Emotional competence
 

Depending on what day of the week you speak to me, I'll be on the way to earning 200k+ per year within 2 years, or I'll be completely unsure of my ability to play winning poker.

This stems from individual sessions. My Friday session (my last) was break even. This, somehow, constitutes a total disaster in my mind. I don't have the confidence now that I had at 6:00 Friday evening when I sat down.

This is absurd, of course. I understand variance, and I know that having my confidence swing on such a small sample (and not THAT bad of one either) is crazy thinking. Yet, that is how I feel.

How does one combat it? Review past success? Remind yourself of these obvious facts? For me, a day break followed by a winning session usually does the trick.

But to maintain a levelhead, does it simply take time and constant reminders to yourself? Or are some people just inevitably going to suffer confidence variance?

Re: Emotional competence
 

[ QUOTE ]
I understand variance

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no you dont. learn to live it, and you will understand it. holla

Re: Emotional competence
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I understand variance

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no you dont. learn to live it, and you will understand it. holla

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't tell me what I know! Blearrrrrghhhhh!!!!

Re: Emotional competence
 

stop losing.
mix in a book, or some basic math.
if you are not comfortable, perhaps this is not the game for you. i am not trying to be a dick here, but i am suggesting that if you can't keep even tempered about this [censored], it's gonna affect your personal life and everyone involved (-ev).

Re: Emotional competence
 

It's fine to feel bad about a losing session as long as you understand on an intellectual level that it means nothing. Let your emotions run their course without letting them change your logical thinking. I've always secretly hated the cockeyed optimists of the world who give you a "the sun will come out tomorrow" every time something genuinely bad happens.

When we all started playing poker, we were results-oriented. Did I win this hand? If not, that's bad and I did something wrong. Most people get the next step soon enough. "I was a 2:1 favorite when the chips went in so even though I lost I played correctly." Your obsession with winning and losing sessions is similar, so take the next step and get over it. You're obviously a winning player.

If you have to stop playing for a day to get over a bad session, your poor mental attitude is costing you one day's EV worth of $$$. I imagine this is a lot for you.

Re: Emotional competence
 

Oy vei.

Re: Emotional competence
 

[ QUOTE ]
It's fine to feel bad about a losing session as long as you understand on an intellectual level that it means nothing. Let your emotions run their course without letting them change your logical thinking. I've always secretly hated the cockeyed optimists of the world who give you a "the sun will come out tomorrow" every time something genuinely bad happens.

When we all started playing poker, we were results-oriented. Did I win this hand? If not, that's bad and I did something wrong. Most people get the next step soon enough. "I was a 2:1 favorite when the chips went in so even though I lost I played correctly." Your obsession with winning and losing sessions is similar, so take the next step and get over it. You're obviously a winning player.

If you have to stop playing for a day to get over a bad session, your poor mental attitude is costing you one day's EV worth of $$$. I imagine this is a lot for you.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, this is a good response.

Re: Emotional competence
 

At the end of your sessions, take 15-30 minutes to review important hands or revisit close calls. If you feel you weren't making mistakes, then you should feel good about the session. If you made blatant mistakes... then you might have a reason to feel depressed about the session.

Re: Emotional competence
 

My confidence as a poker player depends on whether i truly feel I have a nice edge at the lever I play at or not.

If I play 20+2, my confidence is high, even on bad streaks over a few hundred tournies - because I've played so many 20+2s and 30+3s - with a decent ROI - that I know it will all even out in the end.

This month, however - I moved up to 50+5, and my confidence at that level is still low.

I've played almost 1000 of them already, and I'm just slightly above break-even! I know this could be variance, but it certainly is a bad sign...

During the 1000 tournies I remember doing some pretty serious mistakes about 10 times (where I made some bad calls or bad bluffs in the early levels), but that in itself doesn't explain my bad results.

I was hoping I'd be a 10% ROI player at the 55s, because if I can't make about that I'd rather drop down again and make more money.

My plan was to play about 2000 50+5s before figuring out whether it's worth it for me to play them, or if I should rather stay in the lower levels.

Now I'm close to wimping out and dropping down. Haven't decided yet.

I doubt I'm a LOSING player in the 50+5s (you never know) - but so far my results aren't very encouraging ROIwise...

Anyway, poker isn't my only source of income, but it has been the most _steady_ part of my income for a while (I do sports betting too, and that is even streakier (due to low ROI and fewer games played per month)...

I try to not let the variance of "professional gambling" affect my mood, but it's certainly harder every time I try a new strategy/limit/etc - and haven't had enough tries at it that my sample size is big enough to confirm my strategy is any good [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Emotional competence
 

I know exactly what you are talking about. Thats why I take a slightly different approach then most on here. I play to maximize my ROI. So i want the most out of every dollar I buy in for. I would rather spend an additional 5 minutes trying to make the money, than to just push and say, either i hit it and keep playing or i miss and fire up a new one. that approach may maximize your $$/hr, but it still leaves me feeling like i could have done more.

What I have found for myself is that the stats are great barometers of your play, but the only one i truly care about is winning sessions. I let the software track my ITM%, ROI, etc, but i keep an excel spreadsheet that i track all deposits, withdrawals, and my overall +/-. so, at the end of the day, i put my final bankroll into my spreadsheet and it calculates my daily win/loss. i find my satisfaction knowing i was + for the day. it is not unusual for me to have 10-15 winning days in a row. rarely do i lose 2 and almost never 3 days in a row. My cut off for the day is when i am happy with my return. lets say i set the goal for 25 sngs for the day, but after your 5th set of 4, lets say you are up 4 buy ins...i would forego the final 5 and ensure myself a winning day. document it and crack myself a beer as a reward for another positive day.

sounds like we have similar hang ups in our thinking, and i may get flamed for being too results oriented, but you gotta do what works for you. coming from a similarly minded person, i make my cut off for the day a positive one! and, if it truly doesnt matter when you stop for the day (according to everyone on here) why not make yourself happy and cut yourself off when you are up? it doesnt matter in the long run if you play the final 5 of your goal today or tomorrow...as long as you play em.