Today was a good day. All day long I have been thinking about poker. I bought the new All-In magazine and read an interesting article with Howard "The professor" Lederer. The article bescribes him as an extremly hard working guy who put a 100% in what ever he does. He tries to learn every part of it. Poker of course but also he got interested in Jazz music thru a friend and started to study it. The lyrics, the instruments and so fourth. In a couple of weeks he new how the jazz music was built. It´s very inspiring to read. Thats the way I am, 100% or nothing.
There is a lot of aspects of poker and thats what makes it so exciting. One of those is being able to take decisions under pressure. Lederer read a lot about Zen, wich I think of as an half religion and half spiritual movement with focus on meditation and being aware of the moment. He says that it helps him to clear his mind from the camera lights, audience and opponents when making an important decision. Thats what I need, being able to make decision with a clear mind. Often I think ahead when making a decision, I see the $´s going from the center of the table to my bankroll, and then I just click. I need to able to relax taking my time. I need to mind-practice.
It´s very hard to change a habbit. In my appartment wich me, my girlfriend and her 2 kids live, I like to keep it tidy. But the kids keep putting their stuff all over and they rarely clean up after them self in the kitchen. And of course that means Im after them all the time. Reminding them. Since I need to change the habbit of staying too long in pokerhands, I will mindpractice by not reminding the kids to clean and pick up their stuff all the time. It´s going to be very hard. But if I can change the habbit of complaining all the time (the fact that I think it´s right to learn the kids to keep it tidy is irrelevant here) I should be able to change my bad poker habbits. It´s all in the mind.
Another way of help myself to stay disciplined is to play at multiple tables, because then I know that I have other option then just the hand for the moment. So today I played at 3 tables at the same time. I was very disciplined, counted the odds all the time and folded when I thought I was dominated or not having the odds to continue I folded. It was easier to fold because I knew that another hand was coming up in seconds at another table. I was very thight I played, less then 30 % of the hands. I played for 2,5 hours and the first 2 hours I didn´t get so many good hands or if I did I missed the flop. But then then I had a 5 minut period with very good cards and flops that help me. I especially remember 3 hands at three different tables at the same time. AK, AKs and 99. On the AK table I raised from early position, I flopped top pair and hit the K on the turn. I won with two pair. At the AKs table I first just limped in because I wanted a lot of callers, if I should make the flush. After 3 callers after me the fourth guy raises. Then I re-raised knowing that to others would call me. They did and the raiser re-raised and I then made the final raise. Me and four opponent where in. The flop was AA8, and thats the truth. At showdown there where no possible straight or flush and there was 23 big bets in the pot, wich I won. At the third table, 99, I flopped trips, and I won that hand also. This happened at the same time. Incredible. So I ended in a positive way. I also managed to quit in time.
This was a good day.
