[GrunchCan]

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The big question is who has gotten past this and what did it take/how did you learn to stop doing it????


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It's called Fancy Play Syndrome, and I've gotten past this. At least, it used to be one of the biggest problems in my game as it appears to be in yours now. But I learned to recognize it, and I proved to myself mathematically why it's not the best play.

It took me a long time to break myself of FPS. But I think that for people like us, who have a inclanation to have FPS, we have to always be on guard and not let ourselves slip in to our old ways. How long is a long time? Probably 1 or 2 10k hand cycles, at least.

If you're like me, you are using fancy plays becasue you think they will get you the best result. What result is that? Maybe its the maximum profit. But for many people, it's also the percieved respect of your opponents. In either case, FPS isn't optimal. It's not optimal as far as $ earn goes, and you can prove this to yourself on paper with a calculator. It's not optimal as far as respect goes becasue of a basic poker truth: if you're playing poker to win friends or impress people, you'll never make money doing it. Poker played for $ isn't about impressing your opponents. It's about taking thier money.

Besides, if you're playing poker for $, you don't want your opponent to be impressed with you becasue they won't pay off your good hands.