[TheMightyJim2k]

Was listening to an episode of Pokerwire radio this morning and found Howard Lederer talking about an interesting concept that I have been trying to apply to my poker game for the last couple of months.

In an attempt to try and make the best possible decisions in the moment every time it makes sense that you should practice Zen while playing poker. The idea is that the thoughts of the past and future dissappear, and you only focus on making the best decision right now on the hand happening right now. You maintain your experience that gives you knowledge and the ability to improve your decision making, but you do not let any ups or downs, wins or losses, bad beats, suckouts, long term goals, or fears get in the way of making what you believe is the best decision.

Of course this is only possibly if you practice very stringent bankroll management, so that you do not need to be closely watching your bankroll as you play.

What I have done in an attempt to achieve a closer to Zen state when playing poker, is that I am no longer keeping up my detailed bankroll XL sheet. I haven't updated it since April, and I probably won't look at it again. I came to realize after a tough downswing, that the game was turning into that sheet. I focused more on the ups and downs over the course of my 100,000+ hands that I kept a tally on that sheet, and focused less on how I had played in an individual session. I also realized that my pokertracker data was how I was measuring my decision making, but that I was ignoring the actual decisions and my reasoning, and purely focusing on statistical outcomes. While I could see when I was running or playing poorly, I was not studying why I had made these mistakes, I was focusing on the outcome of them. This actually created a negative association with my play, created doubt in my mind, and caused me to dislike the grind as well as tilt more easily (something I felt that I had previously avoided well).

Since I have stopped focusing on all of these statistics I found a couple of things. First I am back to enjoying playing a LOT more. I actually am a little frustrated because I have been so busy with baseball, work, and travelling lately that I have not gotten in enough hands.

Second my losses are not changing the way that I play, but my poor decisions are more easily identified. Because I am not focusing on how much I am up or down every session on every hand, I can more easily identify when I missed a value bet, or made a mistake with a raise or fold. I am constantly analyzing the decisions on the individual hands and not whether I can get even or win big before I quit for the night. Also when I drop 20BB during a session I don't worry so much about the outcome, because I don't have to go look at the drop in my graph and the impact it will make on my BB/100. Since I am no longer measuring my outcome in a macro way, I don't let the short term variance unhinge my state of mind and impact my approach on a hand for hand basis.

Finally I am able to focus more each hand. I find I am doing a better job of hand reading, and especially in HU limit (something I am becoming very fond of) I find that I am doing a better job of understanding my opponents state of mind and thinking ahead of them and exploiting their approach to each hand. My reads are not being clouded by negative or over-excited thoughts, and my estimation of my opponents is not tainted by these emotionally charged instances. I definitely feel like I am able to think my way through the hand, and get inside my opponents heads better than before.

Now for a quick disclaimer...I am currently playing with a bankroll of over 1000BB for the levels I am playing, and I would not recommend relaxing your bankroll management and book keeping unless you are so well padded for the levels you are playing. Also I still enter all of my hands into poker tracker because I believe that I can still use that statistical data for analysis and understanding of my game, as long as I focus on what it means for certain hands and certain decisions points, and don't assign it artificial meaning as to the outcome of my wins and losses. Plus I think it is important that I still be able to understand whether or not I am currently at least breaking even at these games (although any cursory understanding of your bankroll should allow you to figure that out).

since taking this approach my results have been....well they've been good. For quite some time. And while I am positive that I have been running pretty well, I also think that I am playing better than I did in the past. and coming off of a very prolonged and rough downswing this has opened my eyes to a new facet of the game that I feel like gets little attention.

I'm sure much better articles and books have been written about the above. But I hadn't read them when I started this, and was kind of surprised to hear Lederer talking about how important he thinks have such an approach is to the game. I also think it is a way for people like me, who are unwilling to go busto, to devalue the money the way the sick gamblers do.

I don't know for certain if this approach would work for everyone, but if you are able to practice good bankroll management without having meticulous records, I highly recommend this approach as a way to improve both your mental state while playing, your approach to the game, and your decision making on individual hands.

just some thoughts that I thought others might find interesting.

[machinelf]

Damn, that was some very interesting reading. The approach seems to make perfect sense to me. I'm glad you have the discipline to follow through with it! Congrats on your success and state of mind.

[don11]

I remember someone, I think it was Howard who suggested this book in his videos

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Poker-.../dp/0452281261



edited to add: it could have been "Zen and the Art of Archery" that I saw in his videos.
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Archer.../dp/0375705090

http://www.pokerjunkie.com/module-re...ent-id-91.html

[TheMightyJim2k]

don -

I have flipped through that book at the store quite a few times, but never picked it up. I know several other CTers have recommended it, and I feel like I should definitely pick it up. Unfortunately I am still in the middle of three other books right now (two of them are poker books), but it is definitely a good suggestion for my next read.

[Poboy]

Originally Posted by TheMightyJim2k

I also realized that my pokertracker data was how I was measuring my decision making, but that I was ignoring the actual decisions and my reasoning, and purely focusing on statistical outcomes. While I could see when I was running or playing poorly, I was not studying why I had made these mistakes, I was focusing on the outcome of them. This actually created a negative association with my play, created doubt in my mind, and caused me to dislike the grind as well as tilt more easily (something I felt that I had previously avoided well).

I think PT has made a lot of people lazy about studying their game. It's absolutely key to go over each session's hand histories.

[the3rd]

I have heard about the Zen approach to poker, but never looked into how to apply it. Thanks for sharing your experience, Jim.

[TheMightyJim2k]

Originally Posted by the3rd

I have heard about the Zen approach to poker, but never looked into how to apply it. Thanks for sharing your experience, Jim.

thanks for reading, and you're very welcome.

I was kind of surprised about the difference in my mental state while playing. I am a strict advocate of bankroll management, and I think keeping detailed records is the first step towards becoming a serious player. However with the rut I was in I felt like something needed to be changed, and I felt the weakness in my game was more mental than mechanical. If nothing else this had reinvigorated my poker game, and has me having more fun playing than I have had in awhile. Treating each hand as a beginning and end by itself has me thinking of poker as a strategic and mental challenge, which is the most intriguing aspect of the game to me and the reason I got hooked.

[boondocker96]

Excellent post!

Makes for quite the good read.

[Trinistand]

Thanks for the great read.

I've had a similar happening with poker where I kept track of my bankroll religiously in between games. I do still have a "poker" fund set aside, but I only deposit into it at the beginning of each year and pretty much think of it as spent money.

It's definitely allowed me to buy into a table without any real worries and to start eliminating (I say start because sometimes I can't help myself) worries about the factors external to the hand at the moment.

Will be reading this again soon, I figure...

[tikipirate]

This is an older thread, but I can't stress what a good book about decision making and learning "Zen and the Art of Archery" is. It was required reading for my Classical Military Strategic Theory class. Highly recommend it, it focuses on just what the OP talked about.