Intrapersonal Poker Psychology

OK, folks. Let's focus now on the intrapersonal end of poker psychology. In actuality, we've already begun to do this by thinking through goal setting. Now we will get a little deeper. We psychological-types call this "peeling the onion." It involves slowly breaking down layer by layer, getting closer to the psychological core. In this realm, we are trying to get to a place where we can see how to improve our overall poker game. Don't worry, I'm not getting to be like some soothsayer that looks into crystal balls and shuffles tarot cards.

I am a realist here, guys. These are sound psychological principals that sports psychologists use with professional athletes and professional sports teams. With poker being much more psychological in nature than "mainstream" professional sports such as basketball and baseball, there is no doubt that you should be mastering your personal poker psychology to improve.

True Poker Psychology

Most poker books start their inspection of general poker psychology by speaking about ways to identify your opponents with labels such as tight/passive, etc. Phil Hellmuth's book uses names such as "Elephants" and "Eagles." Other books list common tells that inexperienced players may show. I find it foolish to begin a study on poker psychology in an external fashion (looking outward). Before you try to identify the styles and weaknesses of your opposition, your first task is to harness your own personal poker psychology! When you truly understand yourself, your style, your strengths, and your weaknesses, you will already be ahead of a vast majority of your competition.

The term "intrapersonal" refers to within the self. Achieving optimal intrapersonal poker psychology is done at the table, as well as away from the table. Before I go any farther, I want to ask you to pause your reading for a moment to reflect on your game. Answer this: If you had a magic wand to change your game in one way (no, you can't change the cards/luck), what would be the one focus point? Is it confidence, patience, ability to stay off-tilt, or something entirely different?? Essentially I am asking, where do you most need to improve? Whoa, I guess I am asking you to peel your personal "onion" pretty quickly. Let's go with it, anyway. Be honest with yourself to truly revel where the biggest current hole in your game lies. Whether you feel it is lack of confidence or over-confidence, lack of patience or too much patience, or any other poker character flaw, we can work to correct it. Let's look at the other side of the coin: What are your biggest strengths at the table? You should certainly know both of these before taking your next deal.

Weaknesses

Many people choose to counter-act their weaknesses by masking them. Hiding a weakness may be an effective temporary strategy, but it will not help you to improve upon them in the long-run. First, you have to know and understand that you CAN improve those weaknesses. It is possible with some dedication and hard work. For some reason, our culture has us believe that our basic character is innate. We are told that "patience is a virtue," for instance. Does that mean that if I am not currently very patient that I am doomed to stay impatient? I contest not. You see, we are born with different propensities towards certain characteristics. In other words, I may be more likely to become patient than another person, just as one person may be born more likely to excel in Math. With training and work, both patience and Math can be learned and honed.

The key is to maximize your helpful poker characteristics. In the next installment in this series we will look at some action plans to get that done. Basically, we will be adding mini-goals to that overall goal that you set in the last reading. Speaking of that goal, hopefully you did indeed write it down. If so, go back and revisit it at this time. Now that you have identified some strengths and weaknesses, go ahead and jot them down. OK, now we are getting somewhere. A poker psychological profile has begun.

THIS LESSON: Identified Strengths & Weaknesses, I Learned that I Can Improve Poker Personality Characteristics

NEXT UP: Action Plans on Improving

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