[SH25 ZOOM] insert thread title

being more productive for this month

let's set some pretty easy goals to do EVERY day:

[ ] play at least 1 hour of sh25 zoom (starting at most by 0000 local time)
[ ] post at least 5 hands for evaluation (right after the session)
[ ] sleep at most by 4AM local time

the fact that i didn't do even that for most days in the past month should give you an idea of how bad i was doing

on the last point ♦ while sleeping at 4 might sound weird for a lot of people, i'm a night owl and feel very productive at 2000-0200 ♦ however, about 0400 is my limit and if i'm still awake after that i'm mostly massively wasting time and then i'll just feel tired and ruin the next day.

[edit: successful today, life is good isn't it? ♦ ]

How did you manage mentally playing nl10 after playing nl100? It must have been so hard but helped you a lot now right?

ahah it wasn't too bad actually, i wanted to "get back into the game" and it's good to win a lot then
nl10 is really soft and lots of fun ♦ pretty much just 3bet everything ip, open 100% btn sb, they fold too much, they play face up and you print the monies.

in nl25 though i feel like there is a decent number of people trying to at least think about the game, i guess some% of the regs watch your coachings too ♦
i am kinda bothered that, while i am just about rolled for 50, i haven't been able to get a good winrate at 25 yet... i want to be really confident in my game first.

That's interesting.

Would you say you see more really big spew at 10 or 25? What's 2014 plans?

that's an interesting wording for the question.
i think that, while the "average spew frequency" is definitely higher at 25, i feel that you actually don't really see people spewing their entire stack too often. the really big spews that don't make any sense happen more often at nl10
i mean, it's like they just SNAP and decide that it's time to do "something" regardless of their hand or board texture, and then you see something c/r/3barrel 33 on A6925r bbvutg you really don't see that in 25.

plans for 2014 are the usual "go for SN", so for that i hope to at least start the next year playing nl50, def will at least take a shot when christmas gets closer ♦ also doing some thinking off the tables and messing around with stuff like ~2x 3bets ip against reg and fish, pretty interesting.

Hey Tomaloc!

Welcome to the Bootcamp!

I'll be on the coaching staff for the bootcamp working on mindset, tilt, and a-game related issues. But also to set solid good goals for 2014.

Is there any mindset issue you feel you need to work on than any other?

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

I'll be checking in on your thread!

Cheers!

hi, thank you

as you might have figured out from the time it took me to reply, i have a really huge rl leak in procrastination.

i also have huge mindset issues to continue playing (and probably also "playing well") after a few losing days.
it doesn't matter if i overall ran terrible, i will just focus in some marginal spots where i think i made some mistake and be all like "i suck can't beat the games hate poker etc", sometimes it results in more studying, sometimes it results in quitting for a while.

i'm not the type to go in a huge monkeytilt spree playing 80/60 and lose 10BI in a single session, in fact if anything i stoploss too early and rarely lose more than 3BI in a session.

your newest blog post is interesting. i fear losing, but above all i fear that i am a losing player, at least when in certain states of mind... (when tired, when somewhat affected by a few losing sessions, etc)
also the fact that there is no good way of knowing if i am -EV or just going through one of the "bad run" lines in some random variance simulator greatly bothers me.

sounds interesting?

Hi Tomaloc,

I'll be helping you out in this Boot Camp with topics like procrastination, motivation, laziness, productivity, focus while playing, putting in more volume/studying, creating habits that stick, etc.

Could you please tell me:

1) What is your #1 issue in those areas
2) What did you try so far to resolve it?
3) What worked and what didn't?

Thank you,

-Primoz

hi, #1 issue is procrastination definitely, i wrote something about it in the first post and previous post... keep in mind though that i don't really have huge ambitions with poker.
that said, i delay starting my sessions/posting hands/watching videos and if i'm not really in the zone i can hardly play long sessions at my usual limits either.

what worked the most for me was having some kind of schedule, it doesn't really need to be rigid, just something that says "do X until Y" like in the second post mostly works.
why "mostly"? if my motivation levels are low for whatever reason, it reeaally turns into a chore. so far i already missed one day (mental game issue, talked myself out of playing due to annoying sessions in previous days)

i probably have some more things to write, but i can't think of them right now so instead of delaying this post until i remember them i will just click the "Post Reply" button immediately.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
hi, thank you

as you might have figured out from the time it took me to reply, i have a really huge rl leak in procrastination.

i also have huge mindset issues to continue playing (and probably also "playing well") after a few losing days.
it doesn't matter if i overall ran terrible, i will just focus in some marginal spots where i think i made some mistake and be all like "i suck can't beat the games hate poker etc", sometimes it results in more studying, sometimes it results in quitting for a while.

i'm not the type to go in a huge monkeytilt spree playing 80/60 and lose 10BI in a single session, in fact if anything i stoploss too early and rarely lose more than 3BI in a session.

your newest blog post is interesting. i fear losing, but above all i fear that i am a losing player, at least when in certain states of mind... (when tired, when somewhat affected by a few losing sessions, etc)
also the fact that there is no good way of knowing if i am -EV or just going through one of the "bad run" lines in some random variance simulator greatly bothers me.

sounds interesting?

