About three years ago I was a member of a training site called Drag the Bar. Drag the bar was a brilliant training site and I only found it because I got to know an MTT pro and great guy called David ‘HeyImDro’ Rowen who I purchased some training from. Turns out David was a pro at DragTheBar and that’s how I was introduced to the site.

About two months after I joined there was a competition to win a mental game session with Jared Tendler the world renowned mental game coach. I would never have been able to access this level of mental game training were it not for the competition but I was lucky enough to win! The training was useful but it’s hard to take a huge amount away that will have a lasting impact on your game in a one hour session. One of the points I did take away though was that I was overconfident and that insight is one that is still having a plus ev effect on my game to this day.

For instance at the time I would play 200nl cash live (with great chunks of the little disposable income I had available to me!) and expect to win because I believed I was better than most players that played live in a tourist hotspot like central London. Jared helped me to realise that my overconfidence was actually blinding me from seeing what was really going on and stimulating me to take risks I shouldn’t have been taking on the table!

I took another thing away from that awesome competition and that’s what this post is about.

Two days ago I decided to go back to this book and really study, absorb and apply the material in it. Every player has different weak spots in their game and mine is without doubt the mental game! When I am playing at my best, or even at my B game I play fine and can profit well at the stakes I play. Sometimes I do something really crazy though like getting annoyed at a player that has sucked out on me, or risking more of my bankroll in a session than I should and the impact of that bad decision can take me back to square one.

As some of you that have read my blog before might know I am in the really fortunate position now of being able to focus on what I want to for the first time in my life, poker! So it’s important I work just as hard off the table as I do on the table to take my game to the next level.

So… I’ve decided to read 18 pages of The Mental Game of Poker a day for the next two weeks. This will mean I will have finished reading the book within two weeks. This will of course just be the start of my work with the book! As Jared says in chapter 1:

"Do not read this book cover to cover and expect to know it all. The process of improvement is more like chopping down a
 tree with an ax rather than cutting it down with a huge chainsaw."

 but it will of course be a great start.

To make sure I am learning as I go and my game is benefitting from what I learn I am taking notes as I go along with points that are meaningful for me. Then at the end of each chapter I am reviewing my notes and figuring out if I should apply any action points as a result of what I’ve just taken on board.

I’ve just finished chapter 1 and completed my first review this morning.

Here are the action points I decided upon:

I’m excited to be getting a real grip on developing my mental game. I have had this book a long time, and I am finally in a good space to start improving my game with it.

In future posts I will write some mental game strategy based on what I am learning and post them.

I’ll also update my blog from time to time to let you guys know how my own work with the book is going!

Until next time, good luck at the tables. Then again, forget that last sentence.

As Jared says in the first chapter of this book,

           "Your strategy is flawed if you believe… Playing your A-game is random."

#blog #mentalgame