“The mental game is the final frontier of poker. Everyone studies strategy, but few master their own mind.”
— Jared Tendler (author of The Mental Game of Poker)
The psychology of poker is the edge you don’t see on a solver. It’s the part of your game that doesn’t show up in a HUD, but shows up every time you tilt after a bad beat, can not let go of a mistake, second-guess a bluff, or play scared in a big spot.
You can memorize every GTO spot in the book—but if your mindset collapses under pressure, none of it matters.
At the highest levels, poker becomes psychological warfare. The best players don’t just master the game—they master mental resilience. In this article, we’ll dive into the psychology of poker and show you how to train the one skill most players seem to ignore: their mind.
Why is the psychology of poker so important?
“Mentally, poker is the toughest sport there is.”
– Lex Ligtenberg, (sports & performance psychologist)
I’ve worked with many an athlete in my mindset coaching career, from golf players, to pro cyclists, football players, tennis players & chess players. In all of these sports, you can have huge setbacks where your mental resilience is put to the test. But these sports pale in comparison to the mental hardship poker players have to endure in their careers.
Mentally, poker is the toughest sport on the planet and most people don’t seem to realise that trying to make it as a poker player is not for the faint hearted. It is definitely no place for amateurs. There are a lot of aspects to support this case and I want to break it down for you.
Table of Contents
The Freedom Paradox
In my experience, the biggest difference between elite athletes and poker players is discipline. As a mindset coach, for some players I feel like I’m more of a guardian than a coach. Working on creating a daily routine and making sure week by week they stick to it. This is, I think, because the promise of living an autonomous life is what draws people to the game.
The people that yearn for such a life are more often than not the people who possess a passion for the game, but have an undisciplined personality. Even at the higher stakes, I’m baffled to see how unstructured the players are.
The freedom poker potentially brings, comes with a huge responsibility and before we dive into any poker related psychology, I want you to realise that you need to invest time in taking that responsibility.
It is the foundation of your poker career. You need structure: without structure, it’s easy to drift. Days blur together, routines collapse, and the line between work and rest disappears.
You’re free to chase your goals, but also free to self-sabotage without anyone noticing. The responsibility to stay disciplined, motivated, and mentally sharp rests entirely on your shoulders—and that kind of freedom can quietly become a trap if you’re not careful.
Emotional Control
Every player with a tiny fibre of ambition in their soul has heard it before:
“Focus on the process, not the results“.
Everyone knows it, but only champions feel it. In my coaching, this is one of the things we focus heavily on, especially in poker. How do we go from knowing, to feeling, to becoming the process? This is where the secret in my job lies. We are not machines, we’re human, a bad beat is a bad beat and it’s always going to suck and trigger an emotional response.
But if we can prepare for bad outcomes, expect the unexpected, and add tools like meditation, abdominal breathing or self talk to our system, it becomes so much easier to manage your emotions.
This way we can truly master them and it is one of the most powerful feelings, achievable by working hard and being mindful of the tools and processes in your head.
Discipline, Will power
When talking about the difference between discipline & will power I like to use the metaphor of taking a cold shower as part of your daily routine. Having the discipline means setting certain rules you want to live by.
In the case of the cold shower, that means you think it is important to do this as part of your daily routine because it has certain long-term benefits like feeling fresh, having more focus, and other health benefits.
That’s all fun and games until you actually are in the shower and you have to put your hand on the tap and physically turn it so the temperature drops. No you need to resist the temptation to run away, but stay there and keep your breathing under control. This part of the equation is what we call will power.
Doing something that we don’t really want and resisting the temptation. The most famous example of putting peoples will power to the test is the marshmallow experiment.
In poker, this translates to so many aspects of the game. Resist punting away your stack after a bad beat or ‘seeing a flop’ or resist making other emotional decisions at the table, but it also works the other way around. Staying disciplined and using your will power could mean balancing your value bets by making the poker bluff.
Attention & Focus
The last subject I want to discuss when talking about the psychology of poker is a mental skill that you can use and train as a player. I’m talking about attention & focus.
Attention is your brain’s ability to notice something. It’s like a spotlight that can move around—picking up sights, sounds, thoughts, or sensations. It’s broad and can shift easily. Focus is more about holding that spