State of the Game

So much going on right now. I'm hitting the "books" again - watching videos, reviewing notes, etc. I've set up a daily study routine that consists of:

• Reviewing notes
• Doing a session review and post hands/reply to forums
• Watching a video
• Deliberate Practice planning
• and finally recording a 1 or 2 hr deliberate practice session (to be reviewed at some point, still have to work on that)

Afterward, I'll take a short break and then grind for a while. I have and will be totally accountable and I think being able to focus on individual areas through study, review, and deliberate practice sessions will help my game get back up to speed and progress quickly.

I've set up a file system a la GTD for poker for "projects" and I think that will help me keep things just as organized as it has my life over the last year. The best thing of all is that having everything so well organized allows me to stop thinking about it, knowing it will be taken care of and not lost or forgotten, and focus on what I'm working on.

Currently, the projects are Diet, Exercise, and Sleep. Each week I will contribute something to each of these as long as they are still projects. As my study continues, I can add deliberate practice projects such as Math, 3betting, playing deep, playing live, etc.

I've also been reading the things on neuroeconomics. It's so fascinating how poker is connected to everything. It's just a game played with cards. No, it's a game of people, politics, and psychology. The psychology part alone is universal. At first you just think it's a game played with cards and chips. Then you realize there's some strategy behind it; it's not all luck. Then you realize there's actually math behind it. You can actually prove plays are correct mathematically and infer the amount you will win long-term, regardless of short-term results. For many, it stops here. Oh no, this rabbit hole goes much deeper.

Neuroeconomics, and the prospect theory in particular, explains a naturally occurring lapse in logic people experience when facing loss or gain. It isn't specifically meant for poker, but all the basics are there. And that is why poker is universal. The chips and cards are just tools, just objects, not really all that relevant. The core is the person, and that is why these studies that may have originally come from stock market studies, or sports psychology, or evolutionary tendencies-they can be applied to poker. It's a game about people.

Anyways, doing just some initial reading has given me insight on why I'm sometimes to careful or nervous before playing or getting involved in a hand. Why I sometimes lack confidence even though my results and all my logic tell me different. It's not and instant-fix, but the first step is understanding the problem. The last few days I felt a bit of a weight lifted just from the act of making the unknown, known. Now that my enemy is revealed, he can be defeated.