The Mindset Advantage Poker Podcast

Latest Episodes:

101 - Tommy Angelo - Making Meditation a Daily Habit May 30, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Tommy Angelo, poker and meditation coach, discusses his new book Dailyness: How to Sustain a Meditation Practice.

He shares what meditation means to him and why, if you commit to making it a practice, you need to go all-in. Elliot and Tommy explore the common excuses and challenges people face when they meditate. Listen in to hear an expert share how meditation gives players an edge at the table and why you're already better at it than you think.

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100 - Becoming An A-Game Player Apr 28, 2019

Show notes

Episode 100 of The Mindset Advantage Poker Podcast is here!

This is a massive milestone for the show, and more importantly, the poker community who have embraced the mental game and are always striving to become the best versions of themselves.

Today's episode isn't about any guest; it's about you.

Here you'll discover what it means to be an A-Game Player, and how you can use the A-Game Poker Masterclass as a shortcut to get from where you are now to A-Game Player status.

Get access to the course here: PokerMindCoach.com/class

Click here to gain access to all of the show notes for this episode

099 - Stories From A-Game Players Part 2 Apr 27, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, I have conversations with two students of my A-Game Poker Masterclass. Patrick Testoni and David Jeffres discuss the course, how they've implemented what they've learned, and the specific results they experienced. Patrick is a semi-professional player who plays both live and online MTTs, and David is an "enthusiastic amateur." Both experienced tremendous growth since completing the course – in poker and in life.

Get access to the course here: PokerMindCoach.com/class

Click here to gain access to all of the show notes for this episode

098 - Stories From A-Game Players Part 1 Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Elliot talks with two students of the A-Game Poker Masterclass. Andrew Lok and Lara Eisenberg discuss the course's content, how they've implemented what they've learned, and an insider's perspective on what to expect when you enroll. Whether you're a full-time pro, semi-professional, or enthusiastic amateur – this course could be just what you need to get to the next level.

Get access to the course here: PokerMindCoach.com/class

Click here to gain access to all of the show notes for this episode

097 - The Untold Story of Fedor Holz' Epic Run Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

We are back with another special episode, celebrating the launch of Elliot Roe's A-Game Poker Masterclass in partnership with Phil Galfond's Run It Once Training.

In Today's episode, Elliot is joined by Fedor Holz as he recounts the events leading up to them working together and how he was able to go on his epic high-roller run so soon after.

It's a great story, and to our knowledge one that he's never shared publicly before today.

Pay close attention to this one, every time Fedor speaks, he drops so many valuable nuggets that you can use to be a better player almost immediately.

Listen in to hear how working on his mental game changed the trajectory of his poker career (and life) and learn why he recommends Elliot's A-Game Poker Masterclass.

Get access to the course here: PokerMindCoach.com/class

Click here to gain access to all of the show notes for this episode

096 - Introducing The A-Game Poker Masterclass w/ Phil Galfond Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Elliot and Phil Galfond discuss their exciting new partnership. They are releasing Elliot's A-Game Poker Masterclass through Phil's Run It Once training site because they recognize how important it is for truly dedicated poker players to master their mindset. Elliot and Phil discuss why a strong mental game is more critical than ever – especially now that solutions are more available and studied. Listen in to hear what to expect from the course, why Phil stands behind it, and how you can become part of a community of A-Game Players.

Get access to the course here: PokerMindCoach.com/class

Click here to gain access to all of the show notes for this episode

095 - Wayne Yap - From Financial Adversity to the Top Feb 14, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Wayne Yap, high-stakes poker professional and advisor, reveals how he made his way to the top despite severe financial adversity – and a two-year stint in the army. Elliot and Wayne discuss the importance of studying and building a network within the poker community. Listen in to hear an expert share his strategic thinking, practical game theory, and mindset mastery tips so you can jump stakes and play bigger.

