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+++Q&A with Jared Tendler!!+++

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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by StaticMoth
I'd like to get one of those B-stock ones !

Have already sent you 2 emails :]

Just replied. It's been a busy day:)


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StaticMoth
Joined: 22.05.2009

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Originally posted by StaticMoth
I'd like to get one of those B-stock ones !

Have already sent you 2 emails :]

Just replied. It's been a busy day:)

And already shipped you the moniez - can't wait to get it :f_thumbsup:


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StaticMoth
Joined: 22.05.2009

Finally - Got the book !

Can't wait to devour and soak it all in ! :f_cool:


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by blax41
Hello there. To start off I`ll say that I really like poker as an easy way to win money. As following this its a great motivation for me - money.
I`m a losing player over 6 months , i just deposit , grind it up and lose it afterwards. The most worst feeling ever - you have bankroll (500$) and you start to lose and you see the money going away from 500-400-300-250 and so on.
Week ago I started to watch a lot of videos here , red some articles , did some quizzes and it kinda helped. I was running well afterwards, I felt that my confidence is back. But after losing 40 buy-ins in two days just trying to play your A-game and not getting the reward from the effort you put , you start to feel kinda scared bout each game you play (SnG player).
You think that you make the same decision as always, but you keep losing in it and in your mind you kind of change your game.
BTW. My biggest leak at the beggining was bankroll management but I got over it.

Hi,

I'm happy to give you some advice to help you, but I'm not certain what your asking for help with on your mental game. Plus, there are some contradictions in your post that confuse me. For example, you say that poker is an easy way to make money, but you're a losing player - can you explain that a bit more.

One thing to keep in mind, if your goals are just around money, your confidence will based entire around how much you are up or down. In the short-run in poker, you need to have your confidence based more around how well you play, not just whether you're up or down. That's a hard thing to do. It's a skill - knowing how well you're playing compared to your opponents. As a new player, it's important that you're not just focused on winning money, but on developing real skill in the game, that will ultimately lead you to being a profitable player in the long-run. Mental game issues like you mentioned: fear or low confidence, are important, but in my opinion they are second to developing real skill in the game.

Post some more details, as well as some specific questions and I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can.


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by datsmahname
Hi again Jared, thanks so much for your response. I can imagine that you invest a lot of time writing on your site, here and other places, and I really appreciate your feedback.

Yw! It's great to know you see value in what I work hard to put out.

Originally posted by datsmahname

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

<---this is a real smile on my face seeing the results that you've had increasing your endurance. For obvious reason, but more importantly I believe that experience can serve as a catalyst for you to take more control over your emotional downswings, and perhaps steadily lessen the intensity and duration of them, in a similar way to you increasing your endurance to play poker.

I remember one of your audio sessions where you talked about stepping forward from the back, and improving your B game in order to play well even under sub-optimal levels of stimulation. Somehow I think these two ideas are related theoretically. At the same time, I'm not familiar with how to "un-learn" things. For me life has been all about learning. How would you recommend someone un-learns a pattern of thinking or behavior in order to decrease the intensity and duration of an emotional downswing? Lets say in this respect I'm consciously incompetent.

The idea of un-learning something isn't entirely accurate. It's impossible to un-learn, and realisitically if you could, you wouldn't want to. Think of poker like learning to solve a complex maze. You have to take a lot of wrong turns to find the solution - the way out. Un-learning would be the equivalent of deleting knowledge that was the previous wrong turns. If you deleted it, you'd make those mistakes again. What you're looking to do, is to not make those wrong turns again, because it keeps happening.

Two things, 1) Master the correction. Master the correct way to be thinking, 2) Correct the underlying flaw in your pattern of thinking or behavior. Remember, the type of thoughts that your referring to, are symptoms of underlying flaws. These flaws need to be corrected - once that correction is mastered, these thoughts go away, and you never make those wrong turns again.

Using the Mental Hand History - which I've mentioned before in this thread - is the primary means of breaking down mental game issues to identify the flaw. It helps you to see the logic behind why these thoughts, emotions, or behaviors are occurring in the first place, and then identify the faulty logic that ultimately causing these problems. Feel free to post an example, and I can help you break it down.

