Poker Video: Misc/Other by Tommy Angelo (Micro/Small Stakes)

beautiful ending <3

I joined DC to learn about poker and come out of it learning how to better myself in life , no other pokertraining site can do this , great episode , could listen to ye guys talk all day , look at me all mindfull of my typing!

Not all truck drivers are Asshole's Mr Lively

imo the best video on DC

I layed down to nap withthis on. Now I didnt actually sleep, it played thru 2.5 times before I got up. And yes I actually was hearing it while laying down to nap. Even fond myself doing some of the excercises.

Excellent work guys.

one word: AWESOME
each episode surprises me

Superb. I just woke up this morning and decided to listen to this while lying down and was able to practice all of the exercises in that position. I was surprised to find out how terrible I was at actually counting breathes like Tommy advocates. I can totally relate to what Tommy said about not knowing how mindless you really are until you try these exercises.

I think DC is brilliant for hosting all of Tommy's content. This stuff is just so unique, so inspiring, and so ENLIGHTENING. DC is definitely the only source I have come to know for "poker enlightenment."

Clicking "Reply to Topic", I am aware that I am about to post.
Typing a reply, I am aware that my keyboard goes clickety-clack as I type.
Clicking "Post Reply", I am aware of my amused half-smile.

My favorite of the series so far.

Clicking "Reply to Topic", I am aware that I am about to post.
Typing a reply, I am aware that my keyboard goes clickety-clack as I type.
Clicking "Post Reply", I am aware of my amused half-smile.

:-/

really enjoyed this
dig the series, mindfulness is pretty important and this video nails it

Interesting concept that we are in one of 4 postures at all times, hopefully mindful: sitting, standing, walking, and laying down.

"Pain is inevitable, suffering is not"
- Venerable Henepola Gunaratana(Mindfulness In Plain English)

you nailed this
just observe, you do not have to suffer

I am starting to get hungry maybe I should do some mindful eating
or observe this feeling of hungry and see how long it plans to stay

Watched this yesterday and was pretty blown away. Today I tried applying the stuff when A. Playing poker B. Socializing with a group of friends C. Cooking/Eating D. Just chillin'.

Long story short; THANK YOU GUYS!

This was a great watch. Thank you

Its so great.
You explained everything very well, and wayne said the perfect stuff at the perfect time

Its a hard practice.
But it works fantastic

about the chewing. Why not just take some gum? you can use 1 gum for a whole session

Thanks!

As a gum chewer I can tell you, be careful about chewing gum. It's very easy to give off tells without even knowing it. Be very mindful when you chew gum.

Glad you guys are enjoying the episode. This one was a pleasure for me to work on. I learned a lot.

Wayne

defenetly one of the best series on DC, so many moments to be had so far, and were not even halfway there!!

Pretty sure I asked this on the last episode's comments but is there any chance you can get some of your piano playing down on MP3 for download, Tommy? Or recommend a similar musician who does.

Loving the series btw and love your book.

Implemented mindful breathing into my session today and it had a PROFOUND effect. Less cussing, no tilt, no quitting short because I got coolered or sucked out on. I actually sat there for 6 hours and won 17 buy ins at HU.
You're the king Tommy

Pretty sure I asked this on the last episode's comments but is there any chance you can get some of your piano playing down on MP3 for download, Tommy?

I'm going to have to do that or else I'll get kicked out of my family, and that would be really dumb because I love their food. So yes, when the series is all done I'll very likely put together an mp3 or two of the piano tracks from the series. They will be available for free at DC and at my site.

Tommy

elcho, I have adhd. very good question and never even thought about asking this to Tommy

Thanks!

With my ahdh I notice that i not even get distracted that much, but I have a very hard time quiting because I love playing poker and as you may know as a ADD person it's really hard to stop something because when I am interested in something I am consumed for it for a long time, even when I am losing and i should quit

Tommy + Wayne,

Are you guys out in Vegas right now for the World Series? If so, are you gonna be at any of the DC events?

I live in Vegas. Dunno about the Drunkament, but I'll come out for the Home Game and definitely be there for the Bowlament.

This is basically the best poker training video series ever made as far as I'm concerned. I play a lot of HU, and the breathing exercises have been helping me a lot, I play longer, tilt less, and focus more.

Thanks guys!

Tommy/Wayne, when I practice mindful breathing, I lose some awareness of things going on around my sensory field.

+1

In the fishing example, how does focusing on your partner's words go together with mindful breathing when I'm trying not to do two things at the same time?

Tommy, please elaborate on this, trying to match my own reality to what I'm getting told is a big issue for me.

Thank you for these outstanding insights! Your laughing is very convincing, last but not least the music is beautiful.

