Somehow the best players just know what to do and when. I wish I knew what it is, but I doubt it is something you can quantify. It's about paying attention to tendencies, having the confidence to take risks and push small edges, and having a firm understanding of people's pushing and calling ranges.
No Limit is an extraordinarily complex game in some ways, and yet in its simplicity it fools people into thinking that anyone can do it. But that kind of thinking is absurd. Only the gifted can excel enough to be among the truly elite, just like with anything else - Chess, football, singing, writing.
I have lost my confidence and I barely even play any more. This, despite career earnings of around $45,000 playing online poker tournaments. But I don't want to be a grinder. It's not fun. And yet I suspect I have reached the limit of what I can accomplish in this game. The losing streaks are so discouraging, especially in the absence of the big score that many successful players have.
I now have anxiety and uneasiness about even starting a session, and when I do, and things go wrong, I start thinking, "here we go again.'
That is not a recipe for success. But I just hate losing, and I hate even more than I can so regularly lose to such inferior players.
I do not deal well with the fact that a player can limp call a raise out of position with Ace 4, call my pot sized bet on a flop f 2 5 T, then call my all in on the turn, and hit a three and win the pot. Four bad mistakes and he wins the pot? What the hell? It would be akin to a chess opponent moving his queen in front of my pawn, yet when I go to take it, the pawn explodes and sends a piece of shrapnel into my king and my army is defeated and I lose.