Contest! Win a session with me and a copy of my book, The Mental Game of Poker.

Thanks to Debi for letting me do this.

I'm celebrating the release of my new book on Amazon.com (very excited) by giving away 2 copies of The Mental Game of Poker and a session with me, for free!

To enter, make a post, in this thread, describing your biggest mental game leak and why you need the book and a session the most. Keep your post to less than 300 words (couple paragraphs), and enter before this Friday (June 17th). Winner's will be announced shortly after.

Ideally, the session would also be recorded so I can post link to the session and all members can be able to learn as well. Ultimately, I'll leave that decision to the person who wins. Also, just as I do in the Ask Jared thread, I'll give some advice to anyone else who doesn't win.

Also, from now until Friday I'm celebrating the release of my book on Amazon.com with a 35% discount. If you'd like more information on the book visit: www.mentalgameofpoker.com. (Btw, anyone who buys the book and wins will get a refund.)

So, with that...gogogogo...prove why you need the book and a session the most...

My biggest mental game leak: Fear and indiscipline

I recently lost a BR of 5K$ most likely because of fearing to go up in levels.
I've deposited 150$ and went in a month from that to 3K$.

Slowly I started gaining this fear of losing, fear of better players and more risks.
From 3K$ my max was around 10K$ playing high stakes games.
I kinda not respected my BRM for 1 month when reaching the 10K$ spot, and then... out of nowhere a 3K$ lost getting me to 7K$.

Tilt got on that night and I lost another 1.5K$.
I went down a stakes and things just gone worse, losing losing losing.
I gave up... and went to a table with all my bankroll 5.5K$, from there its history as I've won and lost but in the end it was the classic AA vs KK getting turned by the King.



I've just deposited another 50$ hoping for another story to be told.

I need the coaching session because I will never improve until I can get mentally tough.
I play with scared money, even when I can easily afford to lose the buy in I dont like losing money, so consequently I get bullied off pots, even pots I feel I am way favourites to win, I fold.
I cannot think of my buy in as ammunition, I still see it as money, and until I can somehow break that link, I will never be a good poker player.

Great contest Jared!!!
Procrastination is likely one of my bigger leaks..... will get back to this thread later in hopes of posting something that will be a contender for the prize!! (if I ever get around to it... ??).
.... maybe this is my entry?

1st are mods eligible???

If so,

My biggest mental game issue is motivation. I have little to none. Before Black Friday I struggled to put in a little time each evening, since BF I'm not even sure I qualify as a poker player any longer. It's not that I don't want to play, I set out with every intention of doing just that, it's that I allow distractions to keep me from playing. I'll get into a thread here at CC, I'll start watching something on TV or something similar and before I know it I'm too tired / stressed / interested in something else to play.

If I do get myself in front of the PC to play I often feel like I need to win now so instead of playing my best I try to force the issue. Sometimes this works out but a lot of times it doesn't. It's when it doesn't that things can go one of two ways. Either I catch myself starting to tilt (classic flushing of the face, sweats, etc) and quit or I drop 10 BIs and give up feeling like shit because I know how long it will take me to make up for a super tilt session like that.

I used to watch your vids before sessions and go through the exercises you recommended and they really helped at the time so I’m sure an actual session with you would be amazing. I’m quite sure I’ll be ordering your book either way. Now all I need is the motivation to read it.

My biggest leak is my ego. I've had situations staring me in the face that any normal, highly functioning player would look at and bail. Me? I look at it and think "Nah, I have third trips, I MUST be good". It is actually a variation of YDHS syndrome. I don't take the time to really look at the context of the board and betting patterns to gague the right action. It gets worse if I drink when I play.

But then, why the hell do I need a book? I already know all there is to know....

how can one objectively determine their biggest mental leak ? only through a session with a therapist or poker pro or perhaps by reading your book ?
so my biggest leak is not knowing what my leak is or if i have a leak..
if i had to name another it could be that i am too risk averse

Nice offer Jared...and the 35% off at Amazon is great too until June 17th.

Continued success to you my friend!

