Revered nosebleed cash gamer, WSOP bracelet winner and founder of the Bluefire poker training site Phil Galfond recently posted a blog about the endless struggle to master is emotions. He talks about the effect of heavy losing sessions, of the self-deception to which we humans are prone - and of always losing against certain opponents and on certain sites. He ponders how these things affect your state of mind and play.
Although he covers some familiar ground, Galfond's blog does what few poker blogs do - talks in plain English about issues we've failed to explore fully ourselves and leave us with questions of our own. The best lines (of his latest blog) for me, are his parting thought...
"Self-Awareness and objectivity are your best weapon against all the stupid emotions that come with being human. One other way to keep a clearer head is to remember that poker is a game, and/or your job. But not more than that. Make sure to have other things going on in your life so that you don't place all of your self worth on poker and your results."
Time for some meta-thought
Here's something to try. Spend ten minutes on the way to work (or when you rise at 5pm from your poker-related slumber) reading the blog. Your thoughts, once you're done with the talented young pro's words, are the only important result.
Maybe you'll say 'Yea, I'm aware of the pitfalls, and I know I'm ready to go pro' or 'I'm good, but I can only fulfill my potential if it's a hobby' or perhaps you'll reach some other conclusion. Whatever the outcome, finding your motivation for playing, then assessing the required level of emotional investment, might be the best poker thinking you ever do.
Debating narrow points of poker order is fine, and fine tuning your technique has it's place. But professional sportsmen spend a surprising amount of time away from the practice ground and the treadmill. Servicing your mental side is, for me, the most influential and far-reaching of the many routes to progress. Just look at snooker players, golfers, boxers or premiership strikers, whose fortunes often rise and fall in line with their level of confidence. Surely then, there is more room for improvement in getting your mental house in order, than by plugging minor leaks in your 6-max cash game, or solving ICM conundrums?
I should point out that despite absorbing as much wisdom as possible over the years, my own mental poker battle continues. As does everyone's it seems, except for Hac Dang (see Galfond's blog).
Galfond the wise
Here's where I bring us back to Galfond. Mooted as possibly the 'smartest' poker player on Earth (or certainly the one who articulates his thoughts best), he does at the very least write in a way which prompts you to ask your own questions. For those in search of a crash course in technical improvement, one look at his videos shows he does that well too.
Whatever your level, there must be questions you find yourself asking alone at 3am by the laptop, your partner snoring but ten feet away (ED. I think that's a puncture!) - a desire to do better than you did last month, or a need to get over the latest hump. Galfond may not feed you the answers, but pass an eye over his writing and you might just be nudged into figuring it out on your own...
Read Phil Galfond's latest article in Raise Your Game.