+++Q&A with Jared Tendler!!+++

Is the thread dead now?

Thanks

Hi! Great to hear you've enjoyed the book and the radio show. The radio show is back up and so far have had three great guests. The reason for the break was that QuadJacks focused on WSOP coverage and suspended all their shows, including mine. Wrote some thoughts for you below.

Originally posted by bashpepe89
Hi Jared,
First of all thanks for your great book, read it twice and now I slowly start implementing stuff into my daily poker plan, my overall understanding of the mental game, learning processes and variance has increased tremendously already, still not using your book enough, though, but now I will start doing things like a strict warm-up procedure, mental hand history (except for notes), etc., so there’s still so much to improve on…

Also loved your mental game radio show, haven’t heard all of them yet, why do they stop at some point? Not enough listeners? Listened to the one with Miss Cardner lately and looking forward to her book, plz get your show back online if that’s somehow possible.

After working through your book for the 2nd time, I started writing down some of my tilt thoughts, so that I had some sort of database to work with when starting to actually improving it.

Here are some of them…

-„Ahh, I would have deserved to flop a set here” after running bad for a certain amount of time before, what exactly is my underlying flaw here? A lack of mathematical understanding, or, accepting that I can’t influence the cards? After not flopping a set 20 times in a row, I feel like I deserved flopping it, even though I know that the cards/dealer/variance doesn’t care about how many times I haven’t flopped a set, my chances still stay around 12%...

Yes, a mathematical understanding can certainly help as well as accepting that you can't influence the cards. But, the fact that you have to convince yourself that you can't influence the cards, tells me that deep down you believe that you can influence the cards. Logical or not, that's what's in your Unconscious Competence and needs to be eliminated. Mental Hand History that shit!

Originally posted by bashpepe89
-“nonononooooo” after building up a very loose image, then getting QQ in the perfect 3bet spot to abuse that image and timing out because I was still writing a (rather detailed) note after busting out of another tourney, therefore not focusing on the other tables for a few seconds. Seeing that I had missed a perfect opportunity made me very angry and tilted me. That day, luckily, my mindset was ok and I went back to playing my best shortly after, still I would try to erase that short period of tilt because of being so angry with myself.

You don't have unlimited energy to eliminate ALL your mental game leaks at once. You must prioritize. Compared to the previous one, and I suspect others to come in this post, this cause of tilt is low priority and should only become a higher priority when the most important issues are solved.

Originally posted by bashpepe89
-Constantly playing aggressive, feels like getting action on pretty much every hand and then only getting folds/walks whenever I actually hold a monster, not playing any different to when I play a weaker holding is also a cause of frustration for me.

Don't understand.

Originally posted by bashpepe89
-Playing a bad session due to unexpected RL issues (but as a MTT player not being able to quit) and already being stressed, being at the final 2 tables of a soft tournament that could make this a rly +++ day, despite all the fucked up stuff… knowing that my opponent calls me down extremely light, still bluffing, opening way too loose, then fucking it all up and losing my really nice stack and then getting really angry with myself, thinking “omg this would have been such an easy win, great stack, (theoretically) biiiiig edge, just waiting for good spots, why did I have to try it with the crowbar”
Use a session like this to clarify that I haven’t yet developed my understanding of playing callingstations and the importance of not playing too loose (no matter how bad opponents are postflop) anymore would be great I guess? What else can I learn out of it? Except for obviously avoiding RL issues to influence your session, but sometimes you just can’t avoid it, and if you have already started a MTT session you can’t just say fuck it I quit.

Getting ahead of yourself. "This could be a really good day" - how is that information relevant to you playing the best that you can? It's a distraction and indicates to me that you may have some desire to want to know what's going to happen. Common distraction especially in the late stages of tourneys. MUST STAY FOCUSED and not get ahead of yourself.

Originally posted by bashpepe89
-The feeling of having to justify myself in front of others, wanting to tell ppl (which I luckily almost never do then cuz I think it`s very lame/stupid) why I haven’t won the tourney after losing to an 2outer for the chiplead with 5 ppl left. I hate ppl who constantly whine about getting sucked out, running so bad, saying “running as good, one time!” whenever somebody wins (also loving them for not understanding variance/not working enough on their game and therefore allowing me to gain an edge), and absolutely don’t want to be like them, still I think sometimes I also have that flawed thought process.

