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I know this topic that is common and I am not the first to bring this up.

But how did you improve your mental game?

I mean, I tend to spew and take some very illogical decisions, not because I don't know the correct play, but because sometimes my emotions lead me to take another choice. This is where I start to "try" something new (read spewing money) and then feel pretty bad about it / tilt.

In the end, I feel my mental game is my biggest leak and this keeps me from moving to higher stakes.

Some friends really recommanded me "The poker mindset" and I will definitely read it.

Somebody suggested me to buy "Tilt breaker" and got a good recommandation about it.I will definitely give the 15 days trial a shot!

I already listen the series Tommy Angelo made in the past.

Anyway, any of you overcame / reduced / improved significantly his spewing and tilting tendencies / issues?

Would like to ear your toughts and positive experiences!

The short answer, for me, fix every single one of your "real life leaks".

The short answer, for me, fix every single one of your "real life leaks".

Sorry for the derail, but do you happen to be Pontus?

Sorry for the derail, but do you happen to be Pontus?

Lol yes

I think for me just getting volume in and gaining more experience. Really brings home variance.

So for me its all about improving bit by bit, dont think there is a quick fix.

I agree with making sure other things in life are going well like socially, physically and mentally etc. So that doesn't affect your game.

Jared Tendler's Mental Game of Poker book was a massive eye opener for me. Although I am still a little bit overwhelmed by how much my mental game needs work as a result of reading it.

Anyone had any experiences with this poker hypnotist chap? http://www.poker-hypnosis.co.uk/ Could be helpful but I am naturally sceptical about this sort of thing.

Jared Tendler's Mental Game of Poker book was a massive eye opener for me. Although I am still a little bit overwhelmed by how much my mental game needs work as a result of reading it.

Anyone had any experiences with this poker hypnotist chap? http://www.poker-hypnosis.co.uk/ Could be helpful but I am naturally sceptical about this sort of thing.

And did you see big improvements? Like do you tilt less often? Spew less? Better overall results at the table?

Jared Tendler's Mental Game of Poker book was a massive eye opener for me.

I totally felt the same after reading this book. It pointed out so many things that I was doing wrong and has transformed how I think about playing. It helped me focus my mental energies on working on my game instead of focusing on things I can't control.

And did you see big improvements? Like do you tilt less often? Spew less? Better overall results at the table?

Just gaining an understanding of what causes you to tilt, and the strategies to cope with and improve on your issues is massive.

As far as my own personal progress goes, it has been held back of late by my addiction to playing Skyrim rather than poker. So I can't really comment on whether I have better overall results at the table. But I am 100% sure that I will do, once I get back to it, thanks to Jared's book.

+1 to the real life leaks - that's where my leaks show up the most, and it's not even close. Second is build awareness because you can't fix what you're not aware of. Third... well, I'm still working on that, will get back to you

+1 to fixing life leaks. Get enough sleep, get your exercise in, have a life outside poker, and don't play while you have any sort of emotional response to anything. Be able to spot when you're not playing well and quit. Obviously it is important to not be results oriented. I find it really helpful to be less results oriented when you have a healthy confidence in your own game, so you won't start questioning the right plays when it didn't work out and start making suboptimal plays.

lately I'm not sure if using emotions or other stress factors in real life as an excuse for not playing is actually better than playing with a probably decreased winrate

I have told myself that the reason for not moving up was tilt.
I worked a lot on my mental game because I was a tilt monkey myself.
I do think tilt affects your winrate but don't let it be an excuse that tilt is the reason you are not moving up.

I think the strongest way to improve your C-game, is to become really good at the fundaments of poker. What really happens when you go on tilt is that you start doing the things that have not become 'unconsious competence'. Tilt is a great way of showing you where your game is still leaking.
Once you check/raised shoved the turn as a bluff and got called by a fish who has TP, its easy to wake up from tilt, get angry and tell yourself: If only tilt was out of my game.

In this situation: You don't have a clear idea when it's good to check raise shove as a bluff, you have a bad idea of players tendencys and you don't have a strong grasp on ranges.

I remember a Phil Galfond series where Phil Galfond was on his C-game. I even think that was the name of his series. He was playing like my AAA++++ game.

There are leaks in your game that come above the surface whenever your tilt. So work on your fundaments.
Civstar has a great post and he says: Work on the right things.

Don't focus on check raise bluffing, but focus on the right opening ranges if you tend to open to loosely of to tightly when you are on tilt. Don't focus on 4-bet bluffing if tilt shows you that you have a tendency to become really loose or timid when it comes to 3-btting.

All tilt does is showing your weak spots. I also like the analogue of box training where a newbie start sparring for the first time. He is holding his hands up, he is watching his defends and what not... but then he gets punched and gets mad. He defends drops and he becomes an easy to hit target. All the things he learned so far has not become unconsious competence.

If your C-game is break-even and your A-game is winning, than its not nearly as bad as being a +3 bb/100 winnar that goes on tilt constantly, where your b-game is a -4 bb/100 C-game is a -12 bb/100.

THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT YOU SHOULD NOT WORK ON YOUR TILT,
You should.

