Vent -
It is really amazing how bad things have been going playing cards. I have been very frustrated, upset, and even depressed by the situation. I am privately backed becuase I was getting training. Things started out wonderfully good and everytime I hit a score we split profits so I can pay for regular life expenses.
Now that things have gone bad; I have accrued over $1K in make-up. I feel like I am falling deeper in-debt to my backer and paying this off. It feels like I will never get a good score again. Needless to say I am angry about the situation and I am uncertain on how to approach it; except win. But when you feel the need to win it becomes that much harder to succeed. I know this stuff; but somehow I allowed myself to get sucked into the turmoil of self-doubt; lack of confidence, and a feeling the poker world is against me. This must stop and I must change.
Reflect -
This morning I couldn't decide if I wanted to play or just take a break for awhile. I took a drive and listened to my Tony Robbins tape to get back into the flow of what has made me successful 2 months ago (its beeen that long since my last blog). It is amazing how each time you listen to his words of wisdom a new topic will step up and become meaningful to your situation.
This morning he said something along the lines of:
If you're not greatful for what you have, you will be resentful for what you don't have.
I have been very 'resentful' lately. I am upset at a lot of things in real life and in my life around poker. It has made me a miserable person and surrounded me with a black cloud. The sun must come out in my life today, and I need to realize that it doesn't take winning money to find success and happiness. I need to take a step back and see what made me successful 2 months ago and start doing those things again.
Restart -
Today is the the new first day of my life. It's an opportunity for a new beginning but using the old results that made be a great player. Here is what I must do to change things.
1. Continually update my blog.
2. Edit and start writing again for my website.
3. Watch videos of my past successful tournaments.
4. Play games that I am most successful at playing.
5. Stop complaining about bad beats, and thinking negativity.
I fell off my horse and waited for someone to come pick me up. I have now realized the only person that can truely help me get through this is myself. I need to continually remember that it only takes 1 Day - 1 Tournament - 1 Time.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Anger Management
So far all of my blog posts have been goal/diary poker related. I am going to start with an update of my poker progress but I will actually get into a discussion about controlling your anger while playing poker.
Unfortunetly, I do not have much to say about my poker game. It has sorta run into a stalemate. I understand this is common, and I am happy things are staying consistent rather than a bad down-turn.
I can scratch off another goal. I have started coaching a player who currently down more than $1K playing cards. I have been working with him now for about a week and we are both seeing changes in his game. I have made some adjustments related to all-in poker and we have discussed his mental approach to the game. He needs to start taking this more seriously if he wants to be a winner. I think he is ready to take that step.
A good friend recently sent me an article which stated 'getting angry actually makes you angrier'. The state of being angry is just one form of poker tilt. It can happen very quickly, that something will be upsetting and you can become angry. This state will manifest into a higher degree and at some points you will be unable to control your emotions and it will affect your poker game.
So, how do you handle this negative state? The old thought was to let it out!! Go yell in a pillow, vent, or break something. Research has found that these approaches only increase your negative arousal. The study does not suggest we repress our anger but take a rational approach to releasing those emotions which are building inside.
A couple ideas would be to step back from the situation, take deep breaths, and regain composure. Realize that some people don't have the knowledge or insight you have about the game. Their mistakes will often benefit your play, but sometimes the outcome will be terrible. Finally, talk to your friends about the situation; maybe a different approach would have prevented the result.
Poker is a brutal activity. Staying in complete control of your emotions will be a very important aspect to becoming the absolute best person/poker player possible. If you would like to read more about this study and controlling your anger please visit my website: www.motivatedpoker.com
Unfortunetly, I do not have much to say about my poker game. It has sorta run into a stalemate. I understand this is common, and I am happy things are staying consistent rather than a bad down-turn.
I can scratch off another goal. I have started coaching a player who currently down more than $1K playing cards. I have been working with him now for about a week and we are both seeing changes in his game. I have made some adjustments related to all-in poker and we have discussed his mental approach to the game. He needs to start taking this more seriously if he wants to be a winner. I think he is ready to take that step.
A good friend recently sent me an article which stated 'getting angry actually makes you angrier'. The state of being angry is just one form of poker tilt. It can happen very quickly, that something will be upsetting and you can become angry. This state will manifest into a higher degree and at some points you will be unable to control your emotions and it will affect your poker game.
So, how do you handle this negative state? The old thought was to let it out!! Go yell in a pillow, vent, or break something. Research has found that these approaches only increase your negative arousal. The study does not suggest we repress our anger but take a rational approach to releasing those emotions which are building inside.
