If anyone out there has played NLHE with me, it would be fair to say they might have one of two opinions.: 1) “What a donkey” or 2) “He is pretty good.” How can it be that two people could probably have such different opinions of my game? Well I can tell you some weeks I analyze my own play and come up with the “donkey” label for myself. I thought I would explain what I do to get myself out of a funk when I am playing poorly. <READMORE>

Keep in mind it is most important to judge yourself based on the plays you make, rather than your results. Remember poker can hinge a lot on luck in the short-term, but skill will win over the long-run. Anyone can suffer bad beats. If I finish ten tournaments in a row out of the money because of bad beats, that is fine. As a matter of fact, I won’t always blame the bad beats. Maybe I should have done more to build my stack so I could absorb that bad beat. I am constantly judging my play and not the results. If I make a donk play and win, I am more worried about why I made the play than I am excited about the extra chips I won. It is this constant personal challenge to play my best and to learn that keeps the game so fun. I would rather lose to a bad beat, than lose because I made a bad play. This is because I am most interested in playing well and improving my game.

So then what happens when I am eliminated from a tournament, and I can’t believe how poor of a play I just made? Why would I lose half my starting chips 45 minutes into a tournament pushing a flush draw? Ridiculous. Or overvaluing top pair in the first hour because you see other players re-raising top pair. The real players are just waiting to trap the donks who think a Queen high flop to their AQ is reason to call and/or raise their chips to the river (maybe when someone called your pot bet post-flop and your pot bet again after the turn, it was a clue he had something better than your AQ, and yet…..sometimes I am that donk).

The problem is you know how to play. Why did you make the play you just did? Tilt? Inability to think rationally at crunch time? To start with, we all have some gambler in us so in the heat of the battle that can come out. Secondly, sometimes we just want to “man up” and re-raise just because we are sick of that wimpy guy raising us. You know, he keeps raising you off your BB and then you get A-9 suited which suddenly looks pretty good because you are in the BB. You call and after an Ace flops, you keep pushing because you value your hand more than you should because you are in the BB.

I believe, away from the table and away from the pressure to act quickly and away from the interaction of the moment, most skilled players by definition know the right plays to make. This does not mean there is only one proper play, but skilled players know here are my two or three options in this situation. Skilled players also know in some situations there is only one proper play.

So here is what I do. I will realize I have been making too many bad plays - usually for me it is getting a little too much gamble in me. I remind myself I do this to play poker and not to simply gamble. Then when I go back to play, I “write a book” while I play. The reason “write a book” is in quotes is because I really don’t. Instead I pretend when I am playing hands that I am writing a chapter in a NLHE book on how to play.

Suddenly, early on when someone is calling my AQ with the Queen high on the board my book is explaining why I should start to get cautious after the turn bet is called or maybe to simply check the turn to slow down the pot early in the tournament. Certainly the book isn’t recommending a re-raise on that flush draw after the flop.

And suddenly JJ is never pushing against a raiser pre-flop, no now JJ is waiting to see if an A, K or Q hits the flop, and using good post-flop reads as to whether JJ can keep going against a board of K-7-4 or even against 9-7-4.

The idea here is you have to explain your play from the perspective that you are an expert (even if you are not an expert and I am making no warranties about myself here, the expert moniker puts pressure on you to not advise a donk play). If you do this before you make every play in a tournament, you will find yourself making good decisions. This isn’t to say you can not be aggressive with nothing. You should explain in your “book” why you are pushing to steal the blinds and antes two from the button with 8-9 suited because you haven’t played in 26 hands and that the table is probably going to fold to what is your current tight image.

By “writing a book” while you play, you give yourself the benefit of “retrospect” on your play while you are doing it. In other words you are forced to explain and defend the play you just made.

If I invoke my “write a book” mode, due to poor play, I usually find myself playing well in the next three tournaments. After that I am back on track and don’t use this theory until I start playing poorly again (probably in about 3 months). I should probably use it all the time, but I am not that regimented. Try it and let me know if it works. Good Luck.
</READMORE>