What It Takes to be Winning Player

• Training. Relentless training.
• Inner peace and calm.

This is the Master Key

"For any alpha manager, I think what we've learned in 2008 is, as commonly said, "the name of the game is staying in the game." Simply, this means that the idea of preserving capital, *not* generating alpha, on down markets is what is important. That's what passive investors pay active managers to do. In fact, one may argue that might be where most of the value in alpha management.

As a derivative of this psychology, a shrewd and experienced alpha manager, then, is observed by the metrics of how well he takes the pain. I have not been in finance as long as my other colleagues have, but one experienced trader, who entered Wall Street in the 70s aptly said that we just price in the swings on either direction. it's the long term average we're most concerned about. We take our buffer on the way up to prepare for the inevitable down swings. Once we expect these tracking errors, it's less of an emotional toll." -Goldman Sachs Trader 3/2010

Disgusted

I know every poker player thinks he runs bad, but damn the bad beats are taking its toll. I'm a huge underdog all-in preflop regardless of what I have. I wonder how long I can take this.

Discipline, Patience, Zen

[ ] Continue to build my poker foundation until it's a strong, solid, pillar that will not crumble under losses, bad beats, or major downswings.

My poker foundation will be built with there main components:

Discipline. Patience. Zen.

Downswing Continues

Dropped another 5 buy-ins at $22. Truth is, half of that was bad beats and the other I think poor play. I think I'm going to move down to $11. This is killing me.

Current bank-roll: $2,368
Bank-roll just two days ago: $2,586

*edit
Current bank-roll: $2,301
need to regroup

Beat the Player, Not the Game

I realize more and more that you have to play the player and not your cards. It is nearly impossible to become a winning player if your strategy is to just wait for the nuts or a strong hand because by the time that happens, your stack will be dwindled.

Tilted a lot today and yesterday. It seems like my biggest problem is mental control. sigh. Still searching for the golden secret that will help me maintain composure and focus.

Goals

[ ] adapt to opponents quicker in my game & identify player types sooner
[ ] learn how to beat fish- threw away too many buy-ins to terrible players
[ ] +$6k
[ ] better balance - don't tilt, reoccuring theme here
[ ] more study time
[ ] gym 6x week

[ ] Play my A-game every game, every hand, every single day.
[ ] Continue to build my poker foundation until it's a strong, solid, pillar that will not crumble under losses, bad beats, or major downswings.

I stole the first set of goals right off the blog of a great husng player- bpmst2. It's really inspiring to me that I, a low level $22 grinder have the same goals as such a good player. Based on his list of goals, it seems we have the same problems- mainly tilt and losing to players that are much worse. Just yesterday, I played a fish who belongs at $2 and out of 8 games at $22 we were even. There's no excuse for that. If I was playing my A-game it should have been at least 6-2.

I also need to start going to the gym more often because I kinda lost my motivation. All I focus on is poker but you need a good balance to get your mind right and gym is the perfect yin to the yang. Or yang to the yin, whatever you prefer.