You are probably thinking about poker incorrectly

Make no mistake about it, poker is complicated. But players can make the game far more complicated than it really needs to be a lot of the time. The truth is; poker is not always complicated, nor does it have to be. Once you know the basics of the game most decisions can be made in the blink of an eye. Hopefully I can explain why you should make MORE of your decisions at the poker tables simple, easy and virtually automatic, allowing you to devote your mental faculties to the difficult decisions that truly warrant them.

As the narrator from the Jim Carrey comedy Me, Myself, and Irene says, “let’s begin at the beginning”: When you first start studying the game you’ll inevitably learn about starting hands selection, position, pot odds and other basic strategic concepts. Once you are turned on to these concepts you quickly realize just how bad of a player you once were, and how armed with this information you can be a world-beater! And in very short-order these once mind-numbing concepts are “automatic”.

Unfortunately these basic concepts are only going to take you so far. As your poker education continues to progress you’ll then learn about even more strategic concepts, advanced strategic concepts like three-betting percentages, ICM chip models, defending your blinds from habitual stealers, and using Game Theory to implement an unexploitable strategy.

After this you start to learn about the psychology of the game; using meta-game techniques and watching your opponents for tells and signs of tilt. At this point most poker players find their brains on sensory overload, over-thinking the most basic of decisions, focusing on the wrong information, and finding themselves worn-out mentally after just a few hours at the poker tables.

This is where the real poker players are separated from the pretenders. The players that go on to have successful careers are the ones that can filter through all of the information and determine what pieces are important in any given situation. This is what I call the Poker Mindset; when a player is able to combine the strategies, theories, and psychological aspects of the game into a single entity.

A poker player who is able to focus on what is important, and disregard the information they have deemed unnecessary, is like watching a golfer who has perfected their swing over years of practice –it’s smooth and seems effortless—compared to a beginning player who still has “hitches” in their swing as they think about twisting at the waist, not turning over their hands, not opening the club-face, pushing through with their hips, and so on.

The beginner is still thinking through each part of their swing because they are not really sure where their weaknesses are, or what is causing their slice. The experienced player may only be focusing on one or two things during their swing; they know their hands are positioned properly, they know they are following through correctly, and so on.

Achieving the poker mindset involves a deep understanding of the game as well as human nature. To achieve the poker mindset you will need to blend the strategies of the game with the psychological aspects that make poker so confounding to many people, even skilled practitioners. But more importantly, you need to practice; to the point that once difficult decisions are now simple.