Who is the worst enemy of a poker player?
Donks? No!
Tilt? No!
Loss and confusion? Yes!
Donks - When you play against a donk and he kicks you out of a sng with his stupid play (and with the usual lucky river), you should be happy because he will pay you much more in the long run and, most important, he will continue to play because he has no idea of how stupid he is. If he always lose, he wouldn't play anymore.
Tilt - When you go on tilt you play so bad and so angry that you know that there is something wrong... sometimes you stop playing, sometimes you continue to play even when you know you are wasting money... but you are usually able to recognize you are on tilt.
Loss and confusion - Well... Let's suppose I'm playing a specific poker style, let's say tight... I have a positive session... I stop, my time is over, I go to bed... the day after I play again, maybe happy for the previous winnings, maybe worried trying not to lose that winnings... anyway... many tables... no face cards... blinds increasing (but not too much)... suddenly I find myself raising in early position (at a full table) with AJ... why that?!?!?! Why do I feel it's correct to raise in that spot while I had chosen to play a tight style? Or, supposing I was playing loose, why don't I raise anymore with the same cards I used to raise with? If there was a reason to change that strategy it would be ok, but why to change it without a reason??????
This strategic confusion, this loss of the choosen strategy, this latent alteration of the (winning) playing style is what I suffer more... much more than tilt or donks. The biggest problem is that it's very difficult to recognize it while playing... it appears very clearly only after a losing session, when I coldly analize it.
I didn't suffer it at 3€, but I suffered it at 5€ and at 10€... and now again at 20€... and it appears on the graph as a big oscillation which stops the winning trend... and everytime I realize that I am always making the same error... I haven't found a countermeasure yet. Maybe I should paper all my room and my notebook with the phrase "You want to play tight? So play tight! You want to play loose? So play loose! Remember to play the way you chose to play".
So, for the remainder of this month, I have two goals:
- To find a countermeasure to the loss of the choosen strategy
- To reach 2000 euro