Cross posted, original found: http://www.houstontexaspoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35841
Throughout my career, I've had dozens of poker friends wisely play within their bankroll, make some decent money, and then go busto a few days, weeks, or months later. What happens? I'm convinced that winning players should never go broke if they stick with good bankroll management. It seems like the problem isn't laying down ground rules for the games they play, nor actually following them. The problem is continuing to follow those rules in the long run.
There is always a defining moment when players go from obeying their rules to breaking them. It could be a small thing, like getting upset after misplaying hand and losing a medium-sized pot . It could be a big thing, such as dropping 8-buyins in a session. In reality, it really could be anything. My point is that there is a definite moment when you decide to break your bankroll management rules. The hard part is realizing what this moment is.
So, the first step to going from a short-run bankroll manager to a long-run manager is to realize when this defining moment happens, what is psychologically happening to you because of it, and what to do about it. I've been a long time advocate of separating yourself from your emotions from the poker table, simply because it clouds your judgment and forces you to make bad decisions. I think if you do find yourself losing it, its best to step away for a few hours (days if necessary) and come back. Really, being honest with yourself is the best thing you can do. If you feel like you're ready to return and do it correctly, you are the best judge of that. But be honest with yourself. If there is ever any doubt, continue to keep yourself from playing, then reevaluate yourself and go from there.
If you are not honest with yourself, and continue to play after this defining moment (or if you fail to realize this moment to begin with), then what will happen is the snowball effect. All of a sudden, your one misplayed hand leads to bigger misplayed hands in bigger pots. Before you know it, you're in the hole multiple buy-ins and trying to get back your losses by perhaps playing in a more aggressive (and higher variance/risker) manner.
Another problem of the short-run bankroll manager is that he overlooks progress and dwells on setbacks. Again, its another mental issue. It [I]is[I] frustrating to play a two-hour session and finish up $2.07. And I think the "defining moment" is right there after your session. You can either walk away with your small profit, or you can continue to play (although now frustrated).
Another example is having a great run for two weeks and not having one single losing session, only to have one small losing session and start to fret about it. Instead of being happy for nearly two weeks of good play and great results, they focus on the one bad day.
Be sure to constantly look over your goals. Reread them and focus on them. Reevaluate them and rewrite them if necessary.
I understand that most players are just casual players. Obviously this article isn't for them. If you are serious about playing poker and building up a roll however, you need to start looking at your goal as a must-keep goal, not a would-be-nice-to-keep goal.
Like with any other goal-setting, managing your bankroll is something you need to make a habit. Keep at it, and before you know it you won't even be thinking about your roll and what tournaments you should or shouldn't be playing. You would just do it, naturally. And once you get there, you never will have to worry about going busto ever again.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Some Mental Adjustments...
Cross Posted [http://www.houstontexaspoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35502]
Since I struck for nearly $1400 back on the 3rd of November, I've increased my playing pretty drastically. Things have been going really great. Not superb, but I'm happy. I've played in about 70 tournaments or so and have cashed in nearly 25% of them. It sounds nice, but I'm not crazy about this because I haven't made it back to a final table. Really, that is what its all about to me. I can't tell you how livid I get with consistent min-cashing. And I suppose the silver-lining is that I'm keeping my head above water until that next big score comes. Ultimately, it does become frustrating to make multiple deep runs and flame out. That is the nature of tournaments though and I'm at peace with that.
I've made a lot of adjustments to my game routine and wanted to share a few of my thoughts. I don't feel like its my play that has changed as much as it is my mental approach to the game... although I suppose that mentality does change the way you play.
Anyways, I find myself scribbling notes to myself on this little notepad next to me while I play. Its all just pep-talk stuff. I started it really late one night in an attempt to keep myself awake, and have kept up with it since then, even during normal hours. I just continually talk to myself in it and psyche myself up and remind myself of things that I may forget in the middle of a long session. Its short little sentences in random spurts. If you read back at them though as a paragraph, it flows together. I write in it after losing a big hand and remind myself that I'm one of the better players at the table but only if I am level-headed. I remind myself of whats at stake, money-wise. I make note of which players I feel are becoming tired of me. I tell myself to stop spewing chips if I become a spewzilla over a few hands. Just, lots of small things but I feel like it allows me to take a step back and look at my game without emotion, which really is absolutely huge in my opinion.
