5000th Post AMA: Poker, Life, and Balance

[mondayscool]

I read through your old operation threads about a week ago and it seems like you really struggled with 'autopilot' alot whilst coming up.

It's probably something that never totally goes away, but do you have any general tips or specific techniques you use to improve focus and mental presence during sessions?

[Micro2Macro]

I read through your old operation threads about a week ago and it seems like you really struggled with 'autopilot' alot whilst coming up.

It's probably something that never totally goes away, but do you have any general tips or specific techniques you use to improve focus and mental presence during sessions?

i think autopilot affects everyone, but to varrying degrees so i agree with you that it never totally goes away. with that said there are def ways to mitigate its impact on your game. less tables, more breaks, get into the habit of taking notes (which requires less tables being played) and so on.

as far as improving mental focus, i think just not doing something else that is super strenuous on your brain prior to poker sessions will help. you make a ton of decisions during a poker session so anything to avoid decision fatigue will probably push you in the right direction as far as avoiding autopilot. if you play like 6 hours a day though and study its hard for your brain not to feel tired out, so this is probably why those high stakes ballers who only play 2hours a day have such great results, and the average ssnl grinder is doing lots of dumb shit that they even acknowledge is dumb. but they have to grind a lot more to build their roll/pay their bills etc.