Beyond Poker

Martin Jacobson is a Swedish professional poker player, originally from Stockholm, Sweden, but currently residing in London, England. In 2014, he won the World Series of Poker Main Event fo $10,000,000, the fifth largest single payout in poker tournament history.

Prior to his poker career, Martin studied to be a chef. His first live cash came in 2008 when he won 3rd place at the European Poker Tour even in Hungary. In season 7 of the European Poker Tour, he made 3 final tables, including 2 runner-up finishes in Vilamoura and Deauville. He also finished runner-up at the World Poker Tour event in Venice in 2009. Prior to the Main Event in 2014, his largest tournament cash came from a 6th place finish at the Big One for One Drop High Rollers event at the 2013 WSOP, earning $807,000. He has 16 career WSOP cashes, including 5 final tables.

As of 2015, his total live tournament winnings exceed $15,000,000. His 18 WSOP cashes account for $11,234,390 of those winnings.

Martin is a member of Raising for Effective Giving, an Effective altruism organization of poker players who pledge to donate at least 2% of their gross tournament winnings and at least 3% of their profit from cash games every quarter to charities. In 2015, Martin Jacobson was named Player of the Year by the Swedish publication ‘Poker.se’. This title has previously been awarded to other high profile professional players such as Viktor Blom, Chris Bjorin and Robin Ylitalo.

Key Takeaways

• Martin’s take on the importance of customer service in a business.
• Martin’s most tilting and dream come true customer service experience.
• Is customer service trainable and how much would Martin pay for the best staff ever?
• Martin’s experience with coaching.
• How did Martin start poker?
• What happened in Martin’s 3rd hand at the satellite game?
• Experiencing Vegas.
• Martin’s take on performance optimizing equipment.

Resources

• http://martinjacobson.pro/ 
• https://twitter.com/martin_jacobson?lang=en
• https://www.instagram.com/martin.jacobson/?hl=en 

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To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/21

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Elliot Roe is a leading expert in Mindset Optimization for High Performers. He is the world’s #1 Mindset Coach for poker players. In the last 3 years, his poker clients have won over $50,000,000 and nearly every major tournament title, including the World Series of Poker Main Event. His clientele also includes Olympic medalists, UFC Champions, Hollywood Actors, Business executives and wall street traders. His unique mindset coaching system leverages the power of hypnotherapy to eliminate fears and breakthrough mental roadblocks allowing you to operate in a state of peak performance every day.

Key Takeaways

• Elliot Roe’s Gift and Curse in life.
• The major difference between typical coaching clients versus high performer clients.
• Elliot’s preference, the emotional assurance or perspective shift approach?
• How did Elliot develop his super power?
• Elliot’s hypnotherapy structure over the years.
• Nick’s communicational issues and his upgrades.
• Changing regrets to Growth mindset with Elliot.
• Elliot’s advantages and upgrades gained from his perfect job.

Resources

• https://elliotroe.com/
• https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1224121850
• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.primedmind&referrer=utm_source%3Dsource%26utm_medium%3Dmedium%26utm_campaign%3Dryancarter
• https://www.runitonce.com/courses/a-game-poker-masterclass/

Rate & Review

If you enjoyed today’s episode of Beyond Poker, hit the subscribe button in Apple Podcasts, (or wherever you listen) so future episodes are automatically downloaded directly to your device.

You can also help by providing an honest rating & review over on Apple Podcasts. Reviews go a long way in helping us build awareness so that we can impact even more people. THANK YOU!

Connect with Nick & Wayne

• Facebook
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Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/20

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

Andrew Lichtenberger is an American poker player from East Northport, New York. He is also known as LuckyChewy. He began playing poker at the age of 18. After playing in cash games, Andrew switched to multi-table tournaments and was successful.

Andrew is the champion of the 2010 World Series of Poker Circuit event in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas in April 2010. Lichtenberger has made five World Series of Poker final tables and has won a WSOP bracelet in 2016. Andrew’s WSOP cashes exceed $2,000,000. His largest cash is from World Championship Hold’em event in July 2009 for $500,557.

In today’s episode, Andrew and Nick speaks about exploring intuition, non-linear expansions and alien encounters.

Key Takeaways

• Andrew Lichtenberger’s definition of intuition.
• Following the curiosity thread, is it a waste of time or a just a lack of imagination?
• How Andrew balances curiosity and practicality.
• Why does Andrew think that everything is interconnected?
• Nick’s chess trauma and learnings about negative EV.
• Andrew’s views on psychedelics.
• Andrew’s take on intuition and how it shifted his views of the world.
• Free will and non-free will exploration with Andrew.
• How has Andrew’s naivety hurt and helped him.
• What happened to Andrew in 2012?

