Playing Perfectly

[michw]

Well I don't. At least I don't as often as I think I should. I'm currently 4 tabling the 33's and 55's and I run a set at a time. After the set is over I log the tournies in an excel spreadsheet and jot a few notes down. If I'm elminated from a tourney due to being an idiot, that row of cells get colored orange. This gives me the ability to scan over the past days or months work to see how well I've been playing. This also gives me the opportunity to quickly review my mistakes. This month I've only played 80 tournies and 7 of these tournies are colored orange.

In order for a cell to be colored orange it has to be a mistake of the worst kind. The kind of mistake that I wouldn't even think of posting here for debate because it's so obviously wrong. This month I've flamed out in 9% of my tournies due to rookie mistakes. My idiot-flame percentage for the 2K tournies or so that I've played in is around 5%.

After playing 2K tournies and browsing this forum semi-regularly for a year I still can't believe the frequency of idiot mistakes that I sometimes make. Sometimes it's tilt, but sometimes I just seem to turn my brain off and make inexplicable decisions. The good news is that even while idiot flaming out of 5% of your tournies you can still beat the Party 33's for a good amount. But I want to beat them for even more. I've seen Poker Prophecy win %'s in the mid 40's for many players that have logged 1K plus tournies. I bet these players idiot-flame percentages are much lower than mine.

I'm just curious how well other people play out there. How often do you still make obviously bonehead plays that are directly responsible for your elmination? Does 5% seem excessive?

This month I'm going to review my orange cell count daily and pound these mistakes into my brain so they will never be made again. I'm not sure how else to go about eliminating them.

[lorinda]

I'm not sure how else to go about eliminating them.

Post them on here and ask for harshest available criticism.

Lori

Don't make mistakes that you know are mistakes. I do it too, and I've been making a huge effort to plug that stupid leak. It takes a lot of saying to yourself "Why am I doing this?" "What cards do I have" "What are my odds against these hands?" very explicitly.

[MegaBet]

I am assuming you grade an idiot-flame as a bad play that either knocks you out of a tourney or effectively knocks you out ( <100 chips ). In that case, 1 game in 20 doesn't seem horrendous to me.

[citanul]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure how else to go about eliminating them.

Post them on here and ask for harshest available criticism.

Lori

[/ QUOTE ]

Sweet!

You set em up Lori, I'll knock em down.

citanul

I absolutely feel your pain here. I'll be running along just fine, ABC'ing it (PP $22's), and all of the sudden I convince myself that I know something, and make an absolutely bonehead play.

one "self-tell" I have when doing this is that I'll start talking to the other player instead of myself internally. Instead of "what does he have, whats my next move", I start thinking "you sonofa*****, you'd better not call this, cuz Im gonna shove it all in"

recognizing that has helped me to stop it when it starts.

oh, and you may want to look into the timing of these orange tourneys: were they the first set you'd ran all day, or the 3rd in a row with no break?

after 2 sets, I'll usually take a stretch/tv break.

hope it helps

oh and lori/citanul, I think you've just convinced me to never post a hand here....


ever /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[johnnybeef]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure how else to go about eliminating them.

Post them on here and ask for harshest available criticism.

Lori

[/ QUOTE ]

Sweet!

You set em up Lori, I'll knock em down.

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

dude, cmon....you are a male who engages in pilates. how harsh can you be?

[citanul]

[ QUOTE ]
dude, cmon....you are a male who engages in pilates. how harsh can you be?

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[Deuce2High]

Nice post in general and it seems like you are pretty determined.

If I could offer you any advice it would be stick to either the 33's or the 55's because if your mixing games this might add to the confusion that lets you make stupid mistakes.

Also have a friend watch you while your 4-tabling. I find this helps me keep the pressure on in a sort of way and I push myself to try harder.

[tshort]

What did you say? I can't stop looking at your avatar.

[Irieguy]

[ QUOTE ]


i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought daliman was the gayest person on the forum. I was wrong.

Irieguy

[johnnybeef]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought daliman was the gayest person on the forum. I was wrong.

Irieguy

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm trying to come up with a response that can top this, but I'm shooting blanks.

[suited_ace]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure how else to go about eliminating them.

Post them on here and ask for harshest available criticism.

Lori

[/ QUOTE ]

Great advice. Here, follow my example (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=3400870&page=0&view=c ollapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1).

[michw]

This is an example of an idiot flame, so embarrassing. Is there a single friggin hand that I can beat? No. Did I somehow reason that my check on the turn compelled the big stack to bet a worse hand on the turn that he also called the flop bet with? Ughhhh...that's why I don't post these hands. What can someone tell me that I don't already know? I just need to stop doing it.


