Need instruction

Posts: 484 · Posted: 25.01.2007, 04:06

I've dragged my carcass across the steaming sands in search of an answer.....an answer from the Guru!!!!....the answer I'm looking for is...."When do you back off?"...I got tired of playing small stakes games and signed up for a $12,000 gauranteed tourney! It cost me $30...minor cost.......but it was a rebuy......and I heard the GURU saying PATIENCE......I used extreme patience and before you know it I was "Big Stack"..........I felt my heart beating in my chest....Thump Thump Thump.....I was playing perfect poker........I started to get excited about the possible payout for me....Not to mention that These big stakes players are not that much better than me..........Lets cut it short....minimum payment in this tourney is $240.........!!!!!I could have sat out and won $240.......NOT MY STYLE...........I wish I could remember the sequence of events that finished me...but I got into a hand that wasn't perfect..........lost it and got playing on TILT.........My patience disappeared....I had to win the very next hand...........Poker Guru............How do you relax yourself at that stage in the tourney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The stage where you went into a hand and tossed a few bets and lost!!!!Any ways I finised in36th

Posts: 1825 · Posted: 25.01.2007, 09:06

Been there and I know what you mean. Is hard to keep your edge when a hand dumps you on your butt!! But like he says... forget the last hand and play the next one anew.

I'm sure Guru will have better words for you when he gets to your post.
I don't know how many were in the tourney but 36th doesn't sound bad! Think how much better you will play next time when you did so good this time!

Posts: 2913 · Posted: 26.01.2007, 03:46

Dear Pride of Mine, Spookth!

First and foremost......let me say 'cause I'm bustin' to say, "I AM SO DAMN PROUD OF YOU THAT UNLESS YOU ARE A HUGE-SIZED MAN, I WOULD LIKE TO PICK YOU UP IN A BEAR HUG AND SWING YOU ROUND AND ROUND UNTIL WE BOTH COLLAPSE LAUGHING!" (And a note to a possible newcomer who might be reading this: Spookth and I both are 100% healthy normal men with 100% healthy normal sexuality!)

Like our very special and very knowledgeable poker player member Valeria said, "I, too, have been there and done that." And that is why I know how to answer your question!

Before I start, Spook, don't take any of this as criticism. I have nothing but praise for you. But I do want to tell you a few things that would have helped you out in that game, and I can't spare words.

The first mistake you made was choosing a rebuy. People to whom money means nothing because they have so much of it often enter rebuys and simply rebuy until they have actually bought the win -- even if it was at a financial loss to them because they went in the hole with so many rebuys.

Go that, ALL MY SCHOLARS? Stay away from rebuys!

The first GREAT thing you did was to REMEMBER all my words from lessons because you had learned them so well you could hear them again and follow them........and that put you in the lead with the BIG STACK that gave you the thumping heart because you were doing something you didn't think you could do........PLAYING PERFECT POKER! Damn, I am soooooo proud, Spookie!!!!!!

Then came your downfall and the reason is so very clear. It had nothing to do with the bad cards you received. Remember.....there are also perfect ways to play BAD cards!

The reason for your downfall was that you lost your focus on each present hand and let your mind begin to wander in exciting areas -- which took it OFF of remembering how to play the hand you were dealt! Thinking of all the money in the pot and previous hands and possible victory before the night was over.....slid you right smack into FULL TILT.

NEVER EVER EVER PLAY A SINGLE HAND WHEN YOU ARE ON TILT!

Okay. You realized that. Good! But you were so far into tilt that you didn't know what to do about it....how to get out of it.....or as you said, HOW TO RELAX.

Next time......and be sure there IS a next time because you already know you can play perfect poker.......next time, here is what you do!:

You sit out.....and go to the bathroom and strip naked. Get under a lukewarm or just slightly cool water shower or just toss water all over yourself and run it thru your hair. Don't linger at it!

Out of the bathroom and to the kitchen. Fix and drink down a non-alcoholic cold drink, loaded with ice cubes!! While in the ice, put some cubes in something you can use as a kerchief and tie it around your neck.

Next: Quickly now, eat a snack full of sugar for quick energy, while you are fixing a HUGE cup of steaming hot coffee to take back to the game with you.

Back to the game. Feet up and a pillow behind you. Wet hair out of eyes. Click back in. Sip your coffee slowly but continually thruout the rest of the game. If you smoke, light up.

Take a deep breath. Let it out with a big loud sigh, and from then until the game is ended, focus, all relaxed and feelin' good, focus on NOTHING except the best way to play the card in your hand!

AND YOU WILL BE A BIIIIIGGGG WINNER, my friend!

With delight,
Your PokerGuru

Posts: 244 · Posted: 18.12.2007, 17:30

First, let me congratulate you spookth on making what must have been quite a difficult and nervy decision, to take your play up, not just one level, but many levels, and from what you've said, the decision you made, as difficult as it may have been, was indeed the correct decision, as with guidance, faultless self discipline, and what I can only describe as a very, very GIFTED mind for playing poker, you found yourself top of the tree, with a long line of very talented poker players, some as gifted as yourself in your wake.

I'm sure I speak for every Poker Crusher when I say.
" We are all very proud to have such a gifted Poker player among us."

Secondly, I've read this post several times over, and for me, it is a great lesson in itself.

Thank You Poker Guru