Run It Once has provided an exclusive insight into the mind of one of its Elite Pros.
This time around, Sam Forde reveals how his background in psychology and counseling led him to a career in poker and how he uses his knowledge of the human mind to find success at the poker table.
PokerOrg sat in on Forde's Q&A session to hear about his transition from counseling to poker, and the key takeaways he's found along the way.
How did your poker journey begin?
Sam Forde: I used to teach. And, at some point, I got drawn into counseling, actually through my wife, Heather. We have five kids together now, which is definitely a defining part of my existence and how I manage things. When we got together, she decided to get into counseling; she was really interested in that. And I followed her into it after seeing what it did for her own journey, her own development, and how stimulating it was for her. I re-trained in counseling, and then I worked in counseling in high schools and then in a private practice.
Poker has been a big passion of mine since 2012 — around the time my oldest child, my son, was born. Basically, I got invited to a stag do. There’s all the bad things going on, but then I heard we were playing a poker tournament later. I actually remember shutting myself away for a few minutes and downloading some info on poker. I remember learning: pocket tens plus, get it in.
I didn’t go far in that tournament, but I was so hooked. I was watching everything I could on YouTube, which, at the time, wasn't much. I was trying to find home games, and there was nothing going on. I got into building my own poker tables to try and get home games going. I found the casino and got into all that.
I was always kind of overly serious about it, too. I never had a phase where I got into poker and just enjoyed the thrill of it, and that was good enough. I always really enjoyed it, and I was also too serious for my own level.
Around 2018, I contacted Nuno [Alvarez] from Run It Once, and he introduced me to contemporary heads-up strategy, and I was blown away. That was the first time I had a sense of the game tree and some clarity around having a simplified strategy. I got into heads-up and that was a big shift for me.
How much do you think mental game is a factor in poker?
SF: It's a huge question, but it depends on how we frame and delineate those things. Ultimately, results will interfere with that as well. If your mental game isn't great, but you're crushing and have been for a couple years, there's nothing really stopping you. It will affect the quality of your life, your relationships, and all that kind of stuff, but your game itself will keep thriving because you just don't have that rollercoaster.
My basic sense of it is that then it's about focus, motivation, decision-making, executing, awareness, being attentive to your opponents, and being present to what their basic strategy is and how to exploit it. The basic stuff where, in a way, it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, you still need to be attuned to the person or people that you're playing against. There are lots of things that can interfere with that, and that's all mental game-related.
Growing up, I moved around a lot. I was the fourth child in my family, and we lived in Algiers, in North Africa for a bit. We also lived in France for quite a while. I understand now that an emotional home for me is that I struggle with a sense of belonging. It's all about adapting. Figuring out what you need to do and doing it in the right way. But then that sense of, 'I belong here, these are my people, this is my thing' is really hard for me to achieve. It doesn't matter how long I've been connected to a group or activity.
I was talking to Tommy Angelo — he's a bit of an OG mindset guy in the poker space – I remember reading his books when I started. We were chatting, and it felt quite casual and nice. Afterwards, I realized I felt validated in having talked to him in that way. I felt more part of poker than I had before. I belong more. I actually am a part of this, and it's not some weird thing I have to justify in my life. It's a community I'm a part of, something I'm excited about. That's actually pretty new for me.
What tips do you have for dealing with downswings?
SF: This is actually what we call a doorknob moment — where you have a session with someone and for fifty minutes you chat about certain things, and then it's time to leave the room and the person makes some big revelation about what they really want to talk about.
The thing that immediately comes to mind is for poker to have its place nestled inside a network of other things. You know and I know that when you're going through periods of grinding full-time, it's very hard for that narrow focus to not be your whole world. So, having a landscape in your consciousness where poker is one thing that's happening in the midst of other things helps. That's easier said than done.
If you're interested in hearing more from Sam Forde, the entire conversation is available to Run It Once Elite members.
Additional benefits from Elite membership include access to the revamped Run It Once Discord, instruction from some of the best coaching minds in the industry, and the Run It Once video library with captions available in eight languages.
