Poker Distilled

Poker car crashes. IRL car crashes. Good and bad reasons to quit a poker session. Do you have quitting leaks in your game and what can you do about them?

Are we naturally poker optimists or pessimists and what can be improve in our poker journeys by making an effort to see the game through more a more positive lens?

Playing your A-Game in poker can be a magical feeling but one that can seem elusively rare. What steps can we take to ensure we play our A-Game more often and what version of ourselves should we bring to the poker table? Which virtues learned in the outside world can we bring with us into poker in order to play our best more often?

If poker had the same timeline as human civilization, where would be on it? Are we still in a sort of dark age or has the advent of solvers hurled us into modernity? What do the recent feuds between coaches and prominent players tell us about our place on the poker timeline?

Is bravery in poker just about having the stones to put it all on the line. Are big bluffs and big calls the hallmark of the brave poker player or is it something else entirely? What are the crossovers between bravery in life and bravery in poker?

Melissa asks Pete about a harrowing recent experience he has struggled to deal with as a segue into the topic of adversity in poker and how it can be an integral aspect of poker success.  

Where do we draw the line with bum-hunting? Does poker do any good for society or is it an immoral choice of profession? What virtue can be found in a poker career?

Melissa makes Pete contemplate poker death and whether there could be a life beyond it. Does our conception of life after poker affect our behaviour within the game? How do our fears of ruin impact our poker careers?

Chaos and Order are inescapably connected and integrated within every fibre of human life and poker is no exception. This episode addresses the fine line between an orderly poker existence and a chaotic one as Pete rants to Melissa about one of his student's mental game journeys; his own battles with maintaining order in his poker career; and a disturbing dream he had where undead legions invaded his house. 

In the very first episode of Poker Distilled, Melissa brings Pete three things she wishes she could have unpacked from her poker backpack early on in her journey. Sometimes less is more, so what are these unwanted poker thought processes and habits and how should we go about shedding them?