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teaulc

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    Stop Complaining - It`s Killing Your Poker Game

    in Poker

    Posted

    I'm writing this column in the spirit of a 12-stepper. You know, the 12 steps that a recovering alcoholic takes on the road to long-term sobriety. I'll start with the first stride in any "long, tortured journey": confession. I am a reformed complainer (well, almost reformed). I used to whimper with the best of them. I would beat my breast, and scream to the heavens about the awful and rotten things that happened to me at the poker tables. "Sir," someone once said to me (with an evil smile), "would you like a little cheese to go with your whine?" Two hours of just sitting there feeling the calluses form on my butt and I would start flashing my 8-3 and J-2 to the guy on my right just to try to garner a little sympathy. Two more hours and I'd be muttering about any hand that I didn't win. Two more hours and, well, I'd be toast and down to the felt. Leak? Me? It began to change about three or four years ago (these things take time, you know). A good buddy who has played professionally for years pulled me aside one day and said, "You know, prof (he called me that and some still do), you got a huge leak in your game." "What?" said I, "Leak? Me? Moi?" After I put my head down for the obligatory 10 seconds while I tried not to say anything really nasty or provocative, I looked up, humbly, and asked him what it was. CroppedImage180320-3352-Phil-Hellmuth.jpg Imagine how many bracelets if he didn't pout? "Bitching," he said. "You have got to stop complaining so damn much. "It's killing your game." Being a reasonably good poker player, I knew when I was beat so I stopped being defensive and took my friend over to the local watering hole where I bought beers for the next couple of hours. And, being a good psychologist, I listened carefully and accepted the truth when it was laid out. Here's what my buddy explained: 1. When You Complain You Shift Your Focus Away from the Game It's distracting and you pay less attention to the elements of the game that need it. If you're showing your 503rd muckable hand to the fellow on your right, you're not noticing that the guy two seats to your left is making oversized raises pre-flop and that he's been doing it for some time now. You really, really need to know this 'cause it's a key factor in determining what kind of hand you need and what you're going to do with it when you finally decide to enter a pot. 2. When You're Bitching Out Loud, It Becomes a Public Display Now, lots of displays of this kind are seen at poker tables, but few are as financially debilitating as whingeing (as the Brits say). The other players at the table notice it and begin to target you. When they do, you become grist for their mills. Astute players will begin taking advantage of your state. They will begin to play more aggressively against you, particularly on draw-heavy boards. CroppedImage180320-allen-kessler-30186.jpg Your table image goes in the toilet. Since you have put yourself in one of those "everything sucks" modes, you will tend to believe that they have hit their draws when they bet on these hands and you'll end up dumping the winner. They will also play more tentative hands like 7-5s or Q-4s, knowing that if they do get lucky it will have a greater impact on you than on another player. The expected value of these marginal hands is increased when played against you and, as a result, you invite opponents to make moves against you. 3. By Focusing All Your Energy on the Rotten Hands You're Dealt, You Fail to Recognize That Some of Them Actually Have Value in Some Situations If you're playing mid-stakes NLHE (my usual game) you've got to occasionally play hands like 9-7 in late position or open a pot with a raise in early position with 5-5. But if you're investing all your psychological energy in bitching about how you keep getting dealt hands like 9-7, you're going to miss out on situations with long-term positive EV. 4. Your Table Image Goes into the Toilet You look like an amateur and any weakness in your game (above and beyond the whining) is magnified. Your opponents no longer respect any moves you might try to make and when you finally get a hand and bet like you've got the goods, everybody folds. In short, you force yourself into becoming the worst kind of player - "weak-tight." 5. By Constantly Complaining About How Unlucky You Are You Begin to Act Like the Classic "Helpless" Individual There is a well-known condition that psychologists call "learned helplessness." It is when someone gets beaten and beaten (literally or metaphorically) and eventually comes to believe that nothing they do will stop the pain. Once in this state, it becomes exceedingly difficult to extricate yourself. CroppedImage180320-IMG8370.JPG You won't make friends, and you won't have fun. And if you constantly focus on the bad, painful things that have been happening, it's even tougher. 6. You're Not Going to Have Many Friends and You're Not Going to Have Fun And, let's face it folks, not many of us are really there to win the rent money. We're there to play a little poker, enjoy our leisure time with friends and have a good time. It's hard to have a good time when all you're doing is bitching. Well, that pretty much covers what my buddy told me. He wasn't trained in psychology but he had a really good understanding of it. I'm grateful to him for setting me on the road to recovery. Now, there are only five or six more steps to go before I'm officially sober. Arthur Reber.

    a hand from BBP Final Table

    in Poker

    Posted

    Re: a hand from BBP Final Table Steve, i wasnt necessarily asking how to play the hand, i wanted to isolate the small stack,but wasnt expecting Phil to re-raise,so knew he had a bigger hand than me.in the end i felt it was a correct fold especially as he had the better hand pre flop. he had me well covered and i wasnt prepared to put my tourney life on the line with A/10. shame really as it would have worked nicely for me.

