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"The Poker Mindset" - by Ian Taylor + Matthew Hilger - absoloute must buy!!!!!

I wouldnt normally post something to help other players I didnt know, but im sick fed up of people crying like kids when they lose a pot.

BUY THIS BOOK AND SORT YOUR HEAD OUT!!!

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One of my favourite chapters in the book is the "4 stages of dealing with bad beats"

I wont quote everything it says (30 odd pages long) - a big eye opener and reality check. Read it maybee once every 2-3 days

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Stage 1 - Anger
A player at stage 1 sees only the monetary value of a pot that they loose.
When they loose a big hand, their initial reaction is to be angry, in the same way that someone who has had their wallet stolen would be angry. One reason for this is that they link the money that they are playing with to what they could buy with the money. If the player looses $50, they think about a meal at a restaraunt. (etc for higher examples of money)

This anger may be directed at a number of possible targets, depending what happened in the hand. The most common target is the opponent. This is especially true if the player believes they lost the pot as a result of a bad play by their opponent.

Players at stage 1 are putting themselves in a situation where their play is likely to suffer whenever they loose a pot. They will often start "steaming", they may also want to get even with the opponent who beat them, or continue playing to get back the money they just lost.

It is very difficult to be a succesfull player while at stage 1. You may be a very good technical player, but this will rarely compensate for the money you will loose when playing angry.

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Stage 2 - Frustration

Players at stage 2 have learned to remove the more destructive emotions from their reaction when they loose a big pot. Loosing big pots will still be painfull, but this pain manifests itself more as frustration than anger.
Players at this stage will be frustrated at the randomness of poker. They will often think about the "if onlys" of the hand:-
If only the river had been blank
If only my opponent had folded when they should of
If only I had bet more on the flop
If only I didnt make my draw when I was drawing dead

The problem for players at stage 2 is that they are still fixated on short-term results. This is not neccesarily an ignorance thing. Many players stuck at stage 2 realize that the results of individual hands are not important; its just that they havent really embraced the fact.
Remember the first attitude of the Poker Mindset? Frustrated players understand the realities of poker; they just havent accepted them yet. They have still not fully removed themselves from thinking about the money that was in the pot. Unlike players at stage 1, rather than associate the loss of the pot to the loss of material things, they tend to think of the loss in terms of the impact it will have on the session or on their bankroll.

Sometimes strong players get stuck at stage 2 because they keep looking at pots in terms of their win rate. For example, if their win rate is one big bet per hour and they loose a pot worth 10 big bets, they think, "Thats 10 hours of profit down the drain." They dont realize that their one-big-bet-per-hour win rate already takes into account the fact that they lose their fair share of big pots.

Undoubtedly you can be a succesfull player at stage 2, but your attitude will be hindering you. While you wont be as prone to steaming at players at stage 1, you may well make a number of bad plays through frustration and you will be prone to tilt, especially the loose or passive kind. This is especially true when losing several big pots in a short period of time. To fulfill your potential, you will need to embrace the idea of playing for the long term and allow yourself to move to stage 3.

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Stage 3 - Acceptance

Players at stage 3 understand and accept the realities of poker - the first part of the Poker Mindset. They understand that the game contains a lot of short-term luck, and as a result they are destined to lose big pots sometimes. If they are beaten by a poor player hitting a long-shot draw, they will tend not to react badly because they know that in the long run, they make money when their opponents chase unprofitable draws.

This is not to say stage 3 players are not sensitive to the results of pots. They will still be pleased when they win a big pot and be displeased when they lose one. They have just learned to put short-term results in perspective and concentrate on what is important.

Players in the acceptance stage are far less likely to tilt than players at stage 1 or 2. They realize that their opponents mistakes make them money even if they lose that individual hand. They might still be vunerable to minor bouts of tilt after taking a particularly vicious beating, but this will usually be sub-concious They will never intentionally alter their play as a result of even the toughest hand.

Stage 3 is a good attitude toward losing big pots. At this stage you will have every opportunity to be a very succesful player, and indeed this is the attitude that most successful players eventually learn to adopt.

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Stage 4 - Indifference (the Holy Grail)

It takes an extremely disciplined player with remarkable self-control to reach stage 4, and very few players will get there. A player at stage 4 will not register any mental anguish from losing a big pot. Rather than feeling anger, frustration, or even acceptance of the hand, they will be focused entirely on how their opponents played and what can be learned from the hand. Whether they won or lost the hand is an irrelevant detail.

Stage 4 players realize that the long term in poker is the only thing that matters. The result of one hand is irrelevant and not even worth thinking about. The only thing that matters in any one hand is whether they made the right decisions. If they did, then it was a good hand.