A couple ideas would be to step back from the situation, take deep breaths, and regain composure. Realize that some people don't have the knowledge or insight you have about the game. Their mistakes will often benefit your play, but sometimes the outcome will be terrible. Finally, talk to your friends about the situation; maybe a different approach would have prevented the result.
Poker is a brutal activity. Staying in complete control of your emotions will be a very important aspect to becoming the absolute best person/poker player possible. If you would like to read more about this study and controlling your anger please visit my website: www.motivatedpoker.com
Monday, March 30, 2009
Goal Review
About 10 days ago many of my goals started to fall into place. I am beginning to play some good poker. I think a lot of it has to do with making moves with about 15 - 20 big blinds. It is suprising how many people will give you action with so many chips. When I re-pop someone with this many chips 3 possible things can happen.
1. They fold and I take down a pretty healthy non-contested pot
2. They call and I lose; it can hurt to go out of a game with a stack so large, but its worth the risk.
3. I double up and go from 20 big blind up to 30-40 big blinds and normally in a top 20 or top 10 position.
Basically 66% of the time you will have a positive outcome. FWIW: I am bubbling a lot more tournaments which can be painfuld. So lets take at how this new strategy has effected my game and up-date my goals.
1. Win multi-tourney worth 5K. - Won a tourney worth $3k
3 10 Final tables - 3 Final tables in the past 14 days.
4. Consistently play +$50 tournies - Played 2 $50 tournies this week.
3. Obtain a "pro" coach - The coaching is going much better. I would like to talk to him more often. I am going to shoot for another coach closer to my age after this.
4. Sell out $2K BAPs (By a Piece) - I should be able to sell this out after my coaching situation is finished.
5. No Poker 1 day/week designed for training - This has been tough, neet to get better at it. This is still tough, because. I am needing to work so much.
6. Obtain 10K Staker Points - This will take awhile, no rush
7. Become more outgoing with friends - Chat talk, most days playing
8. Move up to play $26 SNGs - Not yet; playing $16.50 SNGs
9. Start helping lower limit players - I am not looking for students right now since I am focused with my game.
10. Start playing live poker - Not yet; I may go this week to play.
I also caught up with one of my good poker friends this week SluggerWV. I miss the ol' days of OT; I hope we can can continue to stay in touch. I have also started using Twitter, I don't have much to twitt - but its a good way to network.
I would like to find a person who is serious and understands websites. My site www.motivatedpoker.com is going well. I have a lot of ideas, I am just unsure of how to get the most out of this venture.
Finally, I have been putting most of my articles my site, and I had an article published by ezine-articles. I am going to write an article just for my blog, in the next couple of days.
1. They fold and I take down a pretty healthy non-contested pot
2. They call and I lose; it can hurt to go out of a game with a stack so large, but its worth the risk.
3. I double up and go from 20 big blind up to 30-40 big blinds and normally in a top 20 or top 10 position.
Basically 66% of the time you will have a positive outcome. FWIW: I am bubbling a lot more tournaments which can be painfuld. So lets take at how this new strategy has effected my game and up-date my goals.
1. Win multi-tourney worth 5K. - Won a tourney worth $3k
3 10 Final tables - 3 Final tables in the past 14 days.
4. Consistently play +$50 tournies - Played 2 $50 tournies this week.
3. Obtain a "pro" coach - The coaching is going much better. I would like to talk to him more often. I am going to shoot for another coach closer to my age after this.
4. Sell out $2K BAPs (By a Piece) - I should be able to sell this out after my coaching situation is finished.
5. No Poker 1 day/week designed for training - This has been tough, neet to get better at it. This is still tough, because. I am needing to work so much.
6. Obtain 10K Staker Points - This will take awhile, no rush
7. Become more outgoing with friends - Chat talk, most days playing
8. Move up to play $26 SNGs - Not yet; playing $16.50 SNGs
9. Start helping lower limit players - I am not looking for students right now since I am focused with my game.
10. Start playing live poker - Not yet; I may go this week to play.
I also caught up with one of my good poker friends this week SluggerWV. I miss the ol' days of OT; I hope we can can continue to stay in touch. I have also started using Twitter, I don't have much to twitt - but its a good way to network.
I would like to find a person who is serious and understands websites. My site www.motivatedpoker.com is going well. I have a lot of ideas, I am just unsure of how to get the most out of this venture.