Resources

• https://twitter.com/luckychewy

Rate & Review

If you enjoyed today’s episode of Beyond Poker, hit the subscribe button in Apple Podcasts, (or wherever you listen) so future episodes are automatically downloaded directly to your device.

You can also help by providing an honest rating & review over on Apple Podcasts. Reviews go a long way in helping us build awareness so that we can impact even more people. THANK YOU!

Connect with Nick & Wayne

• Facebook
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• Instagram
• LinkedIn
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Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/19

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

James Whittet is a mindset coach with over 5 years of experience training hundreds of players around the world. James was a head mindset coach for bitB staking group before founding his own program Poker Mindset Mastery and becoming CEO of 5 PLO International for 5Card Coaching and Staking.

Prior to becoming a mindset coach, James profited over $1 million himself across various poker formats. He started his career in high stakes sit-n-go tournaments earning supernova elite honors twice. He transitioned into PLO and battled up the stakes to as high as 10/20. He also found success in tournaments with 3 COOP final tables and a player of the series trophy this past SCOOP.

In today’s episode, James and Nick are connects to speak about a wide range of nuances, correction processes and the paths of performance modes.

Key Takeaways

• The longevity of performance paths, Disassociation or Self Care
• What does it feels to be disassociated and what disassociation truly feels like.
• How James sees the David Goggins’ unstoppable force identity versus the life goals you have.
• What is over correction and why it’s human nature to over correct.
• What James thinks about taking break periods and working in sprints.
• The danger of Success in James’ views.
• Can Zero-sum and Non Zero-Sum games co-exist?
• James’ take about cold immersions.

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/18

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

Before he was even old enough to legally play, Zach Resnick fell in love with the game of poker. By the time he was 21, he’d started building out a number of business ventures, including Just Hands Poker.

Nick met Zach for the first time at Poker Out Loud in December of 2017. Talking just through hands, they struck up a relationship that led to them keeping in touch over the next several years. Recently, they reconnected in the world of cryptocurrency, and it seemed like the stars had aligned and their journeys had overlapped again.

In today’s conversation, Zach and Nick reconnect to talk about building sustainable businesses in the crypto space, the traits that the best investors all have in common (no matter what they invest in), and how to navigate the potential conflicts that come from changing your convictions.

Key Takeaways

• Why Zach pivoted into the crypto scene instead of doubling down on poker. 
• Why there’s so much dumb money and so many scams in crypto - and how Zach built a fund with due diligence and smart people instead of just chasing exponential returns.
• How Zach sees a value proposition for blockchain technology that has nothing to do with existing outside of government regulation.
• Why it’s human nature to overvalue the first piece of information on any topic you read - and why this makes doing deep dives absolutely necessary.
• What happened to change Zach’s opinion on both Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV - and why hard pivots almost always create intense friction, blowback, and even fallout.
• Why Zach thinks Craig Wright is Satoshi.

Resources

• Unbounded Capital Fund Offerings
• Unbounded Capital's Book
• What is Proof of Work
• Why Unbounded Thinks Craig is Satoshi and Why That Matters
• EasyPoint.me
• PokerUnicorns.com

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/17

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

Additional 

Every poker player knows that understanding your opponents tells by reading their nonverbal cues is a huge advantage. But how do you know if your reads are right? This is Blake Eastman’s passion and focus. He led the largest behavioral study ever on poker players and has built his business by giving others one of the biggest edges available at the poker table.

Blake doesn’t play in as many tournaments as he used to, but still has an impressive $200k in career cashes with a 4th place finish in the 5K 6-Max and a very deep run in the 2016 WSOP Main Event. He has been coaching poker players for over a decade and is the Founder of the School of Cards. He’s also the Founder of the behavioral research company The Nonverbal Group, and was an Adjunct Psychology Professor at the City University of New York.

In this episode, Blake joins the podcast to share what he’s learned about nonverbal behaviors, how poker players at all levels — including high stakes players — can improve their reads, and how to tell the difference between what an opponent is telling you and what they are trying to conceal from you with their emotions and physical behaviors.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding cognitive empathy and the actual reason why someone is experiencing an emotion.
• Why poker players use concealment strategies to gain an advantage and when you should pay attention to those behaviors - and when you shouldn’t.
• How variations in an opponent’s voice aren’t always the tells that you should be looking for at the poker table.
• Why it’s important to have a systematic process for determining what information is helpful and the information that isn’t useful.

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/16

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

Why do the best players reliably outrank the competition? Why are some people so much better at analysis than intuition? 

