Staying Sharp

I was taking poker with my buddy the other day, and he was telling me that he just can’t seem to win playing poker some days, but other he does good, and he just can’t figure it out. After some discussion, I realized that he was usually losing during the week and winning on the weekend.

At first, I thought this was very strange because in my online experience I have more variance in my stats during the weekend. I’ve always attributed this to the massive influx of online players during the weekend. The types of players that only have time to play on the weekend, but don’t really take it seriously. To them it’s just another way to stay entertained like bingo or slot machines, and they expect to lose. So they play loose/crazy and aggressive. So, people like us take their money! $$

It finally occurred to me that my buddy just isn’t playing in the right state of mind during the week. He’s coming home form work, doing his fatherly duties, gets the kids to bed, listens to his wife chatter, and then hops online and into a tournament. Where he’s the usually the first or second one out, so he hops into another before it’s too late! He knows that he must be in bed at a decent hour. On weekends though, he does fairly well and usually shows a profit. Why is that?

It comes down to this:

If you’re serious about playing poker and making money, then give your self a fighting chance! If you tired form a long days work, fighting with the ‘ole lady about leaving the toilet seat up, or just pissed at the world , than its not a good time to play serious poker! You must have the right state of mind to play. You must be sharp, have control of your emotion, and not be distracted by events around you. No fights with kids, the jerk next door, or those ungrateful ‘ole ladies!

Remember this, you mind must be sharp for intellectual conflict that poker is. It is real money after all, why waste it? You must have discipline to win a poker. You must also have enough discipline to simply not play when you know you’re not going to win.