The Mental Aspect of Poker
The topic of the mental game of poker gained prominence with the publication of Jared Tendler's seminal work, "The Mental Game of Poker". There were other early mental game pioneers, such as Tommy Angelo and Alan Schoomaker, but Tendler brought the mental game into the mainstream and his book (as well as its sequel, The Mental Game of Poker 2) remains the definitive work on the subject. Tendler is not without his critics. Acclaimed poker author Mason Malmuth offered some kneejerk criticisms of the book on the 2+2 forum. His remarks are quite lengthy but worth digging through. One of his criticisms addresses the question of whether unconcious competence - and by extension the whole Adult Learning Model - has relevance to poker. MM : So what is unconscious competence? Well, without defining it here, let’s say that unconscious competence is what a baseball players uses to hit a 95 mph fast ball or a tennis player uses to hit back a 120 mph ...