PokerioMokykla.com presents a long-prepared series of articles based on Jared Tendler's poker psychology book: “Mental Game of Poker”. Those interested in purchasing the original, which is in English, can do so on amazon.com
Jared Tendler, probably the strongest poker psychology coach of our time, works with many elite poker players and the best poker schools. In our school, you can also find psychological videos based on his books: psychological videos
In 2017, PokerioMokykla.com will present a new excerpt from the Mental Game of Poker every weekend.
Mental game of poker
Introduction
Players who are successful at the psychological level of poker use a proven strategy that works. They have a system and methodology for dealing with the psychological part of poker, so they don't have to rely on luck or pray to the “poker gods.”
If there were no ways to control your game and recognize when you are playing at your highest level and when you are on an emotional wave (tilt), my job as a mental game coach would be nothing more than stringing you along. Emotional storms, like playing at the highest level, occur for predictable reasons and manifest in predictable behavior patterns. As a poker player, you profit from your ability to analyze these patterns and your opponent's habits. Using the tools provided in this book, you will develop the ability to study the aspects and habits of your own mental game.
The fact that so many poker players have benefited from working on their mental game is proof that success at the psychological level of the game depends on skills, just like the entire game of poker. However, many players still believe that emotions, fear, motivation, and confidence occur for random, illogical reasons. As a result, they say or think:
- “Logically, I understand that variance exists, so it's silly to react too emotionally to bad beats.”
- “For some inexplicable reason, I decided to play like a donkey yesterday.”
- “I'm really in a bad streak right now, maybe I should take a break?”
- “I always play at my highest level on Full Tilt.”
- “After significantly increasing my chip count, I somehow managed to squander a few buy-ins.”
- “I wish I could always play as well as I did today.”
If you think the mental side of the game is random, you simply lack the skills to see how predictable and rational it is.
Experienced poker players can easily see that the actions of a weak player are not random. They notice certain betting, timing, psychological, and verbal cues, which they exploit to gain an advantage over weaker players. Weaker players fail to understand that their game is predictable. The same applies to the mental side of the game. You probably haven't yet recognized the actions, thoughts, and emotions that determine whether you play well or poorly. However, if you've managed to become a winning poker player, with the right information, you can become a winner at the psychological level as well.
Now, with such fierce competition in poker, more and more players understand the importance of the mental side of the game in gaining an edge over others. Having an edge is not a new idea in poker; it has just become increasingly important as the number of good poker players has grown dramatically. Internet forums like 2+2, cardrunners, and others have changed the understanding of poker forever. Now, with so many good players, aspects of the game that were recently overlooked (e.g., psychology) are becoming priorities.
Golf Example
Athletes in every sport face the same challenge – constantly staying ahead. Although few sports have evolved as quickly as poker in recent years, professional golf has evolved similarly. This happened when Tiger Woods stormed into the golf world like a whirlwind a couple of decades ago. As he climbed the professional ranks, he brought new rules and standards that forced other professionals to seriously consider their physical condition and the mental side of the game.
Before Tiger burst onto the golf scene, only a few players paid attention to their physical condition. Many were consistently in poor physical shape, which is why golf was often not considered a “real” sport. Besides, Tiger had a different level of concentration, determination, and confidence that set him apart from other players. His combination of physical and mental mastery forced other players to follow him to stay competitive. Tiger forever changed the professional approach to golf. Now, almost every golfer has a personal physical trainer, along with someone who works on their psychology. This has become the new standard.
As a successful poker player in the late nineties, I had hopes of becoming a professional. There was only one big problem – the pressure of national tournaments left me speechless. A month after Tiger won his first major trophy, I failed to qualify for my first major tournament because I couldn't handle my nerves. I missed by just one accurate shot.
It was hard to come so far only to have my nerves ruin me. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I continued to train until one day that same summer, I told a friend about my problems. His eyes immediately lit up because he realized I had to read a book he had just finished. Soon he returned with a copy of “Golf is not a game of perfect.” The book immediately captivated me because I always knew my problem was in my head, not in my swing. With the help of the book, my game improved significantly over the next three years. Except for major tournaments. Winning nine tournaments in college and all I learned about sports psychology didn't help me deal with my nerves when facing intense pressure.
My dreams of becoming a professional golfer weren't completely shattered – I just needed to find a solution to my problem. Since the available information on sports psychology at the time didn't help me, I decided to seek answers myself. I knew I couldn't play professionally at that time, but I realized that finding a solution to my problem could take my career to the next level.
