Why Have a Poker Journal?
Poker is just a long-term game. It's really not that different from investing, except you can't have someone else get it done for you. You've to help make the money yourself. But you wouldn't invest with no an agenda, keeping records, tracking results, analyzing new opportunities, and exploring new options. Right? Exactly the same is true of poker. Bad players (fish) never record anything. They never track anything. They don't make decisions today centered on historic realities. They don't know the difference between playing the site they are on (or the table) and one other sites in the poker world. They just sit back, 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! If they win they are thrilled. If they lose they are depressed. They are... in a word... VICTIMS!
You strive to be much more than that, obviously. However, many players who strive to be much more lose out on 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!
In the event that you don't keep records you then can't learn as quickly as you must from your own mistakes. Maybe you won't study on them at all. Maybe you'll learn for a time and then forget about this again. Your poker journal is the manner in which you tap the absolute most powerful poker tool that exists.
In the event that you don't keep records you then lose out on the Most Powerful Tool poker is offering - YOUR BRAINPOWER. Your brainpower is what will take you to the future. It's what's going to set the path for your future success or failure. Because... As a person thinketh... so is he! The Bible: Proverbs
You spend hours staring at a monitor, playing hands, making reads, learning lessons (good and bad). You read articles and books, keep in touch with other poker players, and observe others who're more skilled than you. Where does all this information go? It can't just go in your head. Your mind is just a horrible record keeper. It's manipulated by emotions, it has tons of non-poker work to do, and it has a tendency to fail you at the worst times in poker. So, instead of counting on your mind, rely in your poker journal. A poker journal never forgets. You must review it often. And the fact you have recorded things, will prompt you to expand them and think about 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 leads to your poker game. Essentially the HOW is simple. Just start doing it! But, here are some things I've prepared for years with my poker journal. Hopefully you need to use some of them.
As you can keep a poker journal electronically on your computer, I don't recommend it. And while any old spiral notebook is going to do, I'd encourage you to have something more substantial. Your following time out, have a shopping trip for a journal. About electronic journals, consider it in this way; how many computer files can you discover from 3 years ago? Not many. How many pictures are you experiencing from your own childhood? Probably a serious few. Physical things are permanent, electronic files are easily lost, forgotten or damaged. So go for the physical thing.
I work with a refillable leather journal cover I bought at Barnes and Noble. Here's why. Leather is good! It provides your thoughts importance and heft. Leather is permanent and comforting. Once you write in this journal it draws you to become better. It's also refillable and it has a place to keep a couple pens. This is very important to me because I need my journal to be all set to go and hold up to my lifestyle. I undergo about 1 refill every 9 months approximately and I obviously keep consitently the old journals for reference. I carry my journal with me almost all the time, and I make notes inside often.
So, what would you write in your journal?
Jot down whatever involves mind. I use my journal for personal notes and goals as well as poker goals - if you ask me they are one in the same; because, poker makes many areas of my entire life possible and my entire life affects my poker. I start every journal with my entire life goals and concepts that help me succeed at whatever I'm doing. That way I know exactly where to go to get my mind right if I start to waver.
After that I just write whatever I believe is very important since it involves mind. These include things such as:
- Starting Hand Charts
- Poker Session, SnG, and MTT notes
- Poker ideas I read in books, magazines and online
- Summaries of what I believe helps me accomplish my poker and life goals
- Personal Improvement concepts and notes
- Repetitive Sentences - That one is important.
Poker has a great capability to tie us up in knots once we have bad sessions or make mistakes. The best way to work through the negative energy that gets developed in times like this really is to create a phrase 50-100 times. That helps me work out the negative emotions and refocus my efforts. Randomly opening my journal I visit a couple pages of "I'll follow my rules 100% when I play." That's from several sessions of breaking my own, personal good advice and playing such as for instance a fool.
So those are some ideas of what you could keep. I've notes in what poker articles I must write, time management actions, and even questions I use to approach life in an optimistic way. It's all good!! Since the act of writing focuses the mind, it generates permanent many things that you'd lose in the event that you tried to remember them in your mind; it clarifies; and it provides you with something to look back on and see your achievements.
If you're interested in seeing inside my journal, here's a sample. A number 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 unbiased individual who has 100% control of my time and actions without financial restrictions or pressures.
2. Discipline, Desire, Control - I've the discipline and desire to manage my own, personal time and activities in a way that brings well-rounded fullness for me personally and for my family.
3. A Transforming Force - I'm an optimistic force to transform those around me for a much better and happier life.
4. Kaizen - I'll improve and grow in large or small meaningful and positive ways in some facet of my entire life every single day before day I die.
"We are what we think. All that individuals are arises with our thoughts. With your thoughts we make our world" The Buddha
"Things don't change. We change." Henry David Thoreau
Problem Solving Questions: (from Anthony Robbins)
1. What is great about this issue?
2. What is not perfect yet?
3. What am I prepared to DO to create it just how I are interested?
4. What am I prepared to no longer do to create it just how I are interested?
5. Just how can I enjoy the procedure WHILE I really do what's necessary to create it just how I are interested?
Those are just some snippets from my poker journal. Those don't say "poker", however for me they are vital to continued poker success. Many of my journal entries are the basis for chapters in this book, because they have changed into full articles on the topic in question.
Conclusion
I 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 no journal. But giving your ideas, thoughts, frustrations, and observations a DESTINATION can provide a completely new degree of calm and balance for your game.
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