I'm re-reading the mental game of poker (because it's such a good book and so helpful). I'm writing down elements of my own game, I figured this would be a good place to do it so I can look back on it and others can comment.
In general I'm pretty happy with my mental game, I think my lack of tilt is a big asset. I tend to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing and why it makes me money. I do get angry occasionally, when I make a terrible decision, misread my hand (happened a handful of times in my life, but once happened twice in 5 minutes) or my internet goes/client freezes.
I'm naturally a very cautious person, I thought getting good at poker would make me a better risk taker and to an extent it has. That said it's quite rare SNG players make 'big bluffs' in the same sense as how poker is portrayed.
Most of my issues are off the table and affect my motivation to play and my stamina when playing.
I'm not too results orientated but since I've started playing poker I've run quite far under EV for 99% of my playing time. I'm currently at around 6% ROI at around 1000 games, my EV is 12.6% ROI and as it is my entire poker career it's quite some way to be under. I really do focus on making the right decisions, I just feel some pressure to make this hobby into a supplemental/backup source of income for me.
I have big issues dealing with bad recreational players, I think this may be more common than some would like to admit. Dealing with weak regs is easy because you're playing in the same language, you are just better at understanding that language and how to manipulate it to your advantage.
Against bad recreational players it's very difficult, it's like trying to stop a suicidal wrecking ball. Some of the time it's better to just step out of the way and let them knock themselves out and gain you equity, but a lot of the time I feel i'm missing profitable spots to take money without a showdown which would be very profitable over time.
I am looking to improve the mindset with regards to targeting weaker players on my table. I believe I'm past the point where I need to religiously stick to a starting hand chart in the early and middle stages of an SNG. I understand the thought process behind them and most of the time stick fairly close but I believe I know when to deviate to exploit an opportunity. The problems are that in many ways the bad players have a slight upper hand 1v1 against you because they aren't playing on the same terms (logic etc.), of course overall they are losing players because they don't understand when to avoid such confrontation. I frequently review hands with others where we spend time putting a range on a bad player only to be completely wrong. Logically evaluating an irrational player is not logical, so how do we analyze them.
I am going to try and play harder against bad players when I'm in a hand with them. Depending on reads and situation I will relax some of my value for going to showdown, play small ball when appropriate and generally keep my nerve. I'll mark all the hands I do this in an review them to see whether I am indeed generating value from the situations and how I can keep improving.
I'm also going to improve my diet and preparation in order to improve my mental stamina for playing poker. I want to be able to grind for 3-4 hours whereas 2 hours is currently my average session time.
Play a minimum of 600 games at the $2.25/$5 levels.