Players at stage 4 have the perfect attitude towards losing big pots. If they ever go on tilt, it will certainly not be because of short-term results. This gives them a huge advantage over players who are unable to adopt this attitude.

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To further illustrate the difference between the stages, lets look at a limit hand example from the point of view of a representative player whom we will call Rick.

Rick is dealt A diamonds K Hearts in middle position. He open raises, the player on the button re-raises, and the big blind calls, as does Rick.

The flop is A clubs K Diamonds 8 Spades. The Big Blind checks, as does rick. The button bets, the big blind calls, and Rick check raises. Both opponents call.

The Turn = 9 Clubs. The big blind checks, Rick bets, the button folds and the big blind calls.

The river is 6 clubs. The big blind now bets, Rick calls and his opponent shows 7 5 Diamonds for a backdoor straight.

How will Rick respond to this hand? It all depends at what stage he is at?

Stage 1
I cant believe it! What was he thinking about calling all those bets? He had nothing the entire hand and lucked out. What an idiot! This always happens to me, its so unfair! Im going to do my best to get back at him and win my chips back.

Stage 2
What a bad beat! Losing an eleven big bet pot to a suckout like that really hurts. How can you win at this game when players call down with garbage and then hit? I know in the long term he will lose all his money, but I really nneded that pot. That has put me in a real hole!

Stage 3
Ouch! Oh well, thats poker I suppose. If he keeps playing like that, I will take his money in the long term, so I just have to be patient. Ill make sure I remember that he is a calling station and will play accordingly. I wonder if there was any way of winning that pot had I played differently.

Stage 4
Okay, I now know that the guy on the big blind will call down with pretty much anything, so I will take that into account from now on. I wonder what the button had. Maybe he had JJ or TT. Its worth knowing that he will make a continuation bet in that situation. Maybe I should of bet out on the flop in the hope that the button would of raised? That might of driven the big blind out, although im not sure I want to drive him out if he is willing to pay off all those bets with such a weak draw.

As you can see, Rick has two advantages when he is at stage 3 or 4. First, he accepts the result of the hand and so is less likely to go on tilt, and second, he is using his time more productively to think about the things that really matter. These are two good reasons why every player should want to move beyond the lower stages to reach these levels of thinking.

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Not understand things yet?? Still going to cry like a baby and abuse total strangers at the tables????

Learn to read....

BigDBoreen · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:39 am Post subject:

Very good post. I have been trying to train myself to be in stage 3 and 4.

Even though last night I probably went through all 4 stages.

It was HU I had AK in the BB. Button raises about 3xBB I reraise about 5xBB more. He pushes all in. I think it is heads up and if he has AA or KK then oh well. I was a 3 to 1 chip lead and made the call.

He shows 10 3 and said he thought I was bullying and bluffing so he tried to rebluff me.

Flop A87 great flop he is drawing slim to dead now.
Turn 9 Uh oh he has outs now
River 6

I almost lost it completely. He ended up coming back to win the game when his AQ beat my QQ when it was all in preflop.

Those 2 hands I couldnt help but call him a bad player and ask why he would make that move with 10 3 and so on.

Then I gradually said to myself o well I played it perfectly he needed to get lucky to win. I think I ended up in stage 3 with acceptance but was still kind of pissed cuz I could have really used the 1st place money.

This was in a home game SNG style tourny btw.

Thanks for the post I will really try to stay in stages 3 and 4.

supfool123 · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:32 pm Post subject:

I believe you were at the FT with me last Sundays charity tournament. I think you were to my left and that you took second. Congrats on that tournament.

Anyway, that is a great post and I will definitely look into reading it. It sounds like it has some good information, that everyone can take from it. I would like to believe that I fall into the thrid category, but after my four week down fall before last Sunday, I'd say I float between two and three.

It's funny how I can relate with each of the stages and I have seend myself going from one to the next. Now the next key is saying in three and working on getting to four.

P.S. I have set up a private tournament for Sunday night. There is a link to that thread in my sig and I hope you can make it.

Thanks,
supfool123

mathman1115 · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject:

Nice post, and good work by the authors (I have always been a fan of Matthew Hilger).

Truthfully, for me, i don't ever think i went through stage one. I would imagine for most that stage one doesn't last very long, especially online with "virtual" money (yes it is real money, but you aren't physically holding it).

Stage two is the bugger. I know my stage 2 has improved greatly over time, but i am still there. I do have prospects of stage 3, as i do analyze my play often, think of how i could have done things differently, etc. But how to put step 2 completely behind and move on the step 3 permanently is a struggle just about every poker player will go through.

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