While I watch this, it occurs to me that I am mindless near to 100% of the time. This series has given me some tools to defeat that, but I have pretty severe ADD and I do not like to take the medication I am prescribed for it. I'd rather learn skills that help me succeed. It's like a HUD -- its really a band-aid (albeit it a very usefull one) because it just puts all the information that is ALREADY available in front of you so you dont have to think about it yourself.

What do you think about this, Tommy? For me, because I am not on a professional level, and I am distracted enough by my dog walking in the room or my girlfriend moving around, I feel like I NEED that HUD to make me a winning player.

Tommy/Wayne, when I practice mindful breathing, I lose some awareness of things going on around my sensory field. Are we making a judgement here, saying that the bee outside my window or my dog twitching on my feet while he sleeps is less deserving of my attention? To extrapolate this into the realm of poker, I only play two tables because any more hinders my ability to learn, but I am also aware that I need to play more than 2 tables to practice playing more than 2 tables. How can I learn to be more mindfull of myself, less mindfull of distractions (if we can make a value statement like that and call them distractions) but also more mindfull of my opponents while I increase the number of variables that I must be mindfull of (+5 more players when I add a table).

Thanks, and thank you for the series!

Elcholodeamor,

I've read your post a couple times now and I can't quite seem to sort out what question it is that you asking.

While I watch this, it occurs to me that I am mindless near to 100% of the time. This series has given me some tools to defeat that,

True and true.

How can I learn to be more mindfull of myself, less mindfull of distractions (if we can make a value statement like that and call them distractions) but also more mindfull of my opponents while I increase the number of variables that I must be mindfull of (+5 more players when I add a table).

If you consider your severe ADD to be a mental problem, then what you should do is do the same thing as if you had something you considered to be a severe physical problem. With a physical problem, we do things do make our body better and stronger. With a mental problem, you should do thing to make your mind better, as in, stronger, more resilient, better able to heal it's own problems. Since all mental problems are in some way related to thinking (since thinking is the only mental activity there is), then the place to turn to mend your severe problem is to take many long, slow looks at your thinking, and the way to do that is to sit still for long stretches every morning and just be with yourself and your body and your mind, and practice the skill of concentration by concentrating on your breathing. Call it meditation. Call it medication. Don't matter. Those are just words. It's the act of deliberate, repetitive taming of the mind that matters, and works to increase your ability to be mindful. As to adding tables and listening to birds and all that, as you increase your mindfulness, you'll see that there is plenty of you to go around and do everything you want and need to do with your awareness. I think that if you do start a morning practice, you should save the above post you wrote and read it a couple years from now and see what answers you come up with to your own questions.

Tommy

What really hit close to home for me is the topic of the single tasking. In Susan Jeffers' book "Feel the Fear and do it anyway" she talks about focusing on a goal or task and committing yourself 100 percent to that task. By focusing on the one goal you have chosen , you will make your life quality 100 percent better. I can see what she means.

The problem is that when you work and have a busy schedule and a social life and family there is only so much you can do in a day. This really is the big challenge in my life. I cannot single task.

Yet.

Only when it's something that takes me into the zone or the flow

Btw : read this book if you're interested in the concept of the "zone" or "the flow"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Flow-Psychology-Engagement-MasterMinds/dp/0465024114/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c

In this book it basically is put forward that we are in the zone if the challenge and the skill required is exactly right. If there is not enough challenge , we get bored. If there's not enough skill , we hit a brick wall and fail.

I spend most of my life outside this zone and it frustrates me. When playing poker , too many tables might cause you to hit a wall. Not enough tables and you get bored.

The fact that I am out of this zone makes me reach for other tasks and stuff to do.

I totally get what you are talking about here. I was exactly the same way, severely.

If only I could do one task at a time and give 100 percent on each task , i think poker and life in general would be so much better.

I strongly agree.

Tommy,

Choosing is losing they say. But if you have learned to single-task, don't you feel you are missing out on other stuff ?

No. Not even a teenie little bit.

Don't you have to rigorously select what it is you are going to do ?

I am able to mindfully select what I do, instead of being dragged along by my mind. There is nothing even remotely resembling "rigor" in any of my selection processes. Just the opposite. It's way more relaxing to actually decide things and know I am deciding as I decide, rather than just plow through day after day stressing over what did and didn't happen and what might or might not happen. I notice the lack of stress in previously stressful moments many times per day.

Perhaps it's just the fact that I realise how limited our time on this earth is , that I feel the need to accomplish something and leave a legacy. Have you experienced something similar and how do you deal with it.

Yes I have experienced what you describe. I had no way to deal with it at all. That's why I didn't deal with it. I just lived in it. Only when I started stilling myself every morning did things change, and the change was dramatic. Yes I am sometimes "busy." Yes I sometimes "hurry." But it's stressless. It's mindful. If I am late for an appointment and walking quickly to my car, I am aware of the walking. This makes all the difference in the world.

