I haven't played much poker the last few days but I have spent time thinking about tilt control and how to deal with it. I believe that I have better tilt control than most but that doesn't stop me from making efforts to further improve controlling and preventing tilt. So I did a little reading up on implicit encoding and ways of dealing with harmful forms of it.

Naturally, the implicit encoding I'm interested in is the form delivered by negative experiences. In my/our case, the negative experiences I refer to concerns poor and destructive decision making triggered by losses incurred while playing poker or trading.

We have all had experience with a bad beat or two which become infinitely worse when we tilt and make many, many marginal decisions to "win it back,'' or get even on the day/session. Even those with incredible discipline or not immune to turning themselves into complete degenerates with zero discipline. Such behavior calls the question, why doesn't explicit advise like " keep your discipline" or "take a walk" which requires discipline, work? Well, it appears that explicit advise - like the previous examples - are fairly useless because the negative experience is deeply and implicitly encoded in the brain. It's something seemingly without structure that happens behind the scenes. Tilt is not a process of I'm going to burn money and this is how it will be structured and scripted. So one of the best solutions might be forms of relaxation and imagery (before tilt) that calms the mind and body. It helps maintain emotional control and prevent the wallet from getting thin.

If you are interested in investigating what I've been reading, on this matter, search "implicit encoding" or SFBT, which stands for Solution Focused Behavioral Therapy and please share your thoughts.

F

I often spend time -a lot of it - thinking about the hazards of asymmetry in the markets. Couple asymmetry with intense magnitude and things can get very dangerous for some and quite profitable for others. An example would be a time series in the market where "buying dips" becomes popular because it's been profitable. People often engage in some such fadish theory and make money, sometimes a lot, for a while. Inevitably the day of reckoning arrives and the participants who are long xyz, watch xyz go down in price. They see opportunity and buy more xyz.. Prices continue to fall and they continue to buy. Prices then tumble and everyone runs for the exit and sells which causes more selling and sometimes a panic. A classic example of winning small many times while risking a monstrous loss very infrequently. Akin to picking up nickels in front of a steam roller. So how does this apply to poker? Well, lots of poker maniacs often play in similar fashion to the fools in the aforementioned example.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2917987 ...In this hand, the maniac had a vpip of about 55 and would pot or shove every flop or turn. He got plenty of people to fold and he was picking up quite a few pots. His style was affecting the entire table so I adjusted by tightening up and waiting for something decent against his most likely wide range. I finally got TPFD and was ready to get it in. Not too surprisingly, even though it was a limped pot we managed to get it all-in . It always nice to make money but the kicker was that just prior to our hand he was trash talking another player and silenced him with "what, no more talk." I couldn't resist and typed in chat " hey ..where's the talk."

Beware of situations with a high probabilty of winning a little and a small probability of getting squashed. There's usually a great opportunity in just that type of siuation.

F

I was reading an interesting article about war and how a strategy quip from SunTzu relates to war on the green felt. Here is the passage; " They are seeing what they want to see, without considering the very different culture they have entered. This is how our government operates: they always begin by looking at our technology, our superior firepower and devising a strategy from there. They inevitably ignore the very sage advice of Sun-tzu who said, "What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy." That should always be your starting point--looking outward, not inward."

A simple poker analogy is a villain who only looks at his hand, in terms of relative strength/weakness. Let's say he has AA and we hold a measly baby pair, 22. Villain raises 4 x BB from UTG, action folds to us and we call. Flop comes T-7- 2 rainbow and we are HU. Villain cbets, we call or raise. Odds are we get his stack on the flop or the turn. We listened to Sun-tzu and looked outward (villain's range), as oppossed to looking at the relative strength of 22 vs AA. We have a great shot at his stack.

F

Over the weekend I played a lot of poker and was considering spending Monday night decompressing. However, once I got home from work I felt like playing so I took a few minutes to relax and clear my head before I fired up the tables. Btw, clearing the head, is something attempt with consistency. Sometimes it's just a little quite time and other times it involves watching a poker video or finding some players whose game I respect and watching them for several orbits.

Anyway, I got involved in in a decent hand early with KJ driving the bus. I raised the UTG limper www.pokerhand.org, who I had never played before and hit a well disguised bouble gutter. The flop was very wet and I could have easily cbet, but I decided to check. The check slowed down the action and I've been thinking about the merits, if any, of my decision. My hand could withstand a decent raise and make stacking the villain elementary, so I'm not overly pleased with my decision. Anyway I hit on the turn and put in a small raise over his donk bet, expecting him to reraise. He just called which confused me a bit as I couldn't understand his line of play or how strong/weak he was. The river probably didn't hurt me, and the only holding I was worried about was AJ, but I didn't see him holding that so I would have most likely called a shove, but not without a degree of trepidation. He called and the berateing ensued. He ripped on me for my line with a gutshot, and I advised him to reexamine the flop. I shouldn't have said anything but whatever.

