Why Have a Poker Journal?
Poker is a long-term game. It's really not that different from investing, except you can't have another person get it done for you. You've to really make the money yourself. But you wouldn't invest with out a plan, keeping records, tracking results, analyzing new opportunities, and exploring new options. Right? The same will also apply to poker. Bad players (fish) never record anything. They never track anything. They don't make decisions today based on historic realities. They don't know the difference between playing the site they're on (or the table) and another sites in the poker world. They only take a seat, 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're thrilled. If they lose they're depressed. They are... in a word... VICTIMS!
You strive to become more than that, obviously. However, many players who strive to become more lose out on the Most Powerful Tool poker is offering - HISTORICAL REALITY. Historical the truth 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 need to from your mistakes. Maybe you won't study from them at all. Maybe you'll learn for a time and then forget about any of it again. Your poker journal is the way you tap the most powerful poker tool that exists.
If you don't keep records then you definitely lose out on the Most Powerful Tool poker is offering - YOUR BRAINPOWER. Your brainpower is what will probably take you into the future. It's what's going setting the trail for the future success or failure. Because... As a person thinketh... so is he! The Bible: Proverbs
You spend hours staring at a computer screen, playing hands, making reads, learning lessons (good and bad). You read articles and books, talk to other poker players, and observe others who are more skilled than you. Where does all these details go? It can't just go in your head. Your head is a horrible record keeper. It's manipulated by emotions, it's a great deal of non-poker work to complete, and it will fail you at the worst times in poker. So, instead of depending on your face, rely in your poker journal. A poker journal never forgets. You need to review it often. And the fact that 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 that a poker journal will really add value and leads to your poker game. Essentially the HOW is simple. Just start doing it! But, below are a few things I've prepared for years with my poker journal. Hopefully you need to use a number of them.
When you can keep a poker journal electronically on your computer, I don't recommend it. And while any old spiral notebook can do, I'd encourage you to obtain something more substantial. The next time out, have a shopping trip for a journal. About electronic journals, consider it in this way; just how many computer files can you discover from 3 years ago? Not many. Just how many pictures have you got from your childhood? Probably a serious few. Physical things are permanent, electronic files are easily lost, forgotten or damaged. So choose the physical thing.
I use 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. When you write in this journal it draws you to become better. It's also refillable and it features a place to keep a couple pens. This is important for me because I want my journal to be ready to go and hold up to my lifestyle. I go through about 1 refill every 9 months roughly and I obviously keep carefully the old journals for reference. I carry my journal with me almost all the time, and I make notes in it often.
So, what would you write in your journal?
Take note of whatever involves mind. I personally use my journal for private notes and goals in addition to poker goals - in my experience they're one in the exact same; because, poker makes many aspects 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. This way I understand in which to visit get my mind right if I begin to waver.
From then on I simply write whatever I believe is very important as it involves mind. These 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 believe helps me accomplish my poker and life goals
- Personal Improvement concepts and notes
- Repetitive Sentences - That one is important.
Poker features a great capability to tie us up in knots whenever we have bad sessions or make mistakes. The best way to work out the negative energy that gets developed in times like that is to create a sentence 50-100 times. That helps me workout 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 very own good advice and playing such as a fool.
So those are some ideas of everything you could keep. I have notes by what poker articles I must write, time management actions, and even questions I personally use to approach life in a confident way. It's all good!! Since the act of writing focuses your brain, it creates permanent many issues that you would lose in the event that you tried to remember them in your face; it clarifies; and it provides you with something to appear back on and see your achievements.
If you're interested in seeing inside my journal, here's a sample. Many of these things don't seem poker related, however they set the foundations for my poker success.
LIFE GOALS:
1. Time, Flexibility, Independence - I am an unbiased 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 control my very own time and activities in ways that brings well-rounded fullness for me personally and for my family.
3. A Transforming Force - I am a confident 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 some part of my entire life each and every day before day I die.
"We are what we think. All that people are arises with this 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's great about this problem?
2. What's not perfect yet?
3. What am I ready to DO to create it the way in which I want it?
4. What am I ready to no more do to create it the way in which I want it?
5. How do I like the method WHILE I really do what's necessary to create it the way in which 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. A lot 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 am hoping you're convinced that 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 longer term results with out a journal. But giving your ideas, thoughts, frustrations, and observations a DESTINATION will generate a completely new degree of calm and balance for the game.
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