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 Wayne, his journey, and direction
01:20 – His started by playing small games in Singapore; his parent's business was failing and he went into the army for two years at that time
02:00 – He didn't have the money to practice his game so he downloaded poker videos and would watch them while out in the jungle while in the army
02:40 – The importance of studying
02:57 – Learning is important in any field if you want to improve and succeed
03:07 – The learner's mindset is the most important thing
03:25 – How he ensured his improvement and success
03:32 – He had financial pressure so he felt like he had to get good
03:55 – After the army he went to Macau with some good high-stakes poker players and because he studies math and statistics he was helpful to them
04:10 – He learned from them and was valuable to them; this helped set up his network
06:05 – How long it took him to support himself through poker
06:22 – He got into high-stakes in about six years
07:05 – He didn't appreciate it then, but does now looking back
07:42 – The mindset needed for the system used in Macau
07:53 – He said it was lucrative but killed brain cells
08:30 – Sessions run 24 - 30 hours and some do doubles to play longer with VIPs
09:33 – It's not professional; after 20 hours, they are delirious and need to release awkward energy
10:50 – He knows only 5-10 people who like it to some degree; most of the time they're miserable and tired and are doing it for the money
11:55 – He got very bonded with the people he played with; everyone became friends
12:38 – How the VIPs play in Macau
12:48 – The ones that come back to play want to be good players but don't care about losing money
13:20 – They don't care about the game but get to make friends with pros
13:50 – Advice for player who want to get to high-stakes
13:55 – Decide whether you want to be good at poker or be good at poker and make money
14:20 – Poker is dynamic; GTO is not the angle
15:37 – You can't ever practically apply the exact solver outputs; you work on assumptions that can be wrong
16:30 – Don't get stuck on the theory part
17:20 – Things Wayne sees around mindset
17:35 – The biggest mindset flaw is that people take things too seriously
18:25 – Letting emotions get to you has a negative compounding effect at the table
19:10 –The money you have is more valuable than the money you earn; find your threshold and know how much money you need and what you can afford losing
20:50 – Know your emotional limitations around losses
21:13 – What Wayne would've done differently
21:50 – Strategy-wise, zoom out a few levels from where you are
23:10 – Wayne's next steps
23:25 – He explored block chain and made investments
23:45 – He wants to educate, train, and empower others
24:05 – He plans on doing cryptocurrency education and feels he brings a fresh perspective
24:33 – He's teaching people how to play and make money playing poker; it's important to build soft skills

Contact/Resources

Wayne's website
Follow Wayne on Instagram
Follow Wayne on Facebook
Check out the Jump Stake website

Credits

Podcast Production by Podcastily

094 - Blake Eastman - A Data Driven Approach To Poker Tells Feb 07, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Blake Eastman, founder of The Nonverbal Group, creator of Beyond Tells, and owner of The School of Cards, talks about the largest study ever conducted on the behavior of poker players. Elliot and Blake discuss how to integrate this new information into your game and why the use of tells isn't for everyone. Listen in to hear a psychology expert share some tips and tricks that you can implement immediately to have an advantage over your live opponents.

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 Blake, the founder of The Nonverbal Group, creator of Beyond Tells, and owner of School of Cards
00:55 – He was a psychology professor and now uses that knowledge and data to help people understand the use of tells in the game
01:23 – He started playing poker in his teens and his work now combines his three main passions – poker, nonverbal behavior, and teaching
02:25 – Blake was anti-behavior and anti-tells before, but after Beyond Tells his perspective changed
03:06 – Information on Beyond Tells
03:08 – It is the largest study ever conducted on the behavior of poker players; things like blink rate were recorded
03:55 – They found that the quantitative approach is useless but the qualitative results have been game-changing
04:22 – The poker community has been wrong about how they read tells – the results have found that qualitative patterns tell the most
04:57 – They've designed frameworks and approaches to identify who to watch, when, and how so you can integrate that into your game
05:30 – Video is necessary to analyze spots
05:50 –Blake's "A-ha!" moment – when he realized the data was useful and he had been wrong
06:05 – He was in the office looking at footage and implemented the "grounding theory," where you code the data without a hypothesis
06:30 – He was watching a specific player and saw correlations between his hand movements and range
06:51 – He started noticing the same thing with other players and live at the table; poker tells can be taught, they aren't just an inherent skill
07:30 – How Blake teaches the skill to students
07:35 – First, students must understand and know the body can give off information, then that can be prioritized into a system
08:00 – They can establish feedback loops for players
09:20 – What you can pick up in a small amount of time
09:35 – Predictive models allow for you to follow a player using common patterns
10:27 – The system allows for you to know, not think, where another player is weak
11:15 – Which players to read
11:30 – It depends on the players, but is still beneficial even if you can only read one player
12:18 – He teaches people to go after certain spots and opportunities so behaviors can define and guide as to when to make certain moves
12:43 – Working with the greatest minds in poker
13:05 – He doesn't want the highest echelons knowing his techniques because he plays with them
14:04 – On his work with Nonverbal Group and the power of perspective
14:35 – He sees a difference between mindset and mental game; he sees mindset as an approach and mental game as on-table optimization
14:50 – You must fix the foundation (mindset) before working on anything else
15:35 – On the game moving fast
15:50 – At the top it moves fast, but most games move slow; there's a media bias and the local card room isn't represented
17:42 – Lower-level players are still not up to date on higher-level information about the game
18:00 – Reading behavior and tells is for a specific kind of player, not just anyone
19:04 – On what Beyond Tells does
19:11 – They focus on live, no-limit Hold 'Em and have a serious of programs depending on what the player needs, but mechanics need to be established first
20:10 – The course is embedded with his knowledge of psychology
23:36 – A tip for listeners: Pay attention to the hands
23:50 – Pick one or two players and focus on their hands pre-flop; see what they do right before and right after
24:12 – Increase your awareness
25:15 – High-level players want to know timing tells but there are more interesting tells to analyze
26:26 – A final tip for listeners: Embedded concealment strategies make it easier to pay attention to them
27:00 – Blake's plans
27:06 – He's going to Aussie Millions and WSOP
27:28 – He's learning and understanding other player's spots; he's using his own findings to improve his game

3 Key Points

The qualitative results Blake has found are game-changing.
You must master the foundations of poker before studying behavior and tells.
A player's hands tell a lot – pick a player or two and see what their hand say.

