A Mental Hand History

This might not actually be a mental hand history. I don't know exactly what they are............ I do know though that keeping a log of my mental state in that session was extremely eye opening and useful. Because I was so focussed on the mental game, I was able to pick up when my mind drifted pretty quickly. Anyway, here it is in chronological order.....

Black screen- felt alright, just a wave! - This was about the fact that 20 seconds into my session my screen crashed, went all black while I heard all my tables timing out. I was in a 3bet pot with an AK hand and I was able to be aware of simmering feelings of annoyance, but shining the light on them made them seem pretty lol and thus go away. I was just like, oh man this is just part of the wave of poker, stuff like this happens to everyone! Smiley face!

Distracted by holiday - Felt my mind wandering to Nic going on holiday to France, and the chances of me going. Lol'd at myself for having such a wandering mind and was able to get my mind back focussed.

Maybe shoulda bet river with JJ, aware of some mistake tilt - Certainly aware of some mistake tilt where I underbet turn on a Queen hi board with JJ and shoulda vbet river IP VS TT. This time lasted a little longer than the other times, but injecting logic 'mistakes happen, and it's not a big one anyway' helped me get over it fairly quick.

KQs hand, he cc cc flushdraw, some tilt based on outcome lol - Some dude went CC CC as the PFR on 876ss with KQs and rivered a flush VS my flopped straight. Initial annoyance at the outcome quickly faded though when I became aware of it, and injected logic that this was basically a well played hand by me and perhaps even him.

Felt mind wander slightly about dude who cc down - as above, wasn't annoyed by it at this time but was definitely still considering the hand. Injected logic whereby I mentally filed the hand so as not to think about it any more.

Had good mental game facing a CR with tt on 764 or whatever, folded - I cbet and got CRd ep-bb with TT on 764, and was real happy that I was relaxed enough to come up with an immediate answer and not get annoyed. 'annoyed', lol. What is there to get annoyed about? This is poker, difficult situations happen. What I shoulda done to be even better would have been to see this as an amazing opportunity. Looking back now I can see that it was one, and I think I made a good decision. Basically, some people would have 88 99 55 here to make it easier to play, but this guy wasn't the type and so felt like a fairly easy fold of either being crushed or like not too far ahead.


Mind wandered to Sauce vid, caught it tho! - mind started thinking of Sauce's run it once vid. Not anything useful, was just like 'man why did Sauce need to have his face on it at the start?'. Good mental game resulted in me catching it tho and getting it back to poker.


Felt really good with k6s hand-  just a hard to play hand, but was so tuned in and relaxed that I played it really well and pulled off a decent creative bluff in a bit pot

Mind wandered to holiday lol - caught it tho!


had good mental fortitude to lead in the AK hand - basically CCd AKdd and turned a flush, and didn't just auto check turn but lead turn and won all the money cos he spaz jammed. Again, just happy to be so relaxed and tuned in.

Found mind wandering when winning a lot, felt like had to call it a session - was aware of winners tilt, and afraid to lose money back. Definite mental weakness, but not one I'm going to be super bad on myself on when the alternative is sometimes to play on when tilted and lose. Ideally of course, I'd notice the said tilt and get my mind back on the present.

Felt like checking results, decided against and felt good about it - certainly won a few BIs in the session, and tempted to check results as I have been doing for a while now. Resisted though, 'cos 'anything won or lost in the short term is just an illusion' and thus only negative things can come of knowing short term results.

Right that's it, that was fun. Definitely an amazing exercise if ever you feel you have tilt problems, just helps with becoming aware of them, and with awareness should come the death of them, or something. Going to play another session now and be all about the mental game again.