The Mental Game Podcast

My guest on The Mental Game Podcast is perhaps the one person in the world who has spent more time than me talking tilted poker players off a ledge. Matt Savage is without doubt the most accomplished Tournament Director in the industry and his opinion on rulings is second to none. If you follow him on Twitter you’ll know he kindly devotes a great deal of his personal time giving his advice on contentious live poker decisions. Matt is the tour director for the WPT, the founder of the TDA, tournament director of the Commerce Casino and host of the poker show Inside Poker. His job involves making decisions which affect people’s money and life, which as you can imagine is its own sort of pressure similar to what the players face.

In recent years I have developed a much bigger client list from the world of finance, trading and investment. This is in no small part because the mental game skills needed to do well in poker are directly transferable to trading, and vice versa. My guest today on the Mental Game Podcast shows precisely this overlap. Matt Bodnar is a partner at a venture capital firm and is also a dedicated student of psychology and what makes top performers thrive. He has a podcast called The Science of Success (which I recently appeared on). He is also a poker player.

With the Olympics now over I have a very fitting guest on The Mental Game Podcast, not just because he is Brazilian but also because he is arguably one of the few professional poker players whose experience of the game mirrors that of elite athletes. Andre Akkari is a Team PokerStars Pro and WSOP Bracelet winner. He is also a megastar in his homeland of Brazil. While he is not as well known as, say, Daniel Negreanu outside of Brazil he is incredibly famous within it. How many other poker players, for example, would be asked to carry the Olympic Torch? Andre has a following and a pressure that comes with it that most poker players don't understand, which made for a great interview.

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and Mini WCOOP starts soon and the online version of the WSOP can be just as mentally and physically demanding. In recent years I have been coaching my clients on how to prepare for the demands of an online series like this. In this Q&A in answer these questions:

*How do I deal with the tilt/frustration of busting after going deep?

*How do I deal with pressure of bigger buy-in events?

*How do I stay motivated in the smaller buy-in events, when I know I am playing bigger ones?

*I'm staked, how should handle being in make-up and losing other people's money?

*I get overexcited at the start of big events, how do I calm myself down and get patient?

My guest today on The Mental Game Podcast is a much needed voice for anyone who is struggling to find meaning and purpose in their life. Mark Manson is a a very successful author, blogger, self-development coach and dating expert. On the surface it appears he has his shit together, but as he says he starts everything he does as a form of 'public therapy' with himself, but with the reader in mind. His new book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is actually about finding out what your values are, what you give a fuck about. We had a really good discussion about how young people today in many ways have it better than ever, but are missing a clearly defined sense of meaning. So the onus of responsibility is on us to create our own.

My guest today on the Mental Game Podcast Dr. Jonathan Fader is a clinical sport psychologist who works with top athletes, business people and most notably the New York Mets. He's also the author of the new book, "Life as Sport: What top athletes can teach you about how to win in life". Like me, he has taken a more traditional approach to performance psychology by first getting a degree in clinical psychology and applying it to the world of sports performance. (He’s added a Ph.D in sport psychology as well.) We may have different methods but there’s a lot we agree on, including there being more to achieving peak performance than simply visualizing yourself winning.

My guest today on the Mental Game Podcast is the author of a book that I've recommended and referenced a lot in my career. Daniel Coyle is the author of The Talent Code, a truly fantastic book that deconstructs the idea of talent and proves that while natural talent does exist, the thing that really separates the winners and the losers is the level of deep practice they are prepared to put in. We often seek to avoid failure, but Coyle has discovered a vast amount of research that proves that only when we push ourselves to the edges of our ability are we able to develop the skill needed to be elite performers in our field.

My guest today on the Mental Game Podcast is a long-time client who has been phenomenal to work with because, besides being an all-around great guy, he is deeply committed to the process of mastering his craft. Niels Feijen is a professional pool player from the Netherlands. He is one of the top players in the world and his accolades include the 2008 World Straight Pool Championship, the 2014 World Nine Ball Championship and the four-time MVP for the Mosconi Cup. Pool strikes me as a game much like golf was decades ago - a physical sport that requires a lot of mental ability and yet, as Niels explains, very few professionals actually work hard on their mental game. Not only is Niels dedicated to constantly improving mentally, he works incredibly hard on every aspect of the game. And that's why he is among the best in the world.

I got a great response to my last Q&A podcast on Goal Setting, so I have done another one all about Tilt. If you want to be featured on a future Q&A podcast, just contact me with your question. Today Barry and I discuss a wide range of topics I’m sure all of you can relate to, even if you are not a poker player. In this episode we discuss:

* Why you might Tilt in one format (Like PLO), but not another (Like No Limit)

* The differences between Tilt in poker and trading

* Is Tilt different online compared to live?

* Why Winner’s Tilt is more of a confidence issue than an anger issue

* Dealing with pressure at the tables that appears as anger

Everyone talks about wishing they had better focus, while they have one eye on Facebook on their smartphone. We live in an age of distraction and as our relationship with technology becomes symbiotic, it can come with great cost. This week Barry speaks with Professor and Author Cal Newport. Cal is a Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University and one of the most productive researchers working today. He also is a best selling author of no less than five books, as well as having a very popular blog which helps you improve your own focus and study. Cal manages all of this, not in spite of, but because of, a dedication to avoiding distractions like email and social media. In his new book Deep Work he talks about how to improve your focus and do difficult demanding work. Focus is not an innate skill, it is something that can be trained and improved like a muscle.