sorry if this has been asked but is there a PDF version of the book so i can read it on my blackberry tablet ?

Yes sir, sold by the good folks at Professional Poker

http://professionalpoker.com/IP.php?...&productID=490

I’ve been planning to give a review of this book for a long time but I haven’t got around to it until now. There are two reasons for this - I’m up the walls in college and also I haven’t finished it yet

I've decided to give a review on the chapters I have read because of how much they’ve helped my poker game and me as a person. I’ve read chapters 1-4 comprehensively. I’ve read them three or four times and when I get some free time this week I’m going to read them again. This is the main reason I haven’t finished the book yet.

I think the most important thing to understand about this book is that it really is a book for the mental game. It’s not just a book to deal with tilt. It deals with all aspects of your mental approach to poker. A quick read through the contents inside the front cover will signify this.

The main thing this book has showed me so far is how I’ve been approaching the learning side of the game completely wrong. In Ireland we have a saying, ‘He’s a working fool’. It’s a phrase to describe someone who is all work and bluster but never seems to get anything done. Well I felt like a working fool after reading chapter two.

I am someone who has no issue working on my game. I read books, I watch Cardrunners videos and I post on twoplustwo as much as I can. I’ve always made a point of trying to improve - I suspect my personality traits are fairly common among twoplustwo users.

The thing about my learning strategy was I was always trying to learn new things – every day. I’d load up a set of sngs with so much new info clogging my mind that I wouldn’t know what to do. I always assumed the day would come when old information would make sense and new information would stick automatically; I just needed to persevere. After a year and a half of this I still hadn’t realised how wrong my strategy was.

Chapter two, Foundation, has completely changed my approach to the game. I can honestly say there is something in nearly every line of that chapter that hits home for me. After reading certain parts of it I felt like slapping my head off a door for being so stupid in my approach to poker.

Taking his advice for warming up as one aspect to discuss -I always knew I needed to warm up to play, the problem was I always did it during the first hour of play. I would be aware I was making some basic errors but knew my play would improve after the first hour – my brain was essentially taking time to adjust to the game. It never dawned on me to prepare for this first hour before I played and ensure I wasn’t making basic errors or repeat mistakes.

Chapter two gave me the resources to learn and have an uncluttered mind but chapters three and four (Emotion, Strategy) are the chapters that dominate my thinking in-game. When I play now I have a really close eye on my mental state and I am alert instantly when I feel it slipping. These chapters exposed flaws in my mental game I never knew existed. If I’m honest I thought I only had some minor mental game issues to begin with but these chapters have exposed some huge weaknesses.

The biggest of these is how wound up I get during play, particularly towards the end of a set. Again this was a weakness I was always aware of but had come to accept. I thought it was just a facet of my personality that couldn’t be changed. I would say it was the biggest hindrance to my development as a player. I would get wound up in a game, make mistakes and afterwards this would lead to a sort of mini-depression I would tell myself this is part of my personality I have to live with, but always knew that it was holding me back hugely.

Working with these chapters I now realise there is always a trigger point for this mind-set. I have to be mindful when that trigger goes off – not get pissed because I realise I’ve been wound up for the past twenty minutes.
The awareness of my mental game in poker is now transferring into my everyday life and I am extremely grateful for that. It’s helping me in my approach to social situations (which I suck at) learning in college and countless other situations.

So that's what The Mental Game of Poker has done for me.

I also must commend Jared and Barry for their willingness to engage with readers on Twitter. I’m fairly sure neither of them has yet failed to answer a question thrown at them.

Thanks for the good work guys and hopefully this is the first of many mental game books.

Nice review - and the quoted section is exactly why the 'inchworm'-section was such an eye opener for me.

I've spent such a long time, both in poker and in other things, learning stuff and not understanding how I could know so much about a subject and still not really improve in it.

Not really thinking about it, my gut feeling was always that as long as the more advanced concepts were understood, the basic stuff would follow automatically.

