Poker Routine

[Rushmore]

Every morning, I wake up, stumble into the kitchen, and put coffee on. Then I turn on the news, and get on the internet for a half hour while I drink my coffee. Then I work out for about 15 minutes, mostly for the aerobic benefit.

Then I take a shower and I start playing poker.

From time to time, when I'm drinking my coffee, reading Drudge, 2+2, Foxnews, and CNN, I'll stick my head in at UB or Stars, to see what the lineups look like for the bigger games. Sometimes, the games look GREAT, and I jump in, regardless of the fact that I haven't gone through my morning routine.

Here's the important part:

I nearly ALWAYS fare worse when I haven't gone through my regular morning routine. I always chalk it up to coincidence, for the sake of convenience, and so that I might be able to continue to play whenever the spirit moves me.

I have decided that this is not prudent.

There MUST be some valid reason why my results suffer when I do this, inspite of the fact that I only do it when the lineup looks good.

Therefore, I have decided to abide by my routine.

I am only posting this because it occurs to me that it took me a fairly long time to make this resolution, and there are likely plenty of players making the same mistake.

Hope I save you some suffering.

[private joker]

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... reading Drudge, ... Foxnews,

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Hope I save you some suffering.

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I agree that a routine can be helpful, especially when it allows you to focus more on the task at hand because you've trained your brain to respond to the same stimuli.

But to me, reading Drudge and Fox News *is* suffering. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Rushmore]

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But to me, reading Drudge and Fox News *is* suffering.

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I knew I'd never slide that by.

[sfer]

I read somewhere that listening to Ladies Love Cool James will virtually guarantee a winning session.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I read somewhere that listening to Ladies Love Cool James will virtually guarantee a winning session.

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I didn't mean my post from a superstitious perspective--I'm anything but superstitious.

What I meant was that just maybe the human brain doesn't function optimally when you take it (and the rest of the body) out of its routine.

[Pov]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I read somewhere that listening to Ladies Love Cool James will virtually guarantee a winning session.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mean my post from a superstitious perspective--I'm anything but superstitious.

What I meant was that just maybe the human brain doesn't function optimally when you take it (and the rest of the body) out of its routine.

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Purely because I'm from a physics background I have to question your correlation . . . do you think your results suffer because you've failed to follow your routine or because your assessment of the "lineup" is flawed?

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Purely because I'm from a physics background I have to question your correlation . . . do you think your results suffer because you've failed to follow your routine or because your assessment of the "lineup" is flawed?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's definitely not my assessment of the lineup. I keep copious notes, and have played against all of these guys a LOT. I match up really well against some, not as well against others. Standard fare.

My implied theory is that my physiological performance somehow suffers when I do not achieve my entire routine before beginning to play.

Liken it to not warming a car up on a cold day. It's just no damned good for the car, and the car doesn't perform as well.

I'm surprised this doesn't sound like a reasonable theory.

[twomarks]

Well, I get out of bed, stumble to the kitchen, and pour myself a cup of ambition - nevermind - that's something else.

There actually is A LOT of validity to your getting into a routine. Read any serious golfing book with a contribution from winning golfers and you'll more than likely get some information on what their routines are.

Basically, it starts the night before - go to bed at a set time, wake up at a set time, get the same type of caloric intake at breakfast, same pre-game warm up, etc. It gets your body and mind working together without having to overanalyze things. The same way the professional golfers have a pre-shot and pre-putt routine - they take in all information, get the line, then go into the routine so they don't analyze/paralize themselves.

This is done even on a micro-level. If you watch, in presure situations, if they are starting to feel tight or anxious, they will do something so simple just to get their motor skills back on track. They do this by putting chapstick on, or twirlling the golf club in thier hands - anything to get themselves out of thier own way so they can concentrate on what's most important.

Thanks for the great post to remind us how translatable a lot of these things are.

Regards,

twomarks

[Pov]

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I'm surprised this doesn't sound like a reasonable theory.

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I think it's very reasonable. For some reason I just couldn't go on when you phrased your situation with two variables and only attempted to causally link one of them. I've read your posts before and I was quite sure you were assessing your games correctly, but the old scientific method just wouldn't let go. And you never know, sometimes answers hide in unexpected places that were realistically overlooked.

So moving on, have you been able to determine what it is that is different about your game when you don't go through your routine? Are you impatient, overly aggressive, your judgement on opponents' thinking is off, etc.? I'm just wondering if you can isolate it or if it's just a general malaise.

Also, I would be lead to wonder if there was some component of your routine which was responsible for your good starts or if it was simply having one. If your routine was simply to jump into a game, would you adjust over time or is it actually something about what you're doing? Then maybe you could find an optimal routine if you could isolate the factors that got you in the zone on average.

[Screwtape]

I think going through your routine is a valid concern, I think it helps you to approach your session with more seriousness and as if it were a real job. Can you imagine a job where you could peform optimaly after just rolling out of the bed?