I ran into this article recently, and thought it was really good.
mental strength is important in many aspects of life, and i'll admit that its not been my strong suit.
I've had lots of room for working on improvement.
It's not all its cracked up to be though, in a way;
a lot of big losers are mentally as tough as hell;
and big winners can be bad losers, and go through a ton of unnecessary pain. it's a sick game.
It's another one of dozens of qualities a player needs to have to some degree, and maybe even one of the most important.
still, its not nearly as important as:
1] knowing how to play the game
2] memory
3] observational skills
IMO.
but even regardless of it's application to poker, increasing your mental toughness can only be a positive.
I've found that my experience w/ poker has made me tougher in other areas of my life, and in my overall outlook.
Running into a daily snafu isn't such a big deal anymore compared to losing a months expenses in one pot to someone with 5 martinis in them who doesn't even know what they have or whose all-in bet they called.
A look at the human brain itself in a way shows us a picture of the 3 types DaYu manifested with his mind.
1] systematic robot: R-complex; the reptile brain, handles bodily functions, fight or flight
2] weak-minded guru: limbic system; the mammalian brain; emotional 'intelligence'
3] intelligent mind; the neo-cortex; reason, logic, and higher functions
also if your mind is capable of recognizing patterns in nature and correlating them to different concepts try this on:
1] robot: left brain imbalanced- cannot reason for oneself...responds strongly to emotions like fear... likes things set in stone.
2] guru: right brained imbalanced- overly analytical and yet incapable of applying it to the context, or of having understanding integrated with the real-life situation at hand.
3] intelligent: both hemispheres balanced- innovative, insightful, creative, dynamic.