It's one of those things that are embarrassingly obvious once it's spelled out for you, but can be quite difficult to get a grasp on when you're in the middle of things.

Thanks for the great review Mr. Rustler. It's really encouraging to know the concepts are really hitting home, making sense, and having a positive impact. Very cool to see that you've spent so much time on the foundational parts of the book - Chapters 1-4. Not only has it shown improvements in your game already, but when you start working through the remainder of the book, your ability to tackle subsequent issues is infinitely stronger. Sometimes people have a hard time seeing the value investing extra time has, it's great to see that you do!

Your prior way of thinking is so common, and on some level it does make perfect sense: Understand advanced concepts automatically means that you understand the basic ones. As you've now realized, your ability to understand advanced concepts is impacted by the degree to which you've mastered the basic ones.

Great to see how much realizing this has helped turn your attention to the right place.

A couple weeks ago I offered a free session to someone who had read or started reading the book, and were struggling to understand or apply the book to their game. After some great questions, I selected MJM as the winner because I thought his issues would be most useful to a wide range of people.

That turned out to be true. We completed the session today, and here it is:

Part 1
Part 2
Download an MP3 copy of both parts

As often is the case, players think their issue is one thing, only to learn that the surface problem is being caused by flaws they didn’t see, or realize were connected. In Matt’s case, he wanted to improve his focus, having recently realized that too often he’s browsing forums, on skype, etc., and not as focus, nor as motivated as he really needs to be. What Matt didn’t realize, was the impact his lack of confidence had on his ability to focus, nor did he realize that his lack of confidence was being caused by fear.

The mental game can be complex and for some of you sessions like these are necessary for you to take a real step further and solve your mental game problems. If it does, I’ll do more of them. So, let me know what you think.

Would like to say a big thank you to Jared for the session today.

There was a big wow factor for me as we were talking as I began to realize that issues that I was somewhat aware of were the major factors in other issues I was facing at the tables, when I had previously been unable to see/make the connection.

Really looking forward to implementing the strategy we outlined and making the steps to improving my mental game and then in turn my overall poker game.

I hope others find the session useful and I'll be sure to keep you updated on my progress.

Hey Jared I just received a copy of your book today, can't wait to start reading it. But before I even open it, I wanted to know if you could tell me what the best way to approach it would be? Ex. read one chapter at a time? Skip some sections at first? etc.

Thanks.

That's great. Check out the section: How to read this book. It gives 10 tips on how to get the most of the book, on pages 11-13. Take a look, see what you think, and if you have additional questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Enjoy!

On chapter 6 u talk about using your fear as fuel to perform.
What if u feel absolutlly no fear (like brain dead, or like u absolutlly dont care), how can u deal with this?

That happens to me a lot when i start doing something new, like a sport or a game or w/e,
its like i shift completely my focus from poker to this new thing im doing, and i start to lack the abillity to feel something when playing poker.

The times that im afraid of losing, or feel presure to perform well, im playing much better because i care.

I strive for (and i think i somewhat have) a pretty balanced life, because i dont want to play poker 14hours a day, although that would make me a much better player because my focus is on poker and i'd 'feel emotions' while im playing.
And it seems like i'm always happy with my life (idk if this is me avoiding to deal with troubles) because i shift my attention to this something new im doing.
For example i started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) a few months ago, and while poker has been going terribly wrong for a while, im pretty happy with my life, my focus is on learning BJJ.
And im already plans in my head for using poker money to move to a country for some time, learn MMA and BJJ seriously, to become an incredible MMA athlete and compete at a super high level. (yh, lol...)
And im like this everytime i start something new.

Sry im not very good at writing and explaning my thought process

It's like mental viagra - helps you play longer and stronger. I've started reading and am at page 134. I've noticed some sort of improvement. I've recognized tilt a bit more.

I think I get what you're saying - but if my assumptions are off, correct me.

