Mind State, How Emotional Are You?

After a whirlwind of variance, a 6-buyin downswing, and a nock to my confidence I decided to take a few days out and re-read my Zen and the Art of Poker; this time with a highlighter and making notes on the pages.

I really need to/want to improve my game, what I want to tackle at the moment is my emotions as they can obviously have a large affect on my play. I’m quite emotional, also within poker; when I’m running good I'm happy, feeling good. Now, I've read Aok's great tilting post a few times and don't have a problem with classic 'tilting'' as such.

Although if I’m running bad my mind state *is* effected, I may know I’m playing good and it’s just the +ev's falling the wrong way too much in succession - I can *take it* and grind through variance... but only to some degree... My mind state and emotions are affected, I'm not in a neutral mind state by any means - and I think this really affects my game.

A quote that springs to mind from Zen and the Art of Poker: "Take a step back from the game. Try to see both good times and bad with a detached, neutral eye."

Imagine playing without ANY emotions what-so-ever, almost as if the cards are doing the betting and you're watching the event as you would a contest in which you have no vested interest. You just sit there, making correct decisions, playing good poker.

This is a state I want to achieve and will work to get close to and maintain. I think it will really help my game; the less emotions running through me, the clearer the situations will be, with more focus and clarity of thought I can have.

Has anyone here studied any NLP? (non-computing NLP). I've browsed through some articles (I recommend www.nlpweekly.com), and from the few techniques I've learnt I think the 'swish' method could be applied here, to help calm down emotions within poker.

I used this method to help quit smoking, when a craving came I would picture myself with a cigarette then swish it into the background and replace it by swishing up a picture of myself and how I want to be (healthy and smoke free). The theory here is that eventually your brains response to a craving is changed and takes a different path, so belive it or not craving no longer leads to wanting a cigarette.

Instead of:
Craving ----> wanting a cigarette

you're conditioning your brain to take a different path and eventually it looks like this:

Craving----> feeling good and happy about being a healthy person and a non-smoker (the picture and idea you kept swishing infront).

This really does help quit smoking (or eating fatty foods etc etc), I think its actually the main approach behind Alan Carrs ultra-successful book of How to Quit Smoking the Easy Way.

I think it will be harder to apply to emotions within poker, but maybe every time I feel myself get emotional, swishing a picture of myself being happy or down in the dumps to a picture of myself calm and relaxed (and how I want to be) will help me focus on obtaining that neutral mind state.

This could be extremely hard because... obviously.. it feels good to feel good! When taking down a few nice pots, playing well etc.. the natural response is to feel good, if not great. Now if I want to feel neutral when running bad, I guess I will have to try and condition myself to lesson the emotions of winning as much as possible aswell; trying to calm myself down and obtain a natural relaxed mind. (After all these are *still* emotions that after all interfere with my play). Then hopefully I'll also be able to do the same when bad negative emotions pop up.. swish them to the background, swishing up myself at how I want to be; focusing on staying calm, relaxed and nuetral.

A few links on the swish technique:

http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/swish.php3
http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/nlp_swish.htm

Uh...(this is weird synchronicity)...but I was just on the TV news last week for our local cancer care hospital as their QUIT SMOKING guinea pig (1 week today). Thanks for the link, sink. I need all the help I can get right now.

Love the post!

My breathing has always been a little bit off, and recently I've been really trying to get a handle on it. What I do is take deep breaths then when I exhale I think of something pleasant.. I say the name Melissa to myself (my gf).

Imagine playing without ANY emotions what-so-ever, almost as if the cards are doing the betting and you're watching the event as you would a contest in which you have no vested interest. You just sit there, making correct decisions, playing good poker.

I really really like this quote. This is something that I invision everyday, everytime I play poker. My ultimate poker goal is to one day play poker online for a living. I picture myself with laptop in hand, sitting in a beachtowel on a beautiful day somewhere in europe looking out onto the water. I'll be waking up whenever I want, walk to work, take breaks whenever I want, and essentially be my own boss. I've talked with a few people who have lived in such countries as this (Portugal, Romania, Greece), and they have said that you could live like a king for $20,000 USD per annum. I think I could easily make double this, playing online poker, once I reach my desired limit.

So, if I suffer a bad beat, I take deep breaths and exhale while saying 'Melissa,' think about how my decision was a good one at the time, and picture myself on a beach on a sunny day, with laptop in hand.

I'm 23 now, thanks to PokerStars and FTR, I believe this goal is achievable by 30.

Originally Posted by BankItPayette

I'm 23 now, thanks to PokerStars and FTR, I believe this goal is achievable by 30.

I say 25 for you. I see you around here enough...if you can get in enough hands, it won't take you as long as you think.

I share a similar goal, and I could live on a similar amount (I already do, that's about what I make at my job).

I plan on giving it a shot when my 'roll gets big enough to give me a few months of play...but my personal expenses amount to about 700/month, and I think that's easily attained quad-tabling 25NL nut-camping, and then some.

I'm just afraid I might get stuck there or at some other low limit...I still want to jump limits and get into bigger games.

Good Luck Warp, quitting smoking is so damn hard, but if your quite determined and you really want to, you'll succed.