I can not believe there aren't 40 more post ITT to try to get the session/book. An hour long session with Jared is $400+. The book is ~$30. I've seen people here do much more for much less so either everyone is missing this thread or you all think you have perfect mental games.

The toughest mental challenge I find playing poker is maintaining a good level of confidence. Confidence supports aggression as well as the control of aggression. Confidence supports the clarity of mental calculations and supports the discipline to follow the mental calculations and supports the patience to be able to maintain the discipline.

But my confidence fluctuates, and knowing that, my confidence in my confidence fluctuates. I can play fine for a week, two weeks, two months, but then a single hand can make me question myself. Or, there can be a subtle shift that I'm not consciously aware of and I slowly become over-confident and over aggressive. Or, without even playing I can become afraid that my confidence is going to stray and then I become afraid to play at all. Sometimes this leads me to take precautionary measures and drop down in levels, but that often leads to me becoming frustrated with the higher frequency of awful plays that I see at the lower level. And when the poker confidence is really low I feel like a deflated balloon, a hollow man. I might still have the urge to play poker, but if I do it can be almost scary for me to be at the table.

My biggest mental challenges in poker are both anger, and loss of focus.

I can be grinding away quite happily for weeks/months, making a profit and aiming at moving up, then one day I have one of those sessions, where literally nothing goes your way, i might only drop 4 bi's, which is nothing, but that seems to make my end goal of moving up a level drift so much further away, this leads to anger at poker, why do I waste my time etc etc, and then loss of focus, that focus thats kept me going for the past few months of money making poker just disappears and I change my game.

Name a game and i've tried to take a shot at grinding it, generally b/c i started a downswing at NLHE and decided that maybe PLO/6max/FR/MTT's/SNG's was the way to make my poker fortune. I so want to make a nice side income out of this game, but i've been playing for years now and its this loss of focus, this complete inability to cope with runbad, that is holding me back imo.

Hi Jared

Thanks for this Great Prize

My biggest leak is tilt...when I'm multi tabeling ( and I usually only max at 5) if I catch a bad beat at one of my tables it affects my whole session. I usually
Multi table sng's and MTT's usually under $15 (unless I'm taking a shot) Yesterday I have 10 10 in MP, I raise CO calls BB calls flop is ... anyway CO hits his str8 on river...This effects all my other tables I can't seem to bet prperly, try and force things on other tables shove on silly boards 3 bet OOP
its like all my knowledge has flown out the window... and the only person I'm mad at is ME...

I try to take a break and have a drink (water or soda) but I may as well give up and go to bed !

When I'm doing well and hitting everything this also has a eurphoric efect and helps me do well at all my tables

I've tried listening to music stroking the dog... opening the window, shouting...LOL you name it

As you can see I REALLY NEED the session and the book Any help would be gratefully received

PS I'm not mad

My biggest mental leak:

Remaining focused when playing softer fields after having done well against regular average and good players.

How can I transfer the mindset I have when entering a forum game or a game which is at the upper edge of my BRM plan to a regular game more often ?

It appears I do a lot better when I play a game I have been looking forward to playing but fail to adjust properly to opponents who are less than mediocre...

All this isn't the case all the time though - which is odd.

Sometimes I enter with the right mindset - starting in the zone and it feels like I'm hovering above of my normal skill level.

That's the focus I wan't to have more regularly and Jared could help me improve.

Sure why not!


I agree - nice to see the number of entries pick up recently. There are lots who think they have perfect mental games, but really they're Mental Game Fish.

Keep the posts coming, great stuff so far!

Well played, well played The opinions of my clients matter too, so whatever you think is your biggest leak is, that's at least a start. With more info, from an expert, or a book, opinions change. You gave such a great response here, I want to give you another chance.

ok.. my biggest leak is probably the reason i have been a winner at nl holdem.. stress and risk aversion...primarily i have used a short stack strategy to multitable microstakes ring games with loyalty perks and rakeback making me a small winner.
how do i fix the leak? how can i ramp up my aggression from supernit to nit?or tag when supernit works?

i hate to lose...so shoving premium hands and winning at showdown 65-70% or just collecting blinds FEELS better than fighting and scrapping and playing more hands . ...and subjecting myself to harder decisions , more losses and bigger swings ....even though potentially profits will be higher.

how can i learn to accept losing more battles in order to win more wars?

