Hidden Skill Perceived

I just realized one aspect today why I became more successful than most of the players. Let me see myself.

- Mathematical background? yes
- Computer science background -> and making educated guesses based on analytical thinking? yes
- Enough hands played while reading hands using above skills? yes
- Win consistent? yes, over 3 years now
- What else?

I am fully aware that you have already reached a level where you can read/guess people's hand correct and use your strategic mind to make the most +EV play out of your hand. You often told me how you made such a good bluff and your opponent called you lost. You are also aware that you can't do that bluff against a fish which I don't think is the opponent you executed that bluff against.

Now, before you read further, try to guess the answer to this question. Because I really see you are struggling with this. It is based on my perception which I might be wrong but I see you having a very freedom type of nature in yourself that is often back fire to you. I believe that discipline with proper timing is something where you draw a line to yourself and just do it no matter what. The good example would be having a plan on your hand. Try to draw a 3x3 matrix on your head consisting:

- flop play: raise/fold/call
- turn play: raise/fold/call
- river play: raise/fold/call

However, What I have figured out on myself is that there is something called timing which I think is really important on poker. Have you experienced the situation where you tend to make loose calls when you are tiling where if you were in normal mood that you wouldn't have? I wouldn't define this as tilt but its more to your psychological aspect.

You can apply this analogy to real world where you want to tell someone a big message. If you try to tell that message to that person in a loud bar with a lot of people, he will still hear it but he wouldn't be able to fully grasp it not because you aren't loud enough or speaking clearly, but the distractions and just environment in general around the person who you are trying to send a message to. Now, try to imagine the same in quite place with a hard liquor, nice chair, face to face, and alone. Imagine the gravity of the impact on 2 different scenarios.

Now figuring and applying to yourself is homework I give to you and leave that entirely up to you. I do not know if I am making any sense to you on this but let me know if you have any questions.