Poker is similar to pool, golf, and tennis in that they are all individual games where a player's mental state is the most important thing once the fundamentals are learned. Usually, the best players in these games are thinking players with a strong mindset. Anyone wanting to play one of these at a high level will benefit by mastering emotional detachment.For example, where I learned how to play pool there was a rating system that went from four to ten. In this system, four was the weakest and ten was the strongest. I remember seeing so many talented, straight-shooting players reach about eight with solid fundamentals. Most of these guys would level off at eight because solid fundamentals can only take you so far.
In order to take the step to nine and ten on the rating system, a player would have to strengthen his mental game and be able to control his emotions. I feel as if poker is the same way. We can learn how to play optimally, but if we are not trying to be strong-thinking players who are in control of our emotions, we will be behind.
I know that most of us have had some kind of emotion come over us while we were playing. My question to you is what did you do about it? Did you make a decision with the emotion still on your mind or did you try to detach from the emotion and then make a decision? I think most decent players have some sort of control over their emotions and I imagine any who don't are working toward getting there.
I think most of the emotions we feel while playing poker are a result of how a hand played out. In my opinion, these emotions are the easiest to get past with the right techniques. But, for any guys out there like me who play a ton of poker, there will be times when things beyond our control enter into the situation and bring about emotion.
I have worked hard on emotional detachment and feel as if I can quickly get past any emotion brought on by poker. But, during some recent situations that left me feeling tested, I found out that with a strong will and an understanding of ourselves, we can get through anything.Recently, the times I was overcome with emotion there was a glaze that came over me. I could still see the tables and my cards, but before I could think clearly, I had to work through the glaze and get past my emotions. I feel as if when this is going on, my decisions were being made with less thought and poker almost became secondary to my emotions. I think we can all see how that is completely unacceptable. So, what do we do?
In order for us to have control over our emotions, we must practice emotional detachment. For me, that means we need to make sure that we are making decisions without emotion. But, how do we do that?
For starters, I think it helps if we understand what is going on in our brains. To put it simply, there are emotional and analytical sides of the brain. We are able to make decisions from both sides, but for poker, an analytical decision would be best. When we are overcome with emotion, we will make an emotional decision. When we are thinking analytically without emotion, we will make an analytical decision. In my opinion, the next logical question is how do we make sure our decisions come from the analytical side of our brain?
One simple trick is to count to ten. Thinking using numbers forces our mind to work analytically. I am sure many of you have heard of the "count to ten" trick for helping someone calm down when they are angry. The reason is because when we count, it forces our mind to think analytically and the emotion decreases. Another great tool I was taught was to count using the Fibonacci Sequence (pictured).For those who have never heard of the Fibonacci Sequence, I will explain. The first two numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence are zero and one and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. Here is an example: 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 5+8=13, 8+13=21, 13+21=34, 21+34=55, 34+55=89, 55+89=144, and so on. This is similar to counting, but requires more thinking and I believe puts us in an analytical mindset quickly.
I believe it's very important that we have some understanding of how our brain works and try to avoid using emotion to make decisions. In my opinion, all poker players will improve immediately just by being aware that there are two sides to our brain and realizing there are ways to help ensure that we are using the correct side.
All we can do is give it our all and try to make the best decisions possible. In my opinion, to make the best decisions, we need to be thinking analytically without emotion. I hope this article was helpful and that we all can get better at playing with emotional detachment.
This article was written by John cracker9ball Reynolds, who hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information, contact him at variance101@gmail.com and visit Variance101.com.
