Tommy Angelo is my new hero

Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo hit home with me really well. In the book he has an example about an archer training with some monk in Asia. The archer has spend a year and is not any better than he was. Finally one day the monk tells the archer to breathe in a certain way before shooting and finally the archer improves a ton. The archer had to endure the bad before he would be willing to really try something so stupid as breathing.

I think that story follows exactly what I went through reading the book. I have had a lot of problems with tilt and the book made a ton of sense to me. Just before going back to college I mocked my brother about going to a meditation, and didn't get it at all. Now I get controlled breathing. It really is just to get your mind off of everything.

Two other things really stuck with me. The first one is that just like playing better, quitting better is a poker skill that will help with your hourly. If you quit while still playing your A game and someone else waits until they are playing their C game you are going to win off of them. Quitting isn't something that the weak do, its a competition just like poker itself. Whoever quits better will win.

The other element that helped a lot was when you are all in consider what you should do if you lose when you are ahead. At that point you aren't tilted so make the decision that if you get sucked out on whether you will continue or not. That way you make the decision before you get tilted not after.

In the last two days (since reading the book) I am up $78 with an ROI of %30 just playing for about 3 hours. Its a sick hourly for someone playing the $11s. I'm only $90 away from the $22s!