My biggest mental leak is probably my ability to read and identify others playstyles. I recently decided to drop cash tables forever, as I have a long track record of losing at the tables(ultra micro cash tables, mind you). So I've been doing decent in tournaments lately, except late in the game I have terrible trouble finding good steal spots. So far the only way I've been able to hit the top 5 is when I build a stack in the early levels by hitting miracle flops and such.

So in my tournament game I feel my biggest leak is having the gull to fire at the right time, into the right people.

Thanks everyone for submitting...this is going to be a tough choice. I'll let the winners know on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

I realize I'm a day late on this but maybe you're feeling generous

My biggest poker leak is a fear of success (mixed with fear of change). I've done nothing but win my entire 8 year poker career, but when it comes time to potentially change my life for the better by simply continuing to do what I do, I shut down. Even when in regards to my coaching and writing, I find myself getting in my own way to ensure my continued mediocrity.

Thanks everyone for your submission. I've chosen two winners:

NineLions: Winner of book and a session.

orangepeeleo: Winner of a book.

To everyone else, you won't be left hanging. I'll be back this week to post some advice.

Congrats guys and thanks for the contest Jared. I received my copy of the book yesterday (just 5 days after placing my order on Amazon) and it's very good so far (through Ch 4). I'd encourage those thinking about getting it to do it now while the special price is in effect.

Whoo Hoo!

Orange's issues aren't all that far off mine, so what benefits I gain might be useful for him as well. Thanks, and, looking forward to it!

Omg, I never enter things like this because I just presume I won't win!

Thank you so much : D

Congrats to the 2 of you - may you profit from the book and session.

Congrats to you both! Looking forward to hearing the outcome of the session It's such a mental game it would behove us all to get a copy of Jared's book not only for poker but for everything we compete in even on a daily basis.

Book received; time to start devling into it.

my biggest leak is going against bad players outflopping my strong preflop hands and busting me. Also my heads up play could use major improvement as well. Would like to learn how to play aginst bad players I post a profit against good players but bad players seem to bust me alot.

?? Jared may be good, but I don't think he can stop player from outflopping you. If he can do that, then I'm reaaally looking forward to the session with him.

Jared is a coach for the mental part of the game of poker.I don't think he's going to tell you when to fold. If your issue is that you know when to fold your strong preflop hands postflop but you don't, then that's a different matter.

My biggest leak is finding threads, with giveaways that would benefit me, after the deadline has run out....................

Received the book on friday, haven't had a lot of time to get stuck into it yet but i've noticed things in my game from the list of "mental game fish" criteria! So should definitely see a benefit from this. Can't wait to get further into it.

Dangit, wish I had seen this thread before now. I think I could write a book on my "poker leaks" which all are essentially mental ... poker is a mental game after all.

Good decisions are the "key" to our being good at poker and life ... the choices we make determine where we end up in both.

My biggest leak is playing when I am not entirely focused and concentrated on the game at hand ... not mentally preparing myself for the game, allowing myself to become distracted during the game and often becoming bored thus becoming impatient.

Also, I sometimes will play when I am tired and not physically prepared to play. I feel as though I need help taking my poker playing sessions more seriously, concentrating, and as Dusty stated, treat my poker as a business when I decide to sit down and play. My BR management is essentially non-existent as well.

I need the book/instruction so that I can enhance my skills, be more effective and enjoy poker.

My best, Wally

Isn't that pretty much every thread in the forum?

Hey wait that's unfair - fletchdad is an avid poster in the "rigged thread".

yea, yea, just kick em when they are down......

Gonna buy Jareds book cause it sounds like it will be great. (I would have prolly bought it anyway just to return some of the support he has given us here at CC, but with the added benefit of maybe improving my game, sounds win-win to me)

And as far as the rigged thread goes, I now have lined my house, car and all my guitars with aluminum foil, so I am protected............I do have hats for sale, and give a bulk discount

And TBH, there was a lot of truth in POs edit of my post

It was merely a friendly stab at a fellow donkenschnitzel. I miss seein' ur posts on the forum.