Previous part of Mental Game of Poker: Strategy, logic embedded. Identification
1. Identification
To prevent an emotion from affecting your game, you need to be able to recognise that emotion in real time, before it reaches a tipping point. This may seem easy, but it is not. Poker is a game that gives you plenty of reasons to cheat and deceive yourself, so don't let this be another one.
If you worked on the psychological part of poker as much as the technical part, I wouldn't even describe this step ("recognition"). In the technical sense, recognition is easy to understand. However, in the psychological sense, many players lack the skills to recognise emotions before they take over. Some don't even realise that the last few hours have been mega tilteuntil it sees 15 wasted purchases.
You have to learn to recognise the traits of your psychological gaming problems - certain signs that portend psychological problems. Fortunately, these problems are not random. They tend to recur all the time, allowing you to recognise in advance, say, the imminent Bridge features. Your goal is to know all the signs that signal that it won't be long before tiltinsite. These marks will act as a map to prevent you from driving your game off a cliff.
The better you learn to recognise these traits, the easier it will be to control your emotions. Here's how to develop this recognition skill:
- Create an inventory. The questionnaire in Annex 2 will help you analyse your psychological game. After answering the questions, analyse the specific problems of your game in more depth, writing down as much detail as possible about them: thoughts, behaviour, actions, emotions, reasons and mistakes you make when these problems occur. It would be very helpful if you list these symptoms in order of when they happen - from the first symptom when the problem is not yet big to the last symptom when things are getting out of hand.
- Study the description. Review your profile regularly, especially before the game.
- Study the consequences. Describe the damage caused by your psychological problems and assess how much damage they will cause in the future if not addressed. How much does an individual problem cost you? Does it prevent you from reaching your limits? Does it have any impact on your confidence, life, happiness or family/friends? A clear understanding of the consequences of a particular problem gives you the motivation to take immediate action. Otherwise, it is very easy to keep playing the game thinking that nothing bad will happen.
- Complete the description. After the sessions, note down new signs and details of the problems.
- Set the alarm. This action is only for players who are so immersed in the game that they are unable to recognise any psychological problems in the game until they have finished playing. Set an alarm to go off at a certain frequency (every 30, 45 or 60 minutes) that does not interrupt the game too much. Take a few moments to observe yourself during this time. Are there any psychological problems? If so, quickly detail the thoughts, behaviours, actions, emotions, triggers and mistakes you make in poker that are associated with these problems. Yes, it is distracting, but you will only need to do it until you have developed the skill of recognising emotions without using an alarm clock.
- Take action. As soon as you recognise the signs of an impending problem, follow the second step.
2. Deep breathing
The main purpose of deep breathing is to separate you from your emotions so that you can insert logic. It's like leaving a room in the middle of a tense argument so that you can calm down and start thinking soberly again. A few deep breaths, while staying focused on the breath itself, can be enough to stop a growing problem without having to stop the game.
Depending on your emotional level, you can also use the breath to calm or intensify emotions.
If your emotions are low (as they are when you lack motivation), use deep breathing to create enthusiasm. If the opposite is true and your emotions are too strong (Bridge, anxiety, lack of confidence), then calm down with deep breaths.
Once you have momentarily detached yourself from your emotions and used deep breathing to calm or strengthen them, you can then insert logic.
3. Logic insertion
Dealing with entrenched problems is like holding a knife when everyone around you has a gun. To gain the upper hand, you have to put your mind to work. Logic is the weapon. Think of embedded logic as exercise designed to strengthen your mental muscles.
The main goal of this step is to come up with a statement or phrase that, when said to yourself, will enable you to keep a sober mind. Ideally, this statement will also correct the faulty logic that creates the problem.
The first thing you need to do is to write the statement down somewhere on a sticky note, in a notebook, in a word document, on your mobile phone or wherever you think is best. By doing this, you won't have to rely on your dysfunctional mind to remember your statement at critical moments.
Second, by using the phrase consistently, you can confidently approach the final solution to the problem. You need a phrase or a statement that is in your language and hits the mark. The best statement is the one that works best for you, not the one that rhymes best or is known by many. Here are some examples:
- "Bad players have to win sometimes too; it's just a variation; play your game and control yourself" - bad beat
- "Today I have to withstand a bad variation and try not to lose too much" - bad period
- "It may seem that I am capable of beating any opponent today, but that is not true. This thinking is a false illusion" - overconfidence
The logic inserted may not work for the following reasons:
- Emotional levels had passed the breaking point
- The statement or phrase is not "strong enough"
- You have been exposed to something new, e.g. new psychological problems
- The emotions you had built up flooded your mind so quickly that you didn't have time to use the insertion logic
- You may prefer an audio recording of your chosen statement or phrase
This series of articles is based on Jered Tendler's book on the psychology of poker, The Mental Game of Poker. If you would like to purchase the original, which is available in English, you can do so at amazon.com
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