When you're brain dead because you don't care, it's because you lack motivation or lack the energy to think. If you look at the performance/stress curve on page 47 - it means your on the low left side of the curve. Using fear to fuel you to perform, means your working hard to keep the intense emotion at the top of the curve, without letting it spill over to the right and bring down your performance. You have the opposite problem, too little emotion. In this case motivation.

But it's not like you don't have the energy, it just gets shifted towards something new. I realize, you may have been joking with some of the things that you said, but as Barry Carter mentions in his client story on page 106, I take these jokes seriously. What I gathered from yours, is that a part of you may fantasize or dream of doing great things in this new things. Perhaps you had the same sort of visions when you first came to poker. But, over time you realized those goals are either unrealistic, or at a minimum, much harder to accomplish than you imagined. Either way, this new thing has seemingly unlimited potential, and so all of your motivation shifts to it, as you look for a way to fulfill these massive goals/dreams.

What do you think? If I'm on target, I can add more, if not, post some follow-up info and I'll work with you from there.

Lol, first time I've heard the book called mental viagra.

Great to hear you're seeing some improvement. Keep working at it, your in the early stages. The end goal is to get you to the point where you don't need to take the mental blue pill anymore, and you'll be able to be strong without it.

Book Excerpt: Inchworm

This section is fast becoming one of the most popular, despite its odd name. For anyone on the fence about buying the book, check out this section, it's one of many that show how unique and important the book can be for your game. It's been mentioned a few times in this thread, most recently Minus EV, and Lex Veldhuis mentioned it when he talked about coaching Negreanu in this interview.

Here's a link where you can view/download this 9 page section of the book.

Enjoy!

bold parts are very true, and fwiw even re-read what i said and i wasnt joking.

the only thing that Im not so sure is where u say that overtime i realize that its much harder to accomplish than i imagined and it unmotivates me.
When Im starting this something new its like i welcome the challenge, Im very down to earth about my skill at the moment in general compared to the competition but im also very cocky in the sense that i think my potential is limitless (in every way, and i rlly mean it ).

Thinking back to the old dreams, i still think i could do them, the same as i did before.
For instance comparing the new 'dream' to the old new dream, if u offer me the old new dream and i dont mean the challenge i mean the end result like after sucess, its like i dont even care about it anymore and would snap prefer the new dream. (idk if this was clear)

Not sure if it correlates to this but i always were like this in every way, i make a plan to start a blog, or a club, or make plans to help teaching chess, and like u said, i see an huge potential and kind of dream about how things will be after sucess, while at the time it seemed super important some time passes by and i dont even care about it anymore. So when i was a kid i'd usually say i couldnt do 2 things at once seriously, cause i was either interested in one or the other.

The only thing that makes me think unsure, its because thinking back this new thing was always found when i was desmotivated from the old new thing.
For example in the case of poker when i got in to it, i'd watch high stakes poker on tv, and i'd be sure i'd get there one day and i'd love it.
After some time i kind of gave up that idea, and was fine for a while with the idea of having a balanced lifestyle ($ from poker, gym, martial arts, live near the beach, going out at night etc..).
During this time i had the best results i ever did and put volume (going trought downswings) like i never did, and kind of felt nothing could stop me (which i tho was a way of providing my balanced lifestyle comming real, and it didnt spark back old dreams or anything like that, i felt no longer the need to become the best high stakes reg or anything like that).
Things kind of felt apart once several bad things started happening at once (black friday, come to stars, downswings, back to ftp and ftp closes leaving my bk there, back to stars, massive downswings, etc)

Last week i got injuried, so had to stay at home and got me thinking about poker, i started playing again (emmotionally attached) with my new plans.
Came back to bjj yesterday, wasnt nearly as motivated as i was, didnt care at all about being a super athlete or anything like that, but im pretty sure after a competition or 2 i will again.
Im just worried about my motivation being shifted so easially.

Cliffs: Im mental