Pick that out!

Before I bought Jared Tendlers book "The Mental Game of Poker" for my kindle I genuinely thought I'd probably be wasting my money as I didn't think I had any problems with that side of my game.In fact I've always considered it one of my poker strengths.I've never blown through a bankroll on monkey tilt , I don't berate fish at the table and if I do feel my game slipping due to repeated bad beats I used to simply stop playing.

Having finished the book I'm happy to admit I had more mental game leaks than I first thought.The good news is that I also realised that just writing down poker thoughts in the form of this blog has probably helped my game far more than I ever thought possible too.

For years I've also had a problem with just getting down and playing whenever I plan a poker session.I'd surf the net,watch training vids and do everything bar actually firing up the tables.The book helped me realise that I was delaying my sessions due to the accumulated negative emotions I'd built up due to all the previous downswings and bad beats I'd experienced in the past.

These days I'll warm up with a heads up game or a few micro stakes sngs and then happily dive straight into playing 6-8 tables.I may still take a breather when running very badly, but I'm also jumping back on the horse far more quickly than I did previously and the increase in games played can only help increase my overall profit.

Reading the book also helped me take last weekends downswing pretty much in my stride and I actually surprised myself at how accepting I was of such a nasty run of cards and the bankroll hit that came with it.That's not to say I wasn't muttering stuff like "You've got to be joking" as the beats were coming thick and fast but after each beat I'd immediately inject some logic into my thinking and get myself back on track without the need to take a long break or stop playing altogether.

I've been lucky with the poker books I've read.I began with "Killer Poker" by John Vorhaus and his "bet big or go home" philosophy was ideal for the micro/low stakes cash games I started out playing.I liked his views on the mindgames side of poker too and that was one of the reasons I chose the anonymous give nothing away name of Zagga as my Stars username.The fact the name is also a dyslexic anagram of Gazza ( one of the best footballers I've seen play for Rangers) also played a part.I wish I'd been thinking along similar lines before coming up with the stupid Acornman name I use on this blog!

I remember taking a lot from the Matt Matros book "The Making of a Poker Player" and other books like Double A's "Pressure Poker" too.In short if I was to give one piece of advice to any of my poker playing readers it would be to buy Jared Tendlers book.( and this is not a paid ad even if it probably looks that way!)

I'm not sure what games I'll be playing this weekend.I reckon I'll go down the Mtt route again although I may give the extremely high variance $51 hyper mtt's a miss despite getting so close to a decent cash in one last week.As well as enjoying the change of pace in Mtt's I also got to play with some of the big names in the Mtt world.I'm not up on who all the latest "ill sickos" are but I did resteal from Pearljammer ( a gutsy move with AK!) and locked horns with Busto_Soon,Thay3r and Rooney_Dives who I recognised from Pocket Fives forum threads.

I also played with a dutch teampoker stars player called Fatima Moreira De Melo and after googling her name I found it quite amusing that a hot looking top Dutch hockey player and TV presenter could be sat on the virtual right of a stoned Scotsman playing poker in his boxer shorts.

Away from the poker I enjoyed watching the second leg of the Copa Del Rey cup game between Barcelona and Real Madrid last night.What a peach of a goal from Danny Alves.Pick that out son!( love the Spanish commentary on this clip too)



I've been reading about the upcoming Superbowl final on a few US blogs and I won't be staying up to watch it as I've never been able to get into American football.I did read the other day that a Scottish born bloke called Tynes plays for the New York Giants.So does that mean I'll be supporting the Giants v the Patriots? Nah,he's a Celtic fan apparently so in the time honoured sports fan tradition of being childish and petty I'd just like to say f*ck the Giants and come on the Pats!

Ok,more than enough wittering for one post.Back soon...