Interesting vid. Picked up a few tips.

The only thing I don't get is how you can even rematch if you play 20 minutes chunks. Obviously you're not going to decline the big fish after you already beat him twice ;-)

Yeah sometimes you need to break the rule, but ideally having mini breaks every 20 mins gives you a chance to refresh your focus.

Cog is at it again! Very nice video, this will definitely be put high up on my list of videos for favorites. I do have one question through regarding warmups as you didn't go into much detail. What would you suggest beginners do for their warmup? In your schedule it shows that you review HHs as sort of a warmup(I do the same) but what else would you suggest? Thanks again for the great vid!

Thanks for the props!

Good warmups:

Reviewing hand histories

Watching vids from this site!

Chatting to friends about strategy or hands

Reading over notes you may have taken from the end of your session. I don't do this, but I do know some people who do

I'm sure there are more I haven't thought of!

basic ...simple ...and excellent .... I just love that kind of stuff ...tx cog ...good job

Hey Paul,

Nice vid, I think you piece on voume is quite interesting. I am one of the people who set myself certain volume goals & from my perspective I try to set longer term, monthly goals rather than saying I'm going to play 50 games today. Over the month I know I have times when I sit down that I'm restircted by time & will acheive a certain average of games, but weekends I typically play longer sessions as I have more time.

I agree with your point that if you are intent on really pushing the boundaries of getting volume in you end up losing games, but the same mindset can easily tell themselves they are going to play 15 hours today & find themselves burning out & playing sub-optimally.

I think the key to it is setting realistic goals, it's easy to look at your average game length of 12 minutes & say right I've got 3 hours a day, therefore over 30 days I'm going to play 450 a month. There is no way you can play everyday, things come up & you have to make this time back which is when it becomes detrimental. Same as time goals, if you typically have 4 hours playing time don't have this as a standard & set a goal of 120 hours a month because that one thing you hadn't accounted for crops up & then you have to find another 4 hours of play from somewhere.

Just my initial thoughts!

J

I've also linked this as a MUST SEE video in the Beginner's Guide in the Video Discussion forum.

Nice vid dude....whats your view on smoking a bit of weed while playing....i find smoking a little bit....not too much tho... before i play..... my mind doesn't wander too much and it keeps me very focused.......other people i know who smoke and play find it cancels out  any tilt problems they may have...

what about cocain! helps focus .... no fear .... a bit of weed and cocain .... absynth for the courage... 

If you're a person  that has some focus issues and might benefit from perscription drugs for it, I could see how a bit of pot could help you focus more.

I would bet a majority of players would suffer from it, however, but possibly some could be benefited.  It has shown to have some positive medicinal effects, but I believe often there are alternatives that work more effectively.  Research is always kind of second hand/sketchy when it comes to pot, as there seems to be a ton more bias than usual in that field (both for and against).

Do you really only play 2 hours a day on average?  Just curious.

What to think about coffee??? :)

One of my favorite video too........

Thanks and keep gringing super turbo!!!!!!

Drugs: What about weed. Is it good or bad for the game?

Any time you aim for excessive time or volume then your A game is heading out the window. But I certainly would choose a time-based approach over volume any day.

Yeah pretty close to 2 hours on average.

2 hrs a day AND no volume goals... I must be a really sick individual then :(, I play way too much =/

regardless I think the setup of this video is really cool, people love to see this kinda stuff, gj cog

completely agree w most of this vid. really great job.

2 hours a day one tabling most of the time is like...no games at all. esp since you play reg speeds right???

also, why decline an opponent if he beats you twice?? it doesnt mean they have an edge obv.

i think it is very important in poker to be self-aware and know what is best for you. maybe that is playing 2 hours a day now, but are you still working on doing things to lengthen how long you can play your A game? you're so profitable, anything you can do to prolong your sessions is +ev.

when i started husngs, i couldnt play more than 50 minute sessions without my game really falling off. that was about 3 years ago, and through trial and error I've found numerous methods that work for me to lengthen my sessions. now i'm able to play set hours, 6 hour sessions (with 2 20-30 minute breaks). if i had done this when i started, i wouldn't be playing poker anymore haha.

