The Poker Mindset

New to LiquidPoker? Register here for free!

Forum Index > Poker Blogs

Mariuslol Norway. May 23 2009 03:54. Posts 4742

Been reading through half of the book, and it's really good. So I thought I'd list down most of the important stuff I've been through so far (Most for my own benefits).

Understand and Accept the Realities of Poker

- You need to understand the Five Realities of Poker, but more important you need to accept them. The Five Realities of Poker are:

1. Poker is a game of both skill and luck.
2. In the short term, luck is king.
3. In the long term, skill is king.
4. Poker is a game of small edges.
5. Poker is a game of high variance.

Play for the Long Term

- If you are looking to make money from poker, you need to play for the long term and accept the short-term risks.
- A player who puts too much emphasis on his short-term results will be prone to the following errors:

- Playing to get even
- Protecting a win
- Tilting
- Getting mad at bad players
- Making rash changes to his game

Emphasize Correct Decisions over Making Money

- The big advantage of playing poker for the long term is that you can focus on the only thing that is important: making correct decisions.

- "correct play" is defined as the best play you could reasonably be expected to make given the information you have available.

- If you make correct decisions, your short-term results are irrelevant as you will make money in the long term.

Desensitize Yourself to Money

- It is difficult to make correct decisions at the table if you are scared to lose the money in front of you.

- You could fall into a number of traps by playing scared:
- Not protecting your hand properly
- Not value betting your good hands enough
- Playing too tight
- Not calling enough in big bet poker
- Not bluffing enough

- Two factors tend to contribute to how likely you are to play scared:
1. How strong is your bankroll?
2. What is your attitude to money?

Leave your Ego at the Door

- Your ego may lead you into several traps at the table, the following eight being the most common:
1. You might call bets that you shouldn't.
2. You might allow a personal feud to cloud or override your judgment.
3. You are likely to try too hard to get even.
4. You might play in games you can't beat.
5. You might make plays to impress your opponents.
6. You might not drop down a limit when you should.
7. You could inadvertently give away information to your opponents.
8. You might scare away players who you would rather stay.

Remove All Emotion from Decisions

- Many players let emotion affect their poker decisions, yet emotions should have no impact whatsoever on the decisionmaking process.

- Emotions can cause you to make sub-optimal plays that you would not otherwise make.

- Many types of emotions can affect your game such as anger, frustration, misery, fear, happiness, pity, pride and nervousness.

- A poker player has two defenses against his emotions:
1. Do not play when you are in an emotional state that may cause your play to suffer.
2. Acknowledge your emotions, but don't allow them to affect your decisions.

Dedicate Yourself to a continuous cycle of Analysis and improvement

- In order to ensure long-term success at poker, you must commit to an ongoing program of analysis and improvement.

- If you stop learning at poker, not noly will you not improve, but your game is likely to regress.

- There are many reasons why long-time players might become less keen on learning over time, including:
- Complacency
- Illusions of mastery
- Loss of enthusiasm
- Stagnation

- Top players may disagree on many things, but the one thing thta they will voice resounding agreement on is that they are still learning.

Oh crap lol, it got a lot longer than I thought it would, still got like 3/4 of the book left, I'll take more later lol. Wanna eat, my eggs are getting cold xD

0 votes

qwerty67890 New Zealand. May 23 2009 04:02. Posts 14026

really hope theres a torrent for an audio book of this ;(

k2o4 United States. May 23 2009 04:07. Posts 4803

byrnesam just buy it or get it with fpp's, it's worth it.

InnovativeYogis.com

lazymej Canada. May 23 2009 05:16. Posts 2897

Cheers for this, it was a good read.

ErikQuirk Slovakia. May 23 2009 05:43. Posts 211

i got this one too, its great... def. worth it

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.