Originally posted by datsmahname

Spoiler

Genetic factors play a role in everything, but they are not always our destiny, or beyond our control. In recently years they've found layers that exist upon our DNA - the name is escaping me at the moment. The role of these layers is that environmental factors help to determine which genes get turned on and off. That 25% chance of developing schizophrenia, can be reduced, and even if you do develop it, you may be able to limit the severity. Schizophrenia like any illness has a spectrum.

My point is that by working to limit the severity and duration of your emotional downswings, you might be able to accomplish what I just mentioned. It's honestly a hypothesis, since I have no research to back it up. But it makes logical sense to me.

I studied psych/neuroscience for my undergrad, and so I understand how these things are not deterministic in one sense of the word. I know I can take steps to improve my odds. I can also see how these emotional downswings can produce a situation where these genes are likely to be turned on. Genes are sort of prepared to act based on what our experience tells us about what the world is like, but they don't necessarily respond in ways that are "game theory optimal".

I guess this is just a long winded way of saying that your hypothesis makes sense to me too!

Great!

Spoiler

How to do that:

1) Recognition. Spend time - right now when things are calm - studying your past emotional downswings. Looking to understand what triggers them, what are the signs at different levels of intensity - ie: what thoughts, behaviors, emotions do you have at the early stages, and what do you have when it's more intense, etc. This information is critical to being able to better understand what causes them, or what psychological factors contribute to them being worse.

2) Your goal is ultimately to be able to recognize the early signs and begin taking corrective measure to prevent an emotional downswing from happening. Specifics I can't give without knowing more details.

3) Even if an emotional downswing happens - which it's quite likely to happen (not like this is an instant cure) - your job is to limit how bad you feel, and to try and shorten the lenght of time at the bottom. That likely will mean taking small, proactive steps to help yourself to feel, just slightly better (do you see the connection to increasing endurance?). In doing step 1, also think of a list of things that fit in this category - so your prepared and have a chance at doing them sooner than normal. Even being prepared, it's likely to be VERY hard to impliment these, so keep your expectations very low, and instead try to make it slightly better than it typically is. If you do, that's a victory, and those small victories can add up to big ones over time.

Does this help?

This part.. doesn't hit home with me. Something about listing factors that contribute to an emotional downswing just doesn't strike me as being terribly effective on its own. More than that, something about this procedure is frustrating since I've tried this approach. I might just be results oriented, but I've attempted to take preventative measures with no improvement.

I've come to a point where finding a solution without understanding how it happens would be fine by me. It seems like the underlying process is as complex as myself, and so it may actually be intractable from my perspective. These are questions I've struggled with for years, and even though I think I'm in a strong position to find a solution I don't actually believe I've made a lot of progress.

All that said, I've listed a few hallmark signs that an emotional downswing is starting. I honestly don't actually know what triggers it.

Spoiler

Signs that I'm on an emotional downswing:
- Hyper respond to negative criticism. (easily discouraged, feeling worthless)
- Extremely Negative thoughts (scaling from 1-10, 1 being few thoughts usually in evening, 10 being much of the day starting from the moment I wake up).
- Productivity decreases (#hrs of poker/week less than ~8)
- Skipping appointments (that are not associated with changing sleep patterns)

Corrective measures (respectively):
- Evaluate situations where i've responded by feeling discouraged/worthless and consider an alternative view.
- Get outside, read kind notes friends have sent me, go through something like a mantra.
- Schedule my week, set realistic goals and define short term rewards for meeting them.
- Contact everyone you've missed to reschedule, contact others ahead of time to warn them that you might miss future appointments. This helps me to not feel guilty.

Sometimes things snowball. If my productivity drops I end up eating my BR because I haven't been working hard enough to make money. I guess I should try to set aside some money or something, but all this depends on duration. At its worst I've been out for most of an entire year.

Maybe it didn't help in the past because you didn't realize the value of listing these factors. Ultimately, if you're going to stop something, you have to be able to recognize that it's happening. The purpose of this suggestion isn't for you to just make a list, it's for you to study them. Really learn it, so in the moment when you're emotions are causing your mind to malfunction, you still know what's happening and have a chance of correcting it, or prevent it from getting worse, in real time. Right now, reading this list, things may seem obvious. But what we care most about is the moment when your mind is hijacked by emotion. Only what you've truly mastered is going to show up then, and if there is weakness in your understanding of this list, you don't have a chance of stopping it. It's analogous to driving right past road signs alerting you of danger ahead. You'll drive by them, because you won't see them in the moments when your emotions are super high. You won't see them, because your only familiar with this list, and haven't yet mastered it.

