Mental Game Of Poker- and how to improve it

Fozzy99

Fozzy99

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Hey

I've been playing poker along time now and one thing I still cannot grasp is the mental side of the game and for me this is the biggest factor of my game I'm looking to improve on.

The Question is what would be the most efficient and best way of doing this?

Please let me know.

Thanks
Fozzy
 
Andrei Korolev

Andrei Korolev

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View sections of the mathematics of poker and information about it...
 
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Pwohar43

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I would like to learn more about betting correctly. Anyone have any good sources, ty pat
 
rsimms

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Just like anything else that you want to get better at; you get what you put in, no more, no less. You need to study and play the game with the intention of playing your best, learning from your mistakes, and avoiding being predictable.

Read 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler if you want a crash course on how to handle yourself and have a winning attitude. It doesn't cover any poker strategy, but one of the main messages that it has is that the minute you think you know it all or have nothing to improve on in your game, you've already lost. Keep a journal, track your winnings and loses, read books and forums, watch streams, etc.
 
JDCT12

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Maybe start to meditate and work on counting your breath. Meditation is supposed to take you to a more relaxed focused state of mind.
 
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pokerpick311

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You should read articles such as bet sizes, hand ranges and very important odds and outs, mathematical probabilities. I leave you some information. OUTS It is called in this way to the cards of the deck that help you improve your hand and that, probably, make you take the pot, because you have linked the best play. You have A3s and the flop is 7s 9o ks. A first look leads us to think that we have not linked even a couple, although we have two options to get a very strong hand as is the color. If the dealer discovers a heart on the fourth or fifth street, we will have succeeded, unless a card is doubled, the best hand. We know that a poker deck has 52 cards. Each suit, therefore, consists of 13 cards. If two are in our possession and there are two others on the flop, we know that there are still 9 hearts left in the deck. Those nine cards that are still to come, and that serve to complete our hand, are called outs. Therefore, in this situation we have 9 outs. Example of a staircase project: You have j10s and the flop is 6QK. Any Ace of the deck and any 9 complete your ladder, which gives us a total of 8 outs. PROBABILITIES AND ODDS There is a very simple way to calculate the probabilities that we have of improving our hand with the common cards. This percentage is called odds. The probability of completing a project in the following letter can be deduced from multiplying by two our outs. The formula would be as follows: (number of outs) x2. Example of a color project on the turn: We take the example of the color project we have done previously. Our hand is A3S and the flop is 7s 9 ks. We know we have nine outs. Therefore, we use the formula and multiply our outs (9) x2 = 18%.
 
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okmotu

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"the mental side"

Hey

I've been playing poker along time now and one thing I still cannot grasp is the mental side of the game and for me this is the biggest factor of my game I'm looking to improve on.

The Question is what would be the most efficient and best way of doing this?

Please let me know.

Thanks
Fozzy


Depends, on what you mean with "the mental side". I could think of many meanings for this term in poker.

  • being brave (bravely calling, raising or folding)
  • being sensible
  • being able to lie (lying you stronger or weaker for your opponents)
  • high concentration, wakefulness all over the game
  • perception of opponents, perception of the table
  • technical intelligence (board card analysis, quick registration of all card combinations)
  • emotional intelligence (?)
  • spontaneity (?)
  • stay relaxed when under pressure
  • (staying positive in life in general)
  • knowing yourself, knowing your own weaknesses
 
poker_bro

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More discussion, please.
Hypnotherapy audios work very well for me.
For me the mental game is the hardest part of the poker, I study probably too much poker theory, but I don't know how to practice mental game besides meditation, proper diet and exercise.

I can recognize my mental leaks like fear of failure, big ego, and even fear of winning/post-success depression. But how can I fix these leaks?
 
Newzooozooo

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Hello.
A good book might help you with that. I recommend reading the book Jared Tendler "The Mental Game of Poker". In this book, these issues are discussed in detail.
Good luck.
 
FF2586

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Hey!

Great question! I would like to learn as well!

For now I am getting some poker courses! (whenever I can)

BBZ and RaiseYourEdge are helping me!

gl gl gl
 
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Meur5ault

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Meditation is a great suggestion. Not just for poker but for life.

I can recommend a book called 'The Attention Revolution'


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64084.The_Attention_Revolution

In terms of poker the biggest thing I did to improve the mental side, was take a leaf out of the buddhists playbook and detach.

It's our attachment to things that causes the bad feelings, anger etc.

When you detach, you remove the need for those feelings. It's not easy, but it works. I can play for long hours without once tilting or getting angry. Even when pokerstars gives the exact one outer the fish wanted.
 
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TheDev

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Playing to have fun. Dont spend more than you can afford. Dont stress about bad beats.

If you cant follow these three simple please rules you will struggle mentally in the game of poker.

Yes, some people take it much more seriously than others and even try to live off of the income from it but it is still a game. We all play games to enjoy ourselves. If you arent enjoying yourself then you need to reevaluate your playing conditions. Whether it's how much you play for, what game you are playing or even when you are playing.

You wont be in the right state of mind if you arent happy and healthy.
 
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Vlad Nesterenko

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Work on yourself, on your game, read books, develop yourself and you will not notice how you begin to understand the mental aspect of the game! Good luck
 
Phoenix Wright

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Just like anything else that you want to get better at; you get what you put in, no more, no less. You need to study and play the game with the intention of playing your best, learning from your mistakes, and avoiding being predictable.

Read 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler if you want a crash course on how to handle yourself and have a winning attitude. It doesn't cover any poker strategy, but one of the main messages that it has is that the minute you think you know it all or have nothing to improve on in your game, you've already lost. Keep a journal, track your winnings and loses, read books and forums, watch streams, etc.


I haven't come across "The Mental Game of Poker" (so I can't say much on it) but I agree with everything else said. I've always had a natural gift for psychology (in general, not just in poker), so I can't tell a story of how I got this ability. However, I would practice this skill like with everything else. You don't need poker to become a master of psychology. Have you ever sat in a public area (the mall, a party, a park, or wherever else) and just observed people and the surroundings? I know I can't be the only one. I've learned a lot of psychology through doing this and sometimes I feel a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Just be careful to not think like Watson by making funny assumptions in a manner too linear.

For example, what if we observe someone with some animal hair on their sweater? Watson might say something like: "Ah, from this we can determine that they own a cat. Further inspection reveals that this animal hair doesn't look like that of a dog." That is a good start to get the gears in ones' head turning, but we can't even say with much certainty that this is true. What if the owner of the sweater just returned from an animal shelter? They may not even own a cat. This sort of observation and assuming guesses can be a bit of fun, but we must realize that there is a high probability that we are wrong when we are assuming. This can be very destructive to our poker game if we don't consider these other possibilities.

Let us say that we are in a poker hand: heads up: lots of chips in the pot. Our opponent then scratches their forehead. Is this a tell? What would you think? They must be uncomfortable and Watson would be quick to point out that we should shove all-in because we have evidence that they are weak. Not so fast Watson, what if our opponent merely had an itch? This might be a tell, but then again, it might not. This is why the best poker players combine lots of psychological elements before they make an assumption. They evaluate the situation, the timing, the person and our history with them and many other things. In the exact concept of tell-spotting, it is always best to have multiple tells on someone to reinforce your certainty on the situation. Plus, there is less of a chance to fall for a reverse tell if you are looking at many things, not just one observation to go on.
 
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