The Psychological Side Of Being a Poker Winner- Part 1

“If you’ve played poker on a regular basis for more than three years and haven’t learned humility, then you’re either extremely lucky, terrifically talented, or a certifiable psychopath.”
@Theduckman22

Poker pundits have suggested that to win at the game it should be viewed as a game of people played with cards. I would suggest that, whether you accept or reject that opinion, poker winning is intimately connected with the proper psychological frame of mind. The very nature of the game makes the mental aspect of play so critical.

Take tournament no-limit hold’em as an example. Sometimes the pressure, competition, hours of concentrated play, bad beats, personality or opinion differences between players, life-changing cash prizes and the fact that even the best tournament poker pros win money less than 20 percent of the time all come together and makes one wonder why anyone would voluntarily play the game at all. How many times can a person be content with saying “that’s poker” when suffering one horrendous bad beat after another, losing a great hand (nut flush) to a better one (full house) or ending up on the bubble (just short of the money)? Maybe the Floridian who said they opened the poker rooms after they shut down the mental hospitals had a point. It seems that you’d have to be crazy—or a masochist—to play such a nerve shattering game. But for those of us—myself included—who love poker, it is an ultimate high: a feeling of exhilaration rarely duplicated in other forms of behavior. What is critical, of course, is to play well enough to win…and, hopefully, in this two-part article, the following suggestions will help you steadily grow your poker bankroll.

To play your “A” game and gain that all-important mental edge at the tables, I recommend you read and remember eight psychological keys to winning. I know when I follow these playing strategies I significantly increase my chances to win gelt [money] on the felt. I also recognize that when I don’t feel ready or willing to deploy these tactics, my best option is to skip the tournament or cash game and wait to play until I have the proper psychological edge on my side of the table.

Getting Psychologically Prepared To Play Your Best Poker (“Playing In the Zone”)
Winning or losing in poker is dependent on three things: (1) the cards you are dealt; (2) the opponents you face and (3) yourself. The serenity prayer tells us to:
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

We can’t choose which cards we will receive; controlling our opponents is extremely difficult (and in some cases, impossible), which leaves, us—you or I, the player—as the one thing that you can control. Players who can control themselves at the poker table have a definite edge over those who can’t. Here is what you can do to put yourself in the best possible psychological frame of mind to help realize your full potential as a player and perform your best once the cards are in the air.

(1) Follow the “BMW” approach to drive yourself to victory: Just as it is easier to eat a large piece of meat if you cut it into smaller pieces so, too, is a poker tournament easier to win if you break it down into three stages (or goals):

B (Bag Some Chips): The first thing I strive to do in a multi-day tournament (which most big money tournaments are these days) is focus on making it through Day 1 and bagging chips for the next day(s) of play. A popular poker maxim is: you can’t win a multi-day tournament in the first day, but you can definitely lose it. My goal is to steadily accumulate chips and, hopefully, have at least the average size chip stack to bag for later play.

M (Get In the Money): Once you’ve bagged chips, your next goal is to use them to get in the money. In most multi-day tournaments, you must get past between 25-50 percent of the remaining competitors to reach the payout level…and that’s what you want to shoot for. Nothing is more demoralizing than playing a day and a half of poker (anywhere from 15 to 20 hours and longer) and getting knocked out short of the money. Bubbling a tournament (being the last player to be eliminated before payouts begin) is certainly one of the worst feelings a poker player can experience. Getting in the money involves adjusting your play in a manner which increases the chance that a payout will occur

W (Go For the Win): Once you’re “in the money” it’s time to set your sights on reaching the final table and winning the tournament. That is the ideal outcome. A more reasonable goal is to shoot for a finish in the top three spots (where the “serious” money is awarded). Anytime you reach the final table of a multi-day tournament you are talking about big payouts: often because the players “chop” (divide up the prize money in a manner that gives more money to players in 4th through 10th place then they would have received if the prize pool had not been chopped).

(2) Focus on being the best you can be—not the best there is—when it comes to playing poker. In other words, I try to play to my maximum potential and not worry about whether some other player is better than I am. You don’t have to be the best poker player in the tournament to win it; if you set your goal as being the best there is (at anything) rather than being the best you can be, you are very highly likely to face disappointment. Poker is not chess. Remember that on any given day or in any given tournament any poker player—regardless of their talent and experience—can be beat. Don’t waste your energy wondering if your opponent is so good he is unbeatable. He’s not! When you stop focusing your attention on the strength of your opposition and concentrate on playing your best “A” game, you’ll be giving yourself the best possible shot at victory.

(3) Try not to make mistakes, but when you do, put them behind you and move forward. Let’s face it: every poker player is going to make mistakes. It is a given. The real tragedy is when a player makes a mistake and then compounds it with a second mistake: letting it affect his play (“going on tilt” is the poker term for it). If you make a mistake, it helps to remember that even the greatest players make them, too. Every time I make a mistake, I simply remember the time Phil Ivey mucked (threw away) a winning flush…and then get back to my game.

In my next column, I will present the final five keys to poker success and the psychological strategy for maintaining superior mental strength during play. In the meantime, try to incorporate the three points already presented in your game and enhance your winning sessions at the tables. ♠

Marvin Karlins is co-author of Read ‘em and Reap and Deal Me In. This article is taken from his newest poker book, A Chip and a Prayer, available at bookstores and online booksellers May 22.