That is another subject I wanted to talk about. Emotion. And in particular, bad beats and the insuring tilt. What it boils down to is: there is a bad beat coming your way. That is irrefutable. The absolute only variable is how are you going to react to it? I feel like what makes bad beats so bad is that they happen so unexpectedly. They just hit you out of the blue. And, is it just me, or are we just more sensitive to losing after we've been doing well? So, I feel that if you know they're coming, you will have nothing to be pissed about. Just, always expect it. Know its going to happen, no matter how good you play. And the more you care and the better you play, the more it'll suck. But the way to overcome the ensuing tilt after a bad beat, is to assume the bad beat is inevitable in the first place.
Since I struck for nearly $1400 back on the 3rd of November, I've increased my playing pretty drastically. Things have been going really great. Not superb, but I'm happy. I've played in about 70 tournaments or so and have cashed in nearly 25% of them. It sounds nice, but I'm not crazy about this because I haven't made it back to a final table. Really, that is what its all about to me. I can't tell you how livid I get with consistent min-cashing. And I suppose the silver-lining is that I'm keeping my head above water until that next big score comes. Ultimately, it does become frustrating to make multiple deep runs and flame out. That is the nature of tournaments though and I'm at peace with that.
I've made a lot of adjustments to my game routine and wanted to share a few of my thoughts. I don't feel like its my play that has changed as much as it is my mental approach to the game... although I suppose that mentality does change the way you play.
Anyways, I find myself scribbling notes to myself on this little notepad next to me while I play. Its all just pep-talk stuff. I started it really late one night in an attempt to keep myself awake, and have kept up with it since then, even during normal hours. I just continually talk to myself in it and psyche myself up and remind myself of things that I may forget in the middle of a long session. Its short little sentences in random spurts. If you read back at them though as a paragraph, it flows together. I write in it after losing a big hand and remind myself that I'm one of the better players at the table but only if I am level-headed. I remind myself of whats at stake, money-wise. I make note of which players I feel are becoming tired of me. I tell myself to stop spewing chips if I become a spewzilla over a few hands. Just, lots of small things but I feel like it allows me to take a step back and look at my game without emotion, which really is absolutely huge in my opinion.
That is another subject I wanted to talk about. Emotion. And in particular, bad beats and the insuring tilt. What it boils down to is: there is a bad beat coming your way. That is irrefutable. The absolute only variable is how are you going to react to it? I feel like what makes bad beats so bad is that they happen so unexpectedly. They just hit you out of the blue. And, is it just me, or are we just more sensitive to losing after we've been doing well? So, I feel that if you know they're coming, you will have nothing to be pissed about. Just, always expect it. Know its going to happen, no matter how good you play. And the more you care and the better you play, the more it'll suck. But the way to overcome the ensuing tilt after a bad beat, is to assume the bad beat is inevitable in the first place.
Analyzing the word "life" in your "tournament life"
Cross-posted from [http://www.houstontexaspoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35324]
Authors Note: I didn't copy-edit this at all. Just wrote it and pasted into the browser. So, apologies for any incomplete thoughts, grammatical errors, etc that you may find.
I was playing a tournament online the other night and was facing an important decision with my tournament life on the line. After the hand, I kept repeating the phrase "tournament life" over and over to myself. I emphasized the "life" part of it, then started comparing it to actual real life and the decisions that I make for myself in the real world. In the end I feel that I reached a big breakthrough in my tournament game and came to an understanding of what it truly means to have your tournament life in jeopardy and what that is important.
Every day of our lives, we are faced with decisions... from simple to complex. We are given tto he option switch lanes on the highway or stay where we are. We have the choice between eating unhealthy at Taco Bell or cooking in. If someone wanted to, they could very well jump off of a building. Or, they couldn't. We try to make the best decisions always in our lives. In poker, we too are constantly attempting to make the best decision possible. Every street, of every hand, of every orbit, of every tournament... has a choice that we need to make. Ultimately, it is also our goal to make the best decisions possible here as well. Optimal play translates to results.
So, in the real world, good decisions may lead us to things like wealth, good education, and happiness. In poker, optimal decisions in poker lead us to large towering chip stacks, greater control over a table, and an increased chance at making money.
So what happens when you aren't playing at your best?
I guess what I realized is that I needed to start taking the word "life" in the phrase "tournament life" very literally. It sounds so serious (and I'll admit, a bit cheesy) when you give something like your tournament, life. But now, the way I look at things, tournaments *are* alive. You want to keep them alive by making the best decision possible. You want to keep them safe from marginal situations. You do the best you can for them.
