Poker Distilled

This is not the greatest episode of Poker Distilled, oh no, this is a Tribute. Couldn't remember the greatest episode of Poker Distilled, oh no, Pete's sound was muted throughout. What a boomer. This episode is about the concept of World Favourability in Poker and why having the right vantage point is mandatory for assessing it correctly.

Every poker player leans a certain way when it comes to their default game. These biases tend to come out as soon as tilt enters the fray and impartiality goes out of the window. Sure, we're supposed to mix when we have an indifferent situation and no exploitative read to guide us, but in reality we often let our default preferences decide matters. 

In 2010, Pete was part of a thriving poker community getting told off by professional poker players for his sloppy thought processes. In the modern age, good poker communities are hard to come by and lone learning has become commonplace, but how destructive is this isolation for your poker community and what can you do about it?

Melissa recounts the story of her dramatic recent encounter with an old man coffee . More serious topics this week include Pete's experiences with some rare anti-social/unpleasant poker students and some strategy talk about playing at low stack to pot ratios.

After falling out about Pete's disdain for live poker, Pete and Melissa reconcile by launching into a deep conversation about the importance of becoming obsessed with a discipline (like poker) to draw real meaning from it. 

After some recap on Melissa's experiences using the mental game techniques from the previous episode, Pete talks a bit about some of the most difficult experiences he's had as a poker coach including dealing with students that have no hope of succeeding or even those who have gambling problems related to poker.

Poker has a harsh way of making us attached to pots, winnings, progress, graphs and more before viciously snatching those things away in a bout of negative variance. How can we manage our own attachment to cope with this mentally taxing element of the game. 

Mistakes provide one of the most essential and valuable resources for growth in poker but how do we get into the right mindset to make use of them with the bonus effect of playing poker becoming a happier and more fulfilling experience?

Solvers can be extremely powerful tools, but what if I told you that for many people solvers make their game WORSE not better. In this episode we give you practical advice on how to get the most out of tools like PIO Solver and GTO Wizard while avoiding the common pitfalls that snare unsuspecting poker players. 

The final Episode of Season 1. Poker Distilled will return for season 2 in August 2023. Encountering wild maniacs at the poker table can be unsettling and disconcerting. We know these spots are highly profitable but how do we get into the right frame of mind to take full advantage?

Getting better at spots where your fortunes suddenly change in a negative direction is one of the most challenging elements to self-improvement in poker. Melissa brings up two spots from her weekend grind where she was on either end of extreme fortune reversal. How do we navigate this extremely difficult-to-process phenomenon in poker?

How do we set the right goals in poker in the short-term, mid-term and long-term. Achieving goals as part of a deal with future you and for the game itself as a higher power and object of intellectual beauty. 

Recently Pete played a weekend of live poker. How did the slowing down of time affect his  psyche and can battle-hardened live grinder Melissa soothe his pain?

In some ways tournament players have a clear mission which is mentally simple to carry out. Stay in the tournament, build your stack, and try to win it. For cash game players,  some sessions you will be down money all day/week/month long. How do we break free of this debilitating way of perceiving results and treat the dreaded feeling of STUCK.

Poker is a game of short-term delusion and long-term discovery. How do we know when we've gathered enough knowledge and skill to consider ourselves good players and how do we the avoid short-term illusions created by the swings.

Pete and Melissa dive into a few mental games topics starting with an examination of the role played by superstition in a poker player's career and ending with an endorsement of envy. Yes that's right. Envy can be good. 

How should we process the idea that we might be being bluffed? What about when we're shown a bluff after folding in a huge pot? How does this topic relate to what Pete calls 'the three modes of poker thinking'?

Live tells were once the biggest component of a live poker player's thought process. Since the GTO boom, we have moved more into the technical realm but have live tells been unjustly discarded and how much extra EV can they add to our game if wielded correctly?

We all have our own collection of 'poker knowledge' but do we really know the things we claim to?  Which poker beliefs can we trust and where do we have to be more sceptical about our own poker thoughts?

Poker car crashes. IRL car crashes. Good and bad reasons to quit a poker session. Do you have quitting leaks in your game and what can you do about them?

Are we naturally poker optimists or pessimists and what can be improve in our poker journeys by making an effort to see the game through more a more positive lens?

Playing your A-Game in poker can be a magical feeling but one that can seem elusively rare. What steps can we take to ensure we play our A-Game more often and what version of ourselves should we bring to the poker table? Which virtues learned in the outside world can we bring with us into poker in order to play our best more often?

If poker had the same timeline as human civilization, where would be on it? Are we still in a sort of dark age or has the advent of solvers hurled us into modernity? What do the recent feuds between coaches and prominent players tell us about our place on the poker timeline?

Is bravery in poker just about having the stones to put it all on the line. Are big bluffs and big calls the hallmark of the brave poker player or is it something else entirely? What are the crossovers between bravery in life and bravery in poker?

Melissa asks Pete about a harrowing recent experience he has struggled to deal with as a segue into the topic of adversity in poker and how it can be an integral aspect of poker success.  

Where do we draw the line with bum-hunting? Does poker do any good for society or is it an immoral choice of profession? What virtue can be found in a poker career?

Melissa makes Pete contemplate poker death and whether there could be a life beyond it. Does our conception of life after poker affect our behaviour within the game? How do our fears of ruin impact our poker careers?

Chaos and Order are inescapably connected and integrated within every fibre of human life and poker is no exception. This episode addresses the fine line between an orderly poker existence and a chaotic one as Pete rants to Melissa about one of his student's mental game journeys; his own battles with maintaining order in his poker career; and a disturbing dream he had where undead legions invaded his house. 

In the very first episode of Poker Distilled, Melissa brings Pete three things she wishes she could have unpacked from her poker backpack early on in her journey. Sometimes less is more, so what are these unwanted poker thought processes and habits and how should we go about shedding them?