Your "B" Game

I'll make this as short as possible, since I don't like writing a lot and you don't liker reading a lot and most lengthy essays are about embellishment rather than content. Also, it's about time I contributed to the BC, since I owe it everything in one way or another.

*Disclaimer* This does not apply to those of you who are so underdeveloped as players that your B game is extremely unprofitable.

Those of you who stop playing when you aren't playing your best shouldn't.

Consider this: What is the role of the master in the student/master relationship? The master is to point out the "technical" flaws of the student and thereby aid in the greater understanding of that which is correct. In the case of us poker players, we rarely have masters. But, given enough time, we could eventually learn just about all we could about this game.

So we must be our own masters. We must hold ourselves accountable for our mistakes. We poker players are constantly subjecting ourselves to performing at a high level (playing our A games), but we often say we should stop when we are not. If we played any athletic event, or did anything remotely competitive, and decided that mid-performance we should stop because we are not doing our best, we would be the worst players in the history of that event. So why do we let ourselves get away with it?

Playing less than optimally, or making mistakes, is the easiest way to get better as a player.

This is probably rather controversial, so it must be qualified so there isn't any misunderstanding. Spew is not good. Getting it in when you're never ahead is not a positive thing. But, it does provide the opportunity for something positive to occur. Think about it. You stack off light vs. a nit. You're pissed. Your emotions are raging. You can't separate this feeling of despair from the event, when in actuality they are entirely separate. Your emotional attachment to your money fuels your anger in almost every case. Your body feels mad, but your mind has the ability to independently observe the event for what it actually was. You made a series of bets/checks/calls/raises that resulted in this dependent event. You now have the chance to criticize yourself in the same way the master. You can consider all the variables.

This goes even further, as when you are not in the correct "state of mind" you have the same chance. You can independently examine your mental constructs and determine what it is that is keeping you from being clear-headed. You can then correct the problem, or acknowledge it as a mistake and learn from it. It is so simple to play optimally when you make a conscious effort to be aware of anything your can. I am not just saying "learn from your mistakes". I am saying "control your mind to evaluate your actions and understand yourself so you can better understand your behavior."

So, the next time you're on tilt, figure out why. The answer will typically have nothing to do with how you played the poker hand (but instead the result), when in reality that is all we are concerned with as poker players. Just figure it out! You are intelligent to understand what is is you're thinking, and figuring out the "why" is such an enlightening and life-changing experience. Sure, someone can help your with this, but you never need any help understanding why your emotions occur the way they do.

Now a lot of our problems can be fixed with study and the like, but it is more effective, in my opinion, to understand the event in the immediate aftermath. So, if you want to stop playing to think about what happened, ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT IT and not just stew over it, then please do. But don't quit because you're on tilt. Figure out why you're on tilt and fix it. We humans cannot deny our emotions exist, but we cannot manage them properly either without some real attempts at manipulation once they occur. This also aids in the prevention of severe reactions.

Poker player, know thyself.

I think it matters how much below the level of your A game you're playing, which puts a premium on understanding what your A game is and on recognizing when, how and to what extent you're deviating from it. These things aren't always easy, at least not for me. One key reason is that good or even decent short-term results can contribute or lead to not seeing leaks.

Ideally, I should be looking for them and plugging them all the time, but I'm just not that conscientious, which raises the question of how much I'm actually playing my A game.

You can not be playing your best and still be playing better than the table.

But on the flip side, you can easily under-estimate how badly you're actually playing.

Excellent article. I agree that as developed players we shouldn't quit when we're a bit below our A game, but rather do what maximizes our expectation. This could mean moving down a level while we are on our B game. For those who play for a living this is pretty important. These people don't have the luxury to just not play for an extended period of time because they don't feel 100% on their game - bills need to be paid. I like how you described how playing on our B game will actually give us opportunity to learn, perhaps more than if we were playing our best.

I personally disagree with the superlative aspect of "Playing less than optimally, or making mistakes, is the easiest way to get better as a player."

If you stack off light vs a nit and you win are you playing your A-game or B-game?

The nit could be playing his B-game.

first thing that comes to mind is that your comparison to real athletes doesn't hold because they have something to gain by continuing or 'practicing' more (i.e. endurance, muscle memory etc.) whereas us poker players when we are playing poorly are usually developping leaks in our game and paying off other regs who are in a better frame of mind than us at that time.

Tilt control is one of the most important tools to have and that it can take a long time to realize when your emotions are controlling your play. Even if you think you are calm after losing 4-5 buying(or 12 in my case), the fact that you keep losing will inevitably affect your decisions and you're generally unable to clearly think through a decision without the "wanting to get unstuck" vibe creeping up on you.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I personally disagree with the superlative aspect of "Playing less than optimally, or making mistakes, is the easiest way to get better as a player."

