Quote:
Originally Posted by Andres_A
reading it 2nd time already atm. Last time i read it like 2 years ago, so thought it would be good idea to read it to get some confidence. Would be nice to hear more thought about this angelo`s book compared to The Poker Mindset
I read them both in 2007. Dont remember that much, but
Poker Mindset is more systematic and cold, Angelo is more like a friend who talks to you and acts like he should be your ideal. Its a lot of moral in it. Poker Mindset is covering a lot of things around being professional but Angelos book has some non-relevant chapters like live poker etc.
Both is good, but I think they miss some cognitive/behavioral perspectives on the subject.
Actively working on preventing tilt/B-game by imagining eventual likely and known dangerous mindsets, and mentally preparing in different spots BEFORE every session is something I think is very important. Everybody need to develop their own routine because we react to stress in different ways.
If you (theoretically) can choose to play your A-game, why trying to strengthen the B-game? I would much rather work on avoiding my B-game because if I sometimes get close to done with that process, the work on my B-game is worthless. Playing when on B-game will increase variance, thus risk of tilt and then the risk of not playing your A-game next time.
I think important concepts to be aware of is:
-What do you get inspired of in poker?
-How do you feel and think when you know when you are on your B-game?
-How do you act and think before you start getting close to B- or C-game?
-How will you reason when you know you need to quit but you cant? How can you effectively dodge that reasoning?
Im sure thoughts that make you feel poker is too hard or too easy is one of the deepest causes of not playing B-game. I've been studying psychology and I've studied myselves for years and it took me a while to understand that there is thought processes and feelings that lie deep inside that is forgotten when I look back and try to understand what happened in a session where I tilted.
I think the problem with litterature about tilt and mindset is that they just scratch the surface of the psychological mechanisms of the average player instead of telling you something that is perfectly suited for you. Its much better to use time on writing a diary than reading those books imo. Or even better; talk to a friend regulary (that doesnt act like he knows you better than yourselves - because if so, he's like the other books).
Even though, I think humans have an extreme need to feel they have control of everything. There will be no harmony in your soul before everything is either black or white and when you are tired, stressed etc you will start the process of making your game too tight or too loose (or merged/polarized etc) in a lot of spots because you lack the neccessary mental energy to threat every spot in poker as they were unique. And even you feel you already do this, you might not be doing it enough because you feel its too much to handle.
I think its interesting to try to help people with their mindset because I think I learn more about myselves when doing it. (PM me)