Mental Game

Well things certainly have been busy up here on Blueberry Hill. I've been thinking a lot about the mental game of poker and how that is my (and I know a lot of other people's) big weakness. I wrote in my last blog entry about how I'm really working on just playing one hour sessions right now, fully concentrating the entire time, and giving myself plenty of time for session reviews/hand postings. It certainly makes a difference when you think every decision through. It's also a big difference when you make a mistake and simply take it in stride, learn from it, talk about it, and then move on from it. That's right, I said MOVE ON from it. A big issue with me in the past is I would beat myself up for a mistake, carry it into the next session, and continue that same destructive pattern. It's a terrible way to play poker, and more importantly a terrible way to live.

I remember reading an article on Stu Ungar, and Chip Reese had a quote in there. He said that Stuey was probably the greatest no limit hold'em player around in his day, however his major flaw was the fact that he didn't understand the object of the game. And that key object of the game was that poker was supposed to make your life BETTER. That's a real key point. Why play the game if it isn't making your life better? And to be quite honest in my time playing poker, the game certainly has brought me more heartache, frustration, and anger then it has joy, peace, and happiness. And if you think about, that's pretty sick. Also, just because you are winning money at it doesn't mean it's making your life better. If you are bankroll is growing, but your family is falling apart, your health is bad, and your always in an irritable mood, then poker is NOT making your life better.

That pretty much is what brought me to this site. I have no extreme problems like I mentioned about, but I certainly have major room to improve. I really love the game and have a passion to learn and get better, and I just don't want the game to make my life worse. I want to be better off for playing poker in every area of my life. Not just financially, but mentally, emotionally and even physically as well. So by blocking off my sessions and study times the way I have, and adding some meditation in there and putting the game in perspective, I have to honestly say I've actually enjoyed poker lately and it's made my life better. So I hope that everyone out there on this site can say that they are learning and poker is really adding to their life, not subtracting. In the end, it's just a game and we have to remember why we really first got into it, because it just looked so damn fun to play. Good luck at the tables.