Thinking optimistically, if you are able to recognize these things better in the moments when emotions are really high, with your focus on these emotions as they're happening, you may be able to better understand the underlying cause. I've found these moments to be very powerful for identification. I could very well be that way for you too.

All the best,
Jared


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by faronel
Jared,

I would like to elaborate on the clarity of the concept of "tilt", if you don't mind. It seems that "tilt" is a poker equivalent to "anger". In addition, you previously responded that players reported being on tilt (anger) most often when they also had been playing bad.
When I think of anger as of an emotion, I imagine a continuum where anger can be expressed by intensity. For example:

irritation ---------------------- rage

So, if I feel "a little upset", I can place myself somewhere:

irritation ---I------------------- rage

When, I feel "furious", I would place myself somewhere:

irritation ------------------I---- rage

Now, to some breaking point (somewhere at that continuum, that is of course subjective for each individual) a person is capable to deal with his or her anger in a way that it will not disrupt the adequate functioning (cognitive, social, somatic). Beyond the breaking point, anger will start rapidly depleting cognitive "energy supplies" (e.g. attention span, executive functioning) which will lead to decrease in performance. Reporting the former seems counterintuitive, however, turning attention to the latter is crucial, concidering the potential loss and the level of personal distress. Hence, it looks like that players start playing bad not when they are simply angry, but rather when they are angrier than usual. And reporting it as well.

In addition, your approach to breaking tilt into categories ("7 types of tilt") is nifty (from a practical perspective). In this post, for simplicity reasons, I will combine the types into one familiar concept - cognitive distortion.
It's well-established that a cognitive distortion is not a random thought that would appear out of the blue, but rather a pervasive cognitive pattern. It's a result of subjective lasting experience (e.g. moral reasoning), or individual characteristics (e.g. impulsivity). In terms of anger, a cognitive distortion is more likely to be expressed when anger is more intensive (pervasive cognitive pattern). This way the cognitive distortion works like self-fullfilling prophecy (reinforcing and increasing the intensity of anger) - which will lead to making more mistakes (greater leaks).

So... to me, it seems that for you word "tilt" stands for being angry enough when you start playing bad. For simplicity reasons, you shortened the concept to: tilt = [intensive] anger + bad play. Hence, "tilt" is a technical term.
From a therapeutical point of view, it would seem right to turn attention to the experience of anger itself and consider bad play simply as a byproduct of anger? I mean, better anger management might lead to an improved game by itself (that of course if there are no fundamental technical leaks, unrelated to anger).
Or... do you see "tilt" in a different perspective?

Great post.

Couple points to reply.

1) In terms of peak performance, everything from minor irritation to rage is relevant to report. Many players only report what they consider to be levels of anger that are problematic, however, the scale that you describe isn't flat, it's increases. Meaning, that irritation accumulates into frustration and then into anger, and then further into rage. For example, Rage is the accumulation of a 1000 irritations. Thus, players with greater sensitivity to irritation or minor frustration, have greater ability to identify the underlying cause of this emotion, and resolve it, before it accumulates into an intensity level that impairs cognitive function.

2) To your point about cognitive distortion. I completely agree, it does lead to more anger - what I call the tilt of tilt. There are factors/flaws/issues that lead to anger increasing, but there are also the underlying causes of the anger to begin with. In my view, the cause of anger isn't a cognitive distortion - the cognitive distortion is a symptom of deeper flaws: for example, hating to lose, having high expectations, believing they're in more control of the outcome, etc. Reading this list it can seem as though they're all cognitive in nature, but these are approaches or perspectives on poker that have been mastered. Consequently, they're often isn't any thought or distortion that causes irritation. Irritation is a reaction to situations where a players approach/perspective conflicts with the reality of situations in poker, i.e. losing.

3) To the last paragraph of your post. While many players think that focusing solely on the anger would simultaneously correct the mistakes so often associated with that anger, it doesn't happen exactly that way. The sheer fact that a person is making poker mistakes, proves those mistakes haven't been mastered. Areas of their game that have been mastered are guaranteed to show up no matter how angry they are. Which means, these tactical/poker mistakes still require more learning to become mastered. Removing the anger makes it much easier to play properly and reduce the incidence of these mistakes, but it doesn't guarantee they'll go away without focusing on these mistakes. It's for this reason, that I always encourage clients to work both the mental and tactical sides of an issue.


