Mantra, Mantra, Mantra

"Basically, when people asked him about what his secret was for being that consistent, he said: "Your mental, emotional state while playing is 80 % of the work, and you can work and take specific steps to get better at that. Being in the right emotional state will allow you to open up your eyes to what you and the other players are doing without being stuck in the previous hand you lost, how much you are up, what you're going to eat later, etc. Combine that with some basic technical steps that can be taken and you got the other 20% to at least achieve enough to live comfortably off poker. I believe, that with today's games and climate, anybody with even mediocre intelligence and some discipline could at the very least make a comfortable living playing this game." --Recent 2p2 Forum Post about a $3/$6 player who crushes online in post-Black Friday games.*

 No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
 BB ($26.85)
 UTG ($17.73)
 Hero (MP) ($29.17)
 Button ($25)
 SB ($10.78)
Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, K
1 fold, Hero bets $0.70, Button raises $2.40, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.70
Flop: ($5.15) K, 4, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $3.43, Hero raises $9.43, Button raises $19.17 (All-In), Hero calls $13.17
Turn: ($50.35) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: ($50.35) A (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $50.35
Results:
Button had K, A (two pair, Aces and Kings).
Hero had Q, K (two pair, Kings and Queens).
Outcome: Button won $48.35

I made a marginal call of the villain's PF RR, but given his aggro tendencies (I've seen him 3bet IP with a very wide range, including small suited connectors in this session) it wasn't horrible....

....and in any case, I flopped top two and got all all the money in when I was an 87% favorite.

I understand the concept of RDM (Results Don't Matter) as well as anyone, but sometimes knowledge is not enough. Discipline is more important. Discipline to embrace RDM. Discipline to stop thinking about that hand and move afresh to the the next one. Discipline to tell myself that I played the hand right, and that I'd do it again on this very next hand if given the chance.

And discipline to know when I'm playing undisciplined poker.

I took a couple more ugly beats like this one yesterday early in my session and started tilting. I was down something like $105 in thirty minutes of play, but I managed to log out and go do non-poker stuff around the house with my better half. Later in the afternoon, when the wife went out shopping for an hour, I sat back down in the same $25NL 6max games and tried to play perfect poker....

....and took a cooler right out of the gate when my flopped set of sevens lost to a flopped set of nines...

....but managed to put it aside....

...forty-five minutes later, I quit the session back to nearly even for the day. Why? Because I kept telling myself "RDM, RDM, RDM"...

....and "RED-I, RED-I, RED-I"....

...and "Discipline, Discipline, Discipline."

Now if I can just remember to repeat these things next time I play...

All-in for now...
-Bug
*Said winning player does not use a HUD when he plays. When asked why, he said:
Cause mostly fish who want ABC shortcuts and not have to think while playing use huds. No wonder most regs can´t beat the midstakes for more than 3 ptbb / 100 . I am not saying it is terrible, am experimenting a little with it, but I have noticed that I too often revert to ABC play whilst using [a HUD] like most TAG fish.