Mental State

Okay, so this is a point that has been tilting me recently that I see a lot of posters here in the BC doing. Tell me if this looks familiar:

"In my opinion, even though I'm a shitty 2NL player and nothing I say will probably be right, but....."

STFU.

Okay, but seriously, everyone who posts shit like that needs to stop. Everyone will be able to tell what level you are coming from by the way you go about discussing the hand. It's fine if you play 2NL, there is a reason this forum is called the Beginner's Section. All of us posting here are learning. Everyone here is making mistakes. Everyone here is a poker player trying to improve. Nothing more, and nothing less. This isn't some college frat where the newer people needs to lick the nuts of everyone who plays stakes above them. If you say something dumb or wrong, trust me, people will let you know.

For those of you who haven't heard of Tommy Angelo, you should. Simple as that. Go to Deuces Cracked and get a free trial. Download the 8-Fold Path to Poker Enlightenment. In a game as mental as poker right thinking is such an important concept. Thinking of yourself as "oh I'm a lowly 5NL player" is a mistake. No, you are a "poker player" and only a "poker player".

Sorry if this got TL;DR but I just wanted to bring out the point of poker self-esteem as I have struggled with it from time to time myself.

Originally Posted by Donachello

This isn't some college frat where the newer people needs to lick the nuts of everyone who plays stakes above them.

thats not what spoon said when he made me lick his balls

but srsly good post, i am def guilty and my shoddy poker self esteem probably comes through in a lot of my posts and id def be a lot better off not thinking in terms of "oh im at this level my opinion doesnt matter or is probably wrong"

People feel they need to qualify their statements because they know they're subjecting themselves to a high level of beratement. They know they'll be told what morons they are and they might be able to head that off by prefacing their thoughts with "I'm just a moron so..." in the hopes of getting something more educational than "wat" or "no shit".

And guess what? It works. Read back through some of the posts where people have done this and then read the replies. More often than not the replies come with educated statements that have value instead of one liners that have zero educational value.

I'm not saying that everthing needs to be sugar coated, but making everyone feel that they are stupid isn't helping the issue.

Originally Posted by Donachello

. If you say something dumb or wrong, trust me, people will let you know.

Everybody knows they'll be told when they say something dumb or wrong. This where the problem begins, and ends.

Haole has a point, that's the exact reason people do it, but hey, it's the internet, trolling comes with the territory.

I'm pretty awful at the mental kind of things because I'm kind of a moran, but I agree strongly with op.

In my opinion, though i'm an awesome low stakes player, so nothing i'll say about shitty 2nl players' psyche will be right, but who gives a shit how people qualify their statements?

lol...this thread made me think of bigspenda! If you know what I mean.

even if they are posting "just my stupid 2nl opinion" at least they are posting with an opinion at all eh?

Originally Posted by kiwiMark

I'm pretty awful at the mental kind of things because I'm kind of a moran, but I agree strongly with op.

nice

supa makes a pretty good point

Originally Posted by kiwiMark

I'm pretty awful at the mental kind of things because I'm kind of a moran, but I agree strongly with op.

Yep, I strongly agree with Donachello too, and I hope that anybody that agrees with my point goes back and reads the op again. Cuz he's absolutly right.

The problem is that I, and I'm sure a few others, basically stopped reading at stfu. I can't speak for anyone else but usually when someone tells me to shut the fuck up the conversation is over. So I went back and read the rest of his post again, actually a couple times. He makes a solid point that we should all take into consideration.

Alot of the time we let our emotions get in the way of what we're trying to accomplish, so we fail because we're so tilted that we forget what we're trying to accomplish in the first place. This kinda shit happens at the tables all the time. We lose focus over some kind of emotional tilt and then we lose chips. Same thing here, if someone says something degrading or belittling but follows it up with some really good advice, then we need to take their comments with a grain of salt and remember why we're here, to learn. Let it go.

Easier said than done but it's really the only way to get through it. Not letting go can only hurt your abilty to learn. I pretty much stopped posting in this forum over it, and the only person it's hurting is me. Nobody really gives a fuck if learn anything from these pages, and nobody really gives a fuck if I log out of FTR forever and go diagf (learned that one here and I really like it). If I want to gain any value from this site than I have to let the bullshit go and pick up the nuggets of gold that are available here. There's a ton of good information on this site and a ton of good players here that can and will help us with our game, we just might have to thicken our skin a bit if we want to utilize it to it's full potential.

I still hold true to my original point tho. FTR, especially the bc, could be a much better place if everyone showed some respect to others. More often than not I read posts that are condescending enough to give just about anybody self esteem issue. If you want to stop the problem you have to stop being part of the problem.

tl;dr- quit letting people get to you
show some respect
stfu

and read my sig.

The thing is that responses come from people who are trying to learn and trying to teach. The 'we're not worthy' qualifier that people use is a way of showing that the response is not absolute advice but an opinion that also seeks review.

Thank you for finally getting it haole :P
I know I can come off as abrasive at times because I never have and never will sugar coat things.

The best thing you or anyone else trying to do anything can do is to believe in your own abilities, that's all I really meant to bring out.

People have worked hard in this forum to gain the reputation and credibility needed to berate fish. This should absolutely not be taken from them, because if you take this, you take away most of the incentive to get good at poker and trolling.

I find it damn right disrespectful that anyone would suggest these 2NL players shouldn't have to degrade thermselves. You make your own reputation on the interwebs. This is not some tree hugging hippy communism. You will all quantify your insignificance with these phrases until you are big enough and feared enough to bully others instead.

This is a playground, people have rankings, and fish are all morans.

FFS guys don't lose sight of what the interwebs was built for.