I suspected that conventional sports psychology lacked an understanding of mental game problems and their causes. Traditional wisdom in golf at the time was somewhat similar to the current state in poker. I knew techniques to boost my confidence and concentration and reduce anxiety, but I never understood why I was anxious in the first place. At the time, I thought it was due to personal reasons, so I enrolled in a psychology program at university. Here's what I discovered over the next 10 years: while personal reasons undoubtedly affect your performance, mental game problems can arise from much simpler causes, such as anger at your mistakes, unrealistic expectations, or poor work ethic. Using the knowledge I gained and becoming licensed in traditional therapy, I started working with professional golfers and became their personal mental game coach. Over the next 2.5 years, I coached more than 300 golfers (one of whom won their first trophy shortly after I started working with them).
Introduction to Poker
I was fortunate enough to play golf with Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt in the summer of 2007. It was a stroke of luck to meet a golfer who had become a poker professional and to do so just as I was starting to play golf. During those years playing golf, Dusty understood the importance of the mental game. So when his professional career faced its first losing month, and a surge of negative emotions hindered his pursuit of SuperNova Elite status, he didn't hesitate to seek my help.
For me, Dusty was the perfect first client from poker because he had experience playing golf. He knew that my poker experience was limited to home games and a few visits to Foxwoods Casino. To help me understand poker faster, he often used comparisons with golf.
The more we worked together, the more the similarities between poker and golf became apparent to me. Of course, the biggest differences lie in the details of the game and the amount of variation. Golf itself has a lot of randomness, but it pales in comparison to the variation in poker. Long periods where skills do not reflect results make the psychological aspect of the game much more important in poker than in golf. It takes very strong nerves to withstand continuous streaks of bad luck, and Dusty was one of those who struggled with this.
He was a good teacher and at the same time a student. Using his well-known work ethic, Dusty made great progress in preventing the influx of bad emotions (tilt). Soon he could pay for my lessons with the money he saved by no longer breaking his computer mice, keyboards, and monitors. When I first met his wife, she thanked me for these changes, saying that now she couldn't tell whether Dusty's session was successful or not.
CLIENT STORY
Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt
From $3/$6 to $25/$50 NLHE
PokerStars PRO Team Member
Author of the books: “Don't Listen to Phil Hellmuth” and “Treat your poker like a business“
Before becoming a professional poker player, I was professionally involved in golf. As a golfer, I couldn't afford a sports psychologist, but I always knew the great power they had. I always thought that poker and golf had a lot of similarities, so I realized that a sports psychologist could help in playing poker. In 2007, I contacted Jared Tendler and asked him to help me manage my emotions.
It took a few sessions for Jared to start understanding poker, but I immediately benefited as soon as I could confide in him. I gained even more benefit when he began to understand the essence of the game. As a poker player, I always aim to get into other people's heads, and now Jared had the same goal. The biggest impact on me was not what he said, but how he understood my thought processes. Soon I realized that Jared was more or less the main detector of the crap inside me. Literally, I couldn't hide anything from him.
Ultimately, this made me act much more logically than before. We, poker players, fight against many illogical things. And the best example of this was my battle with variation. Once Jared asked me, “Do you get angry when the weather forecast says it will rain tomorrow, and you go outside and see that it is indeed raining? So why do you constantly get angry even though you know that variation will always be there?” I can't stand myself when I act illogically, so as soon as he reminded me that this is exactly how I was acting, I could immediately say that from now on I would handle variation better.
Instead of teaching me some mantras, breathing exercises, or trying to hypnotize me, Jared helped me learn to look at the game more logically. Since I was Jared's first client, I am now more in the warranty service phase. When we talk, he often finds small weaknesses in my mental game. I don't think anyone is constantly superior to another. People's attitudes and emotions change, so working with Jared helps me stay at the highest level.”
Dusty's significant improvement in his psychological game prompted him to persuade me to join the Stoxpoker online school. For me, it was a great opportunity to increase my experience in poker, as at that time no other training site had its own mental poker coach. However, at the same time, I was preparing for my first year as a professional golfer. I had to choose: chase my dream or pursue a career? And although emotions were no longer a factor in playing golf, the pursuit of becoming a professional player was too risky a step. Poker seemed like a much safer investment, despite my very limited experience in it.
I am not a poker player
Although I grew up playing various card games, including poker, high-level poker and online poker were an unexplored world. I had to put in a lot of work, so I started frantically studying poker to understand what poker players needed from me. Now, more than 3 years later, I have already taught more than 170 players from 25 different countries, and with my advice, videos, and articles in magazines, I have helped thousands. No one with an education like mine has as much experience working with the psyche of poker players.
I am often asked how I can help poker players when I myself cannot play this game well. I best explain this using the following analogy. A mechanic working on a racing car does not need to be a world-class driver to be able to prepare the car for victories. He just needs a deep understanding of what the driver needs, what the racing conditions will be, and how the car works – that's enough for him to quickly spot problems and effectively fix them. Now that I understand high-level poker, I know what poker players go through, what they need to always be in top form, and how to help them become psychologically stronger. I am not a poker player, but when other players face problems, I become their mechanic.
