The Inner Fish

Its been a month since my last blogpost and I haven't played much poker, mainly due to my Dads ongoing illness. Travelling from work to the hospital and keeping up a rota of visiting with my brother has been very time consuming so poker has taken a back seat as has a lot of things in my life.

 On a more positive note, I've hired a coach Barry Clark and had a fantastic couple of hours with him he has stripped my game almost back to basics to build a good foundation and also introduced some poker fundamentals I've never come across in any book or poker publication and I'm extremely happy with the direction poker and my life is taking as a result of Barrys input.

When you take a big step like taking on a coach many things run through your mind, am I ready for this? am I attempting to run before I can walk? will the coaching be worth the outlay?... I needn't have worried! Barry has given my game a structure a "Modus Operandi" he's taught me the correct way to review hands not just how but when and this alone has been a revelation and if this was the only thing I got from him it would have been worthwhile.

Barry works a lot with a persons "temperament" in a very specific way and although we have only skimmed the surface in relation to poker I know its going to be massively beneficial.

TEMPERAMENT    an individual's character, disposition, and tendencies as revealed in his reactions

 One of the reasons I decide to ask Barry to coach me was because I felt that tilt was subtly interfering with my play, I mean I wasn't throwing huge tantrums as a result of a bad beat and I always thought I was handling it well but it was knocking me off my A game and even my B game in a really subtle way.
  

When I deem myself to be a superior player to the guy who is getting the better of me, I find it really hard to take, I know the guys a fish but he keeps chipping into my stack and I find myself becoming increasingly more frustrated until my decision making process is in bits then I find that all gains and profits I've grinded out in the session disappear in one or two moments of madness. I've called this situation my Inner Fish and I'm convinced if I can keep this crazy aspect of myself subdued I'll be profitable in the long run.
So to combat this I'm just focusing on the present moment, just observing my opponents play without reacting emotionally to it nor judging it just simply focusing on my decision making process and mindfully staying serene and in the NOW, if I can stay in this "state" my game will improve and profits will follow.

 Check out Barrys bit of the interweb at http://bazclark.com/