Have you ever made a mistake at the poker table and then spent hours (or even days) berating and criticizing yourself? Do you constantly review or obsess over mistakes or negative situations?
The mental process of replaying mistakes in high definition is called rumination, and has driven many poker players to despair. Once your confidence is shaken, it is difficult to get back to normal play. To deal with this effectively, you need to know how to handle setbacks, both during and after such an event.
Here are some tips to help you prevent a bad move from being ruminated on, thus creating negative effects and feelings (and potentially conditions for more bad moves).
There is no such thing as error-free poker
The first step to freeing your mind is to consciously realize that there is no such thing as a mistake-free poker game. Everyone, even the venerable Phil Ivey, makes mistakes. Remember that winning flush that Ivey folded at showdown in Main Event of World Series of Poker, in 2009? Remember that it is not your mistakes that define you as a player, but how you respond to those mistakes.
Refuse to act
What is your most common response to mistakes? Most players just “react,” and that’s when the self-flagellation begins. Reacting negatively doesn’t give you the resources to work on the problem, and it only intensifies negative feelings. Reacting is a sign of mental weakness that serves to heighten sensitivity and inevitably leads to more mistakes. Refuse to react unconsciously and you’ll be miles ahead of your opponents.
Develop a strategy to move forward
Train yourself to think, “That was a mistake, it happens. Now I need to move on.” Your mission is to immediately re-engage in the game by making your next action a positive one. Always be thinking about what positive steps you can take.
Mistakes should belong to your short-term memory
As you play, it is absolutely necessary to develop a short-term memory for mistakes, at least in terms of the negative emotions and self-criticism they can incite. Erase all previous mistakes from your mind and be ready for the next hand. Each hand is just a mini performance within a larger performance, and your job is to make that overall performance as good as possible. If you dwell on a mistake you made and keep holding it back, you won’t be able to play.
See mistakes as learning opportunities
That said, you don't want to keep mentally repeating mistakes until you create negative emotions, you want to save them for later and try to learn how to avoid them. literally repeated (making them again). Many self-improvement experts teach that the quickest path to success is to fail repeatedly. It may sound like a strange concept, but if you make a habit of studying your sessions, and your mistakes, you will see that this is true.
In these studies, look at everything you did well and that you should continue doing. This has the benefit of increasing your confidence. So, review your mistakes and make sure you answer the question: “What is the most important thing I can learn from this?” Also plan what you will do in the future if a similar situation arises. If this study seems like a lot of work to you, let me assure you of two things. First, it will get faster as it becomes part of your routine. And second, all elite players use some sort of study session like this.
Practice mindfulness
Spending too much time thinking about the past or worrying about the future is counterproductive. Mindfulness is the practice of training your attention to focus on the here and now. Every time you catch yourself thinking about past mistakes, refocus yourself on the present. A great way to do this is to use a cue word or phrase, such as “it’s all here and now” or “the next move will be my best move.” If you catch yourself thinking about a mistake, take a deep breath and remember your cue word or phrase, and get back to work!
Translated and adapted from: Poker News – How to Stop Ruminating Over Your Poker Mistakes
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