Finally, I have been putting most of my articles my site, and I had an article published by ezine-articles. I am going to write an article just for my blog, in the next couple of days.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Woot!! It happened; winna, winna
It has been a really busy last couple of weeks. I finally got my business up and running after a delay or procrastination. I wrote for three clients this week, a total of 7 resumes. I have also been trying to prepare a website for this business, I called it gateway4work.com. Resume writing has been my bread and butter for the last 15 years. I took my break and now I am back into it; and looking for clients.
With all of this it has been a very good week. I finally won a tournament after a long, dry streak. I took down the morning $26 bounty on Full-Tilt. It was a 3K score and it was a great feeling. I truely hope and believe there are more to come. I had been playing good it was just before I couldn't win the big hand when I needed it. It finally happened with this win. I flopped a set and my opponent flopped a straight, but I filled it up on the river. weeeeee
I also had an article accepted by EzineArticles.com and here is the link to the article. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Law-of-Attraction---Poker-Style&id=2099651
The article is also posted on my home site: http://www.motivatedpoker.com/
The site is going kind of slow, but it is still really early in development. I think I am taking the right steps in making the site pretty good. If anyone has advice or wants to provide input, I would love to accept it.
With all of this it has been a very good week. I finally won a tournament after a long, dry streak. I took down the morning $26 bounty on Full-Tilt. It was a 3K score and it was a great feeling. I truely hope and believe there are more to come. I had been playing good it was just before I couldn't win the big hand when I needed it. It finally happened with this win. I flopped a set and my opponent flopped a straight, but I filled it up on the river. weeeeee
I also had an article accepted by EzineArticles.com and here is the link to the article. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Law-of-Attraction---Poker-Style&id=2099651
The article is also posted on my home site: http://www.motivatedpoker.com/
The site is going kind of slow, but it is still really early in development. I think I am taking the right steps in making the site pretty good. If anyone has advice or wants to provide input, I would love to accept it.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Stepping Back - Refocus
Poker has been getting the best of me the last 3 weeks. It has been rough making down to 30-40 places and then losing on a 50/48 proposition. When you are that close one double-up will probably put you in the top ten. But instead you leave with a $40 profit. It hurts. So, for right now I decided it would be best to get refoucused on the game.
I am still training with a mentor; however, it is not cracking up to what it should be. Maybe we just don't mesh. It could be an age difference, but he has helped. I am playing for bigger pots which has helped me get deeper into tournaments.
Right now, I am playing about 2-3 tournies a night. If I lose those, I focus on the websites www.motivatedpoker.com and www.gateway4work.com. I have also started to go back and offer my expertise in what I do best - help people with employment.
Since my focus is more on the Employment business, I am approaching poker differently. I am not overly concerned about a win, I just want to play solid poker and just see what happens. Hopefully, the cards and the business will fall into place.
I am still training with a mentor; however, it is not cracking up to what it should be. Maybe we just don't mesh. It could be an age difference, but he has helped. I am playing for bigger pots which has helped me get deeper into tournaments.
Right now, I am playing about 2-3 tournies a night. If I lose those, I focus on the websites www.motivatedpoker.com and www.gateway4work.com. I have also started to go back and offer my expertise in what I do best - help people with employment.
Since my focus is more on the Employment business, I am approaching poker differently. I am not overly concerned about a win, I just want to play solid poker and just see what happens. Hopefully, the cards and the business will fall into place.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Motivatedpoker.com
Shame on me, it has been a long time since I have updated my blog. Really, no excuse because it doesn't take long to sit down and write about things that are going on. However, I have been busy. I have completed another goal, and started my website http://www.motivatedpoker.com/.
It has been a learning process; deciding on format, content, affiliates, etc. I believe it is going in the right direction. Poker reminds me of golf. It takes a lot of patience, concentration, and confidence. I decided to not really focus on poker strategy but more along the lines of sport psychology, peak performance, and confidence. It seems like when people start to run bad, they lose confidence and that results in a different style of play.
I have been working with my coach and it has been a learning curve. The biggest thing I have noticed is that I play bigger pots. Here is an example: Middle Position raises, I re-raise with 77 and they go all in. In that past I would normally fold those hands and look for better spots. Now he has me taking chances and calling those hands in attempt to obtain a really big stack.