And I feel like this thought process has helped me avoid those "fuck it, I don't care" moments that players sometimes get during tournaments. Its especially helped me during the "yellow zone" of tournaments, when you're hovering in the 20BB stack range and everyone else has a larger chip stack than you. Its so easy to feel like you're a lost cause at that point in tournaments. I have a friend who is obsessed with what the average stack is and is just tilted madly if he's ever under it. In my earlier playing days, I couldn't tell you how many times I punted off an entire stack just because I wasn't keeping up with average stack size or because things weren't going my way or something stupid like that. Its important to realize that there is still always play left in the game. There is still always *life* in the tournament. Treat it like you would your own life and do the best you can for it.
I know after rereading this that some parts sound suuuuuper lame and cheese-bucket. At times I guess it sounds kinda like common sense too. In closing, I just hope that maybe this helps someone realize that they shouldn't ever give up on a tournament. Realize how important it is. Especially if you're deep in a tournament. I really think its fair to say that finishing in the money 15% of the time is good in tournament poker. But from an outsider's perspective, 15% is actually pretty small percentage. So, realize that its rare to make the money, even for good players. And its rare to reach that elusive final table. But what separates the min-cashers and bubble boys from the players that consistently take tournaments down, is that the good players realize the importance of the word "life" in their tournament life at that moment.
Authors Note: I didn't copy-edit this at all. Just wrote it and pasted into the browser. So, apologies for any incomplete thoughts, grammatical errors, etc that you may find.
I was playing a tournament online the other night and was facing an important decision with my tournament life on the line. After the hand, I kept repeating the phrase "tournament life" over and over to myself. I emphasized the "life" part of it, then started comparing it to actual real life and the decisions that I make for myself in the real world. In the end I feel that I reached a big breakthrough in my tournament game and came to an understanding of what it truly means to have your tournament life in jeopardy and what that is important.
Every day of our lives, we are faced with decisions... from simple to complex. We are given tto he option switch lanes on the highway or stay where we are. We have the choice between eating unhealthy at Taco Bell or cooking in. If someone wanted to, they could very well jump off of a building. Or, they couldn't. We try to make the best decisions always in our lives. In poker, we too are constantly attempting to make the best decision possible. Every street, of every hand, of every orbit, of every tournament... has a choice that we need to make. Ultimately, it is also our goal to make the best decisions possible here as well. Optimal play translates to results.
So, in the real world, good decisions may lead us to things like wealth, good education, and happiness. In poker, optimal decisions in poker lead us to large towering chip stacks, greater control over a table, and an increased chance at making money.
So what happens when you aren't playing at your best?
I guess what I realized is that I needed to start taking the word "life" in the phrase "tournament life" very literally. It sounds so serious (and I'll admit, a bit cheesy) when you give something like your tournament, life. But now, the way I look at things, tournaments *are* alive. You want to keep them alive by making the best decision possible. You want to keep them safe from marginal situations. You do the best you can for them.
And I feel like this thought process has helped me avoid those "fuck it, I don't care" moments that players sometimes get during tournaments. Its especially helped me during the "yellow zone" of tournaments, when you're hovering in the 20BB stack range and everyone else has a larger chip stack than you. Its so easy to feel like you're a lost cause at that point in tournaments. I have a friend who is obsessed with what the average stack is and is just tilted madly if he's ever under it. In my earlier playing days, I couldn't tell you how many times I punted off an entire stack just because I wasn't keeping up with average stack size or because things weren't going my way or something stupid like that. Its important to realize that there is still always play left in the game. There is still always *life* in the tournament. Treat it like you would your own life and do the best you can for it.
I know after rereading this that some parts sound suuuuuper lame and cheese-bucket. At times I guess it sounds kinda like common sense too. In closing, I just hope that maybe this helps someone realize that they shouldn't ever give up on a tournament. Realize how important it is. Especially if you're deep in a tournament. I really think its fair to say that finishing in the money 15% of the time is good in tournament poker. But from an outsider's perspective, 15% is actually pretty small percentage. So, realize that its rare to make the money, even for good players. And its rare to reach that elusive final table. But what separates the min-cashers and bubble boys from the players that consistently take tournaments down, is that the good players realize the importance of the word "life" in their tournament life at that moment.
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