Still on the psychology of poker...ego

My challenge is to try to balance my aggressiveness and caution in poker without being a prisoner of my ego. How do you deal with that?

Anderson_ASA said:

My challenge is to try to balance my aggressiveness and caution in poker without being a prisoner of my ego. How do you deal with that?

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If you study strategy-- for example solver poker--solvers have no aggression nor caution- there actions are based on strategy- when you understand why you should bet 1.5 pot OOP on turn with a semi bluff vs when you check give up based on strategy then you will not have to think about balancing two emotional not rational constructs.

Anderson_ASA said:

My challenge is to try to balance my aggressiveness and caution in poker without being a prisoner of my ego. How do you deal with that?

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That’s a solid point, but in practice ego still creeps in even if you know the theory. Do you use any in-game checkpoints or review habits to catch when you’re deviating from strategy?

For me it’s simple: be aggressive when the spot is +EV, not when your ego wants to win the hand.
Most mistakes come from “he can’t push me around” thinking.
Same with folding—if the line is under-bluffed, just let it go. Quick check: am I doing this to make money or to be right? If it’s ego, it’s usually wrong.