good article on tilt and zen

[Blink20 0]

There's this really good article on tilting, as well as helping to change your perspective of the game and to understand the conditions that take place that make us tilt.Here's the link, and some good passages from the article.I put in bold some really good lines:http://teamfu.freeshell.org/poker/stay_off_tilt.html

To deal with #4 - you need to toss out the window your expectations of being rewarded in poker. You need to realize that there is no guarantee of being rewarded when you do things correctly in poker. Lose that mental hump you have where you are actually expecting something for doing things the right way. It doesn't happen in poker. So dig deep... and go back to that inner child in you where you were rewarded a cookie by your teacher for reciting the entire alphabet in front of the class. Now replace that cookie with a solid smack to the head. That's poker. Get it?

So some things you should ask yourself about each 'bad beat' you have should be:Did I completely count how many outs my opponent had?  Did I make it incorrect pot odds for him to call?  Did I try to bluff out a calling station?  Was this really a bad beat?

It's a different mentality than the average player, because the top players always put the blame to themselves first, rather than their opponent. The reason they do this is because you can't improve on yourself if you're not willing to admit fault first.

[HoosierAlum 0]

That was a really good article. Something that I have learned to do throughout my poker playing days is to always blame myself first. Look at everything I did during that hand, and what I could have done differently to get a better result. There are certain times you did everything perfectly, but more often than not, you made a mistake that could have saved/gained you alot of chips. (This is especially true in NL)Whenever I sit down to play, I attempt to play the "Perfect" session. If I'm playing limit I try to gain every possible bet and never bleed off 1 bet. In no limit I try to extract every single chip I possibly can, and never lose 1 chip when it is incorrect. Of course, this will never happen in my entire lifetime, as it is impossible to play the perfect session.The great thing about poker is that you are constantly learning. If you leave a session and did not learn anything, you aren't analyzing your play deep enough. I write down key hands I win and lose, in order to either reinforce the good move I made, or learn from my mistake on the loss. When I do this live I get called a "tool", but I don't care. This "tool" is learning and improving his game. I also think it is extremely important to analyze your session for at least 15 minutes after you are finished playing. It has helped my game immensely.I might have to pick up that "Zen and Poker" book. Has anyone read it? Again, good ariticle.

[custom36 4]

Very interesting. Good read. Thanks.

[Blink20 0]

I agree. Hopefully I will put the advice in the column to use. I have had a couple sessions recently in which I tilted like crazy. I really like the advice, especially looking back on the "bad beat" and tyring to figure out different approaches to the hand, rather than being upset about the beat. I've already known not to get mad for them outdrawing, you should be glad that you got your money in with the best of it, but I like the advice to really study the hand, that should help clear the emotions.And ofcoures, this line...

Now replace that cookie with a solid smack to the head. That's poker. Get it?