This often stems from weaknesses in confidence. If you felt great about your game, you wouldn't need to justify losses, you'd feel solid. There may be other small leaks in your confidence, but one we already know for sure is the belief that you can influence the cards - Illusion of Control.

Originally posted by bashpepe89
-General Problem: Still in the learning phase, started poker less than one year ago. I know I beat the low limits and make great improvents on a weekly basis, but I also know I still got enough leaks that make blaming variance for not winning enough ridiculous. So, when I’m down quite a lot it might also mean my game isn’t good enough yet, what is quite frustrating as well, after putting a lot of work in it. It feels like being really bad and just being able to improve and thereby get better results, or being really good and therefore being able to (correctly) blame bad results on variance, seem to be easier spots to be in.

-Problem to get away from poker away from the tables, especially when showing bad results for several sessions. I know variance is biiig in MTTs and luckily now I shipped something/had some good results and broke even for the last 6 weeks (with around 20 sessions), but when I was down 700$ in my longterm staking/coaching (quite a sum for me) I absolutely wanted to make it up, while at the same time not rly feel like playing, due to the bad results and too much pressure on myself I guess. I still kept on reviewing, got coaching, tried to improve my mental game and I actually think for as many sessions and as many bad results, I managed it quite well, keeping up the hard work, but still there are some leaks included that I’d like to erase.

Also, since my coach/staker put a decent amount of time/confidence in me, bad results, or even worse, bad play make me feel bad, even though he says it’s natural and that I was just running bad + still am in the learning phase…

-Every 55 minutes the tourneys stop for five minutes, and whenever I’ve got a good stack somewhere I’m in a good mood, and vice versa, even though it might be in the early stage and isn’t rly worth anything at all, guess the underlying flaw is that I value stacks too much and if my mid/shortstacked game is as good as bigstack game, I wouldn’t think that some double ups early on are the greatest thing in the world and make me ship the movie later on, cuz one bad beat (as a big stack) or even good beat (as a short/midstack) and some key hands can totally change everything within 2 minutes, that’s poker.
Also concerning pauses: What should I think about in those 5 minutes? Poker related stuff or sth completely different? I always try to run a bit through the house or get fresh air, and to never just sit infront of the laptop and chat with other ppl (what I used to do before). But is it better to think through my approach to the different tourneys and how to beat the specific tables, or to just free my head from poker for this short period of time?

I’ve got mooore notes, but I guess that should already be too much for the moment, sry for the long post, hope you find some time to answer it one of these days/weeks, keep up the great work and plz get that show back online! (or has it just changed servers or sth?) take care

Reading the rest of this confirms to me that you have some weaknesses with your confidence and I STRONGLY recommend you do a complete analysis of your mental and tactical range - from you C-game to your A-game. That will give you a clear idea of the areas of your tactical and mental games that are strong and the areas that need work. That way, you'll know what to focus on when things get off - ie: ALWAYS IMPROVE C-GAME. Plus, I would also recommend that you write out the areas of your game that are rock solid and already mastered. That'll give your confidence further stability.

Wish you well in continuing to improve. You're motivated, working hard, and heading in the right direction.

Originally posted by Wriggers
Hi, if you're still answering these i'd like to share my problem. It's been a lonnngg time since I was tilt susceptible, but I recently started playing Hyper HU SnGs, which are incredibly high variance. It's not so much the size of the swings that tilt me, more the prolonged nature of my recent runbad.

I've been breaking even most days and then losing a lot other days, needless to say it's getting very frustrating, and on my losing days I find myself starting to get really angry with nothing/no one in particular when I have moderate runbad. I guess this is the bottled up tilt you talk about in your book.

The thing is, I don't know how to fix it because you state you have to think of what is actually making you angry/tilted. The problem here is that I don't know, I understand logically everything about variance, and some days I can easily take -20BI days because it's just the nature of the game, hey i'll have a +20BI day tomorrow probably, however recently due to a lack of any significant winning days/sessions I just get tilted at really trivial things.

