lakeoffire says

I seem to have the same problem. I have a great day or two and then the following day it seems I can't win any races. I am trying to figure out exactly what's going on. Mostly getting my money in ahead, but there must be some stubborn leak I'm not recognizing.

02/15/08

EdmondDantes says

Looking forward to seeing you out in LA!

02/16/08

pfkaok says

The exercise thing I strongly agree with. I had noticed that with myself, but it wasn't until I read Gandhi's autobiography that it really clicked. he said something along the lines of: no man can ever be too busy to stick to a fastidious exercise routine.

Think of all the important things he had to do nearly everyday of his adult life. Missing out on an hour or so of playing your B-C poker-game in any given day in order to be physically and mentally healthier is IMO a no-brainer.

02/29/08

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Life has been busy lately; I've been looking for a new place to live and been bouncing around a little as a result. I've managed to play some poker; oddly enough, I've had my best sessions in late nights or hanging around other people. My worst are when I'm focused and commit to grinding. This makes me worried, because I'm obviously going to spend more time playing online when I'm by myself than with other people. I think I encounter severe tilt problems when I'm alone and hit a bad streak.

This is a huge problem because I end up dusting off tons of money after hot streaks when I put in one bad day where I shouldn't play, but do anyway, and don't make myself quit. Three times this calendar year already I've had a winning streak abruptly crushed by one terrible day.

The days where I work out and take care of myself I do well. The days I just play poker and don't have a life I do poorly. Seems like an easy correlation and one that's easy to manage. The problem is weeks like these, visiting family, by myself all the time, bored... not much to do. And you think "Oh, perfect time to put in some serious grinding hours." But it never works-- you run worse then you play worse then you press and chase losses.

There's no excuse. The money is the money. There are no mulligans for mental mistakes. You don't get part of your money refunded if you lost it on tilt. You don't get to spirit that away from your winrate.

Must play well all the time. Must get back into the form I had when I was a consistent winner. Seems like so long ago.

I've been playing tournaments more lately in preparation for the LAPC. I haven't done anything in them although I feel like I mostly played well. Just that I get unfocused and mentally tired sometimes, and I miss opportunities or screw up decisions. I'm not sure what I can do to keep myself playing at my A level as much as humanly possible.

I keep forgetting to write entries. Well-- not forgetting, per se; rather, it's more like, after I've done something in poker that merits an entry, I'm usually mentally drained and don't want to think about poker for a while. The procrastination snowballs and today I am writing the entry I meant to write after my Sunday donkaments.

BTW in the first two FTOPS events I played I got in huge, huge pots ahead and lost. Just a reinforcement that tournaments are stupid, frustrating, and arbitrary, and there's nothing you can do about that.

This probably should be edited before publication, but I decided to just write it out and deal with it later instead of hanging onto it. I'm not producing enough content by waiting until my writing is perfect. And besides, this is a blog, not the New Yorker.

Leaving for L.A. on Monday. Here's hoping for a nice tournament score, some cash success... something. Oh, and here's hoping I can finish selling that action by then.