Jared Tendler AMA

[givememyleg]

I wish I had cool stories like this. Aside from punching holes in walls, throwing laptops out 3 story windows, and losing 50k in a session. My stories are all pretty standard. Or maybe I just think they’re standard.

go on...

[Jared Tendler]

go on...

it didn't survive the fall...

[Jared Tendler]

Would you mind giving a brief summary of your books and how important you feel the mental game to be when it comes to poker? I think most people just think of tilt control when it comes to the mental side, but there is much more.

And not only do they just think of tilt control, they also think tilt means anything less than playing your best. Defining tilt that broadly is a huge problem when you’re trying to solve problems. Tilt often can mean being bored, drunk, spewy, steaming, and risk averse. But every one of those problems has a different solution. So the first major thing I did in the first book was to narrow the definition of tilt down to bad play only caused by anger. The reason is that in the three years that I had work with poker players and studied the game over 80% of the time poker players were talking about tilt, they were referring to be frustrated, raging, or some form of anger. With anger being = to tilt, I could then narrow down the main reasons poker player get angry and came up with 7 major types of tilt:

Running Bad Tilt
Injustice Tilt
Hate-losing Tilt
Mistake Tilt
Entitlement Tilt (think Hellmuth)
Revenge Tilt
Desperation Tilt.

Then with tilt defined, that made room for the three other major mental game problems: fear, poor motivation and under/overconfidence. The other thing I did in the first book was to show how errors in understanding the learning process cause mental game problems. If you have expectations to learn/progress faster, or if you think you’ve learned something and didn’t, you can experience any of those mental game problems, or make them worse. So I provided three theories on learning to help players understand the realities of learning better.

The second book I’ve mentioned a bit about already. But I’ll also add that player that don’t have major mental game issues don’t need to read the first book in order to read the second. It’s not like a sequel to a movie. And more like a entirely separate book that compliements the first.

The mental game is critical now because the edges are so small. And it’s the thing that can make all of your work on your tactical game go to shit. What’s the point of spending hours to improve tactically, if you just get pissed up or lock up while playing and make the same mistakes. Those errors are not going to get solved just by improving your game tactically. In that regard I often think of the mental game like an insurance policy on your tactical game bc it’s what makes it possible to avoid your biggest tactical errors.

[Jared Tendler]

But speaking on tilt, that is one problem almost everyone can relate with. This subject has been discussed over and over with the same very general advice given, but what would you say to someone who says they have an issue controlling their tilt?

I would pepper them with questions, such as:

What are the situations where it happens? What are other spots where it doesn’t? What’s the difference? What’s the first sign that you’re on tilt? What cause it? Why do you think that thing is causing you to react that way?

The reality is that tilt happens for predictable reasons. The problem is that many people/players don’t know those reasons and all they here is “don’t tilt.” Well no shit, thank you for that amazing advice. If you’re going to solve a problem – any problem not just mental and not just a temporary fix but a permanent one – you need to understand the cause of it. Most people don’t take the time to really think about why they’re reacting in the way that they are, and only think it’s stupid to be getting pissed off. Sure it may be stupid, but it’s happening and thinking it shouldn’t bother you, or that you shouldn’t react that way, doesn’t change the reality THAT IT DID. So stop fucking around thinking you’re going to wake up one day a zen master and suck outs, mistakes, or running bad don’t bother you any more and get to work on really solving the problem.

/rant

I’m not like most therapist – and more like a coach. I’m understanding because it helps solve problems, but I also am not going to let people just live in a fantasy world.

[Jared Tendler]

What is the single best piece of advice you've been given or read that had the most impact on your poker game?

Well since I suck at poker – the best advice came when I met the crew from Stoxpoker back in 2008 in Vegas around the WSOP. In so many words I realized that I either need to take learning poker seriously or just keep it a hobby. I chose the later and decided to focus my time on getting better at what I do best.

[Jared Tendler]

Have you ever given advice to a famous poker pro?

On my mental game of poker podcast Phil Hellmuth was thinking about taking Adderall. Mike Matusow suggested he try it and I challenged him a bit on why that may not be the best decision he could make. Here’s a link to the podcast: http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/radio-p...il-hellmuth-2/. At the WSOP last year Phil talked about how he tried Adderall once during his first final table and it totally messed with him. He credited his bracelet win on not taking it.

[Jared Tendler]

which of the existing poker pros you think should read your book to improve their game? (who needs it desperately!)

Victor Blom could use a little help with tilt…