Any advice?

Hey Wriggers - I know you've been waiting a long time for a reply. Hopefully, my answer was worth the wait.

My best guess for the source of your tilt is a form of hate-losing tilt. If you're solid on variance, it doesn't sound like you've been able to avoid Injustice or Entitlement Tilt. That's why I'm suspecting instead that it's your competitiveness, your desire to win, perhaps the pain of losing, and/or the affect losing has on your goals, which is creating the anger. The effects of all of these can be moderated by increased focus on the quality of how you're playing and focusing on this especially after your sessions. The more you organize your attention around playing well and improving, every single day, the less anger will emerge. Plus, you'll get stronger and stronger at being able to see just how well or poorly you're playing in real time. That way your emotions will become more organized around the quality of your game, and less around results. That doesn't mean the importance of results goes away, just that less of your emotions are tied to something that's not 100% in your control.

Originally posted by poketingaces

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Originally posted by poketingaces

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Originally posted by poketingaces
hi jared,
i find myself always being satisfied and losing motivation to continue grinding once i have won a certain amount. it doesnt matter what volume or stakes i was playing to get that amount but whenever i hit that x amount in winnings i decide to call it a day. any thoughts on this?

thank you.

For example, do you lock up a win because if you're up say 4BI and then you end up break-even on the day, you'll be tilting your face off. In this case, locking up a win, not only locks up the money, it avoids the potential for tilt.

Its funny you say that because yesterday only i had a session where i was playing 6-8 tables and was up 4.5 buyins and was about 4 buyins short of that x amount and i was surely gnna quit if i hit it. then i lost most of it back and was really frustrated and spewed some more before realizing i was playing like a monkey.

How did this pattern start? How long has it been going on for? Why do you want to break it? What are your goals in poker - short and long-term?

i dont really have any short term goals except just moving up. Long term goal is to play the biggest games one day. But i know i have some big mental problems on moving up. i play 50NL even though i have 100+ buyins for it. as long as i can remember i have been very conservative with BR, even when i was playing 5 NL i had 100 buyins for it. And i feel its not the ideal way of playing since like u said i am playing too much in my comfort zone.

Moving up is a good goal, but the real question is how. It doesn't seem like you have a plan for it, and without a plan or an idea of how to do it, you're just randomly going about playing. Or perhaps your plan centers around money, which means that your focus on making money makes perfect sense. Except, that while it may be money that gives you the chance to move up, it's your skill and ability to improve your skill over time that will allow you stay there, crush, and move up again.

With your focus centered around results, you're missing what's really causally connected with long-term success: Skill.

I also wonder if there are some hidden fears of failure that may be undermining your efforts here. That would explain your strong connection to results, as people who struggle with this often have their fears eased by focusing on results because results are easier to know and quantify. Skill is harder and creates more unknowns. With more unknown, there's more potential for fears to be exaggerated.

I say this mostly to just to get you thinking. Ultimately, your ability to make sustainable mental game progress will depend on your ability to accurately assess the problem.

What do you think?

very nice post sir.

Moving up is a good goal, but the real question is how. It doesn't seem like you have a plan for it, and without a plan or an idea of how to do it, you're just randomly going about playing.

you are spot on.

whenever i run bad i seem to lose a lot of confidence which affects my volume and i am pretty sick of it. everytime i cash out instead of moving up i am thinking this is the last time. i know that confidence and skill go hand in hand but it has been going on for so long that it makes me question my goals.

basically i fear going broke and have nothing to show for all the time i put into learning this game.

this is whats been happening : i beat one limit < move up <get owned/run bad <cash out move down. rinse repeat.

would you attribute this to just lack of confidence or something else?

I actually think fear is a stronger contributor than confidence. The reason I believe that is that one of the most damaging things about fear is that it protects you from developing skill. Skill is of course a major factor in confidence. So the absence of confidence is not because of it directly, it's because fear is preventing you from acquiring the skill that would create it.

