Taking a break

[badblood44]

It is very hard indeed to just go cold turkey for any extended period of time. At least for me and from what I'm reading, a few others.

I'll probably butcher this, but often times you need something that you can do to push that "reset" switch in your brain somewhere. Sometimes, it's as simple as a good night's sleep. Sometimes, it's a strenuous workout. Whatever it is, you need to find it and use it whenever you get into the "zone."

The zone that I'm talking about is that place where you're incapable of objectively looking at your own play. Under normal circumstances, most, if not all, good players can detatch from themselves and analyze their play objectively. As soon as a series of bad beats changes your thought process one bit, you need to reset yourself.

When you sit down to play, you need to focus on the current hand. And that's it. As soon as a previous hand's results become the focus of your attention, you need to re-focus. I'll say it again: Your first priority is to play your current hand the best you know how. If your thoughts are lingering on anything else, you're not playing your best poker.

Getting up from the table during those times takes discipline with a big fucking capital D.