Your leak is Concentration

Ever since I was a kid, my school reports would come back something along the lines of "very clever, but distracted too easily and has a lack of concentration." or "talks too much in class, but when he concentrates, he's a stop student." My weakness has always been concentrating for long periods, and when I put my mind to something I can excel, but it's focusing for long periods which is a weakness for me, and for a lot of others too.

In Poker, we need to make the right decisions when they come along, but to make the right decisions, we've got the focus on everything else that went on in the hand, like "what could villain could on the flop and then lead the turn with", or "what could villain raise the flop with but then check the turn with", instead of "I've got AA, we're stacking off here always." And that's the trap too many players fall into, not concentrating at the right times, but playing their cards for face value.

Yesterday I started a session and decided to really focus on my hands, and I found that talking aloud to myself was critical to this. I wasn't thinking about anything else, I wasn't listening to music, I was just watching everything around me and discussing my thought process aloud, and it worked like a treat. I was taking down a lot of small pots and my profits for the session were growing, where as without concentration, more often than not your HEM/PT line is going down until it comes across a big pot, then it dwindles again, before it comes to another big pot.

I felt myself wiening off my peaks levels, and as I did, my profits started shrinking as the session went on, I was making decisions off the cuff because I had a big hand, and I wasn't thinking too much before I clicked, and this has accounted for a whole amount of profits, massive amount, amounts you wouldn't believe. I was up 2BI last night before making 2 decisons which took me back down to ground zero, all because I wasn't concentrating on the hand when it was a clear fold, even with a straight.

If you find yourself losing concentration in session, quit. It's as simple as that, you're losing a ton of value, and a ton of money. Don't play because you wanna rack up 40k hands this month, it's just not worth losing $$$ over. Talk aloud and make the right decisions, maybe even record the session with Camtasia if it helps you talk aloud as standard, it helps, a lot..