I would dig deeper into the fears of failure, fear of going broke, and others. Ultimately, you're going to have to resolve these issues otherwise the gravity of them will be too strong and will continually be pulling you back down.

Hello Jared,

I'm a recreational player (for the foreseeable future) I have been playing at microstakes sng's for a few months now and have a few issues that stop me from moving up.

1) I tend to look at every session as a balance sheet: so when I'm lets say $3 down and am on the last table of the set, I tell myself, I need to make a first place to make the session profitable. How do I break away from this type of thinking?

2) I tend to stop playing once I've made a few dollars and spend a lot of time reading articles, instead of putting in more tables. Call it winners tilt? Except the win can be as few as a couple dollars.

Many thanks to your inchworm learning concept! I spent a session yesterday on monkey tilt (needed to be somewhere in an hour or so, but started a set of turbo 45mans. After a while, I could see that I was on tilt: hands shaking, impatience when someone tanks, etc) But having read about improving the back end of my game really helped, and I played good poker (and had a +$ session)

Originally posted by sarvam
Greetings to all.

First I'd like to thank PokerStrategy.com and Jared for this great thread.

Recently, I've noticed that there is a big leak on my game: lack of discipline.
Besides all strategical mistakes, what makes my bankroll go down - or not to grow as expected - is my lack of self-discipline.

I've read (not studied, yet) all psychology articles. Many of them are about being disciplined and its importance. What I didn't find, or I didn't interpreted as such, was how to become more disciplined and how to keep the right level of discipline.

As I couldn't find these answers I've tried to think by my self.

First, I tried to find out if there were any differences between the sessions where I was more profitable/made more right plays and the ones where I did not.
I think I found two problems: tiredness and motivation to make my bankroll grow, instead of motivation to make the right plays.
On the sessions where my motivation was to win $, my actions where really bizarre and nonsense. In some plays I came across asking my self Why did you call with that hand?, Why did you try to bluff that CS?.
In short, I made plays I "knew" to be wrong.
Could this motivation be the reason why I'm not being disciplined or could it be something more out there?

I also have a few more questions:
1. What is the cause (or causes) for lack of discipline in poker?
2. From your own personal experience, do you think this is one of the most common leaks in poker players?
3. What are the steps to become disciplined and keep being it?

Thanks in advance.

First off, I'm glad you've enjoyed the thread - hopefully you'll enjoy it even more with some personalized advice.

Having done your own study on this issue, you're already moving in the direction I would want you to head in solving this issue. One of the problems that I've found in a lot of articles about discipline (in addition to your complaint) is that discipline is talked about in very black or white terms: You either have discipline or your don't. I call bull shit. Discipline is relative to your goals. Or your goals determine the type/quality of discipline required to achieve such goals.

The level of discipline required to be a 100NL reg is very different than what's required to be a 10000NL reg.

In your case, I could argue that your level of discipline was appropriate to fulfill your goals of trying to win money and grow your bankroll - right now. (That last part you left out) Your discipline broke down because of the sense of urgency with which you wanted those things to happen vs. a long-term goal of growing BR and making money.

Yes, this problem is very common and a simple way of becoming more disciplined is to be clearer with your goals, and especially to understand the flaws in your goals. The flaws in your goals - like trying to win money now - is going to create an impulse to become less disciplined. Or if I was being technically correct - that your discipline would reflect the goal of winning right now. I would also define the actions/mistakes/thoughts/emotions associated with loss of discipline, so you can recognize it happening immediately and be in a position to fight to regain control.

Originally posted by Ickki
Thanks a lot, Jared!

I've taken out the BB/100 stat, but as you said, that hasn't really solved the problem.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
1) What is it about losing that you hate or pisses you off?

Originally posted by Ickki
When I lose I feel like I've not only wasted money, but also time and wish I'd never even had played that session.

The feeling like you've wasted money and time is an illusion created by a belief or a wish for perfection. It assumes that you could or should have known ahead of time what was going to happen and that knowledge would then have allowed you to avoid losing.

All this wishing is killing your game and causing you to react excessively to losing. You need to kill these wishes instead - prove to yourself why you don't want them to come true.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
2) What are some of the things that you say to yourself, outloud, or in chat?

