It would seem I will never learn

To come off when I am tired. Or rather more importantly not to start in the first place. It is so difficult for me to do. I am in essence a compulsive gambler, I have looked at various junctures at the 20 warning signs and I think I tick about 8 of them. Now this may sound bad but when they include things such as

* Have you ever gambled longer than you intended
* Have you ever struggled to sleep due to gambling

It becomes apparant that perhaps the majority of serious poker players are going to have a large frequency of ticks against many of these traits. I know I have a compulsion to gamble, I don't miss it when it is unavailable to me BUT when I have nothing better to do poker is my first thought as I enjoy it and I expect to win. The more serious problems come when you let in affect your relationships and work if you are in employment.

Anyway I came back from Stirling and my first insinct was to play poker - I'd been on a train for over 8hrs I was obviously tired and should have known better but I just couldn't help myself. I know this is when I make mistakes, it's happened often enough but I made both the errors listed above - I gambled longer than I should as I was behind and ended up losing a really stupid pot where I had AK hit the flop K high and despite having a good idea he had AA or KK pre flop I failed to act on this and got stacked. In fact had I been more alert I would have folded to his overly large pre-flop bet as I was out of position. Then problem two followed as I spent a couple of hours thinking about what a prat I am before falling asleep.

I hate making elementary mistakes, it drives me crazy and I do think about it a lot when it happens. However this is probably a good thing as it lengthens the time between doing them again. I make errors in judgement when tired - I chase, I call where I wouldn't and undoubtably I become a losing player.

I will drill this information into my reluctant brain but sadly it still has not yet stuck.

Ah well it's all part of the rich learning curve of life I guess

Steve