At the end of pain is success - bencb

Hey Ben,

Thanks for joining us over here for the bootcamp. You mentioned last year about SNG's and SNE, why did you decide to move over to No Limit cash games?

Are you still going for SNE this year from 200nl/500nl?

Are you already playing 500nl? Or are you looking to get there? What makes you decide whether you play it or not? Bankroll?

Looking forward to this as I think the 200/500 games are potentially very exploitable so this could be a huge success.

Hey !

My name is Erik and I will be part of the coaching staff focusing on Tilt, A-Game, Mindset, and Lifecoaching. So if you have any questions you can just post them
here and let me know in my Q&A thread if i take too long to reply. I'll be trolling around the forums but just so i don't miss anything.

Is there anything in the area of tilt, mindset, a-game etc that you are struggling with?

Cheers!

hey,

i still play sngs and go sne from sngs. At the moment i play both , cashgame nl200 and SNGs, cause i make more vpps with sngs.But I think I could reach an higher $/h , so i try to move up to the cashgame highstakes as high as possible.

No i dont play nl500. Its not because of bankroll management, its because of not enough experience yet. I played 40k hands NL100 and then 40k hands Nl200 zoom.
I just want to play more hands and then move up.

@Erik:
Since one year i`m having a pretty sick downswing @SNGs. Running probably 400-500 buy ins under ev (ca 70k). So i had to improve my mindeset enormously to keep up reaching SNE. But this year starts like the last ends . Meanwhile i am pretty hardened , but i think there is still a lot to improve.

The point is, i dont have a big problem with tilt. But often, i am not that self-confident when running bad. And then i feel lethargic and dull and waste time with other senseless stuff because i think "ohh i will run bad like every time" ..
You know what I mean ?

Cashgame is running good, so thats another reason why i want to crush cg highstakes !

If you have some hints to stay focused during a downswing and not to loose my own self-confidence, that would be very nice !

So good to hear someone who has reached SNE here! That has always been a goal of mine but I never end up doing it because it is so HARD!

I hope you crush and get to high stakes too!

"ohh i will run bad like every time" ..

Cashgame is running good, so thats another reason why i want to crush cg highstakes !

If you have some hints to stay focused during a downswing and not to loose my own self-confidence, that would be very nice !

Hey!

It' all about putting every single ounce of focus on learning and improving. Since you seem to be on a high level when it comes to the strategy side of poker it's hard to give some specific advice. But you can probably think about one area in SNG's and Cash where you struggle. Make that the focus of every single session. Look for those spots, anticipate them and really try to practice looking at every single piece of information that is available to you. Mark those hands, go over them immediately after the session. This will also work as a good post session analysis for your game.

When it comes to the emotional self-esteem issue. Try to make i it to a game in and of itself to look for when ever this shows up in any shape or form during a session. use it as a beacon to where you need to put your effort and focus. Why am i feeling like this in this particular spot? Am i affected because its a emotional mindset issue or is it because i lack in pokerstrategy and that is making em uncomfortable.

If you feel you can't answer the last questions right away or with enough detail then use the session to gather information about how the person you are is getting affected by the game...

Make the game fun! Make it about you!

Hey,

i think i am doing a lot post analysations. The main issue is not to play my A-Game or stay focused during a running bad session.
Its more about my daily rhythm.
Often I think: "before i am dropping 5k again, i am watching TV" ..or stuff like that.
So its more about the motivational thing.This downswing is now over a huge samplesize. I mean, if I think rational about that, i know its more +EV (with rakeback) to play poker whan watching TV, but there is still the motivational and emotional part.

Let me explain it otherwise. You know that feeling during school, study or whatever when you skipped a lesson, or you didnt do the homework? So you had a bad conscience.
I had this all the years in Poker. So when i was watching TV or doing some other senseless non-productive stuff i had a bad conscience. Because I knew, i was not doing the right. And this bad conscience often helps me at some days to stay focused and quit watching tv to start my pokersession.
But in the last time, this bad conscience was not that distinctive as for 1-2years. I take this downswing as a kind of an alibi not to play poker and i often think " Yeah its ok no to play poker today, you`ll probably running bad as allways. So its fine to make a brake to today" And this way of thinking appears to often in last time.
Maybe I lost my hope, that some day the variance will balance and make almost that winnings like my EV. So I lost my self-confident way of thinking to beat (EV!) that games I play.
But I want to quite this way of bullshit, pussy thinking and stay motivational and focused every single day, no matter how bad the days/month/years were running before.

You know what I mean ??

Originally posted by bencb
You know that feeling during school, study or whatever when you skipped a lesson, or you didn't do the homework? So you had a bad conscience.

But I want to quite this way of bullshit, pussy thinking and stay motivational and focused every single day, no matter how bad the days/month/years were running before.

You know what I mean ??

Hey bencb!

Sorry for the late reply! So many threads and sometimes I miss one

This feeling sounds very much like a fear of failure. Do you have any kind of Warm-Up routine before you start playing. A Warm-Up that you can use those days when you aren't motivated? This should also work towards you preparing you for what you want to work on in the session. Whatever part of you strategy or mindset issue you are trying to improve on.

You wont be able to think your way out of this! you need to put the work in. Face the negative emotions and thought patterns head on with hard work.

Before we get into specfics. how does this sound? and is there anything more you can explain or tell me that will help me understand better?

Don't forget to check out Schnitzelfischs thread on Productivity Learning and Structure!

Hey,

by far the easiest way to avoid the feeling that you should be doing something else (which brings you stress) is in my opinion to commit to doing the most important things first thing in the morning.

If you manage to implement that kind of a habit, all your procrastination problems will go away and you will feel way better throughout the day.

So what you could do is simply identify what are the activities which you have trouble starting, and start them right after breakfast, before turning on skype/forums/checking e-mails.

If you manage to do this, you will be very happy because you will already have done the hardest things and everything else will be easier. This will provide you with a nice boost in happiness and motivation and make your ways way more productive.

Of course you can then decide to have the evenings off for yourself and do whatever you want, because you will know that you have already done everything that you wanted to do and won't have a bad conscience about it ;).

How does that sound?

-Primož

Hi Ben how are you doing?

It would be great if you would update your thread to keep it current and encourage others to post here. And yes, I do understand time is a concern, it's just a reminder.

March on!

Mal.

I am doing fine, I think I managed to regain my motivation

Originally posted by bencb
I am doing fine, I think I managed to regain my motivation

Well, im a sit and go player, and i have to say its pretty scary that a 1 year long downsing can happen even to a guru like you, what remains for us ?

GG man, great career