I’ve been trying to figure out my headspace for the last month or so. Understanding my relationship with poker is important to me. I think that if I understand my relationship with poker, my game will improve immeasurably beause part of the strategy of the game is to reduce the number of variables and unknowns. So the more I understand my relatonship, the fewer the unknowns.
Poker for me is more of a puzzle than a game. I look at all the pieces and I try and fit them all together in such a way so that I am the winner. What this does is, it entrenches the vision of winning deep inside. And regardless of what happens, I walk away from the table a winner. Even if I bust out in my first hand. That would be like being at a friends house and they have a partially completed puzzle on a table. They go off to do something and you have a look at the puzzle. You poke around a bit and put a few pieces in place. The friend comes back and that’s it. No more puzzle. You din’t didn’t fail at puzzle building.
Now that I understand my relationship, I have fewer conflicting thoughts when I play and I feel like I play more confidently. This in turn has made me rethink anonymity. Now that I know what I bring to the table, why would I wear a mask if I am so confidently aware of myself.
I’ve requested that my online player name be changed to my real world name. I’m hoping that it will make me more accountable. So, I will only play when I am able to play to the best of my ability and not when I just feel like playing. The extreme example being, not to play intoxicated. Not even after one drink or toke. If I can’t bring my “A” game, I won’t play.
I was taken aback by how much I had put on my card for online poker in the past sixty days or so. Which is where this post was supposed to start. I was glad that I make fourth place in a tourney today which brought me back to even.
The thing I like about playing live is that you see all the pieces.