Originally posted by Ickki
I never use the chat, maybe once in a while slam my fist, or tell myself what an Idiot I am for calling down someone light or bluff shoving with trash.

Again, expectation of perfection. This ignores the learning process that must include mistakes. If you aren't making mistakes you aren't learning - that would mean you already know what's correct. If you already know what's correct before you start learning, you wishing you were a psychic too.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
3) What's the first sign that you're tilting - before it's a big problem?

Originally posted by Ickki
I lose and then often start playing looser or going on autopilot.

Use this as recognition of when wishing has started to take hold and Inject Logic to correct the wish and regain control of your emotions.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
4) How long has this been a problem? When did it start?

Originally posted by Ickki
Probably as long as I've been playing poker.

Then, expect to have to work on this for a while!

Originally posted by JaredTendler
5) Is this a problem outside of poker?

Originally posted by Ickki
Unfortunately, so. Sometimes I focus too much on what's already happened and cannot be changed, instead of accepting that and making the most out of it.

Then, work on this outside of poker too and it'll make your progress overall go quicker.

Originally posted by VBlue
Jared - firstly thank you very much for giving your time to reply. It is hugely appreciated.

In response, and if you have any further to comment I am again grateful:

1) My overall realistic goals in poker are (and I want to use the SMART acronym in my reply) - to commit 10 hours per week with 8 hours playing time and 2 hours study time. This goal is non-monetary but focuses on what I can control which is my commitment and refers to the 80/20 rule of play/study. A secondary goal in 2013 is to look for half-a-dozen live UK tournaments and commit some playing time and bankroll to satellites or direct buy-in if bankroll allows. I am keen to experience some of the bigger live events, but I also want to target those which are affordable (buy-in/travel/expenses considered) and where I think the softer competition will be.

2) I think there are three main reasons why I want to achieve these goals, but the second and third probably more accurately answer question 3. The first is purely financial. I think I am intelligent enough, with the right commitment to improve, to make a decent income from what is essentially a hobby.

3) The second reason then being I enjoy playing, but I get a lot more enjoyment when I combine playing with improving my game. Thirdly, as I have already mentioned, I think this type of focus and approach will rub off on me and motivate me to work on towards some other goals in my personal life.

4) This is tougher to answer. I guess I am motivated to avoid distractions because when I am distracted I am not really playing poker primarily. What I am doing is killing time in the evenings and probably using poker, social networking, web surfing, listening to tunes online, as a little bit of escapism. What I want to do is to be more productive with my time and achieve a goal(s). Being distracted leaves me feeling unsatisfied as I never know whether I have given my best and I can always have that to fall back on if my results fall short or I make mistakes (I wasn't giving it my full attention so....).

5) To summarise then, I want to achieve financial gain from playing poker, I want to get the enjoyment from playing poker and seeing my game grow through focused and committed learning, I want the sense of achievement that comes from the improvement in my game, and finally I want this to be habit forming and to be an attitude I can take into other areas of my life.

Not asking too much then.

I'm sure there will be all sorts of different reactions to this. Maybe some people will say why not just get on with improving the other things in your life that you want to and forget about the poker. Some people might think this is all a bit of nonsense. Some people might nod and agree with parts of it.

I'd love to hear other opinions, whatever they are. I don't really mind baring my soul a little from time to time and I'm big and ugly enough to take others' opinions in return.

Great reply and I'm guessing that writing this out has been helpful already. I want to focus on just a couple more points that can help to further clarify your goals. I think the SMART method is ok, but it leaves out some critical components to goals setting. Namely, why you want what you want. Once you started to write about that you got to see some underlying goals:

*I want to be productive with my time and feel satisfied that I've used it productively.
*I want to have accomplishments in poker that are entirely in my control. Ex = improving.

Pulling these out aren't going to blow your mind, but when it comes to eliminating distractions they're critical. Now when you notice your mind drifting, Inject Goals, like you would Inject Logic, as a means of regaining control of your state of mind.

I saw your thread about the Process Model. Great idea!

Originally posted by prime333
What is a good way to say calm while playing poker?

