Many factors influence your poker performance. The most important one is your knowledge of the game combined with the ability to apply it in real-time. However, the sooner you realize how important it is to keep your mindset healthy, the more likely you are to become a successful poker player.
Poker can be an exhausting and frustrating game. The luck factor is an integral part of it, and from time to time, every player experiences a painful streak of unfortunate events. While you can’t affect the cards you are being dealt or the ones hitting the board, you can control how you react to what’s happening at the poker table.
Moreover, poker is an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master game. The best players are getting better and better every year, but the optimal poker strategy is so complex it’s virtually impossible to implement by a human without mistakes. Whether you’re a seasoned professional player who has played online poker for years or just an occasional amateur who shows up at a local casino from time to time, you will face situations in which you will not know what to do. And just like in many other areas of our lives, mistakes are inevitable. What’s important is how you react after they occur.
Many aspects of poker can be challenging for human brains, and that’s natural – it makes poker so exciting that millions of people worldwide choose it as their hobby.
One thing is sure: the sooner you take care of your mental game, the easier it will be to develop as a player.
A strong mental game will mean something different for every poker player
Some will struggle to keep their composure after severe bad beats; some will get bored easily and suffer from the “fancy game syndrome”, and others will be highly risk-averse, which will cripple their ability to play poker profitably. This list could go on and on.
Of course, it’s not always easy to self-diagnose. Almost every poker player will benefit greatly from professional assistance, but for a start, you should identify the areas you struggle with. Awareness of what’s wrong is the first step to improving the situation.
We know that not all poker players aim to become professionals and want to climb the stakes continuously. Luckily, many people play for fun and are okay with losing money occasionally. However, if you ended up on our blog, you’d likely like to develop your own game and care about your poker career.
In that case, we’d like to point out three areas that, when taken care of, are likely to improve both your mindset and win rate.
Respect the bankroll management
Bankroll management is probably the least sexy term associated with professional poker. The reason is quite prosaic; if you want to treat your game seriously, there’s really no way around it. Whatever game you play, whatever stakes you are on, the losing sessions will happen to you, and sooner or later, you will experience streaks of bad luck.
While both events are unavoidable, how you prepare for them is up to you. Bad luck and painful bad beats often lead to bad plays and losing more money than necessary.
Keeping solid bankroll management is the most vital of all the important tips we can give you. It will help you to keep playing the best game possible while on the downswing. Having enough buy-ins to avoid going broke will help your poker mindset a ton in a time of need.
But what does “enough buy-ins” mean? We looked at the correct approach to bankroll management in our article a few months ago: Poker bankroll management 101. What works in poker in 2024?
Studying poker is a solid remedy to a downswing
Poker downswings happen to every player out there. Of course, some are more susceptible to them than others, but it’s always a very unpleasant period. In the section above, we’ve already mentioned that healthy management of your funds is crucial for your ability to keep playing regular games. While on the poker downswing, it’s not only the money that can be a problem; quite often, it’s your confidence.
If you are to be a successful poker player, confidence in your poker abilities is an important factor. While overconfidence and cockiness can be a downfall for even the best poker players, you must trust your skills and understanding of the game. When you experience a poker downswing, it’s quite easy to start doubting yourself. Even a winning player makes a bad play occasionally, but that doesn’t invalidate their overall skills.
How to combat your inner critic and handle downswings? By studying even more during that period. Remember to spend additional time studying whenever things do not go your way. Nothing will keep your confidence at the right level like a solid amount of time spent analyzing your own hands, consulting with other poker players, or repeating some essential poker concepts.
On our blog, we’ve covered various aspects of studying poker. Make good use of the articles we’ve prepared! This one covers the topic of downswings: How to deal with a poker downswing?
Give your mental game a break – have a life outside poker
Let’s be honest; if you play poker for a living, it is a job, and you need to consider it as such. And just like in any other job, you need to take some time off. Work-life balance is very important in the long run of every career. Not only will it prevent you from burning out quickly, but it will also help you endure bad emotions caused by poker. If poker is everything you care about, your life will be miserable every time a streak of losing sessions hits you. That’s why finding another activity that relaxes you, improves your mood, and allows you to stop thinking about poker is so important.
That’s not all. Look at poker pros nowadays; most of them, if not all, pay a lot of attention to a healthy and balanced lifestyle. They know how important good sleep, a healthy diet, and physical exercise are. Sometimes simple changes can benefit your performance greatly.
If you want to treat your game seriously, take good care of yourself. It will benefit you more than only improve your win rate.
We’ve covered how to treat your poker career seriously in How to Manage Your Poker Career in 2025 article.
There’s much more to be said about a proper poker mindset
Just as with everything poker related, it’s a very broad topic. We hope this article will help you identify the areas of your game you need to improve. That’s a constant process, and that’s why we have our own mindset coach – whys0serious.
We support our members with not only training materials but also mindset guidance. Our proven approach has helped hundreds of players crush their stakes and move up.
Would you like to take your game to the next level? You can, with our help. Join Smart Spin and see if our offer suits you; now, one month free of charge.