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I need to send one of you $500 for Darren Kramer, from South Africa! Darren asked me to send you the money over moneybookers, I did this two weeks ago, but today it bounced back into my account, saying "Your payment to carterb@pua.com with ID #####2858 sent on 26.Sep.11 15:42 has been automatically cancelled because the beneficiary has not registered within 14 days."
Is this the correct email address?
Need to get this done ASAP, thanks
Darren Rudolph


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StaticMoth
Joined: 22.05.2009

Originally posted by darrenrudolph
I need to send one of you $500 for Darren Kramer, from South Africa! Darren asked me to send you the money over moneybookers, I did this two weeks ago, but today it bounced back into my account, saying "Your payment to carterb@pua.com with ID #####2858 sent on 26.Sep.11 15:42 has been automatically cancelled because the beneficiary has not registered within 14 days."
Is this the correct email address?
Need to get this done ASAP, thanks
Darren Rudolph

That's because it's carterb.pua@gmail.com


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Originally posted by StaticMoth

That's because it's carterb.pua@gmail.com

Can anyone else verify this for me please


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by darrenrudolph

Originally posted by StaticMoth

That's because it's carterb.pua@gmail.com

Can anyone else verify this for me please

That's Barry's correct email address - but please get in contact with me first to coordinate: jared@jaredtendlergolf.com. Thanks!


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Do you think that any normal guy, with effort, passion, commitment, can be a good player at the future? I mean, with the normal skils and getting better at the mental side, can achieve some normal goals?
I am not talking about me, it is a response for a friend, and ok, my friend knows all about their skills. :f_biggrin:
I am not considered by myself a bad player, but i have really fear about put a big quantity of money and try this new adventure, simply becuase I have some fear to lose it. That is one of the reasons to be at this school, and I feel that my weak point is the tilt. I get mad, angry, I insult my oponents and thanks to your vision and articles I have found a light at the end of the tunnel. But I think I need to think more at my skils and try to think about less in the money, any advice?
Why Do i Get so nervous when I am betting all in and waiting for the result of the hand? is there any exercise to avoid this situation?

regards and thanks in advance


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Originally posted by JaredTendler
Yw! It's great to know you see value in what I work hard to put out.

Hi Jared,

I've read your post a few times, and I think I'll probably need months to submit a reply. I'm sure there are many nuances that I haven't understood, but I know you've given me a lot to think about.

Its true that I have sometimes treated symptoms like problems and I've become frustrated when my solution inevitably fails. Against my better judgement, I've even tricked myself into thinking that describing my behavior somehow explains it - it doesn't.

So now for some hard work. Your mental hand history does have a lot of face validity. Thanks for making that clear. I read it out of context the first time around.

With the core issue(s), its like I have some kind of aphasia; I really can't see it. That said, I'm unexpectedly optimistic about the prospect of digging it up. I like these kind of intellectual challenges.

Anyways, enough verbal spewing! Till next time, thanks

dats


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Alex21Pro
Joined: 10.08.2011

hm


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faronel
Joined: 13.07.2011

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

1) In terms of peak performance, everything from minor irritation to rage is relevant to report. Many players only report what they consider to be levels of anger that are problematic, however, the scale that you describe isn't flat, it's increases. Meaning, that irritation accumulates into frustration and then into anger, and then further into rage. For example, Rage is the accumulation of a 1000 irritations. Thus, players with greater sensitivity to irritation or minor frustration, have greater ability to identify the underlying cause of this emotion, and resolve it, before it accumulates into an intensity level that impairs cognitive function.

I also agree that the scale isn't flat. You are also right that reporting all experiences of anger is relevant. I meant that it seemed counterintuitive, when it is really not. The reason is simple. I think that progression from irritation to anger to rage is rather exponential. Think in terms of neurochemistry. The neurons of "the anger circle" are already depolarized during anger experience. It now takes even less neurotransmitters to amplify the signal.
At most of the times, people have a compensational mechanism that allow them to calm down when experience isn't intense (no rage nor intense anger). Thus, no serious decrease in cognitive functioning. This is why the experience remains unreported. But if something irritating happens to a person who is already upset...

