Home working

[peterbirks]

Because my US freelance is on holiday, I have more to do this week, so I am saving commuting time by working from home today and Thursday. There are various things you have to do when working from home (well, you don't HAVE to do them, but it is advisable). One is to prepare for the day normally. This consists of shaving, showering, and dressing reasonably correctly. Just getting a cup of coffee and sitting down at the keyboard in your dressing gown is not good enough. Some people advocate that you go for a half-hour walk, imitating the "journey to work". But since I'm doing this to save the time on that journey to work, this seems a bit pointless. But I can see the reasoning behind it.

When you work at home you work a lot quicker. This is because offices are mainly occupied by people chatting rather than working. Marketing people spend about 1/50th of their time marketing, one-fifth of their time in meetings, maybe a quarter of their time staring at spreadsheets and databases in a manner which makes it look as if they are working, but they are not, and the rest of their time chatting. Journalists spend no time in meetings (if they can help it), but do spend a lot of their time chatting. So, when you are at home, you are already 100% more efficient than you were, because there is no-one to chat to.

And with that, I note that my work day is about to begin, so I shall disappear for a while.

I'm going to try to cure my currently awful poker play by making a list of errors. My failure to bet on the river is coming back. It's a function of a couple of bad sessions and a feeling that all is wrong with the world. I must overcome it. And I must also avoid this bet on the river with an ace-high. It's terrible. I know it's terrible, even at the time, but I still do it. And, finally, I must find out why I do things which even at the time I know are wrong. This is the toughest one of all. If I can just stop that flaw, I think my win rate would increase by at least 1BB an hour.

Comments

[jellymillion.livejournal.com]

Hang on. You're failing to bet on the river. But you do bet when you have Ace-high.

I think you've got these the wrong way round mate. Unless in the former case you have less than A-high, of course.

Yes

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Yes. I know that. That's what I was writing. You have to be there. This betting at the end with the Ace-high is a really common mistake. Jennifer Harman mentions it in SS2. I've mainly got rid of it, but sometimes it creeps back in. The checking at the end with less than a monster is also a common mistake, frequently seen in pot limit and no limit players venturing into the limit arena.

The psychology behind the two actions are that, with the overpair or the top pair, you "aren't quite sure", so you check. Whereas with the Ace, you are fairly sure that you are losing (but are not absolutely certain), so it's one last throw of the dice. I know that this psychology is flawed (if you are going to win with the ace, then you might as well check and call a bluff) -- but at least I see it for what it is. Defeating it is harder. Try telling an obsessive-compulsive handwasher that what they do isn't necessary, and they will look at you despairingly and say "I know!" It really is something hard to explain.

By way of catharsis, I looked to see how the 15-30 games were going at 8.30am UK time, and they seemed a bit looser. As luck would have it, within 20 minutes I twice found myself in a position with top pair at the end, and both times I bet it, and both times I was called, and both times I won. But getting yourself to press that "bet" button requires an act of will, it really does. So, another $172 back and, this time it was as much as I reckon I could have won. Now that is pleasing.

[jonathankaplan.livejournal.com]

...And, finally, I must find out why I do things which even at the time I know are wrong. This is the toughest one of all. If I can just stop that flaw, I think my win rate would increase by at least 1BB an hour.

How could this one flaw possibly be the toughest one of all? I have read down your journal to this point, you seem considerably savvy, you certainly appear to be very capable of discipline, so why is this one difficult?

If you are making this one mistake enough to be that expensive (and you KNOW you are making it?), man, that would seem to be a major motivator/enabler to just stop it.
You know what to do. You know when. Do it.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JK:

Stopping individual errors is relatively easy (it's just a matter of pulling yourself off auto-pilot). What I meant here (and I will accept that the phraseology is less than brilliant) is that the tough part is finding out why I do things which I know are wrong, and carry on doing them. I might stop myself committing an individual named flaw, but then another flaw bumps up, like those ever-emerging moles in the fairground game, and I start repeating that error, even though I know it is wrong.

In fact I think I know the "why" -- it's just a lack of focus, which is itself brought on by ennui, or the mind wandering, and this can be a function of tiredness, or age. So one part of your brain is saying "why are you doing this? it's wrong", but your hand has already pressed the bet, or raise, or fold button.

The closest analogy could be an error that you repeatedly make while driving, even though you know it is an error. If you concentrate hard enough, you can eliminate the error, and eventually the correct move becomes automatic. But then another silly error crops up. Driving is about not concentrating on what you are doing -- 90% of it has to be automatic -- so that you can concentrate on the important bits. The problem is, when you get an automatic habit that is wrong.

A similar problem can arise with golf swings.

That's not very well-expressed, mainly because I am tired, but I think that I have (sort of) got across what I was getting at.