Horrid Poker mistakes, can they ever be eradicated?

luckylucky

I have a feeling many of you maybe besides a select few will identify with what I say here....

I can play several weeks without making any horrible mistake, then in the space of a few days I seemed to make 2 or 3 each day. Now when I say horrible I mean horrible, I really think to myself afterwards 'how could i be so fookin stoopid' . If I saw some one else play their hand that way my notes would be very uncomplimentary to put it mildly.

Tbh this type of pattern has repeated itself over the years I've played online. Just wondering since we're all flawed beings(with the notable exception of HectorJelly of course ), are these type of mistakes inevitable in the pressure cooker environment of online poker? Or is it possible to eradicate them once and for all?

Making minor mistakes is inevitable I think, from time to time your opponent will have made a timely bluff or manoeuvre you into making a debatable call etc. these kind of mistakes I can live with, but some mistakes I have made just make no sense, the correct option is obvious to me 90+% of the time but a small % of the time I ignore the obvious.

The old saying prevention is better than cure comes to mind, then what causes these errors?
I think it's down to two nasty emotions that have no place in poker, greed and stubborness.
Greed in that these errors tend to happen when I have been running good for a few weeks, and I'm trying to force the run to continue, even though the cards are saying lie low for now it's not happening for you luckylucky. Stubborness, an example where I have a reasonable hand but it's quite clear from the betting pattern that it's just not good enough, again I think this is more likely to happen where I have been running good for a while.

There's probably some other factors involved in these horrible mistakes, but I'm still half asleep.

Maybe a few questions here...

1. Do you make them?
2. Have you made them in the past, and if you have stopped making them, how do you attribute the fact that you have managed to knock them on the head?
3. Are these mistakes inevitable, should you just accept that they are?

Anyway just wanted to bring up the subject and see what others thought?

StraddleFor6

1. Yes.
2. When I was a weak tight player, learning the game, I don't think I made these "horrible mistakes" i.e. calls, raises, re-raises. Maybe some horrible folds.
I would now consider myself a little more of a loose aggresive player and I do make these mistakes; but now I'm winning. Take from that what you will.
3. I don't know.

ocallagh

These mistakes occur from frustration and a lack of discipline. It's a form of tilt! It is easy to fix. When you make one or two BIG mistakes within a few hours, punish yourself by either one of these methods:

a) Not playing for 24hrs.

b) Forcing 7 deep breaths before any big decision for the next 24hrs! If you can't squeeze 7 in 30 seconds, make it 5... but the principle is to try and get into a relaxed state prior to making a decision.

c) Playing 1hr of blind omaha while listening to rage against the machine as loud as you can.

breadmonkey

ocallagh wrote:

c) Playing 1hr of blind omaha while listening to rage against the machine as loud as you can.

FTW!

Dantes

ocallagh wrote:

c) Playing 1hr of blind omaha while listening to rage against the machine as loud as you can.

I second that emotion.

NickyOD

What Straddlefor6 said.

Good players make mistakes all the time because they they try to find any way possible to win a pot, and sometimes that means forcing things a little too much. I mean how do you know where to to draw the line with your aggression if you haven't tried to push the limits a little.

I know one particular player who is the weakest tightest ****er I know. He probably thinks he never makes a mistake because he never makes a bad call and never loses a showdown. Of course that's because he never goes to the river without the nuts and knows nothing about all the horrendously bad folds he's made. He gets no value from his big hands because he slowplays so much and never value bets the river on slightly scary boards.

The mistake that is most important to watch out for is paying people off too much on the river. If you can learn to avoid that then you'll feel a whole lot better about your overall game.

BTW straddlefor6, I heard about the 2-5 hand against Limerick's Player X. You are the ****ing man, and you should post those hands on boards.

robinlacey

i think a lot about this sort of thing,once you have a good solid game i think concentration is the most important skill in poker.

while i think it is impossible to eradicate stupid mistakes altogether,i am certain that almost all poker players,even very good winning ones,make far too many mistakes through not concentrating,not thinking things through,etc,and i am no exception,although i am a lot better than i was.

now when i sit down my goal for each session is to make as few mistakes as possible-i find even silly mental tricks are good for this sort of thing,for example,i have a coach,so i try to subconsciously think of each decision in terms of "what would i do if my coach was watching"...other ideas include counting to five before making any big calls,taking regular breaks,etc

i think reviewing hand histories after sessions is good for this sort of thing too,i don't do it nearly as much as i should but whenever i do i find things that amaze me and my resolve to make less mistakes strenghtens...

not letting bad beats get to you is also very important,and for this reason having a big bankroll is i think important-i have 50 buyins for my main level,and i recently had a bad run and only had 40 buyins,so i dropped down to the level below for a few days till i felt i had stopped making mistakes,i found this very helpful.