[Bob T.]

Ok, these posts point out a big part of the problem.

You aren't even letting the trees obscure the forest. You are letting the bark get in the way.

November was a very good month for me, assuming I don't crash and burn in the last 36 hours. This weekend, I entered my data into statking.

I didn't win every day. In fact, in the middle of the month, I had a $992 downswing. What did I do during the downswing? I sat down at my computer, and put in my hands each day. Then what happeneed, toward the end of the month, I ran really good. So what did I do? I sat down at my computer, and put in my hands for those days too. I didn't think about the previous day, or my life to date total. I sat down, and ground out the hands that I was going to play every day.

In fact, during the part of the month that I ran very good in, I didn't win every day. And I certainly didn't win every table I opened. You have to be able to deal with losing. It comes with the game.

You said a couple posts up the thread that you had smart parents, and that you were fortunate enough to inherit some of that from them. You are making a bad assumption. Success at poker isn't just about being smart, it is also about being under emotional control. (You probably know some successful poker players who couldn't do what you do acedemically.) Do you throw big bets away, when you can't believe the joesuckout has done it to you again? 'I just have to see what he played this time.' Do you think if I win this hand, then I will be even, or up 50, or some other artificial goal, and then play the hand, regardless of what clues your opponents might be giving you that you are behind?

Here is my recommendation. There is a book by Larry Phillips, called 'Zen and the Art of Poker'. Pick it up, and read a little bit each day. Work on playing your 'A' game all the time. I coach soccer, and what I tell my players, is that I want them to work on the process, and don't worry about the product. Remember that -'PROCESS, Not PRODUCT.' If you keep making good decisions at the table, eventually, but not immediately, you will have a big stack of chips. If instead, you try and work on having a big stack of chips, you will probably make enough bad decisions along the way, that you won't.

Another book that I recommend is 'Go Rin No Sho' or 'The Book of Five Rings' by Miyamoto Musashi. It is a swordfighting text from the 17th century. You should be able to find a translation in either the business section or self improvement section of a major bookstore. It talks playing within yourself and about adapting a style that is --- no style. Instead, you always want to play the optimal style against each particular opponent. To make it simple, in Roshambo which is stronger, rock, paper, or scissors? Obviously, none of them, it depends on what your opponenent has. Playing the same way against all of your opponents isn't going to get the money. There is a time to be aggressive, a time to be passive. A time to be tight, and a time to loosen up. Even being a fricken calling station can be right occasionally.

Don't just see 20% of the flops and say I must be playing right because my statistics are right. See the right 20% of the flops, and enter the pot the right way for the current situation. I probably have similar statistics to you, but at the same time, I probably have a wider range of hands that I fold, call, and raise with. I know that this morning, at one point in time, I held the exact same two cards, in the same position on the table, on two different tables, and I laughed to myself as I raised on one table and mucked on the other. The game dynamics were very different, and in one case, I needed to raise, and in the other, the hand was unplayable. But they looked the same.

Hope this helped.
Bob T.