.

I spend enough time learning I think. Since I've switched to no limit I have studied the game a ton in forums, viewing videos, live coachings, analyzing hands etc still a lot of stuff to do but I spend every day a couple hours or more reviewing stuff/reading/watching etc.

I think my A game is on the right track, I just need to be there for longer!

Sorry for the delay guys, have been really busy this weekend.

1 But when my game deviates I just have to quit and come back later, which means lower productivity overall and I don't know how to improve this, I just don't know.

2. When I play my A-game I feel like super confident. But I don't think I've found any pattern that brings me to my A-game.

3. I don't want to spend all my poker life talking haha it's exhausting man. How could aproach this problem differently? When I'm not verbally expressing my thoughts tilt gets me easier, maybe because everything is more clear and I gain perspective.

4.

1. What specifically is it hat make your game deviate so you have to quit? What situations? Vs certain villains? Making mistakes? Ry to put them in order of what shoes up first and level of severity..

2. In my coming video series I will touch on this issue. So keep an eye out

3. Try practicing doing it as soon as you find yourself in a difficult spot. The more you practice the less exhausting it will get. You will also learn the is of knowing when you need o use it. Like a tool in the toolbox. In your warm-up routine be as specific as you can be on what you are working on for this session. I highly recommend you making talking out your though process in difficult spot one of you priorities for now, just because it works so well for you when you do.
Try setting an alarm every 15 minutes and when it goes of that is you r queue to look into how you are doing emotionally and tilt wise. And same thing here, talk how your doing out loud. This will let some of the steam and pressure off and it forces us to consciously look at and express whats going on. Consciousness is the death of tilt, so bring as much of it into your game.

Hope that helps a bit. Try playing around with i and see how it works...

Cheers!

Hey again,

what do you think are the causes for losing focus? Do you become bored? Tired? Do you start autopiloting? Are you not actively thinking about the game, focusing on improving something with each session? Any other reason?

As for increasing volume by 50%, it's perfectly possible, but it's more likely to work if you increase it by ~10% each month. So you can try doing that for a couple of months consistently in order to reach your goal ;).

-Primož

@Erik

Usually the biggest tilting factor for me are my own mistakes, doing a couple bad calls might put me out of my game. Can't stand doing repeated mistakes. Also when a reg does something horrible and sucks out, that is tilting too. And my mind starts thinking about that bad call, and takes out energy for the next hands, then I am more likely to make another bad play and quit. It's not like I don't know this stuff, but at the moment it's inevitable.

I'd say it goes like this:
1- My mistakes
2- Regs mashing buttons and sucking out
3- Repeated bad beats

Is there any video about warm up routines or are you going to give guidelines in your series? Really looking forward to your vids!

@Schnitzelfisch

I don't tend to autopilot. I do when I am not in a good state before playing like being really tired that day because other stuff.
Don't know the reasons why I lose focus, maybe it's boredom or maybe it's just normal but I need to make small breaks ( 5 minutes) every hour or 90 minutes, what do you think about that?
Like I said I can do other tasks for a ton of hours when I have to. Maybe I feel I want to play more but I don't think it's a must so I slip away

Originally posted by Txeremi

1- My mistakes.
And my mind starts thinking about that bad call, and takes out energy for the next hands, then I am more likely to make another bad play and quit.

2.Is there any video about warm up routines or are you going to give guidelines in your series? Really looking forward to your vids!

Hey!

Lets start with the "mistakes" first.

1. My first suggestion is that you after making a mistake immediately note that hand, then you can even talk out loud the correct way for you to deal with this situation. You have to actively try to change the way you react when the situation occurs. Keep working on this and and keep grinding this skill. Eventually it becomes second nature. But you have to combine this with putting work in after the session into the marked hands so you improve in the spots where the "mistake is made". Also write our your three most common spots for making mistakes and try to anticipate them before they happen in session and talk you thought process out load to slow things down.

2. Yes, that will be a big part of the series. Theory and preparation for the Warm-up v will be part of the first video. Hope you like it

Hey again,

it makes sense that you take a short break every hour or two. Are you doing this already or do you want to start doing this?

Give it a go and tell us if you see any improvement or not :). A 15-minute break every 90-120 minutes away from the screen should work pretty nicely, but you can of course try taking shorter breaks as well.

-Primož

Hi Gerard, how are you?

We understand time can be a problem but would be keen to read your thoughts on Primoz' suggestions. I'm sure others would be interested in your thoughts to.

Soldier on!

Mal.