VBlue asked some good questions around this already. There is a big myth out there that being calm is the goal while playing poker. There is a risk of being too calm/relaxed and interestingly, performance is equally bad when too relaxed as when too tilted (though the types of mistakes may be different).

The real question is how do you maintain an ideal level of intensity so you're playing at your peak? That's a tougher question to answer, but it begins by understanding better what is going to throw you from that peak - get your emotions too high, or cause them to dip too low.

Originally posted by notabigdeal
hey jared,

i really appreciate this thread, It´s a great idea ♦

I have a bad habit, if i come close to the emotional threshold you mentioned, i start eating even if i sit at the tables and even if i´m actually not hungry before beeing upset, it actually rises my emotion because i´m distracted and this makes me even more upset, but i can´t help myself. I mean most of the times i´m aware about my state of mind and my emotions but in the moment i feel like it would calm down the emotions. It sounds silly i know and the final solution is probably "stay away from the emotional threshold by working with your mental game" or something like this, but it´s obviously easier said then done. Just hope u can give me one or two advices or maybe u can tell me if this is some deeper problem. Thanks a lot

I actually think you're close to part of the solution here. You understand logically that eating does the opposite - it amplifies your emotions and doesn't control them. So, I suggest writing that fact out. Studying it. Writing about it. Reviewing it before you play. When you're playing and close to your emotional threshold start reminding yourself that food is going to make your emotions worse not better. Then, you have to resist the urge to eat. Yes, it's hard, but Injecting Logic should help and over time it will steadily get easier and easier.

This is not getting to the root of the problem, but it's a heck of start and an accomplishment that you can be proud of solving.

I can't be sure that it's not connected to a deeper problem because I'd need to know more about you. But, if you're asking just about eating to cope with emotions, no, that alone is not related to a deeper problem. Millions of people emotionally eat. A major cause of why diets fail. My guess is that food has been source of good feeling for your over the years - as it is for many of us - and when you feel like shit, food generally makes us feel better.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
hello Jared!

great thread! just reading through it has made me a better person, not only regarding poker but other areas of life as well

i feel like i have huge issues with accumulated emotion.

when i'm "running fine" i can take bad beats and coolers like it's nothing, but if it happens "too much" in a short period of time i just break down and have a very tough time to recover.
even if i stop the session and come back the next day or whatever, when i play again just losing as little as 30bb in a pot already makes me get very near my emotional threshold and obviously it quickly goes downhill from there.
the fact that i know that i am tilting or borderline tilting adds to further tilt

i get to the point where i don't know how much bad play is mixed into the bad run and just thinking about playing generates anxiety.
when sitting down i have severe doubts on whether i can even play profitably, even though i know that i have the skills and beat the limits that i play over a fair sample. this is exactly like a certain paragraph you wrote on your book.

when i'm on these phases almost all forms of tilt gets strong pretty quickly, injustice tilt, hate losing tilt, mistake tilt, entitlement tilt.
nowadays i can quit my way out of desperation tilt (wee, i improved on that) and i don't have much on revenge tilt, i rarely hold hard feelings for anyone ♦
however quitting hurts volume, and sometimes i "need" to go on playing for some reason.

the "cheap cures" are either something like a week break or a few days of running good. of course though it's much harder to "run good" when tilt is always just one big pot around the corner.

so what can i do?
i know when i am tilting, i know when i am borderline tilting, but when there is enough accumulated emotion i get to tilt point so fast that it's like i shouldn't play at all anymore.
i try to inject some logic but then "anything" brings out that strong accumulated emotion and i feel overwhelmed.

I'm really happy to hear the thread has helped you off the table too!

Reading your post its clear to me that you understand a lot of the factors around the causes of accumulated emotion, but I'm wondering just how much work you've done to understand the causes of each type of tilt and the anxiety connected to it. Clearly, the work you've put in has helped you to solve desperation tilt - which is huge btw! But, now with that issue behind you need to dig deeper into hate-losing, Injustice, mistake and entitlement tilt. Do some Mental Hand Histories (Page 61) for them. Plus, you may also need to address the strategies for dealing with Accumulated Emotion on page 66 too.

