The Mindset Advantage Poker Podcast

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• How Matt went from a break even online MTT player to crushing the highest stakes in just 6 months.
• Why Matt was one of the few poker pro fist pumping when Black Friday happened.
• What happened when Matt lost $5.5mm in the 300/600/1200 and was down to his very last buy-in for the game.
• Why poker is rooted in failure, and how using that knowledge can help you not to take the results personally.
• How asking "why" can help you escape the learning curve and start your journey to hitting your ceiling in poker.

Links:

Matt Berkey:

• Solve For Why Academy
• Twitter
• YouTube
• A Gambler's Fallacy

Adrienne Rowsome:

• Watch and Subscribe to Adrienne's Twitch Channel
• Twitter
• Facebook

Lex Veldhuis is a Dutch professional player and a member of PokerStar's Team Pro Online. Lex made a name for himself with his hyper-aggressive play in televised cash games like High Stakes Poker and The Big Game.

With roots in online gaming and e-sports, Lex's true home is on the online tables. Over the last year, he's dedicated himself to growing his Twitch.tv following and has one of the biggest streams in poker. One of his goals is to build a bridge between the poker and e-sports world, and he will often stream other games as well as host (and be hosted by) large gaming streamers.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• How Lex bribed his opponents into teaching him mixed games.
• What Lex did to get branded as a fish, how that got it invited to huge private games, and why he's done a complete 180 and wants to be viewed as a great player.
• What Phil Galfond, Sauce123 and Jungleman do that keeps them at the top of the game.
• How to prevent burnout during SCOOP and other large MTT series.
• How Lex uses his uses his anger and frustration to actually prevent tilt. (Be careful with this one as the majority of players who say this works for them are just denying they are on tilt)

Links: Lex Veldhuis:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• Twitch.tv

Adrienne Rowsome:

• Watch and Subscribe to Adrienne's Twitch Channel
• Twitter
• Facebook

In This Week's Episode:

Doug Polk is known as one of the (if not THE) best Heads Up No Limit Holdem players of all time. In addition to making a name for himself on the tables, he made waves in the poker community by not being afraid to speak his mind and call out other players.

He's also had success in the live poker arena with two WSOP bracelets and over $5 million in earnings.

Since starting his training site, Upswing Poker, he's become one of the most popular personalities in the poker world with one of the top viewed Twitch Stream and YouTube channels in poker.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• What Doug did when he lost 90% of his net worth and had to decide between giving poker one last go, or finding another path.
• How to prevent your ego from getting in the way of being honest about your opponent's strengths and weaknesses.
• The most important mindset to embrace if you have trouble with tilt.
• What you should do when you notice your confidence slipping after losing 30+ buy-ins.
• How Doug worked his way back from a massive $1.7 million downswing.

In This Week's Episode:

Since his appearance on the first ever TMA Podcast episode, Daniel "Oxota" Dvoress has taken the live poker scene by storm. Since then he's amassed over $3,000,000 in live tournament earnings, and become a staple in the High Roller/Super High Roller scene.

Daniel joins us to share how the ups and downs of making the transition from online to live, and how he uses mindset work to gain an edge on the field.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• Why preparation, play and study for live sessions is so much different than online.
• How learning a new game or format can boost your motivation.
• The exact routine Daniel uses before playing a high roller.
• How Daniel leverages high-pressure situations to run over a table.
• The correct way to use live-tells to enhance your technical decision making.
• How to gain an edge when you're not a naturally gifted player.

In This Week's Episode: In Tommy Angelo's new book, Painless Poker, he approaches teaching the mental game from a new angle.

The book focuses around 7 fictional poker players, all archetypical characters representing the pain we experience while playing, who are attending Tommy's "Painless Poker Clinic."

Rather than teaching mindset with the typical textbook approach, you get to follow along with the story and see the changes the characters make in their own game. When you buy the print book directly from Tommy's site, he'll send you an autographed copy as well as a free digital download.

In This Episode You'll Learn: Links:

• Why Tommy decided to use a fictional story to teach mindset concepts.
• Why all poker players should start meditating today.
• The point in your poker career you should start working on your mental game, and why most players start way too late.

In This Week's Episode:

Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet has been one of the most successful and profitable online tournament players of the last decade. With $8,000,000 in lifetime cashes, he's won some of online poker's toughest tournaments, including Pokerstars' $1,050 Super Tuesday and Sunday Grand, and he has the highest average cash of the top 20 players on Pocket 5s' all-time earnings leaderboard.

His most recent achievement, in January, was the largest Triple Crown recorded by Pocket 5s since 2013, featuring wins in the 888 Super XL High Roller and the Party Poker Super High Roller.

Jon credits his success to staying a student of the game, constantly adjusting, not being afraid to try new strategies, and prioritizing mental/physical health alongside study.