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

2) To your point about cognitive distortion. I completely agree, it does lead to more anger - what I call the tilt of tilt. There are factors/flaws/issues that lead to anger increasing, but there are also the underlying causes of the anger to begin with. In my view, the cause of anger isn't a cognitive distortion - the cognitive distortion is a symptom of deeper flaws: for example, hating to lose, having high expectations, believing they're in more control of the outcome, etc. Reading this list it can seem as though they're all cognitive in nature, but these are approaches or perspectives on poker that have been mastered. Consequently, they're often isn't any thought or distortion that causes irritation. Irritation is a reaction to situations where a players approach/perspective conflicts with the reality of situations in poker, i.e. losing.

About the relation of cognitive distortion to anger - my thoughts as well. Anger is primarily caused by an external irritating event (e.g. losing). Cognitive distortion is then expressed to amplify anger, and such internal irritating event will only take place when a player has a predisposition to experience it (attitudes, impulsivity, neurotism, lack of serious poker experience, lack of objective poker knowledge). I think we are speaking the same thing, using slightly different words.

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

3) To the last paragraph of your post. While many players think that focusing solely on the anger would simultaneously correct the mistakes so often associated with that anger, it doesn't happen exactly that way. The sheer fact that a person is making poker mistakes, proves those mistakes haven't been mastered. Areas of their game that have been mastered are guaranteed to show up no matter how angry they are. Which means, these tactical/poker mistakes still require more learning to become mastered. Removing the anger makes it much easier to play properly and reduce the incidence of these mistakes, but it doesn't guarantee they'll go away without focusing on these mistakes. It's for this reason, that I always encourage clients to work both the mental and tactical sides of an issue.

My question was hypothetical. If there were no technical leaks (a player was a technical poker master per se), it would seem right to only deal with anger to repair the leaks. Though, in reality, no one is perfect. People who learn to play poker, learn it in different ways. There are some fundamental flaws when we consider the base knowledge of a novice poker player. This is what amplifies anger experience through cognitive distortion once a hand or a set of hands is lost [since the evaluation of a hand was already biased and excessive]. The better the player becomes technically, the less subjective evaluation about poker there will be, which in results will lead to less different types of tilt...
Though, again, there are players who are great at poker, but really bad at anger management [tilt control]. This is where a mental coach is handy! =)

This also leads to a few assumptions I would like to test:
1. How does objective poker base knowledge influnce anger experiences during poker plays? Will there be less anger incidents and less intensive, or?
2. What kind of tilt types are expressed more among novice poker players and among pro poker players?


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by MonkeySam
Do you think that any normal guy, with effort, passion, commitment, can be a good player at the future? I mean, with the normal skils and getting better at the mental side, can achieve some normal goals?
I am not talking about me, it is a response for a friend, and ok, my friend knows all about their skills. :f_biggrin:
I am not considered by myself a bad player, but i have really fear about put a big quantity of money and try this new adventure, simply becuase I have some fear to lose it. That is one of the reasons to be at this school, and I feel that my weak point is the tilt. I get mad, angry, I insult my oponents and thanks to your vision and articles I have found a light at the end of the tunnel. But I think I need to think more at my skils and try to think about less in the money, any advice?
Why Do i Get so nervous when I am betting all in and waiting for the result of the hand? is there any exercise to avoid this situation?

regards and thanks in advance

Hey Sam,

Lots of questions, let me first start by saying that yes, I do believe that a normal guy with normal skills can be successful. BUT, having the passion and commitment that is necessary to be successful isn't normal in my opinion. There are a lot of people who want to have that level of passion and commitment, but not a lot who actually do.

I also agree with your perspective: The mental game is a valuable part of poker, and I'm happy to hear my articles have provided a light at the end of the tunnel for you. However, it's only on big part of the overall equation for being a successful player. So you're absolutely right in focusing on your skills.

It sounds to me like the reason that you focus more on money than your skills is because you fear losing money. So, the question is why. What are you fearing about risking money in poker? This to me seems like the major priority. The nervousness that you get when all-in waiting for the result is secondary, and not as important. One important mental game skill is prioritizing, and your focus needs to be to get to the bottom of the main cause of your fear.

