when your not at your best

[QUAHOGMAN]

What do people do if your not playing at your best? The other night, it was after putting kids to bed and paying bills, so I was a bit tired. I only get a couple of chances to play a week, so I didn't want to miss my opportunity. But I was crap, misreading the board and other mistakes. Does anyone have any tips on this or should I just not play?

[flair1239]

[ QUOTE ]
What do people do if your not playing at your best? The other night, it was after putting kids to bed and paying bills, so I was a bit tired. I only get a couple of chances to play a week, so I didn't want to miss my opportunity. But I was crap, misreading the board and other mistakes. Does anyone have any tips on this or should I just not play?

[/ QUOTE ]

I play less than my A-game frequently. Or at least start a session in that mode.

I have a two year old and my GF has a couple kids. So yeah after working and getting the kids to bed I am frequently tired.

The important thing is to acknowledge how you are feeling and make an extra mental effort to focus more on each indivdule decision. I find talking to myself out loud about why I am doing something helps me catch many stray errors.

If you can't pull it together, there is no shame in cutting it short.

[felix83]

Might be better suited for the Psychology forum, and you might get some better replies.

To answer your question, I don't think there's any specific time of day or week when you can say you always play your best or worst. The best thing you can do is to be sensitive to it (which you seem to be) and just stop as early as possible in those cases.

[QUAHOGMAN]

Your probably right, I'll send it over there now.