I'm asking this because it's all tied in with this single-tasking that you do.

What is the optimal way to learn to do that ?

Start here:

www.tommyangelo.com/meditation101.html

Choosing is losing they say. But if you have learned to single-task, don't you feel you are missing out on other stuff ?

And I always feel I'm missing out on stuff because I multi-task

Thnx very much for doing this, iv been wondering how to do this for a long time.

One area of the eightfold path I am very interested in as a poker player is "right livelihood". I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Whenever I come across it in books (just finsihed reading The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching) I never really know if earning the majority of my livelihood playing poker is living right livelihood.

Here's a short definition of right livelihood that I think sums up the detailed teaching pretty well:

Right Livelihood: abstaining from dishonest and harmful means of livelihood

With poker then, the question comes down to the word "harm" in the context of poker. This is an expansive topic. One angle to consider that's a couple layers deep is that if you start thinking that taking someone's money is harmful, then what you're saying is that the "correctness" of playing poker as a livelihood depends on a person's actual poker results. If today he is ahead a little as a "pro," and tomorrow he is behind, then suddenly, because he is now "a losing player," does that mean that so far he hasn't caused harm?

There's much more to it than that. I'm just tossing that out there to show there's lots of room to explore this topic. I think of poker in the context of right livelihood as a means to examine just what the heck "harm" is. I think there's more to "harm" at poker than taking someone's money. In my current perspective on the word "harm," I believe I can play poker without harming anyone, no matter how much I win or lose, so for me, today, playing poker for a living would not be wrong livelihood.

Tommy

"dishonest" -- Of course there is some deception involved in poker. In a recent artictle, Tommy, you wrote about how were (loosely quoted) "incapable of telling the truth" when it comes to discussions about hands.

However, I do not see this as "dishonesty" because it is within the rule set of the game that we do not let people know what cards we have, and we try to trick them. It would be wrong livelihood, however, to be a card mechanic and deal yourself full houses, of course. So where is the line drawn?

Wherever you draw it.

Again, I think the crux on whether or not Poker is an example of right livelihood falls on the crux of how we define "harmful". 95% of the time, poker is not a harmful activity to our opponents. People bring money to the casino and if the leave without the money they came with, oh well. Sure they're blue as they're leaving the parking structure, but they will fall asleep just fine. The problem comes when we are playing against gambling addicts or degenerates.

We've all seen them. My friend only plays live poker on the day that unemployment and other government aid checks arrive in peoples mailboxes because of this. He knows this is an easy money day.

Certainly, there are people who are not eating enough because of their gambling problems. Undoubtedly, these people are suffering. But is it US, the people sitting across the table, that are causing them pain? I would argue no. Maybe its just the addictive nature of the game, but we are not there to prey on helpless people. They just ... show up. If I could snap my fingers, I would make poker games less juicy and bar all people that can't help themselves from playing.

But, what about my friend who shows up on the days people get the aid checks?

I believe that it isn't in your best interest, or mine, or those we judge, for us to try to determine what is right livelihood for anyone but ourselves. If there is ever a clear cut case of minding your own railroad, this is it.

Tommy

But here is my question and I believe it will be handled in a next episode but I'm firing it anyway.

I have problems handling downswings. I have linked very positive feelings to seeing green positive numbers and very negative feelings to seeing red negative numbers.I would go as far to say that they are linked up to my identity. After a huge downswing i really feel like a genuine loser which spills over into other areas of my life.

I am dealing with this in a completely wrong way , and that is by OR 1. Quitting poker (and then getting back a couple of days/weeks/months later OR 2. Erasing all my hand histories and pretending it didn't happen (clean slate).

When I do this I instantly feel better. I know this is wrong...

WHOA! STOP RIGHT THERE!

One could say that if you inject heroin into your veins in order to "instantly feel better," that this could be considered by some to be "wrong."

But to throw away data about the past in order to instantly feel better – it seems to me that nothing could be more right. But then, I put a high priority on feeling better. Maybe you should too.

"... because you can't plug your leaks if you throw your db out ..."

Sounds to me like there are times for you when the database itself IS the leak.

Okay, I do hear what you're saying. A couple times in the series, Wayne and I talk about Bandaids and cures. Throwing out your db would be a bandaid. It would help ease the pain that comes from looking at it, but it wouldn't cure the real disease that makes looking at your db painful in the first place.

Bandaids are good! Use them!

I think you should try going a few days without keeping any records or looking at them or saving them. Just fly totally free for a few days, or even a couple weeks, and THEN step back and look at your whole poker situation and ask yourself if you really "need" your db to "plug leaks." Or are you just addicted to and identified with the whole mess.

I already purchased a zabuton and meditation bench

Use them, and you’ll quickly see that:

...numbers ... are linked up to my identity.

