Acceptable and not acceptable mistakes from Ansky. 22 August 2008, 0:00.

About a week ago, I considered making a play which I was pretty sure was bad in a FTOPS tournament, and I made it anyway. I mentally justified it by telling myself that "oh well, its just a stupid tournament, I want to double up or quit." This is just not acceptable. I take this attitude far too often in online tournaments, mainly because of a lack of patience or mental discipline. I need to state it publicly and openly in order to force myself to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I rarely would do such a thing in a cash game, in fact I can't really think of a time where I have done that. My mistakes in NL cash games are usually ones of expectation. By that I mean, I mistakenly overestimate, or underestimate my opponents in spots where I really should have a better grasp of their skills/mindset. I'd refer to these mistakes as acceptable mistakes. They are extremely difficult to avoid and require insane focus, so I can't fault myself for not being at 100% at all times. I also do not mind if I make a bizarre play and it doesn't work. I do not consider it a mistake if I can go back to it, think about why I did it, and justify it.

Someone on 2+2 posted this video, and I think it has an incredible parallel to poker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2KKfOGaR_w&fmt=18

I am going to keep this post short though, as I am about to play some PLO.