Myths of psychological play

Psychological game strategy

Think of the psychological side of the game simply as a game. As with any game, winning requires skill and good strategy. Having a strategy is not new, but having a psychological strategy is unusual.

Winning on a psychological level is essentially no different from knowing how to play profitable poker. It takes talent, hard work and the right information. The only thing beyond your control is your talent. Some players are simply better than you on a psychological level. For example, things that annoy you won't even get your heart rate up. Or, another has no problem playing poker around the clock when you find it difficult to play for more than an hour. When you see such natural talent in others, you might think that you won't have a problem either. Not true. It is easy for them because they have more talent. The good thing is that even if you lack talent in the psychological sense, hard work and the right information can eliminate your problems.

Most poker players think that solving psychological problems is easy, as conventional poker wisdom would have it. So we keep hearing, "Just stay calm; don't start bridge", "Don't focus on money, make good decisions", or "Take a deep breath, be fearless". It all sounds nice, but in reality it is the same as saying "win this hand". This is the fundamental challenge of the game - to develop a winning strategy. In a psychological game, the challenge is to develop a strategy to stay calm, to focus on the solution and not on the money, and not to let fear influence the game. This is certainly not as easy as conventional wisdom suggests.

Myths of psychological play

Myths of psychological play

There are many myths about the psychology of the game. If you really want to be successful in poker from a psychological point of view, you will need a strategy based on logic and the latest research. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time and create additional emotional problems. The strategy will be flawed if it relies on these widespread myths:

• Emotions are the problem and must be blocked
• You either have talent or you don't
• To change a habit, all you have to do is say "don't do that again"
• You must stop playing if you think you're going to tiltinsite
• Imagining that you are winning actually helps you win
• Downswings the best way to survive is to take breaks or go down the limits
• Good game (A-game) is random.
• Psychology is complicated and mysterious

Next chapter next week

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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