I play on a schedule as well. Hope I'm not hijacking...

Sunday/Monday: OFF

Tuesday-Saturday: Play from 7PM - 1:30 AM (2 20-30 minute breaks)

I wake up around noon most days. The bulk of my day from noon-7pm is built around preparing my mind and body to be able to perform at it's highest energy level. Eat healthy, drink a lot of water, no alcohol, gym. 20 minutes before my session I usually go on a walk or to the park across the street and have a coffee and just try to make sure my head is in the right place. Basically, I am obsessed with the "warmup process". I don't mean to say that 7 hours are spent prior to my session thinking about poker, that's not it at all, but none of the time is spent doing things that will be counterproductive to a high energy, positive, focused session.

Having 2 off days a week is working great for me. 2 days off from poker always feels like an eternity. I come back excited and feeling fresh 4 times a month. Poker players never take breaks, especially breaks that aren't caused by tilt/busto'ing roll. I try to not think about poker too much on the days off. I keep myself excited about poker by doing this, so I think my sessions are a lot more productive in general and I probably get more games in doing it this way.

I used to spend most of my days with no set schedule. I would wake up and basically spend my entire day trying to find the right times where my mental energy was high where I could play. Breaks never really were breaks because I was always frustrated that my mental wasn't right to play, or the thought of volume volume volume was weighing on me. Setting a schedule and preparing intensely for each session allows me to take real breaks and not feel encumbered by any guilt for not playing etc.

Hokie

u r cool hokie!

i wish i could do only a little part of this. however i return tired after the working day. then kids and stuff and then poker at night which ends up almost always in me not being able to sleep afterwards. short night - go to work and so on. nowadays almost always nerved still by my job which is hell atm. then i do no sports, i drink, i smoke a lot, sometimes smoke pot, however normally not during poker sessions. i do not review my HHs a lot lately. however i am thinking poker strategies a lot, e.g. during work when i go for a smoke etc. - all in all - i am probably not playing often my a-game.

considered all this - i guess i must be very happy with my performance so far. but how good could i play when i finally manage to get in some sport again, less drinking and stop smoking? i really needa do some sports now for a clear mind.

and also thanks to cog to bring this up - i really need to take more attention at being really fresh at the tables. just one thing i began since a few weeks. i do not play anymore when i do not feel like it.

cheers kuku

@kukulcan

I plan on talking a lot about this in my first powerpoint video in a lot more detail...

Improving the non-strategy aspects of poker is about attempting to create the best version of YOURSELF. Everyone is different, so what works for me or Cog more than likely will not 100% work for you.

Your situation is very different from mine, so obv my daily schedule isn't practical for you at all. I think our goal is to be realistic of our situations and self-aware enough to figure out what works best for us. It's just about trial and error, always trying new things to maximize our focus and energy. 

So I don't mean to come off like "live your life like me and profit!" LOL. I just think it's important for every player to take a step back and look at the small decisions they make on a daily basis...how do they effect my mood when i play?...how do they effect my energy? etc.

Hokie

Hey Hokie,

My logic behind denying rematches if someone beats me two or three times is that if they don't have an edge then they probably sucked out or won flips, either of which will probably leave me unhappy, meaning I'm not playing my A game. Also I feel that my style has an edge against people when they first encounter it, but the more they play, the better they adjust to it. So it's in my interest to find an new opponent. There's plenty around at the levels I'm playing.

As for the 2 hours, that was what I was doing up until last month. Then I switched to ST's and have increased my playing time.

Primo,

Thank you for the props sir, much appreciated!

thaks for the comment and i am very much looking forward to your ppt-show!

of course i have to search within my abilities and circumstances what is best for myself to improve my mental and physical situation at the tables. i just do not do enough atm for this, mainly due to having a life where almost no time is left for poker. a difficult thing if someone is so addicted to it like i am.

but cog and u here gave me again nice kicks in the ass to look at this and i just might do little steps plans to get better also in this area. 

cheers

Very interesting video :-)  This is an absolutely must-watch for any beginner !

