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5 Secrets Of The Poker Mental Game |
By:
Henri Junttila |
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5 Secrets Of The Poker Mental Game
Henri Junttila
The river is dealt, it seems innocuous, but then your opponent shows his hand. The pot is being shipped to his destination and you start getting hot because he just sucked out on you. This is the definition of a bad beat. You no longer care about anything and start raising it up.
The next hour you play horribly and throw away money because you just don't care. It is all so unfair, how could he win? He was under 1% to win it when the money went in on the flop. Ridiculous!
This is what happens to most poker players out there. It sucks, but it is true. In one way or another you too are throwing away money like this. You can deny it if you want but that is not why you are reading this article, is it?
There are simple steps to eliminate and minimize this kind of behavior. I call this poker tilt or simply tilt.
It is easy to lose control in a poker game, especially when things aren't going your way. And your mind can trick you, tell you that everything is alright when in fact you are donating money!
Here are 5 secrets to getting closer to your black belt in tiltlessness:
1. What Are You Afraid Of? - I'll begin. I am afraid of losing money and not having enough. You see, I am a professional poker player and I make my living off of playing poker and if I lose I can't live (harshly put). What are you afraid of? Why are you acting like a lunatic when you get bad beat a few times at the poker tables?
2. Priorities - What kind of priorities do you have when you play poker? Is your #1 priority to have fun? Is it to throw money away being raging mad and yelling at people? I'd prefer the former, I think :) Learn what is standing in your way of having fun, or keeping it fun. Sometimes you can begin a poker session at the best of moods, but after a few hours you stop playing and tell everyone to bugger off. You have to know what you want to get out of it before you go in. Of course we all want tons of money but realistically. Do you want to have fun? Improve as a poker player? It is not really realistic to expect thousands of dollars to come to you instantly. It will come to you if you study the game and improve every day. Be patient and in the long-run it will come. Poker is not a short-term game.
3. Observation - When I started observing myself, everything changed. Progress became quicker and everything became clearer. I know many players who have reached a plateau in their game, because they deny their weaknesses. You have to observe yourself and find what it is you are doing wrong. What are you bad at? It is not meant for you to be hard on yourself. It is meant for you to be able to improve. You can also more easily avoid your weaknesses at the poker table if you know what they are.
4. Quitting - This is a big, BIG part of any good poker players game. Did you know that Phil Ivey quits the highest online poker games after he loses one big pot? Now that takes discipline to do. And it is something you too should do. What would happen if you quit playing whenever you started playing bad and tilting? Your overall winrate or amount of fun would go up. Identify your signs of tilt and start quitting whenever they start creeping up on you, you will thank yourself!
5. Pleasure - Having fun while playing is why we play poker, isn't it? I mean, it doesn't make sense if someone played because it made them miserable, right? So make sure your priorities and goals are straight. Keeping poker fun will do many things for you. You will learn faster, you will feel better and everyone around you will notice. Good luck!
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article60975.html |
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