Here, www.pokerhand.org/, I flopped the ass end but hit the good side on the turn and all the money went in with the straight holding against a set. Phew.

This next hand was a bizarre bottom set in a limped pot, www.pokerhand.org/. I was considering folding to the 3rd bet, but there was so much in the pot that if the villain held any kind of a FD, in his range, I was in decent shape, so I went with it and shoved.

Overall I've been taking more time, during each hand, thinking about the villain's range. I think this is starting to help in several ways. I am planning more appropriate lines and am able to make better decisions, especially in terms of mucking the worst hand. I've played many hands, quite poorly, only because I failed to consider my opponent's range and how I fared against it. So putting an opponent on a range is a process I'm giving much more attention.

F

Last week I took a few days off from work, and poker, to spend time with friends before our 20 yr H.S. reunion. It was a great time and by Saturday, and after 4 rounds of golf, my arms were total mush. I haven't swung a club since 92, so playing that much took it's toll , regardless of the shape I'm in. It was really great to hang with my old crew and even better to not embarrass ourselves by being out of shape, over the hill nits

As far as the reunion is concerned, we decided to make a Big Budget, Grand entrance, and walk in an hour late. Making an entrance was nice as we were greeted by the buzz of the crowd and swarmed by our former classmates. I was very glad to see that most were in good health and spirits. As you can imagine, the libations, jokes and hugs flowed freely.

When a girl I had a major crush on came over to say hi, I privately laughed because after all these years I was, just like back in the day, quitely nervous and eager with anticipation. She looked great and the sight of her made me feel as excited as it did when I was but a teenager. I don't think I've felt that way since H.S. so the reunion will forever remain a fond recollection of young, innocent and happily naive emotions, 20 years after living them. It made me think how much I've been through in life, since H.S. and I momentarily became somber as I thought about the innocence we held at that age. An innocence that in many ways is a personal and private treasure that scarcely, if ever, reveals itself. My Natalie was a babe then and is still.

F

Expectations are not met, and suddenly you find yourself dealing with a most hated and formidable nemesis, anxiety. The heat and pressure rise, and you can hear and feel your head splinter, like the man about to face doom during that crazy time in Pampolona. So how can learn from this behavior, when we witness others, or ourselves, under the spell, and what the hell does this have to do with shoving a combo draw or maximizing on that sneaky straight that you just hit?

Well, what brought up the topic was my boss, who everyday reminds me of Australopithicus. And I would absolutely prefer that he remain deep in the cave with his simple stone tools. Unfortunately, present circumstances and my twisted fantasies are incoungruent, but I can still make lemonade out of those lemons. On to more serious stuff.

So, over the last two weeks I've watched my boss put himself into what poker would call a reverse implied odds fisting, of the medevel variety. Example: Two Friday's ago, at around noon, he asked me if I thought he should leave early. My response, " It's a holiday weekend, you are single, with no children , and some bills to burn. Why stay?" He disregarded my advice and proceeded to trade himself into a horrible postiion at the worst time. To make matters worse, he has the emotional maturity of a three year old, so when his expectations aren't meet he dishes out profanities like a man in a chickem costume, handing out coupons to a free lunch. You can say I have a quickly corroding tolerance for the man.

Anyway, watching him set off his doom switch made me think about maintaing emotional control when I play poorly or hit the ugly end of variance. Generally I'm good at keeping my cool but there have been times when I was the spewtard and handed it out. Fortunately, things like posting hands, thinking about hands, responding to others' posts, seem to slowly be improving many subtle, yet critically important aspects of my play.

In the end, we can only be in or out of control of ourselves!!

FAO

Many years ago there was a famous trader who was kind enough to give seminar style pep talks to new traders. When I first started trading and heard about him and that he was giving a short seminar I gladly joined the other noobs and attended. I remember him repeatedly saying, "you gotta love to lose." And what he meant was when you had a trade go against you just pitch it, get out and start over. It's much easier for a new guy who doesn't know how to handle himself to simply get out, and move on to the next trade. You can always get in agaain and it's often much better to just clear your head and see things anew. Adding on to a losing trade is akin to gettin your money in playing poker with horrible reverse implied odds, or in a dead, W/B situation. I know I've certainly done it.

