im currently in university, studying psychology.So when i suddenly realised, i was thinking differently towards playing poker, i thought it was quite important, and an indicator of something important (if that makes any sense at all l o l)before i go too far Off-Topic ill try to word it better:Basically, at a point in the past, i felt like i had to win every game, as if every game contributed to my money/month won, and i got super upset when losing a flip in endgame, and superhappy when winning one, i think its fair to say, variance influenced my mood. if i had a loosing day, i did not at all feel like i made for example 8$/game, even though, that are my longterm results, i felt like they were 10$/game but now dropped to 8$/game, perhaps because of not knowing my "true" x$/game.Nowadays, or at least, since recent times. i feel like, it all doesnt matter, if i lose a flip, im just pffff, if i drop 2K for the day, its all good as long as i played well, and everyday, when i go to bed, even after a losing day, if i know i played good, and learned a thing or two, i feel like a winner, and if i played alot of games, i feel like it was a good day of work, even though i lost $$ i just am happy, i did my best and put in the hours on the virtual felt. i wonder if this is a good mindset change or not, obv, trying to win every game, cant be bad, but at the same time, reaching a zenlike feeling towards loosing money cant be bad either.im not only asking this question to mers, its also for other people out there who noticed something similair!! i think this is a very funny psychological phenomena.
Hi Jack,Funny, I feel the same. When I started playing poker I was focused mainly on $ profit. I always looked in HEM at my hourly $ and calculating monthly profits, f.e. "ok, so I get on avg 1,2$ per game, so if I played 10 games/day I'd be up to $$$ at the end of the month..". I got angry every time I lost a game, no matter if I played good or bad, because it made my calculations wrong. That was driving me crazy sometimes.But I realised it didn't work. I was very frustrated after loosing and therefore playing very occassionally. Not improving much, playing same straightforward poker... I don't know why, but my mindset changed towards being more decision oriented. I started thinking about my poker decisions as $, so every good decision is like a dollar earned, every bad decision is like a loss. I stopped playing scary money poker, and now I'm experimenting a lot during my games, so I have a feeling I've improved much recently. I even sit only regs (even those playing on higher stakes than mine) now to just see how they play, what they do differently than me and to learn sth new.In my case the reason may be that I'm full time employed, studying finances and doing other interesting stuff and I'm really satisfied with my personal and professional life. I've never cash out even a dollar and I'm using my bankroll as a tool to learn poker - after an upswing I'm jumping level up in stakes, taking shots at good regs at 2x higher stakes than mine to see how their play differs from mine or buying access to sites like this.And this 'indirect' approach to profit in poker really makes me playing much better and learning much faster.Regards