Confidence and Concentration

I think are two of the most important things in poker. Unfortunately, my confidence at the moment is at an all time low. I remember not so long back I would be speeding home from work screaming "come on you fcking scandies, give me your fckin money" and just couldn't wait to fire the laptop up and start playing the 20 dollar sit and goes and a host of multi's. At the moment, I seem to be drifting home from work and think, "well I suppose I better try and make some money tonight" and then just hoping a get some good cards and don't get muffed. Everything I do at the moment seems to be going wrong, when I make moves, I get re-raised, when I think I am making a good call, the other guy has the nutz. I am almost at the stage where I am frightened to play for fear of eating in to my yearly profits. I don't know that much about poker, but one thing I do know, is that playing scared, is a prelude to disaster. I am not sure how I am going to get out of this rut at the moment, but something has to change, any advice would be appreciated.

The other factor is concentration. I play at the moment in my lounge using a wireless laptop. At times, I am watching telly, eating my dinner playing ball with my dog and also trying to act interested in what my girlfriend is talking about. I am also doing emails, reading forums, playing backgammon and surfing for porn. This is while playing in a sit and go and an MTT ALL at the same time......I am probably playing against a bunch of spotty unwashed students who are tucked away in an attic, frantically making notes on every move during the game and concentrating fully. As you can see, this IS a problem and has to be addressed. Starting next week, I am going to try and alternate days from playing in the lounge to playing isolated on my own and compare the results. I will publish my findings at the end of June.

As for tonight, I am only going to play two MTT's the first will be the WSOP tour qualifier on Full Tilt and the 20:30 MTT on laddies as my only LeagueNutz event of the day. Although I will still be be watching the footy, I am making a pact to myself to not do anything else on the laptop while these tournies are running. Lets hope this will help turn my recent run of bad results around.

Watch this space.