A Burning Desire to Play Poker- Staying Hungry

In the past month, I had my biggest score ever, and then topped it again w/ the live win. I came home, and from past experience, I now that winning sessions can be a nightmare for your short term performance. (They also can provide you w/ the confidence to play better, but for a lot of people, (myself included) well, it makes them less hungry). So I decided to take off a day. The next morning I woke up, and still did not have the burning desire to play poker. Once again, I took the day off.

Now for a lot of casual observers, that might not mean much, but when you play 15+ hours a day, 6 days a week, taking off 2 days - for no real reason - takes a lot of discipline. I've learned that without that burning desire to sit down for a session, and play some solid poker, it is much much more difficult to have a winning session. You can almost forget about winning a tournament in that state of mind. Therefore, when I feel that way, I simply do not play. I believe over time this will save me a lot of money.

I came back from the break not really feeling too different, but a renewed sense of hunger. It had been a while since I won something, and I was now ready to play properly. Results wise, I had a satisfactory day, and my decisions were a little off, but I was able to stay focused, and play a solid game- something that was unlikely to happen w/o a hunger for poker.