You know a lot and I suspect that you're not too far away from making the next jump with your mental game, you just have to put the work in.

Originally posted by Sikac
Hey Jared,

kinda read the whole thread and really took me a couple of hours reading all your answers and overall conversations. I would say by now that this thread became some sort of mental book.Lets call it a FAQ.
I m aware there are similar questions as the one I m gonna ask one but I didnt spot anyone thinking the same.
If I honest to myself I never liked accepting some general rules of thumb or stereotypical thoughts, for example poker wise it would be ''tight is right''. I simply hate this and I m really kinda into proving it wrong. I m currently playing NL50 FR where games become even more nittier, like people dont have bluffing range multiway. So I transit from nitty to a bit of loose maniac player. I have a constant feeling that I have to run the table over so i can prove myself that 'tight is not right'. So here comes my problems that i face:
1) I can stick to my plan(from the point on I take the initiative I have pretty much a plan which I suddenly change because I talk myself into it and I hate myself for this)
2) I kinda have a problem in adapting my game when my opponents adopt their game to mine(I cant tighten up anymore and it really made me think that I again can t follow my plan. I m aware I have to do it but in some sort of way it is kinda always overtaking me).

Let me know if I wasnt clear enough.

Best regards,

Sasha

Hey Sasha!

Love it - Mental Game FAQ. Maybe we should talk to PS about releasing it as an ebook or something?

I understand the need to prove things wrong - that's honestly a lot of what I've tried to do in my career. So I can speak to you on this from a matter of direct personal/professional experience. Here are two things I've learned:

1. While there are many many concepts like "tight is right" that are complete bull shit, there are many many others that are pure gold. There's no way that millions of people can be all wrong and you're here to prove them so. Yes, there is a lot of crap out there, but you also have to be looking for the gold so you don't have to reinvent it.
2. If you're going to prove something wrong, you can't just say that it's wrong, you need to prove why it's not AND prove what the upgrade is. "tight is wrong" doesn't define either. Tight is wrong" doesn't say what is right. A strategy that is defined in the negative doesn't give clear enough direction about what the proper strategy is. And that's the hard part.

I suspect this advice may indirectly help with the two issues you listed. But the extra part I want to address is you hating yourself for changing your plan. Hate the reason you changed your plan, not yourself. You aren't the problem. Your problem right now is not knowing entirely WHY you changed your plan. Without understanding why, you're just blaming. Blame doesn't help you figure out how to stick to your plan.

Hope this helps!

Originally posted by bobbywelsh
Ji Jared,

Great thread with some very though provoking answers.

I am fairly new to the whole 'more than fun' poker and have invested in a HUD and have decided to look a little bit closer at my play as a whole.

I would really like to start playing more than one table and I have recently started adding another table (ame I know but we all have to start somewhere)

I read the article you wrote on Multi-Tabling and about how we should treat our minds like a muscle so to speak- in the sense that we need to build the strength rather than expect the strenght to be there straight away. Also with regards to resting as so the 'muscles' can reform and not becomne overworked.

Is there any general tips you can give around multi-tabling, I was thinking about-

CASH OR TOURNEY Best (STT/MTT)
Full ring or 6 MAX?
TURBO / NORMAL?
STT SNG or MTT? IF MTT are we talking 30/45/180 or More?
What style of play? Should I play TAG to ensure I play less hands?
Is there any point in using a HUD?

I also think I may have a little bit of a problem mentally in the sense that I like to see the outcome of the hand which I think becomes difficult the more tables you play?

Like I say I am very early stages and any gudance would be very helpful around both the practical and mental side of multi tabling.

Thanks Jared.... Great thread.

Hi Bobby, thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Regarding your questions around multi-tabling, I suggest asking some of the poker coaches here about that. I don't play poker and while I suspect I know the answer, I don't want to overreach my area of expertise.

Seeing the outcome of a hand isn't a problem the more tables you play, because you can just look at them afterwards. Yes, you won't be able to see the outcome of every hand while playing, but you can mark the hand and review it later. Otherwise, you'll have to get use to the idea that you're giving up how much information you can collect and use while playing so you can raise your hourly and gain more experience quicker. So in this regard, you can focus more on what you're gaining than on what you're losing.