Contact/Resources

Beyond Tells - Training Website
Poker Mind Coach – Elliot's Coaching Website

Credits

Podcast Production by Podcastily

093 - Phil Galfond - Run It Once Poker Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Phil Galfond, poker pro and owner of the Run It Once training site, reveals insider information about the launch of his new site and the challenges he has faced while developing it. Elliot and Phil discuss how his playing style has evolved over the years and how he has come to accept losses. Listen in to hear who inspires Phil, why he started Run It Once, and what to expect when his new site launches.

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 Phil and his company
01:20 – He started playing poker 15 year ago; he dropped out of school to play full-time
02:00 – He's been a pro for 13 years, plays mostly PLO, and has had a few WSOP wins; 6 years ago, he launched the Run It Once training site
02:40 – How poker has changed over the last 13 years
02:50 – Achievable win rates were higher, but pros have gotten better; it's still the same game, but the strategic knowledge has progressed
03:30 – How Phil felt when launching Run It Once
03:50 – He had made training videos before and focused on balanced strategy; he was comfortable and confident that he wouldn't show leaks
05:30 – He prefers video coaching; he doesn't like doing 1 on 1 personal coaching
06:30 – Phil's swings and how he dealt with them
06:50 – Swings take longer to get drastic in nosebleeds; he hasn't seen the swings that some players have
07:30 – He started playing as a broke college kid and the money didn't scare him; he saw getting back up to higher money levels as a game
08:30 – His emotional disconnection with money allowed him to think more clearly; today, he feels more pressure and that makes it harder to detach
09:00 – He finds himself shying away from certain spots now; he feels there's no replacement for the naivety of youth
09:30 – What Phil's mindset is like now
09:38 – He can snap out of feeling down very quickly; he can accept the reality of a loss or string of losses
10:30 – Everything feels stronger live; the social element makes wins and losses feel more personal
11:00 – Phil's mindset inspiration
11:10 – Dan Cates (Jungleman) is very emotional when he plays, but his game never changes and this is a big advantage
12:00 – Phil used to think Dan tilted a lot, but he doesn't; he has an interesting mind and can't contain his emotions
12:37 – He doesn't have the emotional pull that most people have
13:00 – The Run It Once company
13:15 – He loved meeting people who say Run It Once helped them; the coaches of the company are proud to be a part of the brand
14:10 – The switch from a training site to creating a software
14:15 – The training site gave him a false confidence in his business acumen; the training site did very well with little marketing
14:48 – The development team is bigger and the project is bigger; he now must manage people, which he hadn't done before
15:15 – What's new and different about Run It Once
15:30 – He was worried that the online poker market was in trouble; he didn't know where online poker was heading
16:55 – They launched with cash games only; they have anonymous games and dynamic avatars to eliminate HUD use
18:30 – Stakes that'll be allowed on the site
18:31 - It'll be 6 max only at launch; they don't want to split their player pool
18:50 – They've come up with some innovative things that'll improve the quality of the experience and game for cash games and tournaments
19:10 – They are not incentivizing bum-hunting and targeting of weaker players
19:45 – There's a balance that needs to be kept between the money that net depositing players lose going to the players on the site; it can go too far in one direction, as it has on other sites
20:19 – They haven't finalized the exact stakes they're going to offer; they must consider liquidity at launch and will open other stakes as more players join
20:55 – They won't have nosebleed stakes at launch; they'll build a separate experience for that with different rules and policies
21:15 – The launch timeline
21:18 – They are still working on fixing some bugs; he's optimistic but needs to be sure it's working perfectly before launch
22:30 – He's not sure when it'll launch
23:00 – New advancements with the training site
23:08 – They've gotten good coaches and are running a promotion for a discount and gift on annual elite membership
23:30 – They've reopened their apparel store
24:00 – How to join Run It Once
24:10 – Go to eu to see the features and policies and sign up for the mailing/beta test email list

3 Key Points

An emotional disconnect with the money can allow for clearer thinking during the game.
Creating a training site is very different than creating a software.
Phil's training site has improved, and he's not sure when the new site will launch.

Contact/Resources

Credits

Podcast Production by Podcastily

092 - Jack Sinclair - Winning The WSOP Europe ME Dec 13, 2018

Show notes

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