Patrick Gerritsen is a professional player and coach at Run It Once, where he specializes in cash game strategy under the nickname ‘Freenachos’. In the first of a series of columns for PokerOrg he shares how a mindful approach can lead to breakthroughs in your game, your bottom line and your life - even if that new approach is forced on you…
In the past few years, I've coached over 100 players through my coaching-for-profit (CFP) program, NachosPoker. Some of these players are now competing with the world's best on all of the largest online poker sites, but truth be told: I’ve seen some players stagnate as well.
Just like in any other field, various factors contribute to one player's success and another's failure: personal circumstances, motivation, raw talent, you name it. In poker though, there is one additional skill that sets the best apart from the rest: the ability to take charge over the things that are in your control and - even harder - surrender to the things that are not.
Stop resisting
Recently I had a call with one of our students. He had quickly moved up from 50nl to 500nl, but then went on a massive downswing. It seemed that every bluff he made failed and every attempt to bluff-catch would result in the villain tabling the nuts. He sounded tired.
“I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this,” he told me, “I can’t seem to win a single flip any more. Every session I play I just end up losing more.”
“Sure you are,” I replied. “You’ve just got to stop resisting.”
Navigating the storm
Years ago, when I was still a struggling micro-stakes player, I would do anything to prevent myself from getting hurt.
I rarely bluffed, made no light calls and, as a result, I did not move up. In a sense I was not ready to accept a key aspect of the game I was playing: variance. It took quitting poker and finding some success outside of it to realize that there is opportunity in dealing with adversity.
Let me give you an example: in my last year of teacher’s college, I failed my final internship. A few weeks later I was on my way home when, out of the blue, everything around me started to look fuzzy. My heart began to race and a thought pierced through my mind: "You’re having a heart attack. You’re dying."
Instead of going home, I rushed to the emergency room where, after some tests, the doctor calmed me down and told me "Your heart is fine, you just had a panic attack."
The power of surrender
These panic attacks soon became a regular occurrence. They would hit me at the worst times: on the train going to college, at the grocery store, or right in the middle of teaching a class. It started to feel like I was losing control, like I was slowly going insane.
To try and fight off the constant worry about when the next attack would come, I did all sorts of things: I tried breathing exercises, counting, stretching, going for walks – anything to help me feel a bit more in control and less like I was about to fall apart. The unfortunate reality was: nothing would help.
Then, one day on the bus, I felt another panic attack coming. This time, instead of fighting it, I told myself: "It’s okay, it's just another panic attack. It's fine. Just breathe through it and it will pass." And the strange thing was: the panic stopped. The stress that was mounting, was slowly fading away.
It was the last panic attack I ever had.
Embrace the journey
Looking back, through all the stress and the fear of losing my mind, it was undoubtedly the toughest period in my life. But it was also when I found meditation and mindfulness, learned to accept myself more, and most importantly: I learned to let go of things beyond my control.
This experience transformed me into the player I am today. Interestingly, how terrible I felt then doesn't at all reflect the positive impact that period had on my life and later, on my career.
And so, I told my student on a downswing: “It might not feel like it now, but there’s opportunity here. When I was in Poker Detox I had to move down from 2000nl to 200nl. I was down 45 buy-ins, I felt powerless. Looking back now, I can say that that was the period that accelerated my growth on pretty much every level available.”
So, if you’re reading this while going through a downswing yourself, my best advice is: embrace it - this might be the opportunity to grow that you’ve been yearning for.
Images courtesy of Colton Sturgeon/Jack Hamilton/Matt Hardy/Unsplash
Patrick Gerritsen is a successful online player and a coach at Run It Once, as well as the founder of the NachosPoker training site. He specializes in cash games, combining solid fundamentals with data analysis.
