November 13, 2006

I have decided to try to stick to a much more regimented approach to poker. Let me rephrase – I am going to try to stick to a more regimented approach to poker. The days of my cavalier attitude towards it are over – I have been humbled. Last night, I thought, “Hey, I am not going to drink a beer or two or three for that matter and play poker.” I usually come home from work, after fighting traffic, crack a beer, maybe eat and fire up some tables. That just didn’t seem to work lately, especially with my game being off. So, I have come up with a new approach.

- I am not gonna drink anymore before or while I play.
- There are some online games, not pac-man/video game style games, but these are puzzle games. It’s odd, but when I play them before playing poker, my results at the tables often mimic the results on these games. I think it is a FREE look at my mental focus.
- I will continue to play when I am winning
- I will stop when I am losing

I am excited because all I am requesting of myself is some discipline. If this poker thing is ever going to be something that I do long term, a work-style approach is necessary.

I realized this was necessary because there was just too much variance in my play from one night to another. At the last few jobs I have had, we could crack a beer on Friday afternoon and unwind. A few times, we would crack a beer and realize we had a little more work to do. I would really struggle to find the focus once I started to drink…EUREKA! The reoccurring theme I have is FOCUS and DISCIPLINE. I am making baby steps, but at least I am making progress.

In trying to maintain discipline, I am not going to be playing tonight because I am pretty tired and it is only 7:30 and I havent eaten yet. So, I will just have a little wine, eat dinner and watch monday night football and hit the sack pretty early. Hopefully I will have more energy tomorrow night. Honestly, I think I could play, but i would like to put together some winning sessions and get some momentum going. I used to have maybe one losing session a week...so that is where I would like to get back to.