Regarding these very short sessions, I don't think these are realistic unless you're single-tabling ultra-turbos.  I'm currently playing the $55's turbos on Stars, which take 9-12 minutes on average and I usually 2-table unless I'm too tired or am dealing with a tough opponent.  When two-tabling, your matches usually don't end at the same time and you often have one fish who's accepting rematches over and over again.

Last night, I had this problem that I was about to finish my session when some huge fish sat me.  He was really easy to play against and he had a two-digit negative ROI over a huge sample-size, average stake around $10 and total profit somewhere beyond -$7k.  It was a really long session and I was getting increasingly tired, so I closed the other table and set myself the limit of quitting immediately if he beats me two times in a row (didn't watch this video at that time yet ;-)).

It worked out great, though my play deteriorate more and more - after about two hours, I decided to quit if I lose one single match ... but then he went on crazy monkey-tilt and I'm pretty confident that I got his entire bankroll before he left - made some ~$450 in total after almost 3 hours :-)

After watching this video, I must admit that I got very lucky, I was so tired in the end that I could hardly focus at all anymore - the session only ended that well because the guy really did not have any fold button, all I had to do was wait till I had two pair+, then overbet-jam and he called me with ridiculous stuff like King high.  I think I would have lost badly against a less exploitable fish.

So I think being disciplined enough not to accept rematches against fish when you're too tired is also very important.

Regarding volume, I'm aiming at monthly goals - which is currently Platinum Star - which brings us to the next important topic:

Trying to reach or maintain any particular VIP level at some poker site can also be very bad - whatever you get in rakeback / bonuses etc. is not worth sacrificing your winrate for it.  Don't even try to run for SuperNova if you known that you just can't do it ... you're just setting yourself up for some crazy auto-piloting tilt-sessions at the end of the month / year otherwise.

So in addition to not looking at the cashier / your bankroll during your sessions, also don't look at how much VIP points you have any how many are missing etc., it's just not worth it.  There are a few $55 Regulars who proudly display their SuperNova status at the tables ... but if your SharkScope them, you realize they're only barely break-even ... wtf !  I'd rather be a Bronze-Star than a SuperNova fish :-)

Oh, one more thing just came to my mind ... which also reminds me of bad mistakes from the past:

Full Tilt's VIP system ... that's about the worst that I could think about in hindsight.  I don't play at the site anymore and I absolutely don't regret it.

What this system does is it basically forces you to play some 1.5-2 hours every single day if you want to reach Iron Man status.  I left the site before they introduced Iron Days and Iron Months.  Especially in months with less than 31 days, you basically had to play every single day at the beginning of the month, just in case there was a day where you couldn't make it later.

So every morning at 6 am local (during the DST overlay even at 5 am), which was midnight Full Tilt time, I hit the tables and tried to make these 200 points - no matter how much I worked the day before or how tired I was.  I simply wanted to play before going to work because I was scared that I could be too tired when I come back home, or decide to have a couple of beers with my coworkers etc.

Of course, things went horribly wrong and I quickly dumped my entire bankroll this way.  From a top winner at Titan's NL 200 to a NL 10 fish at Full Tilt in just barely 6 months.

At first sight, playing for 1.5-2 hours every day sounds great - but it just doesn't work out if you're having a very stressful daytime job, you'll just end up playing when you're way too tired for it.  It's much better if you can choose when you want to play, for instance do several short sessions on a Saturday when you're feeling relaxed and focused.

Or imagine the last day of the month is a Tuesday, you're very relaxed and focused the weekend before that, but your VIP points won't count, you absolutely have to play both on that Monday and that Tuesday ... but you have to work at least 10 hours on both of these days.  That's just horrible.  Most of the money I lost during this summer happened in exactly this scenario - it was the end of the month and I had to play to maintain my VIP status.

i know exactly the same problem. i am playing tired after work and focus on making iron man. this is really bad and u r right, one should not do that.

but now i am playing at a bit higher levels and i just preserve my continuning months, be it only bronze level.

unfortunately i lost confidence to PS software. there were extremely many suckouts all the time and since i play with FTP for a long time now, i must say FTP software seems to have the better randomizer.

on the other hand the VIP stuff as from supernova and up is very interesting. with supernova elite u make a fortune just playing BE and i cannot remember how much, but i guess also as only supernove it is still ok with playing BE only.

to be honest i was thinking yesterday about to move back to PS - HUSNGs on FTP are really dead in terms of action except the b...s..t STs.

