1 IN T R O D U CT I O N in the mental game of poker use a strategy that’s proven to work for them. They have a structure and methodology in how they approach the mental game, and don’t need to rely on a lucky rabbit’s foot or praying to the poker gods. P L AY E R S W H O A R E S U C C E S S F U L
If there were no way to control whether you play in “the zone” or go on tilt, my work as a mental game coach would be nothing more than blowing smoke up your ass. Tilting and playing your best happen for predictable reasons and occur in predictable patterns. As a poker player, you profit from your ability to analyze the patterns and habits of your opponents. Using the tools provided in this book, you will develop the ability to study the patterns and habits in your own mental game. The fact that so many players have benefited from working on their mental game, whether from my advice or others’, is proof that success in the mental game comes down to skill, as poker does. However, many players think tilt, fear, motivation, and confidence happen for random, illogical, or irrational reasons. As a result, they say or think the following: • “Logically, I know variance happens, so it’s stupid to tilt from a bad beat.” 1
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• “For some reason, I decided to play like a donkey last night.” • “I’m running really bad; maybe I should take a break.” • “I always play my best game on Full Tilt.” • “After being up big, I somehow manage to spew off a few stacks.” • “I wish I could play as well as I did today, all the time.” If you think the mental game is random, you simply lack the skill to see how it’s predictable and rational. Skilled poker players are easily able to see how the actions of weaker opponents aren’t random. They pick up on betting patterns, timing tells, physical tells, and verbal tells, which allows them to exploit the games of weaker players. Weaker players don’t have the skill to see the predictability in their game. The same is true in the mental game. Right now, you probably don’t have the skill to recognize the actions, thoughts, and emotions that lead you to play your best or worst. That makes you a mental game fish. Thankfully, you were able to evolve from being a poker fish—and with the right information you can do the same with your mental game. With poker more competitive than ever, more players are turning to the mental game as a valuable way to create an edge. Creating edge is not a new idea of course; it has just become more important in poker over the past several years, as the number of quality poker players has risen dramatically. Thanks to websites such as 2+2, Cardrunners, and others, the way the game is played has changed forever. Now, with the player pool so deep, parts of the game that weren’t taken so seriously even just a few years ago, such as the mental game, are now a necessity. Golf Sets the Stage Athletes in all the major sports face the same challenge to stay ahead of their competition. While it’s rare that a sport evolves as quickly as poker has, professional golfers recently went through something similar when Tiger Woods took the golf world by storm in the late 1990s. As 2
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Mental Game Fish Fish are fish in part because they believe things that aren’t true. They play in games where they are major underdogs without realizing it. They suckout and believe they played great. They get schooled by another player and claim they were unlucky. They think their game doesn’t need work, and even if they did, would have no idea where to start. They have no understanding of what they can and can’t control at the table, and often think, “I knew the king was coming” or “I always win with ace-queen.” You may be a solid winning poker player who recognizes the shortcomings of a bad player, but as far as the mental game is concerned, you are likely no different. A solid player is a mental game fish if they: 1. Change a proven winning strategy because they are running bad/hot. 2. Never recognize when someone has played well against them and/ or believe everyone they play against is bad and just gets lucky. 3. Try to win every hand. 4. Think the outcome of a hand can be changed by shouting, praying, or playing a favorite hand. 5. Get frustrated when a bad player plays badly and they even educate them as to why they are bad. 6. Feel like a failure when they lose a hand that was played profitably. 7. Think the solution to running bad is to stop playing or change stakes. 8. Read a poker book cover to cover and think they know everything in it. 9. Watch some of Phil Galfond’s training videos and think they should now be able to crush the game like him. 10. Believe that they are cursed or that other people are luckier than they are. 11. Believe it’s possible to own another player’s soul. 12. Play more hands when they are winning/losing. 13. Play fewer hands when they are winning/losing. 9
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14. Play badly when the stakes are too small for them to care. 15. Allow things to get personal with another regular. 16. Tell bad beat stories to anyone that will listen, while doing nothing to improve how they react to bad beats. 17. Say “one time.” Mental Game Strategy Think of the mental game as an actual game. As with any other game, winning requires skill and a good strategy. While having a strategy is not a new idea, having a strategy for the mental game may be. Winning in the mental game, so to speak, is fundamentally no different than learning to play winning poker: You need talent, hard work, and the right information. The only one of those you don’t control is talent. Some players are just naturally more talented than you in the mental game. For example, things that piss you off barely even raise their heartbeat or they have no trouble playing poker all day, while you struggle to grind longer than an hour. Seeing the natural mental game talents of others can make it seem as if it should be easy for you too. Wrong. It’s easy for them because they have more talent. Fortunately, if you are lacking talent in the mental game, hard work and the right information can eventually make it easy for you too. Many players also believe that solutions to mental game problems are easy, because common poker wisdom makes it sound that way. So you’ll hear, “Just stay calm; don’t let it tilt you,” “Don’t focus on the money; make the right decision,” or “Take a deep breath; be fearless.” These all sound nice, but are the poker equivalent of saying “Just win the hand.” That, of course, is the whole challenge of the game—to develop a strategy to win the hand. In the mental game, the challenge is to develop a strategy so you can remain calm, focus on the decision and not the money, and not let fear affect your decision. It’s not as easy as common wisdom makes it sound.
