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I have a friend who plays the bass for various local bands where he lives. When we met he noticed that I was struggling with a tendency to over analyze situations and hesitating in my decisions. He told me about when he was learning to play bass that he did the same thing. He knew all the chords, notes, and rhythms but he was struggling to put it all together. He kept messing up in performances because he was just plain thinking too much. His band mate caught on to this and told him "Forget everything you know, and just play". He took it in, and just let go of all the anxiety and analytical thought process. He trusted himself to just play, and instantly he was much smoother, making no mistakes and having a damn good time. When he told me this story, I applied to my life as well, and it made a huge difference.
I think everyone has gone through something similar. I've recently learned a lot of new concepts and information in poker and have been analyzing every hand to the smallest detail trying to get an edge. The problem is with all this thinking and analyzing I forgot to "just play". I realized this right before I started on the Midnight Madness MTT last night. It was a revelation. I decided that I knew enough and that I just needed to let go of it all and feel in the moment. I decided to trust my gut and just play.
I'm sure the timing was good, because I happened to run well too. Part of that running good is knowing when to ship your stack on a bluff, or shove 2nd pair knowing you're getting called by a flush draw. This isn't something you can analyze or think about, it's something you feel. And when you feel it you just have to trust it and go with it. Sure sometimes you will be wrong and that's when the doubt will creep in. But over time, if you trust yourself and just play you will be right more often than not. I know that's how I did so well in Midnight Madness, and I will continue to do well as long as I remember this. Forget everything and just play.
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