New to you, Dealing with the fear.....

[Tdiggity]

New to sites like this, united forum etc... Not even sure I'll get a response. I own about 7-8 poker books covering various topics and consider myself a decent player. I play the mtts, sng's, cash holdems and 7 card stud. In short I've had some ups and downs but have won two large mtt's and made a decent share of final tables over the past 6-8 months. During the time frame I've netted about $1500 a month (signficant for me- not sure what level most play here.)

My question or comment is this. Recently I've spent some time reading the comments - arguments - discussions that you guys and gals have here. And have come to 2 conclusions.

1) I still don't know jack sh** about poker. lol.

2) My play has suffered greatly over the last couple of weeks because of the "fear"

I think of it a little like living in a house with a big plush rug with not many worries (Playing poker on Party & other sites with many weak players and doing well). One day the rug is taken away and you see all these damn bugs running around and it totally destroys your mood in the home and you are all jumpy (sorry for being so abstract) and all over the place. The bugs were ALWAYS there. You just didnt know it and it allowed you to live comfortably without thought. I really didnt realize that there were this many people that thought THIS deeply and truly understood ALL the math in given situations.

I am not naive. I understand the skill level of the named and unnamed pros and when they "go into the tank" what that entails. I understand I can just continue to improve my game, this forum being part of it. I also understand a couple weeks is not a long time, but I am not chalking it up as runs of bad cards. I am different. Think differently and sometimes it gets me into trouble.

In the meantime of self improvement anybody have suggestions or comments on dealing with my "Not clear pin pointed problem, issue of feeling like every potential player is a 2 + 2 memeber??? Or am I just a whack job? lol

[Potowame]

If you are fearful off losing, this mostly is caused from playing outside of your bankroll.

You must have total confidence in your reads, and go with it. If you are wrong, than review the hand to see your mistake that you made. If I find myself Fearing another player at the table(not very often), for his better play I try to stay out of pots with them unless I feel good about how far ahead I am in the hand. Not that harf to do if he is to your right but sux when they call all your raises to the left.

[Spidurman]

At risk of sounding overly obvious - no fear allowed. I know I am not a perfect player, but I believe I am better than those I face (for a variety of reasons that don't matter here).

The big secret about poker is that nobody knows everything. Even elite pros such as Brunson, Reese, and Greenstein (and every single other player) do not have all the answers. Poker is a game of imperfect knowledge and imperfect information - you have to get comfortable mentally with that if you want to succeed.

[jacks321]

I definitely know how you feel. When I started realizing that there was more to the game than guesswork and luck, I went on a bit of a losing streak while adjusting to all this new information I was taking in. Just keep at it, and realize that just by reading these forums and reading any kind of books on the subject, you've already got a leg up on a good portion of the competition.

[Percula]

This is just the natural part of learning and mastering any skill be it poker or darts or chess. Most games have a fairly easy to "master" concept of the game, poker win the pot, darts hit the spots you need, chess take the right piece to take the king out, etc, etc.

The reality of it that any skill based game requires a very detailed in an depth knowledge to truely master it. When you first start playing your are not aware of many of these details and as a result they never cross your mind. But as you learn and more importantly understand more the more you will think about these things and it is just human nature to feel overwhemled and somewhat fearful.

You should be more worried if you were not fearful at some stage of trying to master a new skill, i.e. you are not a thinking learning player and are likely not headed for mastery of the skill.

BTW, it is great to be fearful before a game, very -EV to be fearful during a game. /images/graemlins/wink.gif