As a coach, I’ve had several experiences where students have discussed their recent playing sessions or hand histories with me and said something along the lines of, “I really felt like I was playing well at this point in the tournament”. What’s interesting about this statement is that it is actually entirely self-contradictory, for reasons that aren’t always obvious.

The reality of playing one’s ‘A-game’ is that to do so would involve being so attentive to the action at hand, so focused on the players at the table and on the game itself, that we’re not able to spend valuable mental energy congratulating ourselves for how well we’re playing. If we want to truly perform at our best, we have to reach the point of not attempting to evaluate our play while we’re in the act of playing.

Conscious awareness and ‘the zone’

We only have room for a certain amount of conscious awareness in our brain – at any given moment, it’s very difficult for us to hold more than one thought in our head at a time. If you’ve ever tried to meditate, you’ll also know that it’s very difficult for us to keep certain thoughts out of our mind, even with conscious effort. It follows, therefore, that the more time we spend in our conscious mind that isn’t focused on the specifics of the hands we’re actually playing, the weaker our performance will actually be.

Our aim should be to reach a state of being ‘in the zone’ while playing – Jared Tendler’s excellent book, The Mental Game of Poker: Part 2, talks about this in detail. When ‘in the zone’, we’re not worried about whether that river call we made ten minutes ago was actually the right decision, we’re only focused on the hand we’re playing right now. This is especially important for players who are accustomed to multi-tabling online – a lack of attention to the moment at hand will manifest itself across multiple tables.

The problem of ‘learning while playing’

Many players are prone to falling into a process of trying to ‘learn while playing’ – they might feel like they made a mistake with a certain specific three-bet bluff, for example, so they’ll ruminate on it for ten to fifteen minutes while playing only cursory attention to the hands they’re actually playing, to try to figure out what their mistake was an ensure they don’t make it again. This isn’t just a recipe for major tilt problems and results-orientation – it ignores the reality that until they’re able to look at the hand in detail at a later point, they’re never going to be able to resolve their desire to truly know whether they made a mistake or not.

If this player were truly playing their A-game, they would possess a level of confidence and focus in their play that would actually render them unable to spot mistakes in real-time – after all, the only respect in which previous hands are relevant to the current hand is if they impact the way other players will play. Being unencumbered by negative (or positive) emotions is obviously a benefit to our ability to accurately analyze the hand we’re playing.

Analysis should happen in retrospect

It follows from here, therefore, that players should aim towards a method of self-analysis that allows them to move on from previous hands as quickly as possible while playing – online players might consider simply marking a hand for future review and moving on, while live players might step away from the table for a moment to take notes on their phone.

It is only while we are removed from the act of attempting to make a decision that we are able to accurately analyse the decision itself – after all, there’s a reason hindsight is 20/20. Our brains are simply much better at processing information and accounting for all possible variables when they’re not under time pressure to make the decision itself, and they’re not held back by any emotional stimuli that might make the decision more difficult in the moment.

Be mindful of the present moment

One of the biggest obstacles to A-game performances for inexperienced players is that they find it very difficult to develop the confidence necessary to truly put previous hands out of their minds – they’re simply not sure if they’re making the right plays on a fundamental level. There’s no easy solution to this on a confidence level – this only comes through time, learning and experience.

There is, however, a great short-term substitute – a greater level of preparation and mindfulness. Preparing for sessions in a structured way – perhaps through exercise – can help to clear the mind of distractions, while mindfulness practice outside of poker can help a player remain ‘in the moment’ while playing, even if they are not necessarily confident in their decisions.

Sometimes all that is necessary to avoid the constant process of self-evaluation while playing is to cultivate a desire to remain in the present moment, without being held back by thoughts of the past or future. This simple approach can bring us one step closer to consistent A-game performance.