Is true.

Tommy

Tommy
There are many things I would like to say to you. But I think it would be incoherent and cluttered.
So I will say just two things.

Thank you Sir.

Keep up the good work

Dan

This is this most untilting hour I've ever had. So great watching a poker series that has a ton of value not just for poker but for life also. It says Bi- weekly on the series though, isn't that twice a week? Probably should change that to Bi-monthly or am I wrong?

Either way so good looking forward to ep4

I just checked. Bi-weekly means "once every two weeks."

Tommy,

When at the poker table (for example..but my question applies to anywhere in life), if you are deeply concentrating on your breathing, won't that take away from the concentration of what is going on at the table? Or do you eventually do both? If so, isn't this sort of multitasking?

Yes you do both. Yes it's sort of multi-tasking. As to "taking away concentration," what you'll come to realize right away if you do the practice is that everything is always changing. No two breaths are alike. No amount of concentration on anything is stable. It's always in flux. You might be focused 15% on your breathing and 85% on sounds for 1/2 of an exhale, and then, poof, you are suddenly no longer aware of your breathing, or, you might suddenly have 60% of your attention on the last bit of exhale, and then, by doing that, you find yourself suddenly completely focused on the next sentence of the email you are writing, or on the next spoonful of soup you put into your mouth. Think of mindful breathing as an ever-present stream of present-tenseness that you can ride anytime you like. It always, always, always increases the amount of attention you are applying toward what is now. That's because breathing is always now.

"Also, words distract me...would I get the same benefit from the exercise if I just focused on my body breathing rather than saying the words in my head that you suggested?"

Yes.

Tommy

Just wanted to say this episode is just amazing.. I tried it right away during the video and then in my first session and even did the breathing practice several times today during work.. It feels extremely weird to do it, but I think it actually works (I'm always very sceptical..) because it fills up my mind with my breathing and counting, instead of other often bad thoughts. I don't really feel my breath is such a cool thing to focus on, but I guess that's not the point.. during the practice I feel no or very little other thoughts wandering around.. if I do I lose count But then I can just restart. So this just might be the thing that keeps my mind calm during sessions so that I can actually play my a-game for more than 5minutes, that would mean I might actually become a winning player after a 200k hands break even grind thusfar.. wow

and I think it's very very valuable for life too, just need to practice alot I guess and im sure itll work out for the better!

amazing.. to find such valuable info on a pokersite

Thanks so much Tommy - I will definitely try this next time I go to LC's

... breathing techniques. i used em while standing on the diamond. it really relaxed me and i ended up hitting two triples and a double.

This is results oriented thinking.

lol

It's clear after this episode that you're a single-tasking. What do you think about listen to music while multitabling? I think it will take some focus off the table but I think it's more fun to play long session with music.

I think we should get a research grant. Wouldn't it be great to actually know the EV of listening to music?

I listen to music now and then when I play. I have noticed that some music uses up much more of my mind than other music. I think I suck at poker for example if I'm listening to, say, Black Dog by Led Zeppelin. I'm like, Huh? My Turn? Fold!

I think if we look at the number of players who do just fine mixing poker and headphones, we have to conclude that this is another "it depends" category.

Tommy

obv great content and I guess it may be changing my life (I'm really looking forward to it it really does).
I'd love to hear/see/read more on this specific, let's call it "buddha"-stuff. Therefore I'm going to buy some books about this topic (breathing, meditation, life without suffering, buddhas pieces of wisdom, etc.).

And that's where you should hop in Tommy (or any other guy who is into this stuff)
Do you recommend any "good" books (I know there are now "bad" books in our way of thinking ) on this topic?

Here is one of my favorite books on the topic. The bhagavad gita, great work on equanimity, work ethic, meditation and devotion. It's available for download for free with extensive commentary of Swami Chinmayananda:

http://www.chinmayauk.org/Resources/Downloads.htm
http://www.chinmayauk.org/Resources/GitaDownload.ZIP

I hope you find these links useful.

I have read several commentaries, but this one is outstanding and very comprehensible for people with modern western backgrounds.

Chapter 2 is a must read for poker players. It deals with psychology of result oriented thinking and variance.

Also, the titles of Dr. Alan Schoonmaker's books "Your best poker friend," and "Your worst poker enemy" are philosophical concepts borrowed from discussion in chapter six of this ancient work:

" The Self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, the Self stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe."

What les fux, I think I found it. Lets see how it turns out in the next few weeks. I watched 3 episodes and I played a session, and I don't think my mind has ever been as clear as this time. Especially the 'anticipate' and 'right thinking' (about analyzing a hand without judgement) really finally made me the way I'd play if I were almost objectively looking at the game.

Thanks a lot!

Oh, and i love the piano