Post more details and I'll help you work through it.

Best,
Jared


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by datsmahname

Originally posted by JaredTendler
Yw! It's great to know you see value in what I work hard to put out.

Hi Jared,

I've read your post a few times, and I think I'll probably need months to submit a reply. I'm sure there are many nuances that I haven't understood, but I know you've given me a lot to think about.

Its true that I have sometimes treated symptoms like problems and I've become frustrated when my solution inevitably fails. Against my better judgement, I've even tricked myself into thinking that describing my behavior somehow explains it - it doesn't.

So now for some hard work. Your mental hand history does have a lot of face validity. Thanks for making that clear. I read it out of context the first time around.

With the core issue(s), its like I have some kind of aphasia; I really can't see it. That said, I'm unexpectedly optimistic about the prospect of digging it up. I like these kind of intellectual challenges.

Anyways, enough verbal spewing! Till next time, thanks

dats

I don't mind your verbal spew dats! If there's a place to spew, let it be here...

I'll be interested in where you stand in a few months. Please stop back and let me know.

Best,
Jared


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by faronel

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

1) In terms of peak performance, everything from minor irritation to rage is relevant to report. Many players only report what they consider to be levels of anger that are problematic, however, the scale that you describe isn't flat, it's increases. Meaning, that irritation accumulates into frustration and then into anger, and then further into rage. For example, Rage is the accumulation of a 1000 irritations. Thus, players with greater sensitivity to irritation or minor frustration, have greater ability to identify the underlying cause of this emotion, and resolve it, before it accumulates into an intensity level that impairs cognitive function.

I also agree that the scale isn't flat. You are also right that reporting all experiences of anger is relevant. I meant that it seemed counterintuitive, when it is really not. The reason is simple. I think that progression from irritation to anger to rage is rather exponential. Think in terms of neurochemistry. The neurons of "the anger circle" are already depolarized during anger experience. It now takes even less neurotransmitters to amplify the signal.
At most of the times, people have a compensational mechanism that allow them to calm down when experience isn't intense (no rage nor intense anger). Thus, no serious decrease in cognitive functioning. This is why the experience remains unreported. But if something irritating happens to a person who is already upset...

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

2) To your point about cognitive distortion. I completely agree, it does lead to more anger - what I call the tilt of tilt. There are factors/flaws/issues that lead to anger increasing, but there are also the underlying causes of the anger to begin with. In my view, the cause of anger isn't a cognitive distortion - the cognitive distortion is a symptom of deeper flaws: for example, hating to lose, having high expectations, believing they're in more control of the outcome, etc. Reading this list it can seem as though they're all cognitive in nature, but these are approaches or perspectives on poker that have been mastered. Consequently, they're often isn't any thought or distortion that causes irritation. Irritation is a reaction to situations where a players approach/perspective conflicts with the reality of situations in poker, i.e. losing.

About the relation of cognitive distortion to anger - my thoughts as well. Anger is primarily caused by an external irritating event (e.g. losing). Cognitive distortion is then expressed to amplify anger, and such internal irritating event will only take place when a player has a predisposition to experience it (attitudes, impulsivity, neurotism, lack of serious poker experience, lack of objective poker knowledge). I think we are speaking the same thing, using slightly different words.

Originally posted by JaredTendler

Spoiler

3) To the last paragraph of your post. While many players think that focusing solely on the anger would simultaneously correct the mistakes so often associated with that anger, it doesn't happen exactly that way. The sheer fact that a person is making poker mistakes, proves those mistakes haven't been mastered. Areas of their game that have been mastered are guaranteed to show up no matter how angry they are. Which means, these tactical/poker mistakes still require more learning to become mastered. Removing the anger makes it much easier to play properly and reduce the incidence of these mistakes, but it doesn't guarantee they'll go away without focusing on these mistakes. It's for this reason, that I always encourage clients to work both the mental and tactical sides of an issue.

My question was hypothetical. If there were no technical leaks (a player was a technical poker master per se), it would seem right to only deal with anger to repair the leaks. Though, in reality, no one is perfect. People who learn to play poker, learn it in different ways. There are some fundamental flaws when we consider the base knowledge of a novice poker player. This is what amplifies anger experience through cognitive distortion once a hand or a set of hands is lost [since the evaluation of a hand was already biased and excessive]. The better the player becomes technically, the less subjective evaluation about poker there will be, which in results will lead to less different types of tilt...
Though, again, there are players who are great at poker, but really bad at anger management [tilt control]. This is where a mental coach is handy! =)

Great follow-up. I enjoy technical language, though don't hear it all that often these days, so thanks for that. The term cognitive distortion makes more sense hearing it the second time.

