The most important poker mental game skill is “No expectations, just acceptance”.

If you can do this, you’ll be a mental game giant on the felt, nothing will tilt you, and you’ll be able to continue your session no matter what the poker gods throw at you.

Listen to the episode #568 as you follow along below:

Bad Beats Bumming Me Out

Yesterday I was playing a session, and my anger began to build because things weren’t going my way.

My 3bet bluffs were getting called, my cbet bluffs weren’t working, they were check-raising me on the turn, my draws weren’t completing… and one bad beat almost sent me over the edge. 

Actually, there were two bad beats but the second took the cake.

The first bad beat was losing all-in preflop with AA vs KK. When he turned over the KK, I thought to myself, “Self, you’re an 80% favorite. Good on ya!” I was flying high with a huge expectation of stacking him, so the King on the flop really took the wind from my sails. 

Bummer…

But the second bad beat was even worse. I opened with KJ and the BB defended. The flop comes KK9… I hit trips + Jack kicker. Pretty nice. He checked, I cbet, he xr, I re-raise and he 4bet shoved. I snap called and loved seeing his K2o. I thought to myself, “Sweet, I’m gonna stack this guy and win some chips back. I just have to avoid a 2…” I don’t remember the turn card, but the river was a 2, of course. Super painful after that first beat, and it affected my play in subsequent hands.

So, I thought about ending the session, but I took a quick break to refresh my coffee instead.

At my coffee maker, I had a moment of clarity. I asked myself, “What is the best poker mental game skill to have?” I realized I was getting angry and I needed to break myself free of it. Oftentimes, injecting some logic into the situation helps me get beyond anger.

No Expectations, Just Acceptance

I noodled on a few different answers to the question, but I settled on, “No expectations, just acceptance” as the best mental game skill.

In poker, we’re dealt a hand and we strive to make the best plays possible given the hand, the board, our opponents and so forth. As long as we’re in the right mindset and rationally making decisions, and anger or frustration aren’t clouding things, we should play with no expectations of winning or losing, and just accept whatever happens.

Luck is a part of this game that we all signed up for, after all.

If you can do that, if you can tie no expectations to AA, no expectations to your 3bet bluff and no expectations to flopped trips, you’ll be able to keep a presence of mind and have a solid mental state for continued play.

When I returned to the tables with my fresh coffee, I created a new hand tag called “TroubleTree”.

Do you know the trouble tree story?

The Story of the Trouble Tree (via Google AI)

A carpenter was hired by a man to help restore an old farmhouse. The first day on the job was a tough one for the carpenter: he had a flat tire, his saw broke, and his old truck wouldn’t start at the end of the day. He was silent and frustrated as his new boss drove him home.

When they arrived at the carpenter’s house, the carpenter paused briefly at a small tree in his yard, touching the tips of its branches with both hands, before going inside. When he opened the door, his entire demeanor transformed; his face was wreathed in smiles as he joyfully greeted his wife and children.

Later, the boss’s curiosity got the better of him, and he asked the carpenter about the tree.

The carpenter explained that it was his “trouble tree”. He said he knew he would have troubles from work, but he didn’t want to bring them inside to his family, so he would leave them on the tree each night and pick them up in the morning. He noted that in the morning, there were never as many troubles as he remembered leaving the night before. The story is a parable highlighting the importance of separating work stresses from home life for a more peaceful perspective.

So, my personal trouble tree is going to be PokerTracker 4 and my new “TroubleTree” tag. I’ll use it for hands that don’t go my way, even if I did everything right. The goal is to put them out of my mind and let PT4 worry about and dwell on them for me. Hopefully, this will help keep me calm and develop a mindset of “no expectations, just acceptance”.

I hope this helps and Happy Thanksgiving!