One surprisingly frequent question I get asked as a coach usually comes from younger poker players. These players are generally at an age when they’re less confident and secure in their own life choices, and more preoccupied with what others might think of them. The question at hand is fairly simple – “how do I… Continue reading How to Talk Poker With Your Non-Poker Playing Friends

As 2016 becomes 2017, we reach the time of year when everyone starts manically trying to plan the next 12 months of their future in the space of a few days. While many poker players are ahead of the curve in understanding where they want to go in life, it’s easy to go through a… Continue reading New Year, New You: Considering your Future in Poker

You Never Know if You’re Right or Wrong If you spend a lot of time discussing poker, you’ve almost certainly had a discussion with someone about a situation where they encountered a simple ‘call or fold’ decision. Very often, these discussions will come up purely because the player made the decision to call and ended… Continue reading Poker Decisions Never as Simple as Right or Wrong

“A minute to learn, a lifetime to master” – that’s the old cliché about poker (along with a variety of other games, but we’ll forget about them), and it’s a well-founded statement to a degree. Of course the game is easy to pick up and learn, and of course, it takes time and effort to… Continue reading The Three Domains of Poker Learning

When starting out in poker, one of the biggest obstacles for many players is a lack of confidence in their own game. Every decision is laced with uncertainty, and even a short run of bad results can lead to a complete dissolution of a player’s faith in their own abilities. The reason for this is… Continue reading The Connection Between Game Selection and Confidence

One of the most common questions I get asked early on in the coaching process is about putting together a structured, well-thought-out playing schedule for poker. Recreational players and aspiring professionals alike all have to deal with the reality that poker often has to take a back seat to ‘real-life’ issues – family, work, and… Continue reading Mastering Your Schedule for More Profit

There are many qualities possessed to varying degrees by poker players all over the world – some are positive and some are negative, as with all things. One consistently intriguing and perhaps confusing reality, however, is that there is often some ambiguity as to which exact qualities belong in each category. An aptitude for simplicity… Continue reading When it Comes to Poker, Simplicity is More Important than You Think

Making Economical Learning Decisions One of the most difficult aspects of attempting to make the leap from losing poker player to long-term winner is knowing what to learn, and when. Without a coach to guide you, it can be easy to get lost and develop a learning pattern that is somewhat scattered or haphazard. But… Continue reading Structure the Way You Learn About Poker For Maximum Return

As a coach, I’ve had several experiences where students have discussed their recent playing sessions or hand histories with me and said something along the lines of, “I really felt like I was playing well at this point in the tournament”. What’s interesting about this statement is that it is actually entirely self-contradictory, for reasons… Continue reading If You Think You’re Playing Your A-game, You’re Wrong

Focus: The Key to Better Decisions Novice poker players tend to spend a lot of time analyzing their results and trying to figure out the best way to generate a better win rate or a better ROI. This is partially because results are where the money comes from, and our society is inherently money-oriented, but… Continue reading Focusing on the Poker is the Easiest Way to Get In ‘The Zone’

Establishing A Deliberate Poker Practice A frequent area of concern for most poker beginners is how to manage the process of learning the game. After all, poker is a unique pursuit that requires a learning process very different to almost any other discipline. It’s very hard to construct a focused, structured learning program because every… Continue reading How You Practice Dictates How You Will Perform at the Poker Table

As poker players, we’re frequently encouraged to believe that regular everyday human emotions are the enemy, and that they’re something we should strive to eliminate in order to play better poker. While this is grounded in some logic to the extent that it is true that our brains are better at logical calculation when they… Continue reading Why You Can Use Your Emotions to Guide You…Sometimes

If you’ve ever argued about anything on the Internet, you’ve probably encountered pretty much every kind of flawed logic and fallacy imaginable. You’re probably deeply versed in cognitive dissonance even if you’re not the type to post online about politics or your favourite movies, since most of us are victims of this thought pattern at… Continue reading The Dangers of Cognitive Dissonance in Poker

In any competitive field, be it poker, sports, athletics, business, or whatever else you might be involved in, the ability to perform regularly at a high level is a fundamental building block of success. After all, if you have all the tools but don’t put them into practice, you’re rarely going to be able to… Continue reading The Difference Between Knowledge and Performance

If you spend a lot of time discussing hands on poker forums, with friends and fellow players, or with a poker coach (or, like me, with poker students), there’s a certain type of thought process with which I guarantee you’ve come into contact. It goes a little bit like this: “Well, I could have called… Continue reading Why Successful Poker Players Shouldn’t Fear Variance