Another saying of his was "know your edge." Sounds like poker huh? Well, if you don't know what an edge is or that you have it, it becomes very hard to make money and incredibly easy to lose. Simple to implement in theory but amazing how often we can overlook the obvious.

Oddly, it took a long time for those snippets of wisdom to sink in. But when they did it made a world of difference to my bottom line.

Cheers,

FAO

Lately I've been concerned with my spew and tilty behavior. Generally I'm very much in control of my emotions, as a trader you must be, but I have found myself losing control while playing poker. I've spent some time thinking about why this has been an issue, and I've come up with the following. I haven't been meeting my expectations at the tables and I'm letting it get to me. I've allowed my frustration to fester and it has only led to poor decisions resulting in lost monies. Fortunately , I'm very honest with myself and I can remedy this problem. Most of the time, problems can be solved and my current situation is not an exception.

For now I will redfine my short term goals, in poker, toward focusing on theory and different lines of play. I am also doing an intense hand review of the last two months to correct big leaks in my game.

Outside of poker I will return to meditating on a daily basis. I keep myself in excellent shape but I believe that the constant stimulation of trading has altered the chemistry of my brain, and not in a favorable way. By meditating I plan on rewiring and adjusting the brainwaves to achieve a more even keel. My intention is to maintain a more relaxed state throughout the day as opposed to being a slave to the constant need for some sort of stimulation. This constant need for "action" can be very problematic for traders and poker players. I've seen many a trader engage in destructive behavior to feed the need for stimulation and action. Very little good can from such immature, reckless behavior.

Cheers,

F

I decided to take a few days off from poker and work on other areas of my life. Anyway, I've been told that I can come across as very intimidating so I spent a little time thinking of how I might be able to soften the rough spot. What I came up with was to focus on smiling with my eyes. And in particular to do that with women.

So on my lunch break I decided to enjoy a fine day in Chicago with a cigar and try the smiling eyes. I was really surprised how well it worked . I made eye contact with several good looking women and they responded immediately. I then briefly spoke with one and she agreed to meet me later in the week. Cool. I then figured why stop there, lets go somwehere after work and try it again.

After work I squeezed in a quick kettlebell workout and went to a local bar/restaurant on the northside. At the bar I found a spot next to a woman who seemed to be alone. I decided to waite a few minutes before saying anything. I knew one of the bartenders and the women next to me couldn't help to notice me chatting it up with her which actually made things a little easier. I believe that women feel safer if they see you talking to a female bartender as opposed to being a complete stranger. Anyway a few minutes pass and I ask the women next to me if she's feeling ok. She looked surprised and asked why I'd say that. I told her she looked like a Mets fan and they were about to get slaughtered by the cubs (weak but w/e). She laughed and thus began our encounter.

It turned out she's an ex trader who now practices law. We hit it off fairly well and decided to go to another bar and have a drink. So there we were at the next place laughing, drinking, taking a smoke break and even making out. Not bad for a Monday and a night off from poker. It started to get late and I work early so she gave me her number and a ride home.

The smiling eyes experiment went quite well. Hopefully I'll be able to manuver that well on the tables. It's only been a couple of days but I'm anxious to play....

I've been playing in the 50 nl sand lot and a couple of weeks ago decided to play a little 100nl. I felt that I was getting a better grasp of concepts I was grappling with so it was time to move up. After a few days and maybe about 8k hands I was good for about 10 BInns.. Not bad but with a small sample it's a little hard to determine hwo much of it was simply a heater. I carefully reviewed big winning and losing hands looking for leaks and problem areas where I either spewed or missed value. Didn't look to bad and was pleased with the small sample..I then looked for tables where I thought I might find more difficult opponents to deal with to see how I fared. That went well so I was considering being very aggressive with a shot at 200nl. But i decide that I didn't need to battle with them so I played more 100nl. Then things went , not so well.

I suddenly found myself gettin aggressive spewy and donating all of my nice little run back. Frustration city. I then decided, for some unknown reason to donate a little more and it's right back to 50nl. I was not at all happy with myself and could not frogive myself for spweing and spewing some more. I knew that I was getting out of control, which I rarely do and let it continue. What to do?

For now I might take a day or two away from the tables and maybe check out a local yoga studio. Exercise with the yoga babes will hopefully clear the melon and help me chill out.. And maybe then I'll be ready to play with a clear head and get over that frustrating run which is not uncommon in poker but nevertheless extremely annoying.

F