I need to update more....
So the big incident happened a few days ago. many of you guys knew. yes it was very unfortunate, but you just gota take responsibilities for your own actions and believe me as I say this, that I haven't been feeling so good in the past few days...
needless to say it was a lot of money lost but where you fall down is where you stand up. i'm going to stand up and become even stronger. i'm just going to learn from this and become even better
i've just been thinking about the mental aspect of the game a lot lately. I think good mentality and personal discipline/emotional control is SOOOO key in succeeding in poker. I cannot begin to stress how important it is. to an extent i think it might even be more important than being ridiculously good at hand reading. take 2 for example:
stu ungar: arguably the best poker player ever lived. he was great, he could read hands like they were open books, he won a ton of money from poker.....then what? blow it all on drugs and table games?
good solid tag: obv not the best player in the game. not even close. but he understands the game, play it well, and has tremendous discipline, mental toughness, no tilt, does not play house games and does not do drugs. result: much steadier results =$$ and probably a happier life
my point is that you do not need to be the best hand reader in the world to become a winning player in poker. simply put, if you can understand the game well and play accordingly and not let your emotions carry you away, you're already way ahead of the pack. lets take basketball as an example. kwame brown. one of the most hyped players coming out of high school. had jordan sweatin him like he's the next shaq. this kids got size, talent, youth but what does he lack??! mental toughness and work ethic.....result? huge disappointment....
how about ben wallace? how about brad miller? each of them undrafted coming out of college. they did not have nearly as enough talents as kwame combined, but they work hard, have mental toughness and both are much more successful than kwame right now
i'm not here to brag or whatever, but i think i can read hands better than most people. i think my understanding for the fundamentals of the game is solid but it can improve but i think i lack emotional control, i lack discipline. i'm not going to lie. that's my biggest weakness and i know it. so i'm really trying to work on it. i think if i can overcome that, i'll be well on my way.....
some of the stuff i want to be doing:
1. 5 buy in stop loss (hard stop loss no exceptions) for the day
2. obviously no house games or chasing losses/ playing higher stakes etc
3. if i lose a cooler hand or make a bad play, take a moment to re evluate my mental state. if not so good, walk away.
4. really start to focus and not rush things
5. don't take winnings for granted
6. treat money like money outside of poker