Poker is ever evolving and what works today may or may not work tomorrow. 

what kind of read did you have for the V.

Let us define the term V:

1. Villain 
2. Vodka 
3. the mighty V (vagina) 

All these words at times are interchangeable! (I say this because one time I drank 3/4 bottle of vodka and asked my girl friend if I could have some vodka, she said yes and so I got naked)

All these things can make you happy and other times not so much!

When they make you happy, keep doing whatever it is your doing.

When they make you angry, aggravated or in anyway affect your thinking process in a negative fashion,

STOP!  

Do not sit down to continue your game yet. Click on the sit out button

In this instance ya had almost 30 BB, plenty of time.

Don’t use # 2 to help with #’s 1 or 3 it doesn’t work… I know I’ve tried, many times.

This is what I do (keep in mind I play live so I get some odd looks):

For every event that makes a negative impact on your game gets a mark. So by reading your first post I get the following marks:

1. In a hurry (never hurry, it somehow gets integrated into your game for a few hands)
2. Wife not cooperating (Talk with her well before the game and try to come to an arrangement, maybe she’ll bring you that coffee, compromise and take her for some bangers and mash or something. If you tell her your going to do something do it when you tell her you’ll do it, don’t make excuses)
3. Microwave not available (get a small coffee maker in the room ya play in, if she allows it)
4. late after break (look at it like this, with 30 BB early to mid game isn’t going to make or break your tournament life)

So for every mark I take a half a minute  to sit out, During this time (at first it will seem like an eternity) I do breathing exercises and meditate for half the time, then 5 push ups for each mark to rid me of the bad Adrenalin (I believe this step is important, something physical), finally breathing exercises till time is up. Don’t watch the cards or the game as that can make things worse. 

online levels are what ….6 mins. so that’s a 1/3 of a level you’ll miss, but you’ll have peace of mind, a clear head to continue your grove on.

This is what works for me, everybody’s different, find what works for you. 

Riceman,

I have not read that but will look into it.

As far as poker and martial arts goes a good poker player/Martial artist is able to control his/her emotions, keep calm under pressure, and see weakness that he/she can exploit in the Villain/enemy.

When you left for break you were in a hurry, scampered to the kitchen to make tea and crumpets, releasing adrenaline. (know it was coffee just throwing a little bad humor in). The lovely little lady decided to use the micro at the exact time (no that wasn’t planed or anything), and brain releases more adrenaline along with a little thing called peptides (more on that in a minute). Being late more adrenaline and different type of peptides. Running back so as not to miss anything and then really feeling like ya messed up.

Lots of adrenaline and a couple different types of peptides are released. The adrenaline magnifies the effects of the peptide emotional response. Each type of peptide has it’s own little receptor in your brain. The more each type of peptide is used the more receptors it has. So if somebody gets angry a lot, lots of anger peptide receptacles he/she has, same for fear, love, and so on. 

These emotional responses stay with us for some time whether we know it or not, and the Adrenaline magnifies and keeps the peptides in place longer (hence people snap for no reason, unless their just wack jobs anyway). 

With that said guess what your emotional state was when you sat back down to play poker.

The physical exercises I mentioned burns off the adrenaline allowing the peptides to be released while doing the mediation and breathing exercises (allows us to go to our happy place, if you will). 

Yes folks there is science behind this.

Now all I need to do is take my own advice more often, as I don’t always do as I should!

Talk at ya later,

Ray

Hey Riceman, the first thing you need to do is to stop blaming other people for your misfortunes

Riceman,

Fear leads to the dark side! Which in a round about way is true. We all have the fight or flight thingy kicking, but need to recognize that they both produce the same emotional response with in us. 

In early to mid game (when BB is below say 500 chips) unless we’re being tricky, most of the time, I’ve found, we only collect the blinds when we 3 or 4 bet our AA and KK maybe a little more. The chance of getting them after we come back off break is in fact slim, coupled with the fact that early to mid blinds are low we loose more coming back tilted than we would win when we get them. Later in the game, or if short stacked at any point in the game is a different tale altogether.

Also early in the game the wack jobs are still in it that will call your 3 bet holding next to nothing and then suck out on ya. I have come back from a break (back when online was legal in Florida, before Governor DipS_ _t made it not okay to play), and would have that exact thing happen. Dude gets his favorite hand (J4s) or something just as offensive and suck out on me. Got tired of it and that’s when I started the exercise thing then later incorporated the breathing exercises. 

Off to TPE university to watch more vids.

Regards,

Ray

I’ve been watching and reading through the TPEU, and in coarse 1 the section for Articles to my pleasant surprise in a couple of the articles it is mentioned that meditation before a game is good and should improve ones game. In yet another it states that poker should not be played 7 days a week as it degrades ones game.

Being you work 4 days a week and are off 3 (which incidentally is my schedule as well) If you’re playing all 3 of your days off and working the other 4 I believe its the same as playing all 7. It may be possible to improve your win rate by playing 2 days a week and taking the other day for your children (if you have them) and or your loving wife.

Not that you don’t already do this but thought I’d throw it out there.

In the forums I wrote a topic in “off topic” titled “More in life than poker” check it out.  

Sounds like me in my teens playing microarmor and D&D. Whole weekends would pass un-noticed.

More power to ya Brother!