Previous part of the book “Mental Game of Poker”: Strategy, Embedded Logic. Recognition
1. Recognition
To ensure that emotions do not affect your game, you must be able to recognize those emotions in real-time before they reach a breaking point. It may seem easy, but it certainly is not. Poker is a game that provides many reasons to deceive and mislead yourself, so don't let this be another one.
If you worked on the psychological aspect of poker as much as the technical one, I wouldn't even describe this step (“recognition”). Technically, recognition is easily understood. However, psychologically, many players lack the skills to recognize emotions before they take control. Some don't even realize they've been in a mega tilt for the past few hours until they see 15 wasted buy-ins.
You need to learn to recognize the traits of your psychological game problems – certain signs that predict psychological issues. Fortunately, these problems are not random. They tend to repeat themselves, allowing you to recognize, for example, the signs of an approaching tilt. Your goal is to know all the signs that signal you are about to tilt. These signs will serve as a map to prevent you from driving your game off a cliff.
The better you learn to recognize these traits, the easier it will be to control your emotions. Here's how to develop such recognition skills:
- Create a description. The questionnaire in the second appendix will help you analyze your psychological game. After answering the questions, delve deeper into specific game problems by writing down as many details as possible: thoughts, behaviors, actions, emotions, causes, and mistakes you make when these problems occur. It would be very helpful to list these signs according to when they happen – from the first sign when the problem is still small to the last when everything becomes uncontrollable.
- Study the description. Regularly review your description, especially before playing.
- Study the consequences. Describe the damage caused by your psychological problems and assess the future damage if they are not addressed. How much does each problem cost you? Does it prevent you from moving up limits? Does it affect your confidence, life, happiness, or family/friends? A clear understanding of the consequences of a particular problem provides motivation to take immediate action. Otherwise, it's very easy to continue playing, thinking nothing bad will happen.
- Update the description. After sessions, note new signs and details about the problems.
- Set an alarm. This step is only for players who get so immersed in the game that they can't recognize any psychological game problems until they finish playing. Set an alarm to go off at a frequency that doesn't disrupt your game too much (every 30, 45, or 60 minutes). At that time, take a few moments to observe yourself. Are any psychological problems arising? If so, quickly detail the thoughts, behaviors, actions, emotions, triggers, and poker mistakes associated with those problems. Yes, this activity is distracting, but you will only need to do it until you develop the skill to recognize emotions without using an alarm.
- Take action. Once you recognize the signs of an approaching problem, follow the second step.
2. Deep Breathing
The main goal 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 heated argument to calm down and start thinking clearly again. A few deep breaths, focusing on the breathing itself, may be enough to stop a growing problem without having to stop playing.
Depending on your emotional level, you can also use breathing to calm your emotions or intensify them.
If your emotional level is low (as it is when you lack motivation), use deep breathing to ignite enthusiasm. If the opposite is true and your emotions are too strong (tilt, anxiety, lack of confidence), then calm down by breathing deeply.
Once you briefly detach from your emotions and calm or intensify them using deep breathing, you can then insert logic.
3. Inserting Logic
Fighting entrenched problems is like holding a knife when everyone around you has guns. To gain an advantage, you'll need to engage your mind. Inserting logic is that weapon. Imagine inserting logic as physical exercises 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 help you maintain clear thinking. Ideally, this statement will also correct the faulty logic that creates the problem.
First, you need to write down the statement somewhere on a sticky note, notebook, Word document, mobile phone, or wherever you find most suitable. By doing this, you won't have to rely on a malfunctioning mind to remember your statement during critical moments.
Second, by consistently using that phrase, confidently move towards the final resolution of the problem. You need a phrase or 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 widely known. Here are some examples:
- “Bad players sometimes have to win too; it's just variance; play your game and control yourself” – bad beat
- “Today I have to endure bad variance and try not to lose much” – bad run
- “It may seem like I can beat any opponent today, but that's not true. Such thinking is a false illusion” – overconfidence
Inserting logic may not work for the following reasons:
- The emotional level was beyond the breaking point
- The statement or phrase is not strong enough
- You were affected by something new, e.g., new psychological problems
- Accumulated emotions flooded your thoughts so quickly that you didn't have time to use the inserted logic
- Perhaps an audio recording of your chosen statement or phrase suits you better
This 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