Today, Nick and Wayne are talking with Fedor Holz. Fedor is an unbelievably gifted player. He won his first WSOP bracelet in 2016 and now sits at #1 on the German all-time money list, with life tournament winnings of over $32,500,000. He shifted his focus away from poker in 2019 to develop his start-up, a mindset coaching app called Primed Mind, which makes it easy for people to use the same powerful visualization techniques that have empowered the world’s most notable phenoms. 

In this episode, Nick begins by immediately asking Fedor a simple question: “How do you navigate the analytical and intuitive plane in balance?” Fedor’s answer leads the trio in a number of different directions, including what it really means to have grit, how to process new information in every aspect of life, and how the COVID-19 pandemic forced Fedor to evaluate not just what truly matters, but what stops someone from being truly effective at what they do.

Key Takeaways

• Why the best poker players - and businesspeople - are naturally curious. 
• Why Fedor had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on protein bars and work with a full-time sports scientist to realize there was no product that could optimize his performance and well-being. 
• The value of being the person who doesn’t jump to conclusions. 
• How having an overloaded calendar with too many meetings makes it impossible to forge real, authentic connections.

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/15

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

Bencb is widely seen as one of the best online tournament players out there. He made a name for himself when he took the top prize of over $250,000 in the SCOOP Main Event in 2014, and won the WCOOP Super High Roller 2016, where he won over $1.2 million in an event with the biggest buy-in of all time. He now runs Raise Your Edge, where he teaches players to plug their leaks, master preflop, and increase their win rate through a series of classes and articles. 

In this episode, Ben joins the podcast to talk to Wayne and Nick about how his values have changed as he’s leveled up in poker, how he clarified his vision, and what it means to move in a more accelerated, harmonious way through your network without burning out.

Key Takeaways

• How Ben combined his hobby of playing poker with a sustainable business model. 
• How your poker skills can help you effectively outsource projects and operations without getting screwed over.
• Red flags to identify before doing business with a business advisor, lawyer, or accountant.
• Why you can’t lose your confidence when you fail - and why this happens to so many poker players who try to enter other lines of business.
• Why you should start meditating - and how to create a practice of your own.
• Why poker isn’t a single player game - and why mindset matters just as much as strategy.

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/14

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

When all is said and done, there’s one thing that almost anyone can take away from poker: maturity. Poker players have to learn how to balance self-compassion and patience with perseverance and a dedication to something great. Poker players aim high - and when they find themselves getting frustrated, they almost always need to get help.

Today’s episode comes from that exact experience. Jefferson Brayner is a 5/10 player with a very high personal ceiling. When he started to feel frustrated that his career wasn’t as far along as he wished it would be, he requested a consult with Nick to comb through these feelings and see what they could find.

In this conversation, Nick and Jefferson explore how to alleviate pressure and pull back the curtain to reveal just what it means to be involved when high stakes are involved. They explore how thinking about mindset performance can help someone explore new worlds, and how to solve these complex problems without getting frustrated or angry.

Key Takeaways

• Why so many tantrums are directly linked to a lack of certainty or a lack of progress.
• Why our subconscious believes there may be a benefit to throwing a tantrum - and how to stop wasting energy cycling through irrational beliefs.
• How entitlement stifles progress and hurts performance.
• How to shift attention and awareness to achieve higher clarity and keep a cool head in tense and difficult situations. 

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/13

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com

What makes a poker game “good?” For that matter, what makes any human interaction “good?” As players and people, what social behavior helps us create enjoyable scenes, as opposed to tight and uncomfortable ones?

Helping to answer these questions today is Matt Berkey. Matt is the CEO of the Solve For Why Academy training program, where he and a team of elite players provide a unique, advanced poker coaching experience built on real-time analytics and the psychology of personal interactions. He’s also played in some of the highest stakes cash games ever televised on the planet.

Today, Matt and Nick have a long overdue conversation about creating authentic experiences, the signals we send and receive in poker (and everywhere else), infinite game when it comes to network expansion, and the skills needed to excel as poker keeps changing.

Key Takeaways

• What a good poker game looks like - and what certain types of players want to experience while they play.

• Common ways players express themselves when they’re winning (and losing) - and how these behaviors can impact both enjoyment and performance for everyone else.

   

   

• How conversation at the poker table can change someone’s performance.

   

• The mindset shift necessary to get invited to (and excel) in private games.

   

• How online poker could become an arms race of high-frequency data exchange.

Get Access to the Show Notes

To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned during the interview, visit BeyondPoker.com/12

Check Us Out On: 

• BeyondPoker.com
• Wayne Yap on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Instagram
• Nick Howard on Twitter
• PokerDetox.com