    a hand from BBP Final Table

    in Poker

    Posted

    i have recently adjusted my game a bit,but would still like to know peoples thoughts on this hand. GAME #4153498298: Texas Hold'em NL Tournament 2012-06-05 22:47:47 Table League XV, 726131571, 5668151311 (Tournament: League XV Buy-In: $5.00+$0.50) Seat 1: tealcSVU ($15,094.50 in chips) Seat 2: JosseWales ($30,998.54 in chips) Seat 3: FalconAyr ($28,158.72 in chips) Seat 4: cheekyweeguy ($4,617.97 in chips) Seat 5: nickhem1 ($20,624.52 in chips) Seat 6: nicenutter ($23,362.62 in chips) DEALER Seat 9: PhilDee64 ($19,076.40 in chips) Seat 10: NPStars1 ($3,566.73 in chips) PhilDee64: Post Ante $160.00 NPStars1: Post Ante $160.00 tealcSVU: Post Ante $160.00 JosseWales: Post Ante $160.00 FalconAyr: Post Ante $160.00 cheekyweeguy: Post Ante $160.00 nickhem1: Post Ante $160.00 nicenutter: Post Ante $160.00 PhilDee64: Post SB $800.00 NPStars1: Post BB $1,600.00 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to tealcSVU [sA S10] tealcSVU: Raise (NF) $4,800.00 JosseWales: Fold FalconAyr: Fold cheekyweeguy: Allin $4,457.97 nickhem1: Fold nicenutter: Fold PhilDee64: Raise (NF) $8,000.00 NPStars1: Fold tealcSVU: Fold *** FLOP *** [s4 D7 H10] *** TURN *** [D10] *** RIVER *** [C3] *** SUMMARY *** Total pot $20,137.97 Rake $0.00 cheekyweeguy: Shows [C5 HA] PhilDee64: Shows [CJ CA] PhilDee64: wins $20,137.97

    Black Belt Poker League 15 starts 22nd May - Nottingham Live seat up for grabs

    in Poker

    Posted

    Re: Black Belt Poker League 15 - starts tonight / Nottingham Live seat up for grabs

    Bart still in top 10.......... 97 players were hoping to make it third time lucky this week as Leg 3 of the

    Black Belt Poker League

    took centre stage on Super Tuesday. The prize: $145.52, 122 league points, and entry into our end-of-season Second Chance SNG. Former Champion and wooden spoon recipient

    99Ranny

    fell short, as did reigning Champion

    ChipRead

    (73rd) and last week's winner

    bas2604

    (73rd) - instead, the spoils went to Barry

    JosseWales

    Stlyes who pipped

    tealcSVU

    at the heads-up post. 1st JosseWales -- $145.52 2nd tealcSVU -- $97.00 3rd nickhem1 -- $60.62 4th nicenutter -- $46.07 5th PhilDee64 -- £36.37 6th NPStars1 -- $29.10 7th FalconAyr -- $24.25 8th cheekyweeguy -- $19.40 9th Elysiumjay -- $14.55 10th sprinterz -- $12.12 David

    livinginhope2

    Hall's 12th place finish left him painfully short of the money, but elevated him to the top of the overall standings by six points. The brief reshuffle means that the top five are all Orange Belts. 1st livinghope2 -- 300 points 2nd ryang3691 -- 294 points 3rd PhilDee64 -- 275 points 4th FalconAyr -- 273 points 5th Berajo -- 264 points 6th 13kendo13 -- 257 points 7th TeeDeeEye1 -- 254 points 8th eixip50 -- 249 points 9th Bartukbb -- 240 points 10th NPStars1 -- 239 points 11th liquidpoker101 -- 236 points 12th ourkidsid -- 227 points 13th wiggy7 -- 223 points 14th 4KSuited -- 223 points 15th UsainZeus88 -- 222 points 16th jojosiejo -- 221 points 17th bas2604 -- 220 points 18th cheekyweekyguy -- 218 points 19th Ourkid888 -- 215 points 20th ToddCoxeter -- 212 points The Champion over eights legs will receive free entry into the Nottingham Live at Dusk Till Dawn

    Black Belt Poker League 15 starts 22nd May - Nottingham Live seat up for grabs

    in Poker

    Posted

    Re: Black Belt Poker League 15 - starts tonight / Nottingham Live seat up for grabs

    Wp Al, cracking result tonight, was railing a bit of it but didn't speak as didn't want to bok you ;) :clap
    ty mate, a bit gutted, i made correct lay downs on 2 hands but would have won and given me a much better chance. mind you with some of the players in the league who are so much better than me,i am very happy
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