Psychological barriers at higher levels.

I am writing this to attempt to keep myself calm and look back on it in the future for personal reference.

I can remember moving from $3 games to $6 games, I thought that was the biggest jump ever. I remember failing miserably and panicing heaps. I managed to overcome that and now I’m going through it again.

At the start of the month I’ve moved from $6 games to $10 games. Everything started well to be honest. On Saturday afternoon I was 10 for 10 cashes in SnG’s.

After only 2 bad days, Tuesday & Wednesday, I’m down around $70 from both MTT’s and SnG’s. $70 isn’t a huge amount of money and it’s also small in comparison to my bankroll, however, I’ve never been down $70 in 2 days.

I know that this is something I’ll have to get used to. As I move up in levels I have the chance to win more and also lose more.

The really annoying part is it’s only about 7 games I’ve lost which out of the total I’ve played this month would be about average at any level for me.

I really thought I’d have a problem with the new types of opponents at the $10 level, but now that I’ve played them for a while they are all pretty much the same as the $5 games so in regards to my play I’m really happy.

This problem is purely psychological.
• Seeing the total balance drop by $11 when I buy into a game.
• Worried more about losing money than focusing on playing A-grade poker.
• Chickening out of pots in case I’m beat and wont make 3rd when most of the times I know I’m strong.

I know people reading this may be laughing at the moment as they can lose this amount of money pre-flop in a single ring hand.

I think the key is to
• Try and forget about recent results
• Give every session, every game, every hand my absolute best
• Pay zero attention to money
• Don’t play weak poker at all

This is just a battle with my own head that I’m going to have to overcome. I just need to find the best way to not focus on it or worry about it.

I look forward to posting again in the next couple of days with reports of some nice results.