4.11.12 – Mental Game Radio Show

Today on The Mental Game radio show, Hunter “BeachJustice” Bick from DragTheBar.com joined me for an in-depth discussion on poker learning. Having been winning player for 7 years, a stellar coach for 4 years, and now running DragTheBar, Hunter has a great view on the common errors players make when trying to improve.

Hunter goes off on the All-in EV line, “I would love to wave a magic wand and make it go away.” Players are constantly focused on the All-in EV line in their database, when it’s not even calculated correctly! Lots of people have tilted because of it and they aren’t really even running badly. Listen in and find out more.

After Hunter’s rant, the focus of our conversation turns to how best to learn from poker training videos. Far too often players watch videos too passively, in the background while grinding, when they need to be interacting with the material. Hunter and I give you some tips on how to be more active with your learning and get more out of it.

How to Mentally Prepare for the WSOP with Jared Tendler

Check out this instructional interview with PokerListings.com:
The WSOP is the most grueling grind in poker so we spoke with esteemed mental coach Jared Tendler about how to cope with the weight of the World Series.

Seven weeks, 61 events and millions of dollars in prizes all put enormous pressure on players and if you don’t know how to hack it you might as well stay at home and watch the 2012 WSOP on TV.

Tendler penned The Mental Game of Poker and he’s got a few easy-to-follow steps that will help you play your best in Las Vegas this summer.

Click here to read the entire instructional interview.

Interview with Phil Hellmuth & Maria Ho

Today on The Mental Game radio show, I had the pleasure of interviewing two big names in poker: Phil Hellmuth and Maria Ho. They’re in Ireland for the inaugural iSeries Live event where they’ll competing against Daniel Negreanu, Eoghan O’Dea, Carlos Mortensen, and 5 other top players in a winner take all SNG that will be streaming live on the internet with all hole cards shown.

Phil proved at last year’s WSOP that he has resurrected his game and his mental game. He admits to not working on his game and just expecting to roll into events expecting to win. He’s working a lot more on his game with the help of some solid players, preparing better, and taking his mental game seriously. He also reveals a few other things about his preparation for the iSeries that may shock you…

Maria is the underdog going in and she shares her mental approach going into the event. She knows she’s up against a tough table and is ready for the challenge. She’s also worked a lot on her mental game over the years, listen in to hear what she’s done to become mentally stronger.

10 Push-ups

Last month I decided to start doing 10 push-ups everyday, for 30 straight days, as a way of getting back into shape. 10 was easily doable, I wasn’t that out of shape, and I figured that just the act of doing them would get me back into a routine of exercising consistently. To my amazement, I failed miserably.

Actually doing it wasn’t as simple as I imagined in my head. I did 10 the first couple days no problem. Then on day 3 I forgot completely. I remembered that I forgot the next morning on my way to the gym. But, then at the gym I did a lot of other exercises except 10 push-ups. I was a little shocked on as I walked home and told myself that I’d do them once I got home. Once I got home, 5 minutes later 10 push-ups was far from my mind and I didn’t do them.

A similar pattern continued over the next few weeks, where I’d remember in places where I wouldn’t want to do them – subway, shower, out to dinner – and when I was in position to actually do them it just wasn’t part of my mind. Frustration and disbelief were building, and reflecting now, I know were a part of why I was failing.


So, why am I telling this story?

Because the reason I failed is very simple: I hadn’t mastered the application of the Adult Learning Model for myself.
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How Damaging is Multitasking to Poker Players?

Check out this article Barry and I wrote for Pokerstrategy.com.

Last week, industry-leading psychology magazine Pyschology Today ran a series of features on the destructive role that distraction and multitasking is playing on our lives. They found that attention problems were not only greatly reducing our ability to perform, they also were a contributory factor to obesity, drink, and drug related problems.

We live in a culture of distraction; the vast improvements in technology make it so that we are more vulnerable to interruption than ever before. Right now the chances are that as you read this, you could be distracted by email, text messages, phone calls, twitter, Facebook, Skype, forums, advertising banners and other interesting web pages – both on your PC and your mobile phone.

The amount of information we can consume at any given moment is infinite, but human beings have not developed the capacity to cope with this.

The online poker player is particularly vulnerable to this level of distraction; not only do they spend most of their time at a PC, they also set their own hours and are not being monitored by a boss, not to mention already loading their capacity to maximum by playing a high number of tables. Click here to read more