Poker With Presence

Educating players at the table is a financial disaster, but something that happens all the time if you get overly dependent on external things for validation.

The key to winning in any game is always staying one step ahead

The worst advice you can implement into your game in big moments is to "act like you've been there before," because you haven't—and trying to pretend you have will create tension in your system and take you out of presence.

When you stop trying to pretend you're something you're not, a huge weight drops away and you can finally play and perform from a place of creativity and flow.

It's not about the words—it's about the feeling being experienced when the words come through.

When you think you're bored, it's likely that there's much more going on behind the scenes.

When you choose from presence, you'll often choose the exact same thing as if you're not—but the process is still priceless.

Going after what you want most means also being willing to face and get present with all possible outcomes—a vulnerable, but powerful position.

When you learn how to feel presence and connection in one aspect of life, it very easily translates to everything in your world.

If you're overly attached to winning, it also means that you haven't trained yourself to be present with the feelings that come with losing—and it will eventually bring you down.

To get to levels you've never reached before, you need to keep increasing your capacity to have more of what you want—otherwise you'll always bring yourself down when you reach your limit.

If you have big goals, what you do matters so much less than how you do it.

Presence is universal, and gives you the stability and confidence to grow and learn new things at a much faster rate than you otherwise would.

Michael Jordan's emotions no the court were often unprovoked, but it was very much real to him—and so was his ability to channel it into incredibly high performance.

If you want to stay sane and continue performing at a high level, you need to learn when to believe your thoughts and when to ignore them.

Sometimes the fastest way to the top is to stay at the bottom for a little longer than most.

Regret is an experience that happens when you don't allow yourself to get present with all the emotions that come after something happens. Feel it all, regrets fade away.

The world prioritizes speed, but doesn't understand that the fastest way to reach big goals is to slow down and presence first.

Every situation, whether in poker or life, is one of a kind, and the best way to move forward is to first connect with all the feelings and emotions that are present in yourself and others.

Reading and avoiding tells isn't about the body, it's about how well you can feel the intentions of your opponents, and keep them from feeling that in you.

In this special episode, high stakes player and founder of Solve For Why, Matt Berkey, drops by to talk about impostor syndrome, how we relate to poker differently as we get older, and why people are always comparing themselves to one another. You can learn more about Solve For Why and all they offer at SolveForWhy.io

When we experience fear, our brain chemistry changes—and we become vulnerable to believing things to be true that we otherwise never would.

Sometimes success can be your own worst enemy—something I had to learn the hard way.

To be the best version of yourself, you need to own up to who you really are—then bring presence and connection to showing up how you want to be seen.

Stop trying to resist what's actually true, and you'll free up your energy to channel into your best performance.