Conditioning the poker brain

On Saturday night I had a poker epiphany.

I sat at a new table with $400 and folded my rags for the first round or so. The player to my left was very active, involved in a lot of raised pot, a couple of which he had raised himself, but I was yet to see any hand revealed. He had me covered with about $550.

Then I picked up KK and raised to $16 pre-flop, called to my left and also by the small blind (the next most active player at the table). The flop came 10,8,2 with 2 hearts. I bet $36 and got min-raised to my left, folding out the small blind. I considered the possibility that he had out-flopped me, but concluded that he could have a wide range of hands here. I re-raised and we got all in on the flop. Two low spades came on board and I wondered briefly if my hand was good. As it turned out it wasn't. The villain had 84 of diamonds and had caught a 2nd pair on the river.

This isn't a bad beat story. I tell the story of this hand because of my reaction to it. Initially, I was annoyed and sat out, stood up, let out a big sigh and looked out of the window. Then, within a couple of seconds at most I had a chat to myself. It went along the lines of this:

"What are you doing. Why are you annoyed? You know the cards don't matter. What matters is getting the money in when in a good position. The outcome is out of your control. You win some, you lose some. Keep getting the money in this well and you are going to be a big winner. Get back in the game and keep making good decisions."

I sat down happy that I had regained any lost composure, that I wouldn't be affected by losing the big pot. I played another 40 minutes or so, but didnt get anything going and left when the table composition changed. The bad player who stacked me was replaced by a rock and another loose player was replaced by a dangerous loose-aggressive type: time to go. I played another 40 minutes at another table, losing about $90 with no major dramas. I then won about $230 at another table (in only 10 minutes) when I got the money in really well in consecutive pots (top two pairs v top pair/gutshot, then KK v QQ). I called it a night there, as the wife was due home after a night out with the girls.

I totted up my results for the night and calculated that I had won a measly $25 for 3 hours play. Adjusting for luck, however, I had won $650.

I had earlier finally convinced myself that the luck didn't matter, so instead of being annoyed at playing 3 hours for $25 I was actually really pleased that I had 'won' $650.

Its like in business, there is profitability and there is cash-flow. Saturday night was profitable, and I could go to bed knowing I had won $650. On the cash-flow side, I hadn't been paid yet and so would have to wait to get the money (or, it could be argued that I had already been paid up front for this pot, because I had been running well lately).

The trick to this game, for me anyway, is looking at profitablility and cash-flow as two separate items. I was profitable, therefore all was well. The only time cash-flow matters is when lack of cash affects the ability to stay in action, or affects the way I play.

To prove the point, the next night I won $300+ largely due to one big hand where I re-raised a really loose-aggressive player pre-flop with AJ. On the rag flop I overbet the $80 pot, setting him all-in for $180 which he correctly called with pocket 7s. I caught a Jack to outdraw him. The luck factor on this hand was $312+. I went to bed that night knowing that I never actually won anything; I just had a positive cash-flow of $300.

I need to condition my poker brain to ignore the cash-flow and concentrate on playing profitably.