Stop losses of a different sort!
So I was grinding through a session this afternoon. Seemed like it took me awhile to find my groove. I"d try to focus and do a reasonable job but every now and then I'd slip up. I'd miss a tell or fail to notice I was involved in a pot with a weak hand against an ubber nit etc. I kept trying to push through and play my A game. I was slightly +ev but still those occasional slips kept popping up.
Then I lost a decent pot and as I replayed the hand in my head I thought holy shit how did I miss that. It was pretty obvious in hindsight but I failed to catch it at the time. So I for a lack of better terms took an inventory of my tools.
Now the obvious shit was there: computer was on, Holdem Manager was up and running as was Table Ninja and Note Caddy. I had my music playing at an appropriate level so as not to interfere so yeah all the hardware and software was accounted for.
So what else could it be? What about me? Was my shit all there and if so was it operating ideally? Well I was out a little late last night but not terribly but could have used a little more sleep. I had drank a fair amount of Tequila last night and although I wasn't hungover per say there was still a slight edge. I had eaten a decent breakfast this morning but fuck it's like 2:00pm and I haven't eaten lunch or drank any water to speak of. Now if we look at any one of these small issues individually they really don't make a huge problem. Although if we look at them as a whole then they do constitute a problem. If I am down a little from the lack of sleep say 5% and maybe a minor hangover from the Tequila say 10% there and then we take a pretty good hit from low blood sugar from not eating and combine that with being dehydrated as well those could take away another 20% easily. So obviously if I take away 35% from optimum playing conditions I have no business playing this game at this point.
So a quick trip to subway for a decent sandwich combined with good fluids and some quite time just shy of a power nap and boom back up to or at least much closer to optimum levels!
In my previous career we literally wanted every edge we could on our side. We NEVER wanted the bad guys to have any type of advantage if we could help it. We wanted to be in better shape, sharper mentally, more alert etc. Plain and simple we wanted to win EVERY TIME with no exceptions. Well why not have this same mind set when playing poker. Why think I can improve my game if I don't come into it with every advantage possible?
Just some food for thought. Now I'm feeling much better and I'm gonna grind and utilize my tools!