These issues are always interesting!

So we know that you are focusing way too much on the results when you play. It sounds like you are randomly able to play depending on motivation and how you have been running lately. And if you make any kind of mistakes that also demotivates and worries you. So we can see that there are a lot of things going on here that is making your approach to poker difficult.

How often are you checking your results when you play? Do you use any kind of session structure of warm-ups, session goals, and Post session review for example?

imo it's not exactly a focus on results, i'd say that it's mostly a focus on personal confidence and then my confidence is heavily based on results. it's close but not the same thing i think ♦

i mean, i can theoretically play nl10 25/7 regardless of results because i crushed it for a massive winrate over a decent sample.
however, when i'm winning at only like 1-2BB/100 over 50k hands it's not as easy to believe that i'm mostly playing profitably after a few bad days.

i mostly check session results after i lose a few pots, then if i see that it's somewhat in the red i quit. i feel like checking results doesn't really affect my play (as i'll quit if i am losing substantially )

i warmup by playing 10-15 minutes of nl10 which puts me on the mood for clicking buttons.
my session goals recently are "just play 1 hour without quitting" :P, i also have a notepad up where i write something like "fold rivers".
for post-session review i often mark a lot of hands, but i don't post most of them.

you see, i've tried to address the core issues by the goals in the second post ♦ but i am often finding myself without intrinsic motivation to do it.

You will have so many stretches where you win or lose close to break even that you might lose considerable volume in the long run. When your run like 1-2bb/100 like you said.

How big a part of the problem would you say that not knowing if you beat the higher limits is?

reply cut off? ♦

yes i know that in a rational level, i also know that i might even actually have pretty sizable losing stretches with winning play, but psychologically i have trouble accepting it.

it's really a huge part of the problem if i somehow know with a fair certainty that my play is winning, i don't have trouble getting to play often.
so well, if i don't play often, i don't get a decent sample, and if i don't get a decent sample, i have no way of knowing so...

Yeah, cut it off to save it for this post

Yeah so that is probably the problem here that you are stuck in the middle here since you can't know before you actually play, especially at the higher limits. We can approach it two ways. Either focus on looking at practical exercises like moving up strategy, when to do it, for how many buyins, how to study effectively and so on.

Or we can focus more on the fear of not knowing. What it comes from, what happens in real time etc.

What do you think?

would rather focus more on the fear of not knowing.
i mean, it doesn't matter how good is my brm strat if i just don't actually truly believe i play profitable poker everyday (that's what actually leads to not playing), if anything i am a brm nit and never even got close to going broke. ♦

Originally posted by Tomaloc
hi, #1 issue is procrastination definitely, i wrote something about it in the first post and previous post... keep in mind though that i don't really have huge ambitions with poker.
that said, i delay starting my sessions/posting hands/watching videos and if i'm not really in the zone i can hardly play long sessions at my usual limits either.

what worked the most for me was having some kind of schedule, it doesn't really need to be rigid, just something that says "do X until Y" like in the second post mostly works.
why "mostly"? if my motivation levels are low for whatever reason, it reeaally turns into a chore. so far i already missed one day (mental game issue, talked myself out of playing due to annoying sessions in previous days)

i probably have some more things to write, but i can't think of them right now so instead of delaying this post until i remember them i will just click the "Post Reply" button immediately.

Very interesting.

2 questions:

1) Why don't you have a schedule like that now?
2) You mention being demotivated. Why do you usually become demotivated? And what do you do to get out of this state?

Hi, Tomaloc! Interesting blog.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
keep in mind though that i don't really have huge ambitions with poker.
that said, i delay starting my sessions/posting hands/watching videos and if i'm not really in the zone i can hardly play long sessions at my usual limits either.

IMO if you want to increase your productivity, you have to do something with your ambitions first. Because without them it's hard to find a motivation for a hard work. And I think it's impossible to grow up through the limits without hard work today. How long are you going to play NL10? Are you going to do it till the end of your life?

Originally posted by Tomaloc
that's an interesting wording for the question.
i think that, while the "average spew frequency" is definitely higher at 25, i feel that you actually don't really see people spewing their entire stack too often. the really big spews that don't make any sense happen more often at nl10 Yeah, there are much more people who earn money for a life at nl25, than at nl10. There is really a big gap between these limits. And don't listen to those who say it is not.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
i warmup by playing 10-15 minutes of nl10 which puts me on the mood for clicking buttons.

Hmm... I warm up by evaluating my previous hands. But it is interesting idea.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
would rather focus more on the fear of not knowing.

Ok so let's do that!

So tell me a bit about it. How do you notice that you get uncomfortable with not knowing? We know it happens when you have longer stretches of being break-even or slightly wining. Can you think of any other spots where you feel the same or similarly?