He's a contributing instructor on Cardrunners, a co-author (with Rizen and Pearljammer) of the book Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time, and has worked with hundreds of students as an online MTT coach since 2011.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• How keeping a daily poker journal allowed Jon to discover a huge mindset leak.
• Jon's "study prescription" for Adrienne.
• The great thing about downswings.
• Why you should be ruthless on the tables even if that's not your personality in real life.
• The inverted relationship between the amount of alcohol Jon drank daily and how much he won at the tables.
• How playing poker for a living gave Jon the freedom to give back in areas that were important to him

Links:

Jon Van Fleet:

• Twitter
• PocketFives Profile
• Cardrunners Profile

Adrienne Rowsome:

• Watch and Subscribe to Adrienne's Twitch Channel
• Twitter
• Facebook

In This Week's Episode:

Big news this week!

Dr. Tricia Cardner has decided to focus on other pursuits and will no longer be co-hosting the show. We'd like to thank Dr. Cardner for her contribution to the show and for her dedication to helping poker players improve their mindset. You can follow along with her work by visiting her website:

http://www.drtriciacardner.com/

Taking over co-hosting duties is none other than Adrienne "Talonchick" Rowsome. Adrienne is a member of PokerStar's Team Pro Online and runs one of the top Twitch.tv streams in the poker directory. Her experience in poker and work as an Occupational Therapist gives her a unique perspective, and we are excited to have her on-board.

You can watch Adrienne play on Twitch Every Monday, Friday and Saturday. Please check out her steam and support her efforts by subscribing to the channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/talonchick

In this week's episode, we are joined once again by 2x Sunday Million winner Rob Tinnion. Rob runs Pocarr.com, one of the largest backing stables for online MTTs, and the training site Max-Value.com.

Since his last appearance on the show, he has placed 2nd in a 1k SCOOP for $314k and released his long-awaited course MTT Foundations.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• What Rob's optimal schedule looks like and how it's allowed him to get more done while having more free time.
• How to structure your study, so you improve faster with less work.
• Why Rob thinks he sucks at poker, and how that mindset has made him successful.
• Why winning a lot of money early in your career is the worst thing that can happen to you.
• How to build the foundations of an MTT game that will allow you to be successful for as long as the game is profitable.

Kurt "kurt23x" Fitzgerald has been an MTT pro for the last 10 years.

After Black Friday he briefly gave live poker a try but was lured to Costa Rica by some poker friends. His initial run while living there did not go well, and he moved back home with that plan to get a conventional job and go back to school.

After getting a taste of this life, he decided to re-dedicate himself to the game and gave Costa Rica another run. This mindset shift changed everything, and Kurt has been able to maintain his position as a top pro ever since.

He recently started a Twitch channel with the goal of raising money for hurricane victims in Costa Rica. Please check out his channel and donate to the cause if able.

Kristy Arnett first made a name for herself in the poker world by reporting on the game. She started playing poker in university, and in 2006 made the move to Las Vegas to work for Card Player.

After accomplishing everything she wanted in the poker journalism world, she made the switch to full-time player. She used the added freedom this gave her to focus on self-development.

That has led her to become an Emotional Intelligence Coach and to start the "WTF Am I Doing With My Life" podcast.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• The simple tweak that got 200% more study participants to exercise at least once a week.
• The reason that Kristy gave up a comfortable job as a poker reporter to play the game full-time.
• How Kristy uses poker to become a better person.
• How to decide if a risk is essential to take or if you should avoid it at all costs.
• How having a vision can help ensure that you are never just drifting through life.
• Why it's important to be a decent human being to your fellow poker players.

Chris “Apotheosis” Kruk is a multiple game specialist and respected poker coach.

His career started when he took a semester off school and gave poker a shot instead of working a conventional job. A month after starting off at NL100 Zoom he found himself all the way up at NL500 Zoom.

Unlike other players who found poker success in university, Chris went back and finished his degree, coaching on the side to earn a living (and some beer money).

In his 4 years as a pro he’s become proficient in many forms of poker. He started at NL cash, moved to PLO cash, tried his hand at 8-game, and has recently decided to focus on NL MTTs.

He’s also a video producer for Run It Once and MTT coach for the BitB staking group.

In This Episode You'll Learn: 

• The supplement that a recent study showed boosted participants IQ by 10% and increased gray matter volume in the left hippocampus by 6.13%.
• How Chris has been able to transition from NL cash to PLO to 8-game and NL MTTs and have big success every step of the way.
• How to maintain a strong mindset even after absolutely bricking every tournament in a big MTT series.
• How preparing for the worst case scenario can help you stay mentally strong.
• Why MTT players might not be as bad postflop as cash game players would have you believe
• The techniques Chris uses with his students to get them past the mental leaks holding them back from getting the most out of his coaching.
• Why some people are incapable of learning poker even if they are otherwise brilliant.