Mental Game Forum

Awareness is key and I'm glad my series, and the other efforts you've taken to fix this problem have helped build it.  It sounds like the next step is just as unclear as realizing how risky your play is in the moment, so let me know if this helps.

Part of the reason why your logical or aware mind isn't enough to control this is because the emotion or the drive toward high variance play is so strong that it overwhelms the mind.  You'll recall from the videos that when emotions rise too high they shut off your logical/aware mind.  At that time you revert back to unconscious comptence – and everything that you are currently in the process of learning is gone.  You're left with what you know best, even though that's clearly not enough. 

Part of what makes this tricky and may not have come through clearly in the video (in part bc my understanding of this point has improved greatly), is that these old habits – high variance play for example – are hard wired into your unconscious competence.  It's a skill that you are clearly very very good at.  To correct it, doesn't just mean that you know what is correct, and try to eliminate the old.  You can't nor would you want to eliminate the old knowledge, and you instead want to upgrade it like an old software program.  To upgrade the old knowledge you need to break down why it is flawed and correct that directly.  I'll help you do that, because there's very often an emotional/mental game flaw in there that players often miss. I

If you put yourself in those moments where you're caught up playing high variance style, what's your motive or intent behind it?  Why do you chose that style?  What benefits has it brought in the past?

From there, I'll offer a clearer strategy that goes beyond just being aware.  I agree – trying to constantly monitor it, is definitely not +EV or practical.