{"id":781088,"date":"2017-01-16T17:10:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T15:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/the-shortcomings-of-traditional-poker-psychology"},"modified":"2025-04-29T00:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T22:55:23","slug":"the-shortcomings-of-traditional-poker-psychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/traditional-poker-psychology-issues","title":{"rendered":"The drawbacks of traditional poker psychology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drawbacks of Traditional Poker Psychology<\/strong><\/p>\n

My experience in sports psychology in the late nineties is now reflected in client statements about traditional poker psychology: “It helps up to a certain point, but you can't rely on it at a crucial moment.”<\/p>\n

With “bad” variance and other psychological aspects of the game, such psychology suggests dealing with it by deep breathing, taking breaks from the game, engaging in visualizations, meditation, neurolinguistic programming, and even hypnosis.<\/p>\n

Each of these strategies can be a great choice at a certain moment (in the short term), but it's necessary to address the deeply rooted psychological game issues. Otherwise, they will constantly resurface, like weeds not uprooted.<\/p>\n

My experience in poker only confirmed the knowledge I brought from golf: by applying a deeper strategy to the mental game, it's possible to find not only temporary solutions to problems.<\/p>\n

A deep understanding of theory and the ability to develop psychological game skills in real life is what has been lacking in traditional poker psychology.<\/p>\n

Traditional wisdom knows how everything should be, so players are told they must be fearless, confident, and not let variance throw them off balance.<\/p>\n

However, for many players, that's not enough. It's one thing to know how everything should be, but another to take real action when trying to solve problems that hinder successful play.<\/p>\n

\"Drawbacks<\/figure>\n

The Psychological Game Fish<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fish<\/em> are fish<\/em> partly because they believe in what is not true. They play significantly weaker than their opponents but do not realize it. They suck out<\/em> once and think they played brilliantly.<\/p>\n

A stronger opponent outplays them, but they think it's just bad luck. They believe they don't need to improve their game, but even if it were otherwise, they wouldn't know where to start.<\/p>\n

They have no understanding of what they can control and what they can't at the poker table. You'll often hear them say, “I knew that king would come” or “I always win with AQ.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps you are a solid winning player who recognizes opponents' weaknesses, but when it comes to understanding the psychological aspects of the game, you are likely no different from a fish<\/em>. In the psychological game, you are a fish<\/em> if:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You change a proven successful strategy when you are doing poorly\/well.<\/li>\n
  2. You don't understand when someone plays well against you or think everyone plays poorly, yet they constantly succeed.<\/li>\n
  3. You try to win every hand.<\/li>\n
  4. You think the outcome of a hand can be determined by shouting, praying, or having a “lucky hand.”<\/li>\n
  5. You get annoyed when a bad player plays poorly and even try to explain to them why they are playing poorly.<\/li>\n
  6. You feel unhappy when you lose a hand that you played profitably.<\/li>\n
  7. You think you will break a bad streak by stopping playing or changing limits.<\/li>\n
  8. You think that after reading a poker book, you know everything.<\/li>\n
  9. You watch Phil Galfond's instructional videos and think you can play like him.<\/li>\n
  10. You think you are cursed or that others are luckier than you.<\/li>\n
  11. You think it's possible to delve into another player's soul.<\/li>\n
  12. You play more hands when winning\/losing.<\/li>\n
  13. You play fewer hands when winning\/losing.<\/li>\n
  14. You play poorly when the stakes are too low to matter.<\/li>\n
  15. You get personal with other players.<\/li>\n
  16. You tell bad beat<\/em> stories to anyone who will listen, without trying to improve your reaction to those bad beats<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  17. You say “one time” (one time<\/em>).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    The series of articles is prepared based on Jered Tendler's poker psychology book: \u201cMental Game of Poker\u201d. Those who wish to purchase the original, which is in English, can do so at\u00a0amazon.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

    Where is the Best Place to Play Poker?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Drawbacks of Traditional Poker Psychology My experience in sports psychology…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":15792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1649,1658,1],"tags":[224,1092],"class_list":["post-781088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-poker-strategy","category-uncategorized-lt","tag-knyga-mental-game-of-poker","tag-knyga-pokerio-psichologija-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781088"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095216,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781088\/revisions\/1095216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pokeriomokykla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}