it's all in the head

I once heard that poker was 60% skill, 20% luck and 20% psychology. I disagree. I think if you know the basics, the psychology part of poker is a lot higher, maybe even 50-70%. However, this is not the psychology that you might firstly associate with poker such as reading players bluff or picking up tells. The psychology i'm talking about is how you handle yourself at the table and what frame of mind you are playing in. I think this is the biggest key discipline to a winning player.

The reason why I'm writing this is that it came to my attention this week....

I had two weeks fant off from poker during my holiday and came back on Monday not really feeling like playing. I was a little under the weather when I came back, but still played, and just went through the motions lacking any kind of motivation. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be playing (with other things on my mind like moving to London next Monday) and I felt like I was playing just for the sake of it. I was losing money and putting it down to bad luck rather than bad play on my part, or just variance. I lost about $150ish during the session.

Thankfully I managed to quit the session as it could of been a lot worse...The next session I played was a lot shorter and more focused. I used the same philosophy as I did in the $320 tournament of not being concerned about where I finished but just focused on playing good poker. It definately took the pressure off. Sticking to satalite tournaments I won two $109 seats and two $50 seats which went towards recovering from my $150 loss. So all in all, covering tourament expenses, the last few days I've won about $100ish.

To mix up the satalittes I dabbled in a bit of 25c-50c 9 handed game. It was a pretty uneventful session except for two hands which I'm not sure about:

1. I have 97o in the BB. Two limpers, the Sb completes and I check. The flop is 774 rainbow....not bad so far. SB bets out $2, I make it $7 not wanting to mess about, the two limpers fold and the SB decides to make it $25 holding back an additional $15- I have him covered. What's the play, can I fold?!

2. I have Ako in the SB. Three limpers, I make it $3 and two of the limpers call. The flop is KQ3- rianbow. I lead out for $6 (pot is $10ish) and just one of the limpers (the button) calls. The turn is another Q. I check, and the button bets $10. Should I be leading the turn?? As played, what's my move?