#Game No : 2706152190
***** Hand History for Game 2706152190 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $50 Buy-in + $5 Entry Fee Trny:15709121 Level:2 Blinds(15/30) - Tuesday, September 13, 19:49:08 EDT 2005
Table Table 14039 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 3: Bannedtim ( $855 )
Seat 4: brett66 ( $1425 )
Seat 5: Rewsky68 ( $855 )
Seat 6: apestyles_ ( $710 )
Seat 7: michw ( $900 )
Seat 8: RisingShark ( $2100 )
Seat 9: FatTony21 ( $870 )
Seat 10: thekat2 ( $2285 )
Trny:15709121 Level:2
Blinds(15/30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to michw [ Tc Th ]
brett66 folds.
Rewsky68 folds.
apestyles_ folds.
michw raises [100].
RisingShark calls [100].
FatTony21 folds.
thekat2 folds.
Bannedtim calls [70].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 3h, 6c ]
Bannedtim checks.
michw bets [200].
RisingShark calls [200].
Bannedtim folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
michw checks.
RisingShark bets [400].
michw is all-In [600]
RisingShark calls [200].
** Dealing River ** [ Kc ]
RisingShark shows [ 6s, 6d ] three of a kind, sixes.
michw shows [ Tc, Th ] a pair of tens.
RisingShark wins 1915 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, sixes.
michw finished in eighth place.
michw has left the table.

I was expecting much worse. You played it badly, but you certainly could've played worse.

That said, don't do this if you know you're making a mistake. You need to teach yourself to think about the hands objectively while you're playing. I've found that picturing them as a hand history helps a lot. Someone suggested having someone watch you play; I really like that idea.

[michw]

Thanks for all the respones and advice. No one really balked at the 5% idiot flame %, but it seems unacceptable to me. I hope to start digging a little deeper into S&G theory but would like to iron out the easy stuff first. Or maybe emotional and impulse control isn't the easy stuff, but it's something I have a problem with.

[ilya]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought daliman was the gayest person on the forum. I was wrong.

Irieguy

[/ QUOTE ]

If being gay means I get to sleep with lots of flexible chicks, sign me up.

[ilya]

My problem is identifying my mistakes in the first place. If I could just do that, I'd be f'in incredible!

[Jman28]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
dude, cmon....you are a male who engages in pilates. how harsh can you be?

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with you Cit.

I'm sure some of the guys can tell you how much of a sissy I am.

p.s. I just lost 3 all-ins in the 1 minute I was posting this

The more I play the better I control my emotions but I know where you're coming from.


If you find yourself playing too loose then pretend you are playing with your mothers pension money, I have tried this and it works for me.

Interesting idea btw that orange cell stuff, hope it helps you.

[pergesu]

I don't like this approach because I think it focuses on the negative parts of your game too much. You're highlighting all the times you screwed up...making them stand out and be more significant. That doesn't seem like a very good way to ingrain good play, in my opinion.

Instead, I think it'd be far more beneficial to highlight the tourneys you think you played exceptionally well. Be honest with yourself...you don't have to be mistake free, but critically evaluate each tourney you play. If you did a great job, enter it as orange in your spreadsheet, or whatever color makes you happy. Instead of focusing on all the times you suck, you'll strive to get as many orange cells as possible. Kinda like how if you did well on a paper in second grade, you got a gold star or whatever.

That's interesting, think I might actually start doing this.

[lem45216]

I like to write down on my spreadsheet next to each sng how i went out (or crippled my stack) so that i get it into my head that it was a mistake and that i shouldn't do it again. But in response to pergesu i agree that it can focus on negative aspects, so i also like to make little notes on what i did particularly well in certain sngs. But I think writing down your mistakes is a good way of drilling them into your head.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
dude, cmon....you are a male who engages in pilates. how harsh can you be?

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

Wuss. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

OP: I like to make stupid spirecalls with KJ only to find that the solid player actually did have AA that time.

[ QUOTE ]
What did you say? I can't stop looking at your avatar.

[/ QUOTE ]

[bluefeet]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
dude, cmon....you are a male who engages in pilates. how harsh can you be?

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm you're worst nightmare:

a 23 year old male who's unafraid to take perfectly reasonable exercize classes just because the majority of the classmates are female. additionally, i occasionally drink fancy coffee drinks. to top it all off, i drink alcoholic drinks that i like the taste of, not those that are either painful or would in some way prove my "manliness."

citanul

[/ QUOTE ]

DUDE! My daughter is a Pilates instructor at a couple gyms in town...will have to bring her to HUCII - whip the whole the group into shape (SFB excluded, without signing a waiver first of course).

[45suited]

[ QUOTE ]
My daughter is a Pilates instructor at a couple gyms in town...will have to bring her to HUCII

[/ QUOTE ]

Ummm.... you might wanna re-think that one. Oh my. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif