We all have leaks in our poker game in one way or another – by which I mean, none of us plays perfectly Game Theory Optimal poker in every situation. We’re only human, not GTO robots. Which is a neat little microcosm of the way it works in life outside of poker – we all have personality flaws, which affect our lives to varying degrees in any number of ways. Nobody’s perfect.

But the thing that separates poker leaks from personality flaws is that while we might be able to measure a poker leak using a Hold’em Manager or Poker Tracker database or a GTO calculator, we can’t measure a personality flaw. We can’t run a simulation of the perfect version of ourselves and compare that to reality. So how do we know when our real world personality might be influencing our poker game?

The link between personality and poker performance

Personality flaws come in all shapes and sizes – they’re usually easily-defined by describing someone as ‘too much of X’ or ‘not enough Y’. Someone is too short-tempered, not very empathetic, not a good communicator, or too judgmental. But the problem is that unlike poker, where GTO play tells us (broadly speaking) how much of X or Y we should be doing, there’s no blueprint for what our personality ‘should’ be. More often than not, we have a total blind spot right where each of our personality flaws is located.

How does this affect poker? Well, it means that we’re more prone to having a blind spot in the areas of our biggest leaks. For example, a common personality blind spot is found in people who don’t take criticism well – they take it personally, perhaps because they’ve experienced bullying or harsh parenting in the past. These sensitive people (and I say this non-judgmentally, since I am one of these people myself and I’m speaking from experience) find it hard to analyse hands they’ve played, or to seek advice and feedback from others, because whatever negative feedback they might get is often more painful than the positive feedback is beneficial. It hammers their confidence every time they hear something even slightly negative, so they don’t seek feedback at all. A clear example of a real-life ‘leak’ or personality flaw bleeding over into poker.

Taking a look at yourself

The cure to having your personality flaws dictate your poker performance lies in self-awareness. Self-awareness is a fundamental skill necessary for living an effective and successful life anyway, but it is particularly important in poker to have the ability to be honest with yourself not only about the skills and qualities you have as a player, but about those you lack. There will always be something you lack, so there will always be something to be conscious of, even if you have to work hard to find it.

What’s crucial, however, is not to let awareness of a flaw dictate your overall confidence level. In the same way that it’s important not to let one victory convince you you’re the greatest player ever, it’s also important to develop the ability to recognise a leak without forgetting that you still have a lot of areas that don’t contain leaks. Identifying leaks while maintaining confidence is the key balance that needs to be struck – the same way that it’s important not to think of yourself as a terrible person just because a friend or family member got angry with you one time.

Why poker isn’t everything

Finally, I want to reinforce something that isn’t often addressed in poker literature – in fact, after a point it seems to become almost sacrilege. Poker is not especially important in the grand scheme of things. In the history of your life, the thing you remember when you’re on your deathbed is not going to be that time you crushed the final table of the Big $109. You probably won’t even remember that five years from now.

Your personality, with all its flaws and imperfections, is important for reasons that extend way beyond the consequences to your poker game. It impacts every facet of your life, and will continue to do so long after you’ve gotten bored of poker, or played so many hands you’re basically a perfect GTO bot. So if you think becoming a better poker player is more important than becoming a better person, you’ve probably got your priorities wrong. But if you think becoming a better person isn’t going to help you fix your poker leaks, well…that’d be wrong too.