092 - Jack Sinclair - Winning The WSOP Europe ME

In this episode, Jack Sinclair, WSOP Europe champion and final tabler at the main event in Las Vegas, reveals what he did to go from recreational player with a day job to WSOP champion – in two and a half years. Elliot and Jack discuss what it feels like to get into flow state and why understanding psychology can give you that extra edge. Listen in to hear a professional who fast-tracked his way to success share some insider tips that’ll inspire you to take leaps of faith, improve your game, and experience your own flow state.

Visit The Mindset Advantage Podcast or find us on iTunes to subscribe, visit previous episodes, and learn more about your host, Elliot Roe.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:50 – Introducing Jack Sinclair, a pro who made it to the final table at the main event in Las Vegas and won the World Series of Poker Europe

• 01:30 – He’s been a professional poker player for two and a half years now; he started playing online MTTs in London
• 01:40 – He had a coaching session with Phil Gruissem and later became his roommate
• 02:30 – He got 8th in the main event at the World Series of Poker in 2017 and won Europe’s WSOP this year
• 03:30 – He was happy to have placed 8th; he was playing above his highest level and was happy with his performance

• 04:27 – The decision to leave his day-job and play poker full-time

• 04:52 – He took a leap of faith before he was good enough to play full-time
• 06:10 – He’s wasn’t that confident, but was willing to try no matter what
• 06:20 – He started playing poker at university and got hooked

• 07:15 – Switching between online mid-stakes to live tournaments

• 07:43 – He’s always been a live player; he has a good understanding of psychology which helps his game
• 08:17 – With online poker you can’t read people as easily; he plays an exploitative game style which is best live
• 09:40 – Anton Morgenstern reads “vibes” and Jack is inspired by that

• 11:00 – Jack’s thoughts on the mental game in poker

• 11:15 – He was an early adopter of The Mindset Advantage and hypnosis; he was a member of Poker Nerve as well
• 12:17 – He’s suspicious of everything but thinks that these tools are helping his game
• 13:50 – It doesn’t matter how good your mental game is if you are unsound; the question is if improvement to your mental game helps your poker game

• 15:12 – Producing your best technical game at the table without failing due to energy loss, stress, or tilt

• 15:30 – You can’t always play to the best of your ability, that’s why mindset improvement is important

• 16:22 – Jack doesn’t enjoy meditation, but when he did it, he won the tournament

• 17:00 – Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to meditate
• 17:35 – He wears lucky socks when he plays

• 18:11 – The pressure at the final tables

• 18:25 – It didn’t feel momentous; he was just blown away being in Vegas and it was an overload
• 20:10 – He got into flow state on day six; he felt like he was no longer thinking and that every move was being gifted to him

• 21:10 – Describing flow state

• 21:16 – The day went by quickly, like there was no time
• 21:52 – He felt he was using his brain more and that the stream tables helped
• 23:33 – On day four or five of WSOP Europe he had a hand where he thought he was beat but called anyway; he knew he should have folded
• 25:20 – Now he doesn’t care and does what he believes is right; this mentality helped him at the final table

• 26:00 – On playing stream tables

• 26:02 – You’ll always look like an idiot because the audience can see things you can’t
• 27:05 – The reality is that there aren’t high-level poker players giving free, good advice on YouTube or stream comments

• 27:33 – On the getting the trophy

• 28:00 – He is satisfied with the way he played; he minimized basic errors and honed in his mental game

3 Key Points

1. Going from recreational to professional poker player requires a level of faith.
2. A trained mindset is important because you can’t always win on skill alone.
3. Flow state makes time fly and decisions feel like they are simply given.

Contact/Resources

• Jack’s Twitter
• Jack’s Instagram

Credits

Podcast Production by Podcastily