Discipline vs. Skill

While I was engaged in one of my favorite past times the other night, throwing chips, I was for some reason more alert to my swing. I played an eight hour session of 6-12 HE with a full kill.


After three hours of play I was up a comfortable $320 plus/minus and I was considering going home early but the game was good and besides I don’t get a kitchen pass all that often to play poker. At the end of about six hours I was down a disgusting $150 exactly. At the end of the session I walked away $220 winner. I was thinking that I should have left after three hours with about $80 to $90 more.


Anyway, during the losing period I had a string of raggedy cards and two costly hands where I lost a strong hand to a better hand. During the hour drive home I was going over my play and concluded that the number of bad plays I made were about equal to my really good skilled plays. The remainder of the time I simply was very patient and poised waiting for the right cards to play in the correct position and showed the best hand. I felt that my patience was why I left an eventual winner.


I started thinking about how being patient (disciplined) interacts with skill and whether a highly skilled player with marginal discipline would have an edge over a good to very good player with excellent discipline.


I think that a lot of us in the early stages of learning and studying the game (as I am now) might fall into the “good and disciplined” category. I feel that excellent discipline can be developed quickly but that a thorough understanding of the game and it’s complexities takes much more time and experience.


All comments and thoughts are welcome.


RL