Originally posted by alphabeat
Hello Jared,

I'm a recreational player (for the foreseeable future) I have been playing at microstakes sng's for a few months now and have a few issues that stop me from moving up.

1) I tend to look at every session as a balance sheet: so when I'm lets say $3 down and am on the last table of the set, I tell myself, I need to make a first place to make the session profitable. How do I break away from this type of thinking?

2) I tend to stop playing once I've made a few dollars and spend a lot of time reading articles, instead of putting in more tables. Call it winners tilt? Except the win can be as few as a couple dollars.

Many thanks to your inchworm learning concept! I spent a session yesterday on monkey tilt (needed to be somewhere in an hour or so, but started a set of turbo 45mans. After a while, I could see that I was on tilt: hands shaking, impatience when someone tanks, etc) But having read about improving the back end of my game really helped, and I played good poker (and had a +$ session)

Hi!

Your balance sheet doesn't include tracking how well or poorly you're playing. That needs to be something your tracking too and by tracking it, you'll be able to care more about playing that last table as well as you possible can and being super motivated to win that way. Rather than just getting the score to make your sheet look good.

We can call it winner's tilt, but this tilt I suspect is really fear of losing back what you've won. Which make me suspect that you have some difficulty having a losing session. Playing SNG's you need to learn how to become a good loser. I'm not saying you want to be motivated to lose, but knowing how to deal with losing is VERY important in poker, and especially in SNG's.

That's great to hear - Inchworm is one of my favorite concepts!

Many of you may have noticed my absence from this thread and my sudden return answering all remaining questions. I've been hard at work on The Mental Game of Poker 2, which I'm aiming for release on April 23, 2013. In order to get there, I need my focus to be as tight as possible, especially over the next three months. So, I won't be answering questions until February at the earliest.

For those interested in the next book, the quick bit is that it's entirely new material (not advance tilt control or more info around the topics from the first book). Basically book 1 is designed to get rid of the crap in your game: tilt, fear, and motivation and confidence problems. Book 2 is designed to help you see how good you can get. Things like playing your A-game/zone more consistently, learning poker skill faster, increasing focus, playing more tables/hours or mental endurance.

I'm really excited about the material for book 2 and will update the thread when I make more details public soon.

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Originally posted by alphabeat
Hello Jared,

2) I tend to stop playing once I've made a few dollars and spend a lot of time reading articles, instead of putting in more tables. Call it winners tilt? Except the win can be as few as a couple dollars.

We can call it winner's tilt, but this tilt I suspect is really fear of losing back what you've won. Which make me suspect that you have some difficulty having a losing session. Playing SNG's you need to learn how to become a good loser. I'm not saying you want to be motivated to lose, but knowing how to deal with losing is VERY important in poker, and especially in SNG's.

Heh, yup, you struck the nail on the head of that one. Having a losing session puts me in a bad mood for hours to come. (esp when I've played badly, as opposed to being sucked out on. So Hopefully, that will get better, and not worse, with time) So I shall work hard on my game and try not to look at balance after every set.

Many thanks!

AB

Nice - thanks Jared.

Good luck with TMGOP2 - I'll be buying a copy.

I have now set some personal goals 3 months and 12 months and mapped out my Process Model (if you have the time to look back at my thread).

I am keeping a personal poker diary for all this sort of stuff; personal evaluation of my sessions, changes in goals, coaching notes, Mental Game notes, etc.

Just to say again, I really don't expect anything from you but your help here has been immense. I took the online Dojo through Black Belt Poker with you last month and combined with reading TMGOP and working through it I am very grateful to get an opportunity to get 1:1 feedback.

Thanks a lot Jared. Since my post was 2-3 months old some things have changed already, but many issues are still there and I'm going to fight them based on your advice.

Gonna write again when I see results and/or reach a point where I don't get any further, trying to keep it a lot shorter then

Great to see your show back online, I usually listened to them afterwards, but if it's anyhow compatible with my timezone I definitely try to tune in live more frequently.

Keep up the great work!