Basics
A mistaken approach to the learning process creates conditions for psychological game problems to arise. Issues of tilt, motivation, fear, and confidence can be eliminated by gaining a better understanding of how to learn and how to apply that knowledge.
This section describes three theories that form the basis of an organized and logical improvement system. Later, a client's story is presented, where he explains how he solved his tilt problems using these theories.
Three main theories:
- Adult Learning Model: describes four different levels of the learning process
- Worm Concept: shows how improvement occurs over time
- Process Model: facilitates continuous improvement and playing at the highest level
In the short term, understanding how to learn better may seem very complicated, but later you will gain information that will ease the resolution of psychological game problems. These three theories can also contribute to improving your poker skills (non-psychological).
Adult Learning Model
When learning a new skill, the process itself is predictable and has a clear beginning and end. Although players differ in certain unique learning aspects (e.g., how quickly they learn, what information they easily absorb, where they get stuck the most), the entire process is more or less the same.
The Adult Learning Model (ALM) is a simple theory describing four different levels of the learning process. These four levels are:
- Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence. You don't even know what you don't know. In other words, you might not even realize what skills you lack. For some players, ignorance is bliss.
- Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence. Now you become aware of what you don't know. This doesn't make you skilled; it just means you know which skills you need to improve. Becoming conscious happens due to your own insight or when someone else shares their insight with you.
- Level 3 – Conscious Competence. If you've reached this level, it means you've put in enough work and/or repeated the same action enough times to acquire the skill. However, the essence is that to remain skilled, you have to think about what you've learned… otherwise, you'll lose the skill.
- Level 4 – Unconscious Competence. At this level, you've reached a stage where you know something so well that it becomes automatic and requires no thought. Unconscious competence is the Holy Grail of learning and the most important concept in this book.
These levels make sense when you recall your experience learning poker or anything else in life. A great example of ALM in practice is learning to drive a car. Remember when you were kids thinking about driving a car. At that time, you knew very little about what a car is, let alone how to drive it. This is unconscious incompetence. Then, as teenagers, you understood much more about driving. Perhaps you were annoyed by the fact that you couldn't drive. You became consciously aware of your incompetence. Now recall the first time you sat behind the wheel. To drive a car, you needed to learn how to steer, press the gas, watch the road, switch radio stations simultaneously, adjust to traffic speed, and handle thousands of different situations. You needed to concentrate and think about all these actions to avoid harming yourself or other road users. This is conscious competence. After a few years, you no longer need to think about each of these actions to drive a car. This skill has become natural and requires very little effort. Without much thought, you can drive, listen to music, talk to passengers, and handle situations on the road, such as bad weather conditions, all at the same time. Driving has reached the level of unconscious competence.
Weaknesses are skills. In the unconscious competence of your psychological and technical poker game, there are weaknesses and old habits. Essentially, you are very good at using your bad habits, but you no longer want that to continue.
Before delving into how ALM applies to poker, take a minute to consider some things:
- How much knowledge did you have when you first sat down to play poker?
- The complexity of your thought process before making decisions now and when you first started improving?
- A mistake you recently discovered you were making?
- Decisions that are made automatically during the game?
- Mistakes that no longer occur.
A good example of applying ALM in poker is starting hand selection. When you first started playing, you probably hadn't heard of a starting hand chart and played too many hands. Even when you gained some knowledge about it, you probably still didn't understand why calling a 3-bet with QJo out of position is a mistake. So, this was your weak point that you were unaware of, regardless of whether you were completely or partially unconsciously incompetent regarding the starting hand concept.
Let's skip a few weeks or months after you started learning how to play poker and especially how to select hands to play. You might have received such information from a friend or a book that emphasizes the value of certain hands when playing from different positions against different opponents. Maybe that information came from an opponent who cursed you for playing poorly with QJo, or perhaps you noticed yourself that over time, you lose money playing that way with QJo. So far, you didn't understand which hands you should play, but you realized something was wrong. The mere realization that you are making mistakes in selecting hands to play didn't make you good at it, but it was a sign that you needed to work on it. You will understand that you are at the level of conscious incompetence when you first notice your mistake.
As you continue to play and improve, you will understand the pros and cons of playing all possible starting hands. It will seem like you are improving, that you are controlling which hands you play, and everything is going well… until you lose concentration at the end of a long session or get frustrated after losing a few big pots… suddenly, you revert to old habits and play hands that should be folded. Although those mistakes become obvious later, it only confirms that you don't actually know as well as you thought earlier which hands you should play. At this stage of the learning process, you still need to think about which hands to play; otherwise, you make mistakes.
With more experience, more work, and practice, your work is finally done. Now, even when tilting, you can fold weak hands without much thought. This is a new habit where the decision is made automatically. It takes a lot of work to get here, but the result is worth it. Now you no longer need to think about which starting hands to play, and your mind is free and can be used to learn new things.
Whether it's starting hands or emotional control, your mind has a limit on how much information it can process at one time. You can only work on separate aspects of your game at one time. Therefore, it is critically important to know which ALM level your skills are at. Only then will you know where to focus on improving. If you no longer need to think about how to be good at something, it means your mind is free to tackle another weak point in your game and move from conscious incompetence to unconscious competence. However, if you still revert to old habits, you need to put in more work, even if you don't think so.
In reality, the learning process has many more small steps than ALM describes, but such a theory is simpler and especially important for your game.
The article series is prepared based on Jared Tendler's poker psychology book: “Mental Game of Poker”. Those who want to purchase the original, which is in English, can do so on amazon.com
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