Playing Texas Hold'em Online, The Professional Guide - Chapter 13

How To Think Like A Winning Poker Player

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. So, let's give some thought and examination to how we as card players process information and respond to decision‐making pressures. These are important areas to consider as we work to improve our poker success – and be more successful in life generally.

There is a science around the study of body language and human communication called Neuro‐Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP is both an interesting and valuable area of study to understand. What NLP has shown is that if we can 'mirror' another person who has achieved success in a certain area, we can dramatically speed up our ability to learn the same skills. In a nutshell, if we act exactly like a successful poker player, move, sit, walk, talk, learn to adopt the same thinking styles –we can leap ahead in learning. A pro may have spent 20 years learning the secrets of the game but by mirroring their behavior and thought, we can learn to 'become' a pro in a much shorter period of time.

Now you're probably pretty skeptical of this whole approach and I don't blame you. You've been taught in school that you need to study for years and slowly work your way towards expertise to gain what we would call 'expert knowledge'. But if you saw the examples of this process at work, as I have over the years, you would have a whole new understanding of how to propel your abilities to an amazing new level in a matter of days.

For the sake of this chapter, I am going to keep this simple. There are dozens of books written on NLP and we are not going to be able to cover all of that ground here. Let's just take a quick look at how great poker players think and try to understand how to be more like them.

Pros step into the poker game with confidence. They have such a wealth of playing experience that they can make tough betting decisions in a very timely manner. That means that they give the odds proper consideration, keep appraised of the other players, and make their play. This is the persona you need to adopt when you play.

To be a shark you need to act the part.

Sit up straight like a professional. Clean the area around your computer desk and stay organized. Prepare. Have any note taking material handy. Plan your game play on a tight schedule. Start at a precise time; review the casinos and tables for a pre‐determined period of time before you play. Be observant. Start play when you are certain you have the right table in your sites. Watch the other players carefully and make notes. Never be sloppy about your playing time.

Remember, you are a shark, play at the pace of a shark. You scull through the water, your eyes alert. You make thoughtful and purposeful moves. You appraise your environment. Occasionally, when the time is right and your prey is unprepared, you strike aggressively and purposefully. You raise and re‐raise. You push out weaker players. You gain respect from all of those around you. Your opponents know only one thing about you that you have a significant stack in front of you and you seem to know everyone's cards before they are shown.

You are never rattled even by a string of bad beats. They mean nothing in the big picture to you. You play to win over the long haul. Small bad breaks have no consequence for you. If you become tired or you're just not happy with the table, you leave. And then after exactly one hour, you finish playing regardless of your status and take a break. You then carefully polish your notes regarding how you played and what you have learned, and record your wins and losses. That's one of your secret weapons.

You must keep detailed financial records. A business cannot be successful without detailed financials and neither can you. You must know exactly how much you have won or lost every time you play. Be precise. If you won $102.50, then make that your answer if anyone asks. Or maybe you lost $45.75. Get in the habit of being exacting. That's the key to tight play.

I started playing weekly Poker games with a group of friends about 10 years ago. I always enjoyed poker but never had the opportunity to play more than a few times a year. I enjoyed the group we played with the food was good and it was great entertainment for the price. When I lost, I always justified the money as part of the entertainment cost.

I was a typical weekend poker player. I had a few drinks, never really studied the rules in too much detail – and was never too worried about the losses. What was $50 or $100 among friends? Of course, I never knew exactly how well I did although I had a sense that I was losing more than most of the other players. I wrote this off to the superior playing ability of a few of the other guys.

Then I read an article one day about gamblers. The study showed that weekend players always remembered and talked about their winnings but rarely focused or discussed when they lost.

I always had a sense that was true. But why?

It's called selective reasoning. Your brain is focusing on a few positive experiences, which reinforces continued playing. And blanks out on the negatives. Not a very reasonable approach to real learning.

That's why they say that 'people who keep track, stay on the track'.

People who track their expenses in detail typically spend less money and save more.

People who track their winnings and losses on the stock market in detail on a daily basis make more intelligent decisions and end their trading days and months with bigger wins.