Things you can do:
- First of all: Make your life as good as it can get. We all know the person thats in line of a store and gets annoyed and misserable just by being in line. Do you think an ultra happy person would feel this way in line? He wouldn't. If everything in your life is solid and you have lots of other things you enjoy besides poker it becomes harder to lose enjoyment when playing poker.

which brings me to the second most important thing:

- Enjoy poker. Have the right reasons for playing this game. I loved poker in home games, I went on-line ans was super happy I could now play it every day instead of once in 3 weeks. Then I found books and could study it.. WOW 2p2!!! ... and triple-wow ..deucescracked!

Then I saw how much money there could be made with poker. I started to grind, the love became less. It became a grind. All my goals where wrong and i stopped enjoying it.

- Set the right goals! Dont set a goal that can't be achieved or started in the near future. Getting to high stakes when playing 2nl is a loooong road ahead, so don't set that goal. Doh. But even a goal like 'valuebetting thinly more often' can be a hard goal if you already have trouble with getting value from your strong hands. Set your goals right. Work at 1 thing at the time and don't go overboard

- Make poker friends and don't whine versus them. When I was in my biggest tilt fase my ratio would be 20% poker stategy, 80% whine... In the end, I only talked strategy. I slipped a couple of times, but never as much as I did. Focus on the things you have control over, don't focus on the things you can't control. You can talk about people about your tilt, but you are prehaps better of talking about it when you have:
* Taken a walk: Clearing your head by taken a walk is great
* Written about what happened and how you are feeling
* meditating about it
* By doing something you are sure it will take your mind of things: Be careful with this one because it might trigger bad habits (like... hmm cocaine would do me pretty good!)

Then talk about with others what happened.

- Meditation is something that sounds super mystical but all it really is is watching your breathing and staying in the moment. Feel whatever you feel, focus on it... watching what you are saying, but don't get involved in it. See your thoughts and feelings as a waterfall where you are sitting on the side watching what happens. Even the 'aha-moments' when you meditate should just be observed. There can lots be found on the internet about meditation. I personally love to listen to Eckart Tolle. Great philosopher.

- Take a break. Its never good to play poker in a bad mindset. Whenever you start a session with the idea you are going to lose because you are on a downswing, you lost. But a break is also really being away from poker. I nowadays take ritalin for my ADHD so I have my thoughts better under control but I remember the days where I NEVER had a break from poker. I was always thinking about it, and unfortunately not on things that would actually improve my game.

Guys that get really good do math calculations about poker in class, I was thinking about that hand I lost because of bad luck. Still, take a break.. find things you enjoy also. Its a tough game to play, you need things that are easy for you that you really enjoy doing. This can be fitness, this can be reading books, this can me writing,... this can be whatever you feel like doing..

- Excersise. Excersise is good for your health, for your brain and gets you really into the moment. There is lots to be found on the positive effects of excersise

- Nutritrion; Stay away from sugar. Eat clean. Sugar jacks you up.

- Move down. If you have a 100 bi's bankroll for a limit, would a 10 bi downswing bother you? If you only had 20?

- Quit: In the end poker might just not be the game for you. I highly doubt its a game for me. I am on a break now for atleast 1.5 year. I want to get my degree and want to keep all my focus on that. If poker is getting so important for you that you are neglecting other things in life it will be on the side of gambling addiction. If poker is on your mind constantly and you feel misserable about this game, take a break ..or quit if it keeps happening.

In the end, it should be a hobby if you are not a pro. Don't neglect your carreer and close ones. Bringing a bad vibe to your family because of poker can already be considered as dangerous imo.

Further:
Jared tendler - The mental game of poker
The poker mindset
Eckhart tolle - the power of now
Kabat-zinn - Mindfullness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc)
The eightfulpath of poker enlightenment

might be some good places to start

I am probably forgetting a thing or two to tell you, but this is what I came up with

Hmm another important point I forgot: Understanding variance.
But to be honoust, I never really understood it deeply enough to give advice about it.

+1 to fixing life leaks. Get enough sleep, get your exercise in, have a life outside poker, and don't play while you have any sort of emotional response to anything. Be able to spot when you're not playing well and quit. Obviously it is important to not be results oriented. I find it really helpful to be less results oriented when you have a healthy confidence in your own game, so you won't start questioning the right plays when it didn't work out and start making suboptimal plays.

Life leaks keep being pointed out a lot. I agree that when we have something in the back of our mind that frustrate us, this is so much easier to go on tilt. Also, I really hate being disturbed when playing, sometimes this is enough for me to lose my focus, really depend on my state of mind.

I think that to be able to quit or stop before tilting, it take a lot of observation, self-awarness and honesty / self control. This is a challenge by itself, even when you know it, because there are emotions in the mix.

I think that I keep a good life balance outside poker, I play sports or go to the gym 3-5 times a week, always keep 2-3 days during the week where I don't play at all and do other stuff with GF or my friends.

By nature, I am not a good sleeper, so this is probably something that don't help me at all...

Also, when you work full time you sometimes don't have enough "mental energy" on the night to concentrate well on poker.