European Poker Awards 2012

I am now in Paris for my third installment of the European Poker Awards. The previous two events were fantastic do's, one of the few poker events where I don't mind taking the missus because she won't be bored. I'm a judge again, and we will be doing the votes tomorrow afternoon. I can't really say anything about the nominees for obvious reasons, but if you follow my twitter account on Wednesday night, I plan on tweeting the results as they happen:

Best Tournament performance
Jake Cody
Pius Heinz
Fabrice Soulier
Benny Spindler
Sam Trickett

Rookie of the year
Adrien Allain
Pius Heinz
Sam Holden
Oleksii Kovalchuk
Andrey Pateychuk

Europe’s Leading Lady
Liv Boeree
Victoria Coren
Nesrine Kourdourli
Barbara Martinez
Natalia Nikitina
Cecilia Pescaglini

Poker Staff Person of the year
Nicolas Fraïoli
Warren Lush
Edgar Stuchly
Kirsty Thompson
Simon Trumper

Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the poker personality of the year
Barny Boatman
Neil Channing
Bertrand “Elky”Grospellier
Tony Guoga
Jesse May

Internet Player of the year
Jude Ainsworth
Viktor Blom
Rui Cao
Chris Moorman
Ilari Sahamies

Best European Event of the year
EPT Londres
International Poker Open Dublin
Finale du Partouche Poker Tour
WPT Grand Prix de Paris
WSOPE Cannes

Jesse May Interview

Jesse May "The Voice of Poker"

I haven't mentioned it much on this blog, but one of the bizarre things that has just kinda happened since we published the book is that Jared and I have both unwittingly become podcast hosts.

In my case, it is for PokerStrategy.com. Thankfully for me, Matt Kaufman does all the hard work, I shudder to think what it would sound like with me as an anchor.

Anyway, today's show I interviewed one of my heroes, Jesse May, on the state of TV poker, and as always, Jesse cut a great interview:


PokerStrategy.com Podcast with Matt Kaufman & Barry Carter #5 by PokerStrategycom

The Mental Game of Poker is a College Textbook

This was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

Dr Patricia Cardner from Park University in the States has used The Mental Game of Poker as a textbook in a class she is teaching on Poker Psychology. This is the course description:

PS 390 Selected Topics in Psychology: Intensive study of an area of psychology selected by the instructor on the basis of student need or current interest. Variable credit: 1-3 hours. Prerequisite: PS 101 or permission of the instructor.

Week 1 Introduction to the Psychological Issues Associated with Gambling & Poker Strategy
Week 2 Poker Strategy
Week 3 Motivation and Goal Setting
Week 4 Managing Tilt: Anger and Anxiety
Week 5 Concentration: Focus under Pressure
Week 6 Gambling Addiction and Treatment, Other Potential Personality Issues
Week 7 Detecting Deception Week
Week 8 Putting It All Together

Instructor Learning Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the major psychological constructs that are important to gambling realms (particularly poker)
2. Students will develop an appreciation for the psychological nuances of various gambling games with a primary focus on poker
3. Identify and label psychological themes as they appear in gambling mass media
4. Explain the impact that gambling can have on a person and their family when an addiction to gambling develops or escalates
5. Understand the course of treatment that applies to gambling addictions as well as assessment procedures
6. Demonstrate high quality written and/oral communication skills through interaction with other students and the instructor utilizing correct psychological terms and concepts

Quadjacks Mental Game Show

Last night I was the guest on Jared Tendler's Mental Game Show on Quadjacks Radio. He has been hosting a regular show there for a month now, where he discusses mental game issues with a top name (recent guests have included Lex Veldhuis and Dusty Schmidt).

Clearly someone cancelled because I was on the show yesterday. We talked about the mental game in the context of some of the elite players I have interviewed, and also some broader journalism stuff.


Listen To It Here.


 

Kindle Highlights of The Mental Game of Poker

I was not even aware of the 'Kindle Highlights' feature that showed you the most highlighted sections of a book, but someone pointed it out to me last week. Here are what most of our readers choose to highlight from The Mental Game of Poker: 

While personal issues certainly affect performance, mental game problems can happen for far more simple reasons; for example, hating to make mistakes, having high expectations, and having a poor work ethic.

Highlighted by 11 Kindle users

‘When you look at a weather forecast and it says it’s going to rain, do you get mad when you go out and it’s raining? So why do you continually get angry when you know variance is going to happen?’

Highlighted by 12 Kindle users

You must stay focused on learning the correction to your weaknesses until it is trained to the level of Unconscious Competence—especially after your A-game improves.

Highlighted by 24 Kindle users

Preparation provides a way to make it more likely that you’ll perform in the front end of your ability, and less likely that your worst will show up.

Highlighted by 17 Kindle users

Here are some general things you can do to prepare to play: Review your long-term goals and set goals for the session. Review a list with the corrections to your common poker mistakes. Review your strategy for improving mental game issues. Use deep breathing, meditation, and/or visualization to steady and focus your mind. Listen to a favorite song.

Highlighted by 15 Kindle users

Look closely at tough decisions to see how you played them. Estimate how much variance influenced results. Calculate whether you accomplished the qualitative goals you set before the session. If you fell short, why? Review how you did in the areas you’re trying to improve (poker strategy and mental game). Did you see any progress? If you’re going to analyze hands later, write some game flow notes or thoughts about them that you may otherwise forget.

Highlighted by 25 Kindle users

Resolution keeps all the positive features that emotions add to your game and removes the negatives.

Highlighted by 18 Kindle users

When the emotional system becomes overactive, it shuts down higher brain functions.

Highlighted by 24 Kindle users

The only way you can stay in control at that time is by doing work off the table to reduce accumulated emotion.

Highlighted by 14 Kindle users

Recognition Deep Breath Injecting Logic Strategic Reminder Repeat as Necessary Quit

Highlighted by 19 Kindle users