One of my favorite Adam Sandler comedies is Happy Gilmore. The whole movie plays upon golf’s gentlemanly nature. It’s hilarious when Sandler goes off! A key to this humor, except for Chris McDonald’s character, is that Sandler is almost always mad at himself. Ok, yes he gets into it with Bob Barker! Again though there are standards of play and in golf’s rules you report yourself if you score incorrectly etc. In the movie Sandler has to learn not to give into his “hockey” side. Sure he can hit the hell out of the ball, he’s got a ton of potential, but when he isn’t mentally tough, he screws up again and again.
In real golf, the greatest golfer of our time Tiger Woods enjoyed a mental dominance of his opponents for an extended period of time. He didn’t have to trash talk. When he walked on the course on Sunday with his red shirt on, Tiger was King Kong and the rest of the players were praying they didn’t get squashed. When Tiger missed a shot, he would sometimes curse, mad at himself for his lack of perfection but by the time he walked to the next hole he had complete focus. Poker players need to give themselves a mental walk to the next hole, where they can refocus and determine how to best take their next “shot”. I think poker players can learn a lot from golf. In fact poker should borrow golf’s rules of gentlemanly behavior.
Golf’s number one lesson is a highly overlooked aspect of poker, mental toughness. There are a lot of distractions and behaviors to overcome. Can you not only keep your focus on a given hand but can you keep it up all the way through the tournament or day? Will you be knocked off your game by the last hand or by the behavior of the other players? If we played with the gentlemanly aspect of golf, it would be incredibly bad form after a given “hole” (hand) for the other players to talk during your “shot” or to go off on you for shooting with a particular club or the way you approached the hole. In fact all comments in golf are supposed to be held, especially in tournament play, until you get back to the clubhouse. What follows are several comparisons between golf and poker that I hope you can use to better your poker game.
Bad Beats: If you know that in most cases the other guy is going to be at 30% to 40% against you, are you mentally strong enough to overcome it when they hit against you? Have you designed your game and stack to overcome this? Do you have a plan of attack to deal with it?
Bad Behavior: Golfers are lucky, other than whomever they are paired with on the course golfers often don’t hear the opinions of everyone else. A golfer is for the most part locked in his head. Imagine how much tougher it would be to make the golf shot if not only could the golfer hear the announcers talking about how lucky a shot he just made but other players were standing around telling the golfer shooting that he had no chance. In poker there are a lot of times where the table lacks golf’s gentlemanly behavior. People will be rude, yell out from other tables, and ridicule players decisions. What I’ve found most interesting about rude table talk is that it rarely affects the person that is being spoken about near as much as the other player or players at the table. Someone gets lucky on a hand and the table starts chirping, ridiculing the lucky player for their bad decisions. The player who got unlucky, well they can’t stop thinking about that hand because the table is still talking about it. The bitter taste in their mouth just won’t go away and they focus on the unfairness of it all. Meanwhile other players at that table avoid situations with the lucky player, reasoning that he is “lucky” and it’s better to fold. Mr. Lucky many times rakes additional pots from the carryover of the “lucky” hand. Can you keep your focus on the task at hand? Can you avoid the moods and discussion of others to play your game?
Better Playeritus: Can you mentally overcome losing a hand to a player you view as having less skill than you. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if at some skins tournament, Tiger went OFF when a lesser player, which is everyone else, win’s a skin? Does he have to go over and remind that player how much better he is? Nope. Further do you keep up your mental game after the lesser player beats you in a pot or do you donk off all your chips in anger? Does Tiger go to the next hole, pull out wedge club instead of a driver and face the wrong way to shoot, angry because the other guys shot went in? No, his focus is on the hole in question and winning the skin he is on. If the wind is blowing terribly when Tiger plays but stops dead calm when the lesser player plays, does he point it out to everyone to remind them his disadvantage?
TV/HOT CHICK/Booze/Cell phone/Buddy waiting: Can you focus when there are a lot of alternative activities to enjoy? Can you take advantage of those who aren’t paying close enough attention? Are you focused on the game or playing face book games on your IPHONE? Is your pal out of the tourney and just waiting for you to drive him home? Even the best golfer in the world was affected when all his outside interests impacted his life. It appears to have bled over into Tiger’s golf game as well.
Missed Opportunities: You folded and your hand hit. You got bet out of a pot with a draw and of course it hits. You didn’t maximize the number of chips you could have gotten. You left the table to take a piss and the other player is sure to tell you that while you were gone you missed pocket aces. If you had bet on the river you would have taken the pot down but you checked. You misread your hand and threw away a winner. The question is can you overcome your mistakes to focus on the task at hand. Can you forgive yourself for your mistakes so that you can enable yourself to overcome?
Momentum: We’ve all “felt” momentum in our favor or against us. The question is, can you be patient and disciplined enough for the other player’s rush to finish or to change the momentum? Can you lock yourself down or give yourself time before giving in and making a bad play? Can you be disciplined when momentum is in your favor not to donk off chips because you have so many? I’ve seen this many times and have been guilty of it myself. I get a big stack and start feeling good, giving myself the feeling of victory before actually winning anything. This is especially prevalent on big pots or big hands. The players all get so focused on the one big hand that the winner of the big hand loses all focus. Essentially the chemicals in the brain are saying, “YOU WON”, when in reality you only won a pot. I’ve also seen players overvalue momentum, feeling so invincible they no longer make wise decisions. Tiger still uses the correct club no matter how hot he is.
Unknown player: The new player sits down and you have very little clue how he plays beyond your initial read of him. Suddenly your focus goes from the hands in play to just him. What does he do, will he do that again, etc. An hour later you look down the table towards the guy whose game you have down pat. He has a boatload of your chips and you have a small book on the new guy. That’s great if you are there to make a small book on the new guy, it’s horrible if you are there to win some money playing poker!
Feelings: We’ve all had days where we wake up and poker day is here and…you just don’t feel it. Sometimes you don’t notice until you start playing, it’s harder today for whatever reason. Thoughts of real life are invading your poker calm and after a bad start you just “feel” it’s not your day. Do you have the mental fortitude to fight through it to play good poker? Ever felt too good? You’re just so darn happy to be playing cards and hanging out with friends that you play too many hands and not very well. You’re laughing and smiling but the other guy has the chips. Sometimes how you are feeling is a boatload of tells for the other players. Your poker face is out in the car while you laugh drink and have fun. Meanwhile the quiet killer is raking chips. Can you sacrifice being good time Charlie long enough to lock down on the card game?
So Take a cue from golf to bring better focus to your poker game. Oh and don’t piss off Bob Barker!
