I need a good brainwashing

[Turk]

I am trying to climb out of a huge hole of 30+ buy in drop in the $22's and $11's so I want to post some hands in an effort to stop the bleeding and get back on track.
I took some time off and have been going through my hh's and reading the boards here.
Variance can be a real bitch is what everyone says... lol after a bit of broken furniture & a few bad beat sore throats I can offer no argument to this statement.
I really want to continue to play this game, what I mean is I really want to play this game well, with a certain degree of success...and profit of course, but for now I guess I would like to begin with survival.
One of the things that seems apparent to me is that the truly good players here at 2+2 have found a way to think about the game and it's situations that is completely different from the mediocre or poor players, and that this change in thinking must occur before any kind of lasting stability bankroll-wise, or otherwise can happen.

I would be interested to hear suggestions or personal experiences regarding how your thinking may have shifted if at all, and how this may have effected your game & your level of success.

[Shilly]

This might be what you're looking for.


Almost There with Success and Failure

[holdem2000]

If that's not enough for you try Alan Schoonmaker's book The Pscyhology of Poker... it's fairly low content besides common sense, but helps reinforce a good mindset to be playing in.

[Blarg]

Well, I'm just a beginner, but from what I've figured out of the 2+2 way, I haven't become hugely profitable, but went from a losing player who never, ever, ever got any 1sts (but actually got a decent amount of 2nds and 3rds) to someone who feels pretty decent when it's down to two or three players rather than dreading it, and is now making money.

There have been a number of changes in my game, and I'm still pretty sketchy and need a very great deal more refinement and understanding, but maybe I could put it like, for me, the main change has been recognizing that I have to create profitable opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to me. I've realized that it does no good simply to know how to play the cards you're not getting. Now I know I have to constantly be handling fairly crummy cards, under poor circumstances, decently too.

This reminds me a bit of short-handed limit ring games, which I used to play, except that lowering your raising/calling/betting standards and exercising a lot of controlled aggression is not just the best option; in SNG's it's the only option there is if you don't want to get blinded out.

Which doesn't happen to me as much anymore, as I'm much more often picking fights and either winning or losing them than just drifting off into nothingness.

I'm still very insecure with my level of sklll, and that's fine, because I have good reason to be. But I'm starting to make some headway, which I feel good about.

If you can find that link post created by "the shadow," you'll have a great SNG resource to look through. Good luck with your study.

And 30 buy-ins isn't super terrible; it's just a couple of days worth of games or even less for a great many people. Hopefully you're keeping a cool head.

[The once and future king]

The first time variance stomped on my gonads with all the power it could muster I reacted very badly. It cost me alot. However it was allways going to cost me, it was an inevitable part of my poker education.

The main reason is that through all my poker career upto that point I hadnt ever realy lost. I went 18 months without the dark side of variance making a substantial appearence. I had moved form the tens upto the 100s and had never had close to a losing month. So when eventualy I did have close to a losing month I was what the feck is this. I whent on a magor tilt. Then thanks to tilt I acctualy had a losing month. I was totaly stunned, and was in a state of shock.

However upto this point I had been slopy in my approach to poker. I hadnt felt any need to be otherwise as the $$$$$$$$ were pooring in so if it aint broke why fix it. Problem was that of course it was broke.

The gonad stomping made me realise for the first time that Poker is a tough hard master and I had better make the neccesary adjustments to deal with that fact.

I think the only way forward it is to put your gonads out there (play LOTS of poker) and with each stompng your gonads become more resilient to said stompings as they realize that said stompings are just part of the cycle of profit.

I mean: yea you are curently down x buy ins at the moment but how many buy ins are you up over your poker career. A number far far exceeding x buyin drop I would iamgine.

[AbelM]

My own emotional control improved significantly as soon as i started to keep accurate records of all my results. First i had no idea how much money i was making and a downswing of $2000 on one day actually felt like losing $2000. Now i just fill in the results and look at my ROI and stuff like that, and it feels more like: even though today i won X or lost Y, i'm making Z$ on average. It's easier to see the big picture and for some reason it works quite good to accept the variance.

Nevertheless the doubt and uncertainty whether you are playing like [censored] or are having a bad run are really really bad. Of course the way to handle it is to try and look at your hands in an objective manner and to not judge your pokerskills by short term result, but this is easier said then done.

A while ago i interviewed Rob Hollink (Winner of the EPT final in Monte Carlo and 5th at the WPT finale at the bellagio). He told me that to be a long time winning poker player you have got to be very very confident, otherwise there is no way you are gonna make it.

[byronkincaid]

I read somewhere that Rob is/was a regular $200 PP sng player. Do you know if that's true and if so do you know his username?

[AbelM]

I don't know his username, but i do know that he played quite some 200+15 SNG's and later the Step 5 tourneys on party. He is now focusing on limit play, cause he's quite convinced that's where the money is to be made online.

The interview i did with him is in dutch, but i might translate it if people are interested?

[byronkincaid]

I'd be interested in reading it but you'll get more interest when the Bellagio WPT is shown on TV.