H.A.L.T before you play

This might seem crazy, but I believe that bad poker sessions can be avoided by simply playing at the right times. I use this system that seems to work for me.

Before I play I ask myself if I am:

Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired

——————–
Hungry

Poker players get hungry for three things

1: FOOD - I make sure I am fully nourished, lots of juice and or coffee into me, before I even consider playing. My brain needs energy to function properly.

2: MONEY- I completely erase the need to win , or desire to win money from my mind. Life happens, we all need money at times in our lives. But this is no place to push things. I just play my game and know that in the end I will have the money I need.

3-BLOOD- I never go into a game with the intent of attacking one or more players. Even if they keep bullying me, or they just seem to get lucky against me. This can cause me to get upset when my plan does not work and they end up with my chips AGAIN!!

---------------

Angry

Life can get to me at times. We all know **** happens. When outside things are bothering me the last thing I will do is sit down and play poker. This can be the difference between a winning and a losing day. Why set myself up to fail before I even start to play ?? If the wife and I just had a huge fight and she called me a miserable prick , or a lazy poker playing bastard, there is no way I can play poker shortly after.

--------------

Lonely

When I make plans to not play poker on certain days I now stick with it. No matter what happens. People cancel plans on me and I end up home alone and board, but believe me I have already played enough poker so of time is OFF TIME!!
--------------
Tired

I Do not play big poker sessions after a long day of activities, or after a crappy night’s sleep, or even while drunk, lol J My mind needs to be sharp and fully rested to play to my full potential . Even more important than this, I DO NOT play for more than 2 hours per session. I ALWAYS play for around 1.5 hours and then I break for at least 20 minutes before I play again. There are times of course when some idiot fish is dumping 2 buy ins per minute and in this case I will break my rule. However I still have a plan for this, I close down all tables accept for the fishy one, and I only play that table for at least 30 minutes while I stretch, grab myself drink ,etc