Mind Over Poker

{Edited to include excerpt only}

Found this article by Hoyt Corkins from CardPlayer. It's almost a year old, but might be be a handy bookmark read when you start tilting and making spewy calls.

"The flip side of this game of imperfect information is frustration. Against all logic and common sense, you guess wrong. You are not yet the genius you thought you were, as evidenced by your vanishing chip stack...."

"There is a corollary to the truism “poker is a game of imperfect information” with which you may not be as familiar. Specifically, poker is a game that cannot be played perfectly...."

"You become a winning poker player by making consistently good decisions that are based on the information available at the time, coupled with your experience.... You just have to be good enough, not perfect, to beat the game...."

Read more - Mind Over Poker - Card Player Poker Magazine

Nice post

NH, sir!

that so saved the day for me lol. made a couple of marginal folds in big pots and reading this cheered me up

If you lay down a hand, you can know if you made a good decision. Just post in on forums and ask for their opinion...

Originally Posted by PokerWang

If you lay down a hand, you can know if you made a good decision. Just post in on forums and ask for their opinion...

I think you missed the point. Sure, you can post hands on forums, but you're never going to get the "perfect" answer because you're dealing with incomplete information. Forum advice may "lean" toward a right or wrong answer, but it's never dead-on accurate unless you know all the variables.

Striving for perfection can drive you bat-shit insane because there's no such thing. Focus on making the best decision you can with what you have. If that means occasionally folding the best hand because you just don't have enough information to make the call, then that's the right decision. You don't have to be a nit to make folding your friend.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not advocating that you should not be your own biggest critic. You should always aim to be the best. But the best ain't perfect - they just make less mistakes than you.

The OP needs to be edited to quote less of the article and just link to the source instead. Long story, but mofuckahs suing mofuckahs here lately over copyright crap. Check 2+2 for the full story, poker legislation forum I think.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

The OP needs to be edited to quote less of the article and just link to the source instead. Long story, but mofuckahs suing mofuckahs here lately over copyright crap. Check 2+2 for the full story, poker legislation forum I think.

Oops, yeah. My mistake. Should have been just an excerpt. Editing now.

It's very interesting and sometimes frustrating to play a game where, because of the imperfect information, you can only 'be right' or know that your strategy's good only statistically over a large sample. Not a game for people with weak egos imo.

I had a college professor tell me there was no such thing as a wrong decision.

You make the best decision with the information you have available, if you get more information later then the first decision wasnt "wrong".
Adding the new information makes this decision totally separate from the first decision.