Poker With Presence

It's not enough to build out a process and focus on it—you've got to personalize it to your own tastes, otherwise you're not going to stick to it.

The key to being able to end all self-sabotage in your poker game and life is all about learning how to use presence to catch yourself as it's happening.

Yes, playing poker with presence will get you more success at the tables—but it can't be the only reason why you're doing it.

When you're present and locked in, the whole game opens up. The question then becomes: how can you more consistently recognize you're in this place versus one of disconnection?

When you display supreme confidence that's not grounded in connection, you'll likely be the last to know.

Presence gives you the ability to find the plays that you need and want on a moment by moment basis.

Mastering a few critical concepts is far better for your performance than trying to learn and implement a hundred new things.

When you go straight to the mental reframe in times of stress, it's not actually giving your nervous system what it needs to calm down so you can get back to playing your best.

If you want your friends and family to start living with more presence so they can live happier lives—show, don't tell.

Once you've done the work to become a skilled player who is consistently working on your game, there's one final element you need to add to go to the top—you.

Studies show that the more you get into your head, the more you become susceptible to performing below your standards.

When you routinely fall into the trap of "next time will be different" you fail to account for how you are the common element in a life where you're not getting what you want.

Sometimes you might as well just do the opposite of what your mind is telling you. The key is figuring out when you're in one of those times.

If you want to win as much as possible, you need to learn how to get out of your own way—and not let fear dictate your decisions when things are going amazingly well.

The biggest winners aren't the smartest or most knowledgable people—they're the ones who can continually press their advantage without others catching on and adjusting, a painful and expensive lesson I had to learn in my early years.

When you create an agreement with yourself from one state of mind, it's going to be hard to enforce it from a completely different one. To bridge those two states, you need presence.

Get familiar with these experiences at the table and you'll be able to save yourself a whole lot of pain, frustration, and money.

The way that you approach small decisions that have very little consequence either way determines how well you're going to be able to stay connected and solid when you find yourself facing a very big decision that will matter a lot.

Presence can take you far beyond making more money at the poker table. And once it does, you'll make even more money at the poker table.

Depending on what state you're in, you might be seeing what's actually there, or you might just be making up a whole bunch of stories in your mind and then acting on them.

When you don't feel respect your opponents as human beings, you can't understand where they're coming from, and worse—you lose your ability to deal with the variance that comes with playing against them.

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

It might look like they're doing a lot of different things, but it's really just one.

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

Before you can play with creativity and flow, you need to generate a feeling a true acceptance of reality inside yourself.