Just ordered your book.

I've been on a massive downswing and had one of those, "I want to take my ball home and not play any more" moments.

I heard your podcast on Cash Plays and then read all of your post on the 2p2 here. Two things really resonated with me, 1. being not content because of having giant goals and not reaching them in the short term, and 2. setting goals and making clear short term goals and plans...

These two things kind of identified what I was going through and why I was going through them, along with a glimpse into some remedies. I am going to take a break, give my brain a rest, and I look forward to your book.

No, I have history of overworking myself. Yeah, I decided to take some more days off. I kept reading your book and the stuff that lack of motivation may be the urge to avoid some tilt problems made sense, bacause I've been struggling a bit.

Later I fired a couple of tables at 1/10 my normal limit and watched a movie during playing, something I never do, as a short term band-aid, to start associating poker with something good again and after a couple of days with the knowledge of the book, I'm playing my normal stakes better than ever. I just don't care about variance anymore and I'm even aware all the time about possible down sides like being overconfident.

I don't want to write an essey here, so putting it short, poker was never more enjoyable than now.

I've read the first 3 chapters and I have some questions/criticisms.

Genuine Criticism:

When you discuss how emotion has 2 causes: Conscious Competence and "the mind", this sounds nonsensical to me. Is the Conscious Competence not part of the mind? How are you defining "the mind"?

Your section on emotion and brain function has no citations at all. Given you're talking about something very complex/technical it lacks credibility.


Me being a nit:

You seem to explain things in a long-winded way/you talk in circles a lot. I think the first 3 chapters could be condensed into 10 pages without losing any content.

I think I spotted a couple of typos - preform; and too instead of to.


Nevertheless I am enjoying the book and I'm glad I bought it.

bought it thursday via Amazon , was shipped Friday.

Now waiting for it to arrive in germany, will give my review then.

Giant goals are hard to achieve, and if you have expectations to reach them quickly, that puts even more pressure on you. Good idea to take a breather, and hopefully the book can give you some solid ideas/direction on what your next steps should be. Definitely check out chapters 2 and 7.

If you have questions feel free to post them.

Awesome. Really happy to hear you're in a good spot now and that the book played a part in that. One thing to keep in mind as you move forward are your tendencies towards burn-out. Think back to what's lead to problems in the past, create a description/profile of it, so in the future you'll be better able to recognize when it's happening. And if there are times where you have to overwork yourself - you'll be more aware that you are, and better able to know just how much you can push and how much of a break you need.

First off, I appreciate your honest feedback. Not everyone does that, so I'm glad when I get some.

You have the terms slightly confused - the two places where emotion are created is Unconscious Competence and the mind. Does that clear it up? Basically, there are unconscious flaws that create emotion, and then you can be aware of emotion (anger) and that creates more of that emotion.

Regarding citation are you talking about the section titled "Malfunctioning Mind"? If so, I agree, there could have been a citation there regarding the division of the brain and the "fight/flight mechanism". Honestly, this material is so standard within the psych and neuropsych community that I didn't even think about citing it. If you'd like me to dig some up I can.

Regarding talking in circles - the material can be complex, as you said, and these sections are so important that I wanted to make sure the points were driven home clearly. If that ended up with me sounding redundant, it's in part because you got it very quickly. That's not standard for everyone. I'll be interested in your thoughts about the rest of the book.

Thanks for spotting the typos - others have found them and one more - definitely will be fixed in the second printing.

Glad you're enjoying the book! Thanks again for ur thoughts.

We get them out quick! Look forward to your thoughts.

lol I have been looking to find an answer to this problem for a while and I randomly click here (didn't know this thread existed until I saw it 2 secs ago), thank you and will post more once I get back playing

oyeah love your stuff/approach/method, def makes total sense

@ Jared

When you are talking about taking those 5 days per month off. Do you mean completely and do nothing poker related at all or is it mostly aimed at not playing? Cause sure while the mental stress of playing can have its impact I dont see a problem with doing some work on your game and going over some HHs and stuff like that. Or is it more like a thing where you want to give your brain a total break from poker every once in a while.

Nice bit of good variance. Thanks! Cool to hear. Making sense is my goal. Sounds funny to say, because it should be standard, but in my profession it's not always like that.

Ideally yes, completely off. No poker, no studying, and not as much time with electronic stuff if you mainly play online. Sure, you can go for stretches of time where you're grinding hard and don't give your brain a break. But, over the long-term it's good to be in rhythm where you're getting consistent time away from poker.

One reason that a lot of players don't take off, is because when they come back to play, they aren't as sharp. Instead, they become dependent on the momentum of playing a lot in order to stay sharp. Except, there's eventually diminished returns for the quality of play, and they quality of improvement the longer they go without rest.

Instead, taking days off gives you the ability to regularly rest, and test your game. By test, I mean, that if you come back and aren't sharp, it gives you great insight into aspects of your game that need more work than others. Then, once you know them, you can prepare yourself to correct these common mistakes the first day back, and avoid any reduction in the quality of your game.

sorry if this has already been answered, but is there an eta on the kindle version?

There isn't an eta yet. I've been super busy and have not had a chance to work on it, but I'm back from Vegas , and am working on it now. As soon as I know, I'll give an update. Hopefully not too much longer.

Printing Error Special: $29.95.

I have 68 books that have some marks, scuffs, and other small printing errors on the cover. The book otherwise is in perfect condition, but I can't in good conscience sell them as brand new with the cover less than perfect.

You can buy it on Amazon.com, or I can accept paypal, credit card through paypal, or moneybookers (PM for details).