WSOP Countdown: Mental Game tips for WSOP Newbies
Mental Game coach and author Jared Tendler stopped by to give his top five performance tips to Vegas virgins at the WSOP this year.
Go in with a game plan
| jaredtendler |
 Jared Tendler, MS, is poker's leading mental game expert.
He has coached over 200 of the world's top players and is the author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. |
It becomes really easy to find ways to destroy yourself - both within poker and... well, it's Vegas, so the partying can do it too. Poker players can very easily get caught up - it's exciting, there's a lot to do, there's a lot of people there and it's definitely a lot of fun.
Having a game plan going in can minimise your chances of going off the rails. Set some guidelines, set some goals, what you're looking to accomplish, how many events you're going to play, how fresh you are. You can kind of make some decisions based on that.
If you want to get the most out of it, you want to play all the events, you kind of just go balls to the wall and see how long it takes to burn out. The other way would be to really schedule things out, know how much you can play before you get too tired and then set some very strict goals and guidelines for how much you're going to go out and socialise.
I think bringing that figure to zero is a mistake, have fun - just don't do it four nights a week or the night before a tournament, give yourself a bit of a buffer.
Relax
Each person should look at what they do to relax - playing cash could be relaxing, but not if you turn it into a marathon and play for 12 hours the night before a tournament. Play a couple of hours to relax and that's fine.
For some people, it's important to spend some time outside of the casino. Even though it's hot as balls, maybe you want to hang by the pool, go to the gym... you're looking to recover and that's what that rest is about.
Whatever you do in your day-to-day life, try to find a way to do that in Vegas. While that can certainly be hard, because it's such an abnormal place, if that also includes going out and having a few drinks then do it. Again, in moderation, with the idea towards recovery.
Talk about hands and vent a little
Playing for 12 hours a day can be very mentally demanding. I think most players actually do what I would recommend them to do to manage that and that's to talk about hands, to vent.
It's a good thing because it helps your mind to process what's going on - sometimes you can get tired because of what I call "bloated brain", the mental equivalent of eating too much food. You're not tired physically, but you've stuffed your brain with too much information and it weighs you down.
Talking about hands, getting things out of your head, "digesting", is good but you need a buffer of about five minutes - a window to relax, so at the beginning of the next level you can reconnect yourself to your goals for what to do in the tournament or the WSOP as a whole.
Ease your way in
You don't want to be too jacked up before an event. If it's your first time at the WSOP or you're really excited about playing the Main Event, you don't want to be expecting to be locked in and focused for the whole 10-12 hours. You should ease your way into the event and look at shifting between gears.
Jack Nicklaus said this really well: his focus went through waves, where it would peak when he was in a golf shot but fall off when he was not. That's the idea when you're a poker player - let's say 0 is totally unfocused and 5 if your peak. You want to range between 3 and 5 where you're not sitting there trying to pick up on every little nuance because that's a recipe for burning yourself out and you'll be more tired in the latter stages when you really need it.
Conversely, you shouldn't be so unfocused that you're reading books and completely distracted, but have a "loose focus" where you're picking up on things in a relaxed manner. I've walked around the Amazon room and I've seen players who I know won't go deep because they're reading books or are otherwise distracted at the table - even reading my book and I'm thinking "what the fuck are you doing?!"
Know your C-game
I think the most important thing for a new player to understand is what their weaknesses are? That means both tactically and mentally - are you going to show up and feel pressure? Will you be easily tilted by the pace of live poker?
Pressure exposes weakness. That's why we love sport at the highest level - it's because all the attention and the magnitude of the event places pressure on these sportsmen. Some of them rise to the occasion and play beyond their normal ability, while some completely break down. You're trying to be in the former category and that can only happen if you understand your weakness and are prepared to correct them with some work ahead of time.
Hopefully some of the players at that level won't be surprised by the pressure they'll experience. Some of the better players are often more insulated, more likely to think things are fine. If you don't know your weaknesses, even as one of the best players in the world, then there's a chance you'll be exposed and for it to severely incapacitate your ability to make good decisions and succeed.
10% off The Mental Game of Poker 2
Following the success of his first book, Jared released The Mental Game of Poker 2 last month, which he cowrote with PokerStrategy.com editor .
The first book was all about dealing with mental game issues like tilt and low motivation. This new title is all about improving learning, increasing focus, adding more tables and playing in the zone consistently.
If you would like a 10% discount off the softcover book you can order it for a 10% discount here using promo code PokerStrategy (It is also available in all ebook formats).