I totally recommend this book, if you want to quit you simply HAVE to read it! It will make your life so much easier. Read through it and quitting will really become far easier. Its no magical cure but it will really make it alot easier! Im no affiliate or anything, I just belive in it... (it didnt work for my dad, but has for me and numerous friends)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/140...Fencoding=UTF8
(How to Quit Smoking the Easy Way, by Alan Carr)

I should be going to a casino tonight for the first time, playing a cheapo £5 Rebuy. I'm such a nervous anxious person, I know I'll be a nervous wreck there! This will be a good challenge for me to try relaxation techniques and using my swish method Ive designed. Hopefully this method will help me become more emotinally stable and neutral for future stressful/anxious situations: job interviews, speaches, poker etc.

The two pictures I'm using are:

A happy smiley and a upset smiley side by side, bobbing up and down (representing emotions and nerves/anxiousness)

A picture of myself laying calm and still on lush green grass on a summers day, with nice clear blue sky.

I might do a succession of 5 or so swishes a couple of times a day, and also obviously when the trigger in my brain steps up my emotions too much when I dont want them. Hopefully my brain will get so accustomed to the image/state im replacing and eventually it will become a more and more auto-matic and natural process.

When I get into something, I get really devoted (skateboarding, poker, lucid dreaming etc). This is my new project

Originally Posted by SinkRox

lucid dreaming,etc

Any luck with that?

What about if you get slightly happy when you're winning and extremely angry when you're losing?

What if you're never happy because life is so hard?




P.S. I like the NLP thing. Interesting way of dealing with tilt.

I'm a little emotional, it doesn't really have to do with my cards, however. If I feel I'm playing good, I'm happy and confident with my play, but I still try to play my best. I don't slack up or anything.

When I feel like I've played a tournament wrong or made a costly mistake in Ring, I feel bad. Giving someone a bad beat is another one that can affect me, slightly embarrassing I think. Taking bad beats really doesn't bother me.

I get a hard-on when someone puts a horrible beat on me.

Serious.

Originally Posted by Fnord

I get a hard-on when someone puts a horrible beat on me.

Serious.

kinky! i should visit you some time

Originally Posted by sejje

Originally Posted by SinkRox

lucid dreaming,etc

Any luck with that?

Yeh, While i was working i got really into it for a few months.. it was something to do at work, write down my dreams each day, perfrom reality tests 3-6 times a day. You have to be very devoted to do this each day, and keep it up for weeks without seeing many results. Keeping a dream journal ment i would remember 3-5 dreams EVERY day which was quite cool.

Then eventually after about 3 weeks I had my first lucid dream, it was amazing. about 1-2 weeks later I had another one, then i got bored with having sex during these dreams (as its not really as good as in real life).

So next time I became lucid i was just exploring my dreamscape, rubbing my hands together constantly, spinning around all the time too - as this really helps maintain the dreamscape and stop it fading to black and the dream ending. It was mad just turning to a lady in the street and saying HEY IM DREAMING!!!! then trying to fly... but i couldnt! Very annoying as most people can pull this off.

This same dream I remember reaching what was somehow the end of the dreamscape, it was an area around a house that I just couldnt get to or go through, it just ended there. I was like dam, i cant go over there.. there wasn't a wall or anything... just the 'end' of scenary (maybe darkness I guess). Then i lost lucidity in a wierd way. A week or so later and my motivation dropped, I quit writing in my dream journal and am now back to my level state of only having 1-2 dreams a night, never lucid.

Its facinating stuff and really works, its really cool if you can be arsed. After all its basically reality with no consequences and less limitations.

Just perform reality tests thru the day and eventually you start doing it in dreams. just the fact that you're more aware of reality in waking life, kinda leads to you sometimes question reality in what you think is waking life but when your actually dreaming - when something very abnormal happens.. then u thnk hey thats too wierd i must be dreaming!.. do a reality check and bingo your lucid

When I start working again I'l probably start again, as I think its a complete waste of 9hrs of your day asleep if your spending so much time at work aswell, may aswell make the most of sleep.

Originally Posted by Fnord

I get a hard-on when someone puts a horrible beat on me.

Serious.

I know some boys who wear a lot of leather that would very much like to meet you.

Sinkrox you got any links to learning that dreaming stuff... its something I used to be able to do. Kinda taught myself after i kept having nightmares but then my nightmares stopped (due to me kicking stuffs ass) and now ive sorta forgotten how to do it. Im off to google now to relearn but anything you got would be great.

I just read through articles, websites and as with most subjects - forums are of most help. There may even be sticky posts aimed at beginners, just like we have for poker noobs.

Theres a bit of product junk out there (i dunno actually how good it is) e.g. goggles to wear at night. Be wary of these and research them if you want to try this 'quicker route'.

Basically google about, read up on it. Most important basic stratergy is to learn good reality checking techniques, perform them enough times every day coupled with keeping a dream journal and you WILL start getting lucid dreams! I think people generally average their first after 3-6 weeks of starting. For me it was 3 weeks then maybe 1 every 10-14 days.

GL and let me know how you get on if you give it a shot