It’s time to give this subject some in depth time. This is the most brushed aside aspect of the game. Most players simply look at the mental side as a player having “it” or having a “feel” for the game. While it’s true that some players have more “feel” than others, there are ways to get more out of the part of your game that can improve more than any other. I want to break this into 3 categories; pre-tourney, tourney and post-tourney. <READMORE>

Pre-tourney
This is the area where most players can improve the most. The first problem is that most players don’t give enough thought to what is needed to perform your best mentally. 3 things can do wonders to improve this part of your game. The first is rest. Notice I didn’t just say sleep. Your mind gets worn down when you play poker. The game exacts a price. If you think you can be a 14 hour a day player, non stop and expect great results, you’re crazy. You need to have some form of mental rest. For some it’s faith. For others family. Some get into a sport or hobby. It can be a combo of them, but the point is you MUST have some form of mental release. According to a study done at the Univ. of Notre Dame, the brain functions at a much higher capacity when it is able to redirect it’s energies and focus onto less “taxing” things. The study showed that intense concentration starts to lose it’s effectiveness after just 2 hours! A 5% loss is experienced per hour thereafter. Therefore you are 20% less effective after 6 hours of continuous play! The second thing is exercise. Now some of you are doing a disconnect right now…DON’T. The same study showed that the better shape our bodies are in, the better our brain functions. This is because the more physically fit you are, the better your circulation is, which feeds the brain. The last thing, which is directly aimed at the game, is a game plan. How much time did the Patriots coaching staff spend preparing a game plan for the Super Bowl? Yet most of the time we enter tourneys with not much thought at all other than “I’m gonna play tight”. Depending on how your recent tourneys have gone, you should mentally map out a game plan for every tourney you enter. Break the tourney into quarters. “In the first quarter I’m playing a ton of hands to try and build a chip stack” or “I’m not getting into foolish races in the first quarter with A 10”. Determine a game plan and stick to it! You will find, over the long haul, you will be far more successful.

Tourney
You enter the $100 buy in rested, post work out and with a solid game plan. 15 minutes into it you have AA under the gun. You raise 4X the blind and DrEvil in a middle position goes over the top all in. You call and he shows K3 of spades. Runner, runner flush and you’re on the sidelines. What is the first thing most of us do? We go off!! You begin to say that you didn’t believe In evolution until this moment etc. You are now angry, frustrated and have a little less hair. You do the thing that you should NEVER do…you sign up for the next tourney that starts in 10 minutes. I have made this mistake too many times. It cost me a shot at winning the 250k at Party last Sunday. Very often bad beats come in bunches. I’m going through a week long string as I write this. You CAN NOT get the most out of your game thinking about the last tourney or the last bad beat. Howard Lederer talks about “playing in the moment”. This is, by far, my greatest weakness. I’ve lost more tourneys because of built up frustration over bad beats than any other single reason. In the heat of the battle you must stick to your game plan no matter what your “gambling” side is telling you. The worst thing in the world that can happen is you stray from your game plan and win a hand. All of a sudden you find yourself making “compromises” and soon you’re on the sidelines. When you see 3 clubs on the flop with 5 guys in the hand, don’t keep betting on that open ended straight. The likely hood that your straight will win the pot is the same as Bill Clinton being the president again. DUMP YOUR HAND! Wisdom in your play = health of your stack. Think of a tourney as a baseball season. You can’t win every game, but if you win the majority, you just might find yourself playing in the World Series (final table).

Post-tourney
Here is another area that most players need improvement. You just had your set beat by a straight and you’re left with your jaw on the floor. What do you do next? Whether you journal hands, take notes or simply play, you need to “de-brief”. Evaluate the hands that you played well and the ones you played poorly. Ask yourself 3 questions; Did I play it well pre-flop? Did I play it well after the flop? Did I play the hand according to my game plan? The information you gather is vital because it helps determine your game plan for the next tourney. Perhaps you are seeing a pattern that indicates you are too loose or too tight. Maybe it’s the 3rd quarter of the tourney that is consistently beating you and you need to change your game plan accordingly. It could be that you keep getting bet out of hands pre flop with medium pocket pairs and decide to be a bit more aggressive and make those calls. Something that I’ve started doing is video taping my play. I’ll go back and watch the hand and listen to what I said during the hand. NSXT2 does this with his teaching site. I liked the idea and have incorporated it as part of my post-tourney strategy. The benefit of this is not relying on notes or simply what you recollect. This allows you to make an accurate assessment of what you need so that you can adjust your game plan for the next tourney.

Incorporate some of these concepts into your game and I believe you will make more money over the long haul. Good luck!

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