Since we were down to the bubble, action had tightened up considerably. I told myself that I was playing for the win, not the guaranteed cash for making the final table. Well, my play did not follow that mindset. I took a chance to steal a pot from the button with 2-3 of hearts. The big blind reluctantly called. The flop came down with all paint, and two more hearts. My opposition checked, and my brain went into the toilet. I under bet the pot in a meek fashion, making it an easy call for the guy sitting across from me. I checked on the Turn when it was a black 4, another error. The River did not bring me my final heart, so I literally had nothing. It is never a good sign when a hand of 5-high beats you, right? My opponent checked, so I simply had to fire another bullet. Again playing scared, I put out an odd smallish bet in order to save myself chips if there was a call. My veteran opponent thought for some time before calling with his pocket 7's. Our tablemates crooned that it was a gutsy call, but I knew that I had basically handed the guy the pot thanks to my myriad of errors. I mucked without showing, glad to know that nobody saw the cards that fueled my embarrassingly horrific play.

Many of us are scared of our mistakes. We allow errors at the tables to attack our self-esteem and poker confidence. I try to convince players to accept their mistakes, and then work to learn from them. It has been said that Thomas Edison failed over 1,800 times in his attempts to produce the light bulb. Columbus was looking for a passage to India when he discovered the new world. And every legendary poker player that I know will readily admit that they make mistakes every time they play. In essence, nobody has ever played a truly perfect session of poker. There are always small mistakes that we could improve upon. There is always work to be done.

So, a key in using our mistakes to our advantage is to accept the errors. Since our mind automatically acts to push our shortcomings into the recesses of the mind, we have to resist the temptation to move onward. Instead, take a moment to think through the loss. Identify the error, as well as the emotions and thinking that were accompanying that decision. Were you playing too conservatively? If so, what thoughts or emotions were driving that conservative mindset? Perhaps your mind was pushing you to coast into the money. Perhaps you knew you could derive innate self-satisfaction from just surviving to the final table. Maybe you've subconsciously sold yourself short, as you don't really have the confidence that you could win anyway. Unless you make the effort to inspect the mistakes, you will never know.

Take a small notebook with you to the tables. Jot down notes surrounding any hands that you would consider poorly played. Not only should you write down the financial specifics of the hand, but also note your emotional and thought status. Inspect these notes while doing critical self-evaluations in order to learn from your errors. Don't run from your mistakes, as they are sure to catch up to you. Mistakes are a valuable tool in improving your overall game. Now go make it happen.