Originally posted by faronel
This also leads to a few assumptions I would like to test:
1. How does objective poker base knowledge influnce anger experiences during poker plays? Will there be less anger incidents and less intensive, or?

Lessens it for sure. One way of seeing this is when NL player starts playing PLO. On the one hand PLO has more variance so that is one reason that anger is amplified, but a big reason is that the player has less knowledge and therefore mental game leaks are more likely to create problems. Tactical knowledge of a game helps to diminish the intensity of an issue.

Originally posted by faronel
2. What kind of tilt types are expressed more among novice poker players and among pro poker players?

Good question. I haven't worked with or talked with enough novice poker players to know for sure. Making an educated guess, they'll have more injustice tilt and desperation tilt. More tilt for losing in ways they think is unlucky and desperation tilt is the closest to gambling.

Thanks for the mentally stimulating questions :)


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StaticMoth
Joined: 22.05.2009
Spoiler

Originally posted by StaticMoth

Originally posted by JaredTendler
Why do you think it was so hard for you to play?

Was it fear of losing back the money that was in your account?

Yes, anxiety is what overwhelms me.

I do not want to lose it back and since "past evidence" shows it always goes wrong when I try to continue playing, it creates anxiety coz.

a) it's inevitable that I am gonna play sooner or later
b) and it always ends badly (in past experiences at least, it has never gone the other way)

So that's a powerfl mixture for anxiety. I feel like I have to play and I really WANT to play, but at the same time I feel like once I open up the tables, I'm doomed already.

About my play, I felt I played good .. I felt a bit of rustyness for sure, but also felt that I was still crushing the competition - no spew or tilt, ran like at least 10BI under EV if I'm not mistaken.

My goal this month is to not look @cashier/results/graphs@HEM at all.
The ...ss it's more of a band-aid than a real solution, but that's the best (semi)solution I could come up with atm.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
To help break this problem down (using the protocol I gave you before) it would be helpful if you listed out some of the things that come to mind after you've lost in the past, or this past time.

I usually feel pretty sad/depressed (but usually get over it quickly after I look at my longer term profits which reassure me that I am a winning player and I am making money in the long run)

Thoughts usually go along the lines of:

* Yet another failure or mediocre result, I'll never achieve my peak
* I'm going 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps backwards always and I should/would be a heck of a lot further down my "career"/progress ladder if only I could overcome my stupid mental barriers that hinder my progress and render my non-mental skillset near useless

Rly enjoying working with ur book ... Here's an excerpt from my today's blog post about it ...

:diamond: Worked with Tendler's book 2,25h

:heart: It rly is an awesome book with some real stuff to help you, none of that Poker Mindset plain logical facts that doesn't change anything ...
Mental Game of Poker rly gives you thorough instructions and tools to approach all ur mental problems and it's working like a charm :f_love:

:heart: Today when I finally started making hands like sets & straights ... but had to fold ALL of them by the river ...
obv frustration started kicking in, but I instasnapped out of it and got excited instead ...
Excited of the opportunity to notice exactly what situations/thoughts made me feel this way and why ...
And to write em down to update my "tilt profile" later on and dissect that shit to get to the roots and eradicate all the flaws bit by bit :f_cool:


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Originally posted by JaredTendler

Originally posted by MonkeySam
Do you think that any normal guy, with effort, passion, commitment, can be a good player at the future? I mean, with the normal skils and getting better at the mental side, can achieve some normal goals?
I am not talking about me, it is a response for a friend, and ok, my friend knows all about their skills. :f_biggrin:
I am not considered by myself a bad player, but i have really fear about put a big quantity of money and try this new adventure, simply becuase I have some fear to lose it. That is one of the reasons to be at this school, and I feel that my weak point is the tilt. I get mad, angry, I insult my oponents and thanks to your vision and articles I have found a light at the end of the tunnel. But I think I need to think more at my skils and try to think about less in the money, any advice?
Why Do i Get so nervous when I am betting all in and waiting for the result of the hand? is there any exercise to avoid this situation?

regards and thanks in advance

Hey Sam,

Lots of questions, let me first start by saying that yes, I do believe that a normal guy with normal skills can be successful. BUT, having the passion and commitment that is necessary to be successful isn't normal in my opinion. There are a lot of people who want to have that level of passion and commitment, but not a lot who actually do.