I think it is working, I noticed that throughout a long tournament I tend to obtain a lot of chips and then lose some chips, and gain a lot more. It is a very high variance approach to playing but at this point, I need to take some chances. February was a really bad month. My confidence was low and I didn't feel the coach was helping as much as promised. However, the past 2 weeks have been much better. We are using both Skype and Teambuilder. I am starting to see a difference, but still want that big win.
I will be taking part in a 6 part course to build self-confidence. I will track the learning curve at motivationalpoker.com. This program comes from Uncommon Knowledge. They offer this free course along with several articles that are related to self improvement. I recommend taking some time to look at it.
I will certainly begin to do a better job keeping the blog updated.
It has been a learning process; deciding on format, content, affiliates, etc. I believe it is going in the right direction. Poker reminds me of golf. It takes a lot of patience, concentration, and confidence. I decided to not really focus on poker strategy but more along the lines of sport psychology, peak performance, and confidence. It seems like when people start to run bad, they lose confidence and that results in a different style of play.
I have been working with my coach and it has been a learning curve. The biggest thing I have noticed is that I play bigger pots. Here is an example: Middle Position raises, I re-raise with 77 and they go all in. In that past I would normally fold those hands and look for better spots. Now he has me taking chances and calling those hands in attempt to obtain a really big stack.
I think it is working, I noticed that throughout a long tournament I tend to obtain a lot of chips and then lose some chips, and gain a lot more. It is a very high variance approach to playing but at this point, I need to take some chances. February was a really bad month. My confidence was low and I didn't feel the coach was helping as much as promised. However, the past 2 weeks have been much better. We are using both Skype and Teambuilder. I am starting to see a difference, but still want that big win.
I will be taking part in a 6 part course to build self-confidence. I will track the learning curve at motivationalpoker.com. This program comes from Uncommon Knowledge. They offer this free course along with several articles that are related to self improvement. I recommend taking some time to look at it.
I will certainly begin to do a better job keeping the blog updated.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Its been a bit since I last updated my blog and it has been a roller coaster ride on the virtual felt. Really, isn't that to be expected??
However, great things have happened this month and I want to discuss them to show how much progress can be made when you right down your goals. As a matter of fact, I may have to create new goals to keep me going in the right direction.
1. Win multi-tourney worth 5K. - Not yet, but v. close about 5 times. 2 Final tables, 3 top 20 finishes
2. Consistently play +$50 tournies - Not yet, February it could happen
3. Obtain a "pro" coach - It happend, just kept asking, I have a great coach. I may provide his SN later.
4. Sell out $2K BAPs (By a Piece) - I would; but my coach will privately back all of my play
5. No Poker 1 day/week designed for training - This has been tough, neet to get better at it.
6. Obtain 10K Staker Points - This will take awhile, no rush
7. Become more outgoing with friends - Chat talk, most days playing
8. Move up to play $26 SNGs - Not yet
9. Start helping lower limit players - I was asked to coach someone on their SNG play, I will receive 10% of his profits
10. Start playing live poker - Not yet
I am really thinking about starting my own website. I have a couple of great ideas that will fill the poker niche. I have a partner that is going to help me get started, and I will start writing articles for my own content.
Why get paid by the man, when you can be the man??
Great things are happening. I need to get more consistent. I will keep everyone up-to-date with my progress in being coached, and helping my new apprentice.
However, great things have happened this month and I want to discuss them to show how much progress can be made when you right down your goals. As a matter of fact, I may have to create new goals to keep me going in the right direction.
1. Win multi-tourney worth 5K. - Not yet, but v. close about 5 times. 2 Final tables, 3 top 20 finishes
2. Consistently play +$50 tournies - Not yet, February it could happen
3. Obtain a "pro" coach - It happend, just kept asking, I have a great coach. I may provide his SN later.
4. Sell out $2K BAPs (By a Piece) - I would; but my coach will privately back all of my play
5. No Poker 1 day/week designed for training - This has been tough, neet to get better at it.
6. Obtain 10K Staker Points - This will take awhile, no rush
7. Become more outgoing with friends - Chat talk, most days playing
8. Move up to play $26 SNGs - Not yet
9. Start helping lower limit players - I was asked to coach someone on their SNG play, I will receive 10% of his profits
10. Start playing live poker - Not yet
I am really thinking about starting my own website. I have a couple of great ideas that will fill the poker niche. I have a partner that is going to help me get started, and I will start writing articles for my own content.
Why get paid by the man, when you can be the man??
Great things are happening. I need to get more consistent. I will keep everyone up-to-date with my progress in being coached, and helping my new apprentice.
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