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Old 10-01-2005, 03:40 AM
ddubois ddubois is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 97
Default The psychology of protecting wins

I've been playing 5/10 6max for over 6 months now. I've been running very well those 6 months, but I've only played 40k hands. Part of the reason I've only gotten 40k hands in 6 months is that I have a full-time job, a long commute, and 2 small boys, all of which take up alot of time. But another, perhaps more dominant reason, is that I have two self-defeating habits:

1) I'm trepidacious to sit down, because I have lingering self-doubt about my abilites, and I worry about when I will 'hit the big one' and have my glorious pokertracker winrate crushed. Thus, I makes excuses to myself like "Oh, it's too late to start poker, I'm a bit tired, I'll play some online game instead (and stay up 4 more hours doing so)", or during the weekends "Oh, it's too distracting with the kids awake, I'll wait until nighttime", etc.
2) I frequently have sessions where I go on a small tear, win a few dozen BB, and then stop my session short, like after an hour or so. I know logically this is stupid - if you are winning, it's the worst time to quit, because you probably a) are playing well, b) have good table image, c) are at a profitable table. But I let one table breaking up, or a bathroom break, or the munchies, be an excuse to stop.

It would seem the answer would be "Man up. Sit and stay until you hit some goal number of hands.", but I've always had very poor self-discipline in school, in work, etc. Is there any other advice someone can give me to counter this problem? I fele like my growth as a poker player is stunted by my inability to acquire more experience/hands, more confidence, and more bankroll, and I don't want to be stuck at 5/10 forever.
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