Why Have a Poker Journal?
Poker is just a long-term game. It's really not too distinctive from investing, except you can't have someone else take action for you. You have to really make the money yourself. However, you wouldn't invest with out an idea, keeping records, tracking results, analyzing new opportunities, and exploring new options. Right? Exactly the same will additionally apply to poker. Bad players (fish) never record anything. They never track anything. They don't make decisions today predicated on historic realities. They don't know the difference between playing your website they're on (or the table) and the other sites in the poker world. They only sit down, blind in, and start playing. Fish don't play poker for the long-term. They play for the Right Now! This hand! This moment! This session! When they win they're thrilled. When they lose they're depressed. They are... in a word... VICTIMS!
You strive to be more than that, obviously. However, many players who strive to be more overlook the Most Powerful Tool poker is offering - HISTORICAL REALITY. Historical the reality is what HAPPENED. How it happened. Why it happened. Because, guess what... It'll happen again!
If you don't keep records then you definitely can't learn as quickly as you must from your mistakes. Perhaps you won't study from them at all. Maybe you'll learn for a time and then forget about this again. Your poker journal is the method that you tap the most powerful poker tool that exists.
If you don't keep records then you definitely overlook the Most Powerful Tool poker is offering - YOUR BRAINPOWER. Your brainpower is what is going to take you into the future. It's what's going to create the road for the future success or failure. Because... As a man thinketh... so is he! The Bible: Proverbs
You spend hours staring at a screen, playing hands, making reads, learning lessons (good and bad). You read articles and books, speak to other poker players, and observe others that are more skilled than you. Where does all these records go? It can't just go in your head. Your head is just a horrible record keeper. It's manipulated by emotions, it has a lot of non-poker work to complete, and it tends to fail you at the worst times in poker. So, rather than counting on your mind, rely on your own poker journal. A poker journal never forgets. You ought to review it often. And the truth that you've recorded things, will prompt one to expand them and consider them more.poker88 slot
The how's and why's of keeping a poker journal.
Hopefully I've convinced you a poker journal will really add value and results to your poker game. In essence the HOW is simple. Just start carrying it out! But, here are some things I've done for years with my poker journal. Hopefully you should use some of them.
When you can keep a poker journal electronically on your desktop, I don't recommend it. And while any old spiral notebook will do, I'd encourage you to have something more substantial. Your following time out, take a shopping trip for a journal. About electronic journals, consider it this way; how many computer files can you find from 3 years back? Not many. Just how many pictures are you experiencing from your childhood? Probably quite a few. Physical things are permanent, electronic files can be lost, forgotten or damaged. So select the physical thing.
I make use of a refillable leather journal cover I bought at Barnes and Noble. Here's why. Leather is good! It offers your thoughts importance and heft. Leather is permanent and comforting. Once you write in this journal it draws one to become better. It's also refillable and it has a place to help keep a few pens. All of this is important for me because I want my journal to be all set to go and hold as much as my lifestyle. I proceed through about 1 refill every 9 months roughly and I obviously keep the old journals for reference. I carry my journal with me almost constantly, and I make notes inside it often.
So, what do you write in your journal?
Take note of whatever involves mind. I personally use my journal for personal notes and goals along with poker goals - in my experience they're one in the exact same; because, poker makes many areas of my life possible and my life affects my poker. I start every journal with my life goals and concepts that help me succeed at whatever I'm doing. That way I understand in which to go to get my mind right if I start to waver.
Next I recently write whatever I do believe is very important as it involves mind. These generally include such things as:
- Starting Hand Charts
- Poker Session, SnG, and MTT notes
- Poker ideas I read in books, magazines and online
- Summaries of what I do believe helps me accomplish my poker and life goals
- Personal Improvement concepts and notes
- Repetitive Sentences - This 1 is important.
Poker has a great capability to tie us up in knots whenever we have bad sessions or make mistakes. The simplest way to work through the negative energy that gets developed in times like that is to write a phrase 50-100 times. That helps me work-out the negative emotions and refocus my efforts. Randomly opening my journal I see a couple pages of "I'll follow my rules 100% when I play." That's from several sessions of breaking my own good advice and playing such as for instance a fool.
So those are some ideas of everything you could keep. I have notes in what poker articles I have to write, time management actions, and even questions I personally use to approach life in a positive way. It's all good!! As the act of writing focuses the mind, it generates permanent many issues that you would lose if you tried to consider them in your mind; it clarifies; and it gives you something to look back on and see your achievements.
If you're enthusiastic about seeing inside my journal, here's a sample. Many of these things don't seem poker related, but they set the foundations for my poker success.
LIFE GOALS:
1. Time, Flexibility, Independence - I'm an independent human being who has 100% control of my time and actions without financial restrictions or pressures.
2. Discipline, Desire, Control - I have the discipline and desire to manage my own time and activities in ways that brings well-rounded fullness for me and for my family.
3. A Transforming Force - I'm a positive force to transform those around me for an improved and happier life.
4. Kaizen - I'll improve and grow in large or small meaningful and positive ways in a few facet of my life every single day before the day I die.
"We're what we think. All that individuals are arises with this thoughts. With this thoughts we make our world" The Buddha
"Things don't change. We change." Henry David Thoreau
Problem Solving Questions: (from Anthony Robbins)
1. What's great about this issue?
2. What's not perfect yet?
3. What am I willing to DO to make it the way I want it?
4. What am I willing to no further do to make it the way I want it?
5. How do I enjoy the process WHILE I do what's necessary to make it the way I want it?
Those are just some snippets from my poker journal. Those don't say "poker", but also for me they're crucial to continued poker success. Lots of my journal entries are the cornerstone for chapters in this book, because they've converted into full articles on the topic in question.
Conclusion
I really hope you're convinced a poker journal will infuse power, focus, and long-term vision into your poker life. Any fish can post a blind and play a hand. Many players have long term results with out a journal. But giving your ideas, thoughts, frustrations, and observations a DESTINATION will create an entirely new amount of calm and balance for the game.
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