Kuku I'm not sure how the whole Ironman thing works or how profitable it is but wouldn't you make more money by playing focused poker instead of going for Ironman? You may be losing money by going for Ironman but like I said I'm not sure what Ironman even gived you.

why don't you know bout iron man? u play as well on FTP and i guess u know that money out of ironman is meeeh.

however for me playing low volume it is still quite interesting.

and - i play focused and well like never. i managed to eleminate errors to a great extent.

but atm i can do what ever i like. i bet, stab with air and he calls, i bet with nuts he folds, i keep on being card dead, but i am patient. he calls every raise, i raise a monster, he folds. plus many suckouts, getting rivered - you name it.

i tried the super donkey 10$ STs, went well a long time at an incredible high ROI. but today i went down down down in ROI playing break even and the down again. i fell under 4% ROI, after telling myself i will quit STs if this happens.

i come back to normal turbos - i play 33$ isof 55$ - just to be more comfortable and hoping for less skilled villains - even though i am still rolled for 55s. but again i lose against a complete drooler.

atm i can do what ever i want. seems really that FTP put the bonus switch for donkey higher or more often on.

my motivation is really away - 550 BE stretch for me...almost 3 months with my little vol. i can play, but still gave away hundreds of hours for nothing.

games dry out like hell - and and and - PS not being an alternative as i do not trust PS anymore.

so - i guess i just started poker a few years too late when games were not wet and easy anymore. however it feels really easy when i play - so bad most of villains. but....no wins.

and of course no money to check with a coach if i am playing still OK. however i am really very convinced that i play my best poker atm. i will grind on, but if it continues like this - i just do not know - i like poker sooo much, i would miss something when i would stop and i would also miss my goal to finance a great vacation next year with my family - which would be really bad. just with average luck this would be easy easy easy...or a heater? does this really exist? or does FTP give this away only to donkies and HUSNG.COM pros?

i also tried yesterday 4 games of 18mans. i was a 9mans player for long and i do know how to play them. and as i followed the results of a guy who plays these and 45mans and 90mans at roi > 20% since long, i thought this might be an alternative. but i just found out that i do not like these games anymore and i was sucked out at 3 tables and managed to get last itm at the other table running 3 times in a row against a monster of the villain with almost no chips.

it just seems atm i can do what ever i like - it does not work - i would not be estonished when i would run probably even better in playing HUSNGs with shoving every hand....

i have to add that ironman for me is less for cashing in mid- and end-year bonus.

for me this is rather in terms of volume goals. and i just want to preserve my continuing months to get to a point where medals will be many, however this will take years. but i find it quite motivating if i can buy from the FTP or iron man store from time to time.

pls mooore videos about mental game

I think this vid is gonna help me a ton! Thank you a lot Cog!

Please delete it. I don't know why it got double posted.....

"And I'm saying to myself...ACE! ACE! ACE! Like some sort of idiot..."

LOL, the great abundance of information I get from your videos aside, this is why I enjoy watching your videos...your presentation and casual, dry humor speaking style.

I have a small bit of information to add to your "Alcohol/drugs" segment. In college psychology, we learned that if someone studies for a test after consuming a slight amount of alcohol, therefore getting a slight buzz, the person will not remember that information very well when it comes to test time unless he again consumes some alcohol before the test. In other words, you will better remember information you have studied if you are in the same mindset that you were when you were studying.

I think this also applies to smoking weed (in reference to the comment above).

I don't know how relavent that is...and it's especially not relavent to me, as I don't drink (alcohol makes me sick). It's much easier to control your actions if you never smoke or drink. I'm not judging people when it comes to drugs/alcohol, just stating the obvious, that it surely doesn't help there overall game.

just 20minutes, just a few black and white slides - but the content is so precious.

I will watch it again and again when realize i i'm close to tilt.

Awesome !

i guess this is the one of the most important videos here for all husng players

Hi, how can i watch this video? I see only screenshot and no download links...

Ahh, nevermind, logged at old account by mistake