Re: Over the hump
I have a similar problem and play about the same level. I was very comfortable at the $200 level until I played sick one day and dropped a grand. Even though I've heard a million pros say they've gone bust over and over when starting out, I never considered myself comfortable with losing larger sums..not that anyone is, but basically this took the wind out of my sails. I took a couple weeks off to recharge the mojo, get intellectual with the game and start 'earning' my way back up via $50 buy in games. Along the way I decided to be very careful with my money. A couple of things I started thinking about: I set a goal of $25 an hour which is decent at $50 buy in no limit and still presents a challenge. I then figured that I could make that by picking up little $2-4 pots every 10 minutes or so and throw in an $8-10 pot at some point throughout the hour. Now I'm grinding out $25 an hour using my skill, but taking little risk and any big trapping pots are just a bonus..and those come once every hour or two. Grinding isn't fun, but it gets especially annoying when you piss away $50 and have to blow 2 hours grinding it back. That's my punishment for making loose/stupid calls. So essentially, it's an ego thing. Ego trumps discipline and so I re-focused my ego to reward myself for a 'detached' sort of attitude that I don't need to beat you every hand, because in the end I'll get your money. This non-chalant attitude has several benefits for people whose ego trumps their discipline - 1) You keep your essential clarity, instead of feeling the pressure after losing and then pressing. 2) you limit big losses. It's kind of like the stock market..many great traders set an absolute loss floor of say 5%. That means no matter what they feel about a stock, if it goes down 5%, they cut their losses and sell. Now if you know you'll never lose more than 5% in a stock, you just have to trust that you'll make 5% (or more) more often than you'll lose it to be a successful trader. I use that same philosophy on-line. It probably wouldn't work against a table full of live pros, but amongst the hordes of net players, it's been working fine. It's basically the long way around to getting yourself to understand that it's ok to lay down the best hand sometimes. Especially if you can't differentiate between a good read and an ego read. The right and 'almost guaranteed' winner is right the corner..why buy day old bread when fresh bread is coming out of the oven in a minute.
On a pragmatic level, when you have a moment of sharp realization and make a 'mature, disciplined' lay down - creat some sort of cue that can help get you back there. I wrote 'LASER' on a piece of paper and sat it next to my monitor. To me, this means play like a laser..sharp, decisive, ego-free decisions that cut through the fog.
Good Luck,
JobyWan
|