“The flip” is the peak of a downswing. The second that the downswing has snapped. I’m pretty sure I hit it the other day…and I will say, it feels lovely. Changed it up a bit, cut down some tables (back to 9 tabling) and started running looser again (~19/16 @ FR) to really utilize my strengths. Also noticed that I changed up “how” I session, and that I have just been bookmarking wins to get some confidence back again. I’m pretty sure I am at 85% winning sessions since, and even though slightly manufactured, it stills feels good.
Something the last few weeks have taught me is the importance in protecting your mental at all times. It is so easy to get drawn into tilting, and to make your tilt behavior your standard behavior. Or even to just change your outlook and game and have your A game degrade to a constant B game. Although I have no interest in manufacturing wins long run, I think it can be important to do occasionally, especially when losing could easily over affect your mood. For instance, I have daily goals, a certain amount of money I feel I can easily make. Yesterday I hit that after 2.5hrs of work, and decided to call it quits for the day (rather than putting in my 2 night sessions)…reason being I didn’t think I would handle a loss well and the risk/reward wasn’t good enough for me. Again, these are shortrun fixes, but should still be considered if you could mess up your mental.
That being said, I am feeling quite good about things right now. Went out tonight and grabbed dinner with Tao Of Jon from 2p2. Had some good conversation about poker as a profession and life shit in general. Always nice to get some insight into other people’s lives and see how poker fits into it. Also nice not to have the standard poker player convo over dinner (how much you make, the vacations you went on, and some insanely tough hand from 2yrs ago) =)
And on that note, I’m off to sleep. Need to hit the gym and grindcore tomorrow. Hope all is well, and enjoy the new playlists!
*SS*
Manufacturing wins when you are in a -ev mindset is possibly the most +ev thing you can do for you game. It helps get your mindset back on the right track and helps create a more positive environment to grind in which as well all know is crazy +ev.
The reverse side is if you are like me and overdue it to much at times. One of my downfalls is that I like to essentially manufacture wins to often and play smaller sessions when I am in a good winning mindset and beating the game with my A game out of fear of ruining the good feeling or running bad and putting me in the -ev mindset of FML. On the opposite spectrum I tend to play longer sessions when I am losing and thus in a more -ev mindset and likely playing my C game. This creates for me playing in more -ev spots rather than playing longer in more +ev spots and thus has a – effect on my WR.
It is a fine line to keep your mindset in the right place and not give up the small edges we gain in the game for mindset purposes. Struggling with whether quiting because I am up and it will be +ev for my mindset for the upcoming sessions or playing longer to take advantage of my A game and the +ev spot I am likely in is a hard line that I struggle with all the time.
It really is a tough line to drive to say the least. But like everything in life…it’s just finding a balance that works well for you.
(And there is nothing wrong with manufacturing wins so long as you play many sessions/day =) )
*SS*
Very Very true. Finding the perfect balance is the hard part though and keeping that balance. Trying to find the middle ground of to +ev things when each other if taken to far can create a -ev for the other is a very hard mistress to tame. One in which I am still trying to track down.
The mental game??? I’ve found my Achilles heel to be playing on little to no sleep, ldo. Being on call 24/7 some days I find myself out of town after running a train all night, and being up the day before, but the desires to sling cards and improve override my senses.
Play will begin decent enough but sooner or later the 2ND best hands begin to come into play and whether it’s from being tired, spewy – or both – there is a tendency to call off on the river thinking, “No way he has such-n-such”…. and he does.
This month my volume has fallen since I’m driving out-of-town for work calls and not getting enough “good” sleep. I’m only 72% complete for the free training program.
Moving up to 50NL has put a new kink into my game. Prior, there were no problems donking sleepily at 10NL or even 25NL, but the 50NL game has me thinking I’m not too far from making some decent side money if I don’t play stupidly.
Nice entry Split. There is yet another Pooh-Bah between those lines somewhere!
no…more…pooooooohbahs!!!! =)
*SS*