The WSOP Main Event is in full swing, which means one thing is certain:
You will see endless clips, and many of them will have your favorite poker players and heroes, the ones you look up to the most. Maybe you'll watch someone like Chris Moneymaker, above, making some of the sickest bluffs, hero calls, and folds that you’ve ever seen.
You might see these clips, then go out and try to make the exact same play.
And this will not necessarily go well for you.
Especially if the only reason you’re doing it is because your saw your favorite player do it, and that it worked – therefore it must be a good play to make.
What you might not understand, is that you are not them.
You are not the sum of all of their experiences sitting right there at the table at that exact moment, feeling what they are feeling. Therefore you have no idea all of the things that have gone into that moment that enable them to make these plays.
You do you
If you want to play like your heroes, forget about trying to do what they do.
Instead, see if you can feel how they feel in these moments.
Present. Clear.
Thinking clearly so that you can trust your instincts, and be completely at peace whether it goes in your favor this time or not — not needing to be right, because when you need to be right, it’s just so damn hard to be right.
This is the state in which the best plays get made.
If you want to play how they play?
It will help to know your poker.
But you also better understand how to put yourself into the right state to sense when the time is right to make that perfect play.
Otherwise you’ll always be the one watching and analyzing the great play being made, instead of the one actually doing it.
Jason Su is the author of The Joy of Poker and coaches many of the world’s top poker players on how to perform their best when it matters most.
Learn more with Jason on YouTube and through what some say is 'the best newsletter in poker,' which you can access for free at pokerwithpresence.com.
