how to have more patience in poker?

[iponnet22]

this has happened a billion times to me, I start playing great early on but loose most of it towards the end of the day. or I am running bad and get sick of people coming over me and push with like QQs or even AKo or some marginal hand or just become a calling station with mediocre hands.

is there anyway to cure this cause I am pretty sure its costing me atleast 2ptbb/100, any exercises of some sort to have more patience in general because I am like this in normal day to day activities also?

[janeg]

Hi ip, the only patience exercise I know is to sit down at one FR table and only play the top 5% of all hands: 99+, AJs+, KQs, AKo

Try it for one hour or maybe a 1/2 hour at a time. It nearly kills me when I do it, sometimes you don't see even one of those hands, sometimes you get one and have to fold it pre-flop or on the flop. Sometimes you get one, hit it nice and get rivered. Sometimes you get one and get no action.

It can help with both the patience factor (discipline) and the frustration factor (recognizing when you're most likely to steam) in limit play. Never tried it at NL but imagine it would help there too.

[Piemaster]

How long are your sessions? It can be very difficult to play for very long session, and so it might be worth shortening you sessions if you find you are losing patience at the end of the day.

[iponnet22]

tx for the replies, janeg now I know I have a problem because the thought of doing what you are saying makes me wana to deny it , but seriously I will do it I think it should help.

and I should have been more clear in my original post I should have said session instead of day because I usually only play 2-2.5 hrs a day 6 tabling, I may try to split this up to 2 1hr sessions and see if it makes a difference.

[Baz501]

perhaps playing less tables may help you?

I find it hard to play more than one table...I am not as focused as I would be on one table? Maybe try that in conjunction with other things said in this thread...

[Fast Eddy]

It's important to recognize when you're not in a good state of mind to play properly. If you get to that point, get up and take a break. You might want to try listening to music. In my experience, with time and more hands played, the patience will follow.

[Joey2Cardz]

You could maybe start to play heads-up games instead. The hands move a lot faster and there's a much larger range in the hands you can play aggressively. Saying this, you will still go through long stages where your opponents seem to be getting better hands than you every hand. I've found that the more confidence you have in your laydowns, the more patient you will become. Even if you're not sure, you should tell yourself that it was a good laydown. Tell yourself that if your opponent does keep trying to bluff you out of it, it will catch up with them when you do get cards you are confident playing.