"The Mental Game of Poker" - Chapters 1-2

Right, so yesterday I took myself off to the local pub garden, armed with my copy of "The Mental Game of Poker" by Jared Tendler, to finish chapters 3-4. Here is my review of chapters 1-2 with a look at chapters 3-4 to follow.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Tendler sets out his stall by explaining what the ultimate goal of the mental game is. i.e. Identifying the causes of your mental game problems and resolving them so that they can be permanently removed. By developing strategies to facilitate this process, the idea is that you can remain calm and focused at the table - and are able to always make the right decisions. The metaphor he uses, which personally drew me in, was that "weeds grow back if you don't pull them out by the roots" just in the same way that causes of mental game problems pop back if they are left unresolved.

Chapter 2: Foundation
In this chapter, he reveals three theories to make solving the mental game problems simpler. The first (Adult Learning Model) is all about being conscious or unconscious of your competence or incompetence; the second (Inchworm) mainly focuses on the importance of working on the weakest part of your game; and the final theory (The Process Model), for me, highlighted the importance of reviewing the quality of your play rather than being preoccupied with results.

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The first two chapters were a breeze to read through and hit all the right notes. If you read the second chapter as intended (to make solving the mental game problems simple) then it's not so daunting. The first three chapters just require passively reading the text but when you start on Chapter 4, you realise that a bit of extra effort is required if you want to really get the best out of the book.