Why Have a Poker Journal?
Poker is a long-term game. It's really not that distinctive from investing, except you can't have somebody else do it for you. You've to make the money yourself. However you wouldn't invest with no a plan, keeping records, tracking results, analyzing new opportunities, and exploring new options. Right? The exact 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 your website they're on (or the table) and the other 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 has to offer - HISTORICAL REALITY. Historical the truth 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 then you definitely can't learn as quickly as you must from your mistakes. Maybe you won't study on them at all. Maybe you'll learn for a while and then forget about it again. Your poker journal is the manner in which you tap the most powerful poker tool that exists.
In the event that you don't keep records then you definitely lose out on the Most Powerful Tool poker has to offer - YOUR BRAINPOWER. Your brainpower is what will probably get you to the future. It's what's going to set the path for the future success or failure. Because... As a person thinketh... so is he! The Bible: Proverbs
Spent hours staring at a computer screen, playing hands, making reads, learning lessons (good and bad). You read articles and books, speak with other poker players, and observe others who're more skilled than you. Where does all these records go? It can't just go in your head. Your head is a horrible record keeper. It's manipulated by emotions, it has a great deal of non-poker work to complete, and it will fail you at the worst times in poker. So, instead of relying on your mind, rely on your own poker journal. A poker journal never forgets. You should review it often. And the truth 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 the 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 done for years with my poker journal. Hopefully you can use a few of them.
As 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 obtain something more substantial. Your next time out, have a shopping trip for a journal. About electronic journals, consider it this way; just how many computer files can you discover from 3 years ago? Not many. Just how many pictures are you experiencing from your childhood? Probably quite a few. Physical things are permanent, electronic files are typically lost, forgotten or damaged. So choose the physical thing.
I work with 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 you to become better. It's also refillable and it includes a place to keep a few pens. All of this is important for me because I want my journal to be ready to go and hold around 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 do you write in your journal?
Write down whatever involves mind. I personally use my journal for private notes and goals as well as poker goals - to me they're one in exactly the 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. This way I understand wherever to go to get my mind right if I start to waver.
From then on I just write whatever I do believe is very important because it involves mind. These generally 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 do believe helps me accomplish my poker and life goals
- Personal Improvement concepts and notes
- Repetitive Sentences - This one is important.
Poker includes a great power to tie us up in knots once we have bad sessions or make mistakes. The easiest way to work through the negative energy that gets built up in times like this is to publish a sentence 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 a fool.
So those are some ideas of what you could keep. I have notes about 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!! As the act of writing focuses your brain, it makes permanent many things that you'd lose in the event that you tried to remember them in your mind; it clarifies; and it offers you something to look back on and see your achievements.
If you're interested in seeing inside my journal, here's a sample. Several things don't seem poker related, however they set the foundations for my poker success.
LIFE GOALS:
1. Time, Flexibility, Independence - I am an independent person 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 personally and for my family.
3. A Transforming Force - I am a confident 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 a few part of my life every single day until the day I die.
"We're what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With this thoughts we make our world" The Buddha
"Things do not 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 willing to DO to make it the way in which I want it?
4. What am I willing to no more do to make it the way in which I want it?
5. How do I like the process WHILE I actually do what's necessary to make it the way in which I want it?
Those are some snippets from my poker journal. Those don't say "poker", but for me they're imperative to continued poker success. Lots of my journal entries are the basis for chapters in this book, because they've changed into full articles on the topic in question.
Conclusion
I am hoping you're convinced that the 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 run results with no journal. But giving your ideas, thoughts, frustrations, and observations a DESTINATION will create a completely new degree of calm and balance for the game.
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