People who track calories and fat while on a diet lose more weight. The more detailed the tracking, the greater the success of the diet.

How successful do you want to be at cards? If you want to make money then start tracking your efforts, your wins, your losses.

Pros know exactly how much they won at a given table – and they know exactly how much they lost.

A sign of a pro? How much did you win on Wednesday night, you ask? $128. Not over a hundred. Or about a hundred. They know to the penny. Same if they lose. They will tell you they were up $545 but finished up the night down $62.

You need to sound like a Pro to be a pro.

What does a Pro look like, sound like, talk like, play like?

A Pro plays the game with intention. They focus. They don't play Poker online while watching TV or eating or having a conversation.

A Pro talks about the game with clarity. Knows exactly what you won or lost – or says nothing at all. Lack of clarity is a very bad habit for success in anything. Sloppy language means a sloppy approach. It's not cool to be sloppy about technique or practice in any field of endeavor.

A Pro takes notes during play and spends time following the game to evaluate mistakes, to understand the game better, the review what they have learned. Take clear and concise and useable notes.

A Pro studies the game, knows all the odds and the rules. They practice using Poker software simulations. They play the game with intention. And the review their play following the game by keeping detailed notes on wins, losses, and the things they've learned.

What's the secret to being a great golfer? Study, practice, play, evaluate.

What's the secret to being a great musician? Study, practice, and play. Evaluate.

What's the secret to being a successful day trader? Study, practice, play the market, evaluate.

See a pattern here?

Why does this process work?

I met a Sales person years ago that was one of the best in the business. I spent the day with her to see how she worked.

First, she spent half an hour preparing to meet the customer. Most sales people – no, all the sale people I had ever known just grabbed their sales kit and charged in. Then she practiced her presentation on one of her staff. Most people thought she was a little unbalanced. Practice your presentation before hand?

Then she went in and met with the customer.

Finally, when we got back in the car, instead of driving off to lunch, she thought about the meeting and made notes regarding what she could have done better.

She was coaching herself. Think about it. She was doing what you would hire a coach to do.

Why do most people need executive coaches, mentors, managers and trainers? Because it increases their productivity. It's a proven technique. We have hundreds of years of data on this subject.

So, Coach Yourself.

If you want to do something well, then be your own coach.

Do you see the value of this kind of thinking? It puts you in 'the zone'. Poker is a game of mental toughness. There are a hundred factors that can come into play to rattle you, make you mad, take away your confidence, push you to tilt. Pros don't tilt. They are above the concerns of each hand. Focusing on how you want to play the game for a few minutes before each game can help to improve your game significantly. Athletes use this process every day to visualize their event, their performance and the end result. They are not 'wishing' their way to a great performance; they are simply preparing their body and their mind to perform at peak efficiency in exactly the way they have seen the best results.

Before a game close your eyes for a few minutes and relax. Breathe deeply and slowly three times. Visualize your stack and the table. See yourself acting calmly, intentionally. See the cards in front of you. See yourself dealt a nut hand. Stay calm. Breathe deep again. Play at the same pace you would if the cards were garbage. Keep an even pace of play.

A great example of the opposite of positive visualization is the kind of thinking we often see in players at bricks and mortar gambling casinos. I spoke to one manager in a casino who said most players said the same thing about their plans for playing.

"I brought $100 to lose, and that's when I'll quit." He said he rarely heard, "I've brought $100 dollars and I'm going to win."

You are casino fodder before you ever get started with that losing approach. If you surrender to the card gods even before you start to play, you're playing style will be affected and you will have the outcome you prepared your brain for. To lose.

Prepare yourself to win. Visualize your success at the table. This means more than just winning because sometimes the cards won't co‐operate. That's not important though because you are seeing the big picture. You're improving every day. Your game is getting better by the hour and you are winning more often. You are definitely feeling more confident at the table as well.

And you thought playing online Texas Hold'em poker was fun before? To quote Al Jolsen ‐ You ain't seen nothing yet.

A.J. Mills 2005

"Best of luck at the virtual poker tables."