Random thought :)

how do we know you haven't already reached the state of full psychopathy, and that you aren't just compulsively lying to us?

I dont think your problem is that gain/loss thing. I feel like your goal in poker is different from others.

If your getting some satisfaction from being able to survive off poker or the mental challenge or freedom or whatever your doing a solid job and are in fact a psychopath.

But I think alot of the other more established players here dont think that way and view poker as one of many vehicles to build wealth or networth and im not sure you have given up mindset A for mindset B.

confirmed psychopath

It's not really mainly about poker, I do that in everything (sports, cleaning, health, uni, used to do it with chicks...) I mean it's been working out well so far but I'd much prefer to actually reach my peak performance states without having to force myself into corner/creating anxiety. It's not really a problem as vast majority of people are wired this way (losses just have higher value than gains from a survivalist standpoint, behavioral economists have well documented that), but an improvement point

Yea well I have similar tendencies as well. Losses affect me pretty strongly. Probably the same for lots of players. Gl~

remember that pic from mental game of poker which looked like the bell curve, showing that everyone needs certain amount of anxiety to achieve top performance?

Oh yeah
I guess the curve will be different for each individual. and my optimal level is shifted a lot to the right on the anxiety level axis.


Thanks for that

or maybe you are overly negative and always feeling "pressed against the wall, staring into the face of impending doom"

ie not drinking enough

This might work if you could control your bodies levels of anxiety with a slider on the back of your head. It sounds like you are trying to justify not scaling back on anxiety causing actives. Burnout is a real thing, listen to your body.

On September 02 2015 01:19 Rinny wrote: This might work if you could control your bodies levels of anxiety with a slider on the back of your head. It sounds like you are trying to justify not scaling back on anxiety causing actives. Burnout is a real thing, listen to your body.

I mean it sort of does work


It's pretty natural for me and I deal with it reasonably well - I artificially stress myself out when I want to perform, especially when I have to cause I'm pressed against the wall, put in a lot of effort above the comfort zone for various periods of time, and then burn out to a certain degree. Rinse and repeat - and I have been managing this well, naturally manipulating it to stress myself out and give peak performance when it mattered, and then bouncing back from the fatigue.My mental states over time are like a Yo-Yo and I got good at managing it I believe. Needless to say, consistency was never my thing in anything.

Fear is the lowest form of motivation. You want to avoid using fear to make you perform better. The best thing to do is find a way to be motivated like an 8 year old child, with thinking ONLY about incentives and things that excite you. What can you choose to do in life as a goal that will make you feel calm, and not anxious? It takes a lot of visualization and feeling how your body reacts to certain ideas. A relaxed heart and chest in a visualization about a future job or date or big life decision is what is good.

In poker i was mostly driven by fear of money, it took way too much energy to do something like that. Very unhealthy.

The highest form of motivation is love as far as i know. I dont really think poker fits in there easily, maybe for some people in an indirect way with the money they earn to support their family and themselves

Well one reason I love poker is because of the pressure and anxiety - I seem to enjoy it. I've been just seeking out those environments it seems because they force me to perform well in them, and I do get satisfaction when I put effort into something?

And poker's even greater cause it allows me to take time off and take it easy when I do get exhausted. And I always have looked for these environments, and even if there really was no pressure, like at the office, I artificially created it so I could perform. E.G. I was great at uni stuff - I was one of the smartest kids there (doesn't say much at business school I know :D) but I'd always wait to the very last second to start on my essays, even my dissertation to put myself under immense pressure - if I'd start any later I'd have no way of finishing it/passing. For example I've written over half my undergraduate dissertation between 11pm and 7am. Where I had to submit it at 9am. And that's when I produced my best work. And generated great levels of fatigue, seemingly unnecessarily but now I understand that it was actually for a good reason. No other job felt more "right" for me than poker in this regard, and I've been in quite a few really diverse ones.


I think you're right that part of the re-programming probably includes constant effort towards setting goals, and visualizing positive outcomes and creating focus that way, along with mindfulness and living in the present moment. I'll try to find out. But eventually being able to consistently put in my best effort and reach optimal levels of performance without the fear and high levels of anxiety would be awesome, for my overall mental state, and for consistency in everything I do. And for moving up the stakes finally for crying out loud



EDIT: Yeah, driven by love. Like Psychopaths in a sense

I am biased because compulsively playing games/ playing poker/ programming fucked up my arm and derailed my life but please man take of yourself. Your physical/ mental health is way more important than any short term results.

On September 02 2015 15:55 Rinny wrote: I am biased because compulsively fapping fucked up my arm and derailed my life

fixed ur fapping post

ill see myself out

actually dogmeat i think that definitely contributed I didn't list it because it's a bit embarrassing . Coincidentally this blogpost about burnout was the top of hacker news today https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10160998

On September 01 2015 23:40 dogmeat wrote: or maybe you are overly negative and always feeling "pressed against the wall, staring into the face of impending doom"

should tell you something when dogmeat says you're too negative =D

Agree with approaching like an 8 year old. Be excited and intrigued at every option in every street of poker like a video game with no consequences except that if you die you reset your 100bb or w/e and start again. I definitely have all my best sessions with this mindset.