The Mental Game of Poker
Proven Strategies for improving tilt control, confidence, motivation, coping with variance and more.
Jared Tendler, M.S. with Barry Carter
What can I say? It's an awesome book.
I bought the kindle version about 3 weeks ago and read it pretty quickly on my holidays in Mexico. Like Golf, this is an easy book to read and learn the concepts. In fact the book has already benefitted me on the first reading alone. In order to master them though, it will take you some time and work to truly become a better player through reducing your tilt tendancies and getting to the root of your issues. But really, when has not tilting ever been easy? Although I haven't really sat down to do the tough work yet, my first read through already showed me how valuable this book can be to your overall game. I have bought other books on poker that claim they can alleviate tilt, but they thus far have not worked. I know now why they haven't thanks to this one.
While other books recommend doing meditation and "Zen"ing out, this one tries to get at the root of your issues and understand them so you can be prepared to deal with them by inserting logic. Perhaps that is why it appeals to me as I am for the most part a very logical person - unless I am sitting at a card table. It also teaches a concept that your perfect game cannot be there all the time, but with improvements your worst game and your best games should become better and better over time and with some work.
I am one of those card players which Jared would describe as overconfident. In fact, I think over confident players would look at me and say "wow, he is over confident!". Just by reading the section on how to combat this and how it leads to tilt is quite cool, mainly because I have never looked at myself in this way. I found this part of the book most helpful to me. There are other sections that of course were less helpful, which is ok. Every player is different and anyone that picks up this book should gain insight into the type of player they are, and help improve any weaknesses in their game.
In overconfident players like myself, I feel when I sit down at the table a big part of me truly believes you haven't got a chance in hell of beating me or outplaying me in ANY hand. That's right. Any pot you take down ( which won't be any ) is due to luck, and any one I take down ( which will be all of 'em ) is sheer skill. This inevitably leads me down a path of sure destruction. We all know that there isn't a poker player on Earth that can do that - least of all me. So why do I believe that?
Again I haven't really done the hard work necessary to truly examine my game and where I am prone to tilting. In fact I haven't done it since I started playing over 15 years ago. To be frank , I cannot wait to start to do it. If it can give me the tools to save myself from completely self destructing due to tilt, This book will be worth MANY more times it's retail price.
As a poker player, I am the type that can tilt off my entire roll that I spent weeks methodically building. Jared has stories of other card players that have shared similar stories spread throughout the book, ones I can relate to. This in turn helps me go through what I need to do to make better decisions and ultimately have a healthy respect for my table.
From time to time, I will post how I am doing with my personal journey, in the meantime take some of your bankroll and pick this book up. You will be glad you did. It is a well written book designed to help you learn about yourself as a player and improve. If it saves you one night of tilting off your roll, it will have paid for itself many times over.
Thanks for the insight Jared and Barry.
Bennett Onika
Proven Strategies for improving tilt control, confidence, motivation, coping with variance and more.
Jared Tendler, M.S. with Barry Carter
What can I say? It's an awesome book.
I bought the kindle version about 3 weeks ago and read it pretty quickly on my holidays in Mexico. Like Golf, this is an easy book to read and learn the concepts. In fact the book has already benefitted me on the first reading alone. In order to master them though, it will take you some time and work to truly become a better player through reducing your tilt tendancies and getting to the root of your issues. But really, when has not tilting ever been easy? Although I haven't really sat down to do the tough work yet, my first read through already showed me how valuable this book can be to your overall game. I have bought other books on poker that claim they can alleviate tilt, but they thus far have not worked. I know now why they haven't thanks to this one.
While other books recommend doing meditation and "Zen"ing out, this one tries to get at the root of your issues and understand them so you can be prepared to deal with them by inserting logic. Perhaps that is why it appeals to me as I am for the most part a very logical person - unless I am sitting at a card table. It also teaches a concept that your perfect game cannot be there all the time, but with improvements your worst game and your best games should become better and better over time and with some work.
I am one of those card players which Jared would describe as overconfident. In fact, I think over confident players would look at me and say "wow, he is over confident!". Just by reading the section on how to combat this and how it leads to tilt is quite cool, mainly because I have never looked at myself in this way. I found this part of the book most helpful to me. There are other sections that of course were less helpful, which is ok. Every player is different and anyone that picks up this book should gain insight into the type of player they are, and help improve any weaknesses in their game.
In overconfident players like myself, I feel when I sit down at the table a big part of me truly believes you haven't got a chance in hell of beating me or outplaying me in ANY hand. That's right. Any pot you take down ( which won't be any ) is due to luck, and any one I take down ( which will be all of 'em ) is sheer skill. This inevitably leads me down a path of sure destruction. We all know that there isn't a poker player on Earth that can do that - least of all me. So why do I believe that?
Again I haven't really done the hard work necessary to truly examine my game and where I am prone to tilting. In fact I haven't done it since I started playing over 15 years ago. To be frank , I cannot wait to start to do it. If it can give me the tools to save myself from completely self destructing due to tilt, This book will be worth MANY more times it's retail price.
As a poker player, I am the type that can tilt off my entire roll that I spent weeks methodically building. Jared has stories of other card players that have shared similar stories spread throughout the book, ones I can relate to. This in turn helps me go through what I need to do to make better decisions and ultimately have a healthy respect for my table.
From time to time, I will post how I am doing with my personal journey, in the meantime take some of your bankroll and pick this book up. You will be glad you did. It is a well written book designed to help you learn about yourself as a player and improve. If it saves you one night of tilting off your roll, it will have paid for itself many times over.
Thanks for the insight Jared and Barry.
Bennett Onika
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