How do you stay on your A Game?

[Mercman572]

Today my game slipped without me noticing it. I posted a bunch of hands, and they are all marginal situations that probably all should have been folds. If I was playing yesterday they likely all would have been, and I would have taken closer to optimal lines as well.

My question is, how can I realize alot faster that I'm off my game? I'm not talking about the tilt that is obvious, more when you coax yourself into calling when it's close ("he probably has a strong ace and my Ax 2 pair is good," when you should just accept that he probably has a set and fold for example). It seems like it takes a few big hits for me to realize I'm doing this and today it cost me 4 buyins when it was all said and done. If I had more discipline it should have been maybe 1.5. Advice and suggestions? How do you stay on your A game, or at least how do you know to get away when you're a bit off of it?

My own advice to myself and others that do this from my experience today is to avoid calls against pressure when you've lost a large pot previously. My reasoning is that you're more likely to subconsciously want to make up for it and make a bad decision, or your big pot loss may have been on a marginally bad decision itself and suggest that you aren't paying enough attention to your play.

T.J. Coultier Says that staying on your A game all the time is the most difficult part of winning poker. And its something that i am trying to improve as well. Here's something i have been playing around with...

So rash people don't ask themselves if there being rash while there in the act, they just do it. And if they stop to take a moment to just ask themselves, they might not act so rash as often. So what i have been trying to do is a for a self theropy psychology called "self monitoring". Tradtionally, its used for people with drug problems. Every time they get high, they write it down, and why they did it. They can then look back at it in retrospect for a very 20/20 hindsight perspective of what there drug habits really are. So i try to adopt this to poker.

When every i win a few big pots, lose a few big pots, or just every half hour or so, i ask myself something; are you playing well? how would you rate yourself for the last half hour? (b-, a, c+ ect.) Are you losing/winning because your playing badly or is it just some form of luck involved?

Just the act of me asking myself these questions helps me a bit from slipping up, and letting Bad beats go when im playing fine. I hope this helps a little, good luck

[Ghazban]

Nobody with a good A game stays on their A game all the time. If your B game and C game (and D, E, etc.) are profitable, you will still be +EV at the table. If you can only beat a given game when you are playing your absolute best, it probably should not be your main game.

To identify when things are off, you need to figure out what about your game is most likely to slip and be vigilant in looking for instances of it. For example, if your leak is that you call too much when your game is off, you should reexamine every call you make in the game to ensure its made for sound reasons and not because you're getting lazy and just want to see what the guy has.

[Mercman572]

Nice post, my actual case is that I expand the reasonable hand range that an opponent is making a large raise for. So when I slip, it's costly. I have a more difficult time letting go of 1 pair hands and 2 pair hands when I am getting played back at. So for big decisions when I'm not confident in my play at the time I should probably lean toward weaktight. I think I also start completing more from the SB and try to steal more on the button in LP preflop

[guaranteedBluff]

Two things I do to psychologically "trick" myself during a session are always reload when I'm under 90BB and never check my overall cash. This way, I don't get into the "I need to make up the money" mode - rather, I focus on hand by hand quality.

[Morrek]

[ QUOTE ]
Two things I do to psychologically "trick" myself during a session are always reload when I'm under 90BB and never check my overall cash. This way, I don't get into the "I need to make up the money" mode - rather, I focus on hand by hand quality.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I just started doing this today aswell, is working good so far, except I reload when below 98.5bb's :P

Other things I do is just generally try to eat/sleep/drink enough so I won't be in strong need of any of those standard things... And also I kinda feel, either before I play or after a few hands if I'm "alert" today or not, kinda hard to describe I guess but works for me.

You can't always stay on your A game. For me I know I'm off when I start playing weak tight or if I start steaming. I also know I'm off if I start limping in early or mid position with marginal hands... hands I normally fold.

I also know it if I start making bad bluffs, weak calls... etc.

I can tell it from how I feel. I just sign off and say [censored] it. I worked hard to build my stack to what it is, I don't want to piss it away because I'm tired, impatient, stupid, stubberon, or steaming.