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Praise for Jared Tendler’s Coaching “He has been such an enormous help to me. I now play virtually tilt-free and bring my A-game nearly every time I play.” — Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt, PokerStars Team Online Pro Author of Don’t Listen to Phil Hellmuth and Treat Your Poker Like a Business
“I think I’ve been one of the most successful online players over the past five years, and there’s been no greater positive influence on my game than Jared and nothing else even comes close.” — Niman “Samoleus” Kenkre, BlueFire Poker Coach “Jared has helped me develop strategies to better manage my approach to poker and business. If you are having issues with the mental side of your poker game, I recommend Jared’s services.” — Taylor Caby, Co-founder of Cardrunners “Until Jared, the only advice I had heard about tilt, even from respected coaches, was ‘don’t do it.’ Now I’m winning almost 12bb/100 playing stakes as high as $50/$100 Heads Up NL.” — Liz “RikJamesB1atch” Herrera “Jared invented the field as far as I’m concerned.” — Jesse May, The Voice of Poker “Jared Tendler is a pioneer of the poker mental game. No one else even compares to his fact-based, scientific approach that is backed up by years of study in modern psychology. This book is the first of its kind and should be considered mandatory reading for any poker player.” — Hunter Bick, Professional poker player, DragTheBar CEO “Tilt? Jared Tendler extends his arm and casually flicks a middle finger at it.” — Jon Young, Editor of WPT Magazine
“Jared is a genius when it comes to helping you both recognize and systematically rid yourself of the issues that are getting in the way of reaching your potential. I don’t know where I would be today without him.” — Danny Steinberg, High Stakes Professional “I’ve met quite a few people in this field and no one has had the effect that Jared did.” — Sean Gibson, Poker News Daily “I can honestly say that working with Jared is one of the best investments I’ve ever made.” — Matt “mbolt1” Bolt, DragTheBar Coach “Jared’s approach works very well because he doesn’t put a patch on the problem and instead changes the way you think, not just about poker but life in general.” — Pascal “Stake Monster” Tremblay, Cardrunners Coach “Jared is a smart, hard-working, funny guy who is extremely good at his job. He manages to be both personal and professional, which is a hard thing to do. If you have tilt issues that cost you money, then you’re downright silly not to work with him.” — Paul “GiantBuddha” Hoppe, DragTheBar Coach Author of Way of the Poker Warrior
“He teaches you things you simply can’t learn by playing.” — Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky “I worked with Jared for three months and my progress was nothing short of phenomenal.” — Alan “Dixon” Jackson, BlueFire Poker Coach
A ST R AT EGY B O O K FO R
T H E M E N TA L G A M E The mental game may be more important in poker than in any other form of competition. It’s one of the only games in the world where you can play perfectly and lose—again and again. Hundreds of poker players have turned to mental game coach Jared Tendler’s revolutionary approach to help them play their best, no matter how badly they’re running. In this book you’ll find simple, step-by-step instructions and proven techniques to permanently fix problems such as tilt, handling variance, emotional control, confidence, fear, and motivation. With the games getting tougher, now is the time to take these problems head on. • Discover the most definitive work on tilt ever released. • Read stories from eight players who made major improvements using Jared’s techniques. • Get motivated with methods used by SuperNova Elites.
“Jared doesn’t spout feel-good mumbo-jumbo; this isn’t patronizing psychobabble. Instead, he peels back your poker-playing layers to identify and address your specific issues.” —Jeremiah Smith, Host of the Cash Plays podcast on Cardrunners
“It would be easy for a mental game coach to take a mysterious Zen like approach, what I really liked about working with Jared was he seems extremely scientific and analytical in how he approaches it.”
—Mike “Syous” Song, DeucesCracked Coach
“Jared invented the field as far as I’m concerned.” —Jesse May, The Voice of Poker has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Northeastern University. He coaches over 170 poker players from around the world and through articles, training videos, and forum Q&As has helped thousands more. JA R ED TENDLER , M . S . ,
www.jaredtendlerpoker.com