I also agree with your perspective: The mental game is a valuable part of poker, and I'm happy to hear my articles have provided a light at the end of the tunnel for you. However, it's only on big part of the overall equation for being a successful player. So you're absolutely right in focusing on your skills.

It sounds to me like the reason that you focus more on money than your skills is because you fear losing money. So, the question is why. What are you fearing about risking money in poker? This to me seems like the major priority. The nervousness that you get when all-in waiting for the result is secondary, and not as important. One important mental game skill is prioritizing, and your focus needs to be to get to the bottom of the main cause of your fear.

Post more details and I'll help you work through it.

Best,
Jared

TY Jared!
Basically it is the fear to lose big quantities of money, I mean, My idea is try to learn the game,and in the future, deposit a high sum ( for instance 600 usd) and try to take the things more seriously, but I dont want to lose money, with your articles I can understand that variance exists, But I guess that I do not have the mental strong necessary for take the best decisions at a higher stake, becuase i am always thinking about money, not chips. At the moment I have a job, wife and two kids, and I think it will be really hard to try to see what happens with poker if you have a family to feed, so until i was able to cope with this, I wont take any decision soon. Resuming, I have my poker skils from 1-100 are in 75-80. But my mental side...around 40-45 percent.


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JaredTendler
Joined: 16.05.2011

Originally posted by StaticMoth

Spoiler

Originally posted by StaticMoth

Originally posted by JaredTendler
Why do you think it was so hard for you to play?

Was it fear of losing back the money that was in your account?

Yes, anxiety is what overwhelms me.

I do not want to lose it back and since "past evidence" shows it always goes wrong when I try to continue playing, it creates anxiety coz.

a) it's inevitable that I am gonna play sooner or later
b) and it always ends badly (in past experiences at least, it has never gone the other way)

So that's a powerfl mixture for anxiety. I feel like I have to play and I really WANT to play, but at the same time I feel like once I open up the tables, I'm doomed already.

About my play, I felt I played good .. I felt a bit of rustyness for sure, but also felt that I was still crushing the competition - no spew or tilt, ran like at least 10BI under EV if I'm not mistaken.

My goal this month is to not look @cashier/results/graphs@HEM at all.
The ...ss it's more of a band-aid than a real solution, but that's the best (semi)solution I could come up with atm.

Originally posted by JaredTendler
To help break this problem down (using the protocol I gave you before) it would be helpful if you listed out some of the things that come to mind after you've lost in the past, or this past time.

I usually feel pretty sad/depressed (but usually get over it quickly after I look at my longer term profits which reassure me that I am a winning player and I am making money in the long run)

Thoughts usually go along the lines of:

* Yet another failure or mediocre result, I'll never achieve my peak
* I'm going 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps backwards always and I should/would be a heck of a lot further down my "career"/progress ladder if only I could overcome my stupid mental barriers that hinder my progress and render my non-mental skillset near useless

Rly enjoying working with ur book ... Here's an excerpt from my today's blog post about it ...

:diamond: Worked with Tendler's book 2,25h

:heart: It rly is an awesome book with some real stuff to help you, none of that Poker Mindset plain logical facts that doesn't change anything ...
Mental Game of Poker rly gives you thorough instructions and tools to approach all ur mental problems and it's working like a charm :f_love:

:heart: Today when I finally started making hands like sets & straights ... but had to fold ALL of them by the river ...
obv frustration started kicking in, but I instasnapped out of it and got excited instead ...
Excited of the opportunity to notice exactly what situations/thoughts made me feel this way and why ... And to write em down to update my "tilt profile" later on and dissect that shit to get to the roots and eradicate all the flaws bit by bit :f_cool:

Make me smile to read this. You get the message of the book, and you're using it to have some remarkable results. I love it.

The combination of recognition and a game plan for how to deal with the first sign of frustration is a powerful combination and you're doing great. Thanks for letting me know!


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