So it's an easy way to get better? Just not the easiest? I'm confused.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

first thing that comes to mind is that your comparison to real athletes doesn't hold because they have something to gain by continuing or 'practicing' more (i.e. endurance, muscle memory etc.) whereas us poker players when we are playing poorly are usually developping leaks in our game and paying off other regs who are in a better frame of mind than us at that time.

The sports analogy is good, but remember that coaches and teams call time outs, or they make adjustments at the half. They practice away from the game, a lot more than they compete. And when they're competing, they are always trying to use time outs and "breaks" strategically to insure their optimal performance at crunch time.

Part of the way our game works online is that there are literally hundreds of hands playing right this minute at my level with regs and feesh I know I can beat. But I'm not there. I can choose WHEN I compete to optimize the outcomes. I can take breaks to help beat my tilt. I can play later so there are fewer distractions, or earlier because I'm more alert.

Imagine telling the home football team captain that he got to choose the kickoff time for each home game. Do you think it would start at 1 PM? It might, but the captain would surely verify he and his teammates were playing at a time when they felt great and prepared and, if possible, when the other team was likely to be tired or off their game.

If we don't take strategic advantage of the time-flexibility of our "sport," we're NOT being competitive enough.

But I do get your point that learning to play well when you're not feeling great can be very, very good for your long term development as a poker player.

Originally Posted by Robb

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I personally disagree with the superlative aspect of "Playing less than optimally, or making mistakes, is the easiest way to get better as a player."

So it's an easy way to get better? Just not the easiest? I'm confused.

I'm not pretending to know what the best way is to get better as a player (though I suspect it's situation-dependent). But I think it's clear that the analysis of mistakes will make you better than the act of making the mistake, etc. Moreover, you don't have to play when you're not playing well overall to make mistakes that you can learn a lot from on a regular basis.

As per the general theme of the OP, it's impossible to play your best 100% of the time. While you probably shouldn't just quit because you're a little distracted from something, you probably should quit if you can't correct yourself within a reasonable time frame while playing. Learning to quit well is pretty huge.

I'm of the opinion that very little progress is made during play. For instance if your personal, relative skill level is 6 of 10 then that's the best you can be expected to play at peak performance. Unless it's accidental you're not going to play more optimally than your current knowledge/experience allows you to. And unless you possess brain skills that the average person doesn't, actively processing so much dynamic information in real time won't be sustainable rendering it inefficient.

With your 'performance' however comes results. We evaluate/analyze away from the tables and consciously carry that new knowledge/skill forward into play. When we've practiced and applied it enough times to have it happen on its own without thinking of it - like conditioning yourself to shoot free throws - then our skill jumps up a level making it possible to build on it further. Keep in mind that the same can be said for your leaks.

I don't really get that "in-reply quotation" thing so I'll use bullets or something:

Spooner- I described it as simplest because when we are mentally aware when we make an obvious mistake it is easily identifiable. Perhaps I should have left out the superlative, but nonetheless it remains an easy way to fix problems.

Ravageur- I think you misunderstand me some. I meant if an athlete stopped playing altogether, they would be hard-pressed to win. The comparison with "real" athletes is one of the best analogies possible imo. You're saying that an athlete is gaining in different ways that a poker player is not when they're playing poorly? That seems strange, as endurance and a form of muscle memory are both parts of poker as well. I am arguing that with proper mental awareness we can take "time outs" and coach ourselves to recognize incorrect thought patterns mid-performance.

Obviously tilt control is extremely important, but I'm of the belief that proper mental awareness to your actions should make it fairly clear when your decisions are being affected by emotions or not.

Robb- You make a great point. We have strategic advantages in terms of time dispersal that most athletes do not.

al yell- Also great points. I'm not proposing one analyzes all their plays in real-time, as that would be insane. Rather, look at the situation as a chance to display greater mental awareness and understanding. I agree that most of our progress should not occur while playing, rather we should focus on it. But I also believe that while we are playing we are given a unique opportunity to observe ourselves that simply doesn't exist in the postgame. A lof of good NFL coaches adjust their gameplan in game when a situation arises that they did not prepare for. That cannot be done without the observation of their own teams reaction, and the reasoning behind it. We play a game with an ever-changing dynamic, so I imagine we might need some practice actually adjusting in-game.

i get the whole 'endurance' thing, but generally i think it's often interpreted as auto-piloting 8 hour long sessions 12 tabling and that doesn't usually lead to improvement.

But point taken though regarding the athlete thing. I just think that playing your B game is often linked to an emotional reaction to your current session and it's hard to be able to tell yourself consciously how to 'feel'. That being said, for most people, the more you play the more you become desensitized to bad beats/flips/coolers which means you can play your A game for longer even whilst losing