Psychological Game Strategy
Think of the psychological aspect of the game simply as a game. As with any game, winning requires skill and a good strategy. Having a strategy is nothing 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 requires talent, hard work, and the right information. The only uncontrollable factor is your talent. Some players are simply better than you on a psychological level. For example, things that annoy you might not even raise another player's heart rate. Or, another player might have no problem playing poker all day, while you struggle to play for more than an hour. Seeing such natural talent in others, you might think you won't have any problems either. Not true. It's easy for them because they have more talent. The good news is that even if you lack psychological talent, hard work and the right information can eliminate your problems.
Most poker players think that solving psychological problems is easy because traditional poker wisdom makes them believe so. Thus, we constantly hear: “just stay calm; don't start tilting“, “Don't focus on the money, make good decisions”, or “take a deep breath, be fearless”. All this sounds nice, but in reality, it's like saying “win this hand”. This is the main challenge of the game – to develop a winning strategy. In the psychological game, the challenge is to develop a strategy on how to stay calm, how to focus on decisions rather than money, and not let fear influence your game. It's definitely not as simple as traditional wisdom suggests.
Psychological Game Myths
There are many myths about the psychology of the game. If you really want to be successful psychologically in poker, 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 is based on these widespread myths:
- Emotions are a problem, so they must be blocked
- You either have talent or you don't
- To change a habit, it's enough to say “don't do that anymore”
- You should stop playing if you think you are about to tilt
- Imagining that you are winning actually helps you win
- The best way to survive downswings is by taking breaks or lowering your limits
- Good play (A-game) is random.
- Psychology is complicated and mysterious
Next section next week
The series of articles is 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 at amazon.com
