New state of mind

I`ve really gotten into a totally different state of mind while playing since I did the session review last Saturday. I don`t check the cashier nearly as often, maybe once an hour. I`m less results oriented and I`m actually not tilting when I get sucked out on. It`s amazing what this does for your game.

I still like to watch big pots to see if my range was correct or not, but the results don`t matter so much to me anymore. Between talking to a bunch of people and reading Your Own Worst Poker Enemy, I`ve started to think about the game very differently.

I`ve been playing 25NL a bit again to really work on just making +EV plays and not worry about the money, which oddly enough is the frame of mind to be in to win more money. I`ve also been able to 18 table really easily for some reason. I`m actually running at 8 ptBB/100 over 10k hands since Saturday playing 12-18 tables.

Decisions seem easier and easier once you look at the game a bit differently. I`m not sure how to describe it yet, but if I focus on ranges and what kinds of flops they hit, it`s like they`re playing their hand face up. I might just be lucky in the past week, but I really feel like I`m nailing the hand reading now that I take more time to think through the hand logically instead of worrying about what`s going on in that all in pot on the other table - what`s going on over there doesn`t matter. It just feels like a totally revamped thought process.

I`m also applying pot control correctly now AFAIK, and I`m not quite such a nit anymore which is nice =) At one point today I was running 30/20 on one table and up 3 buyins there. People just basically tell you what they have by their actions - when you`re paying attention - especially on the turn. It`s also helped that I`m focusing on isoing more and squeezing and thus playing more pots in position as well as positional pots against players that raise light. It`s so obvious when a 15/12 with an attempt to steal of 30% raises on the button against a 30/5 limper. He only wants to see a 3bet something like 2% of the time.

I think when I was getting so tilty, I resorted back to 1st level thinking and thought people were just playing back at me a lot and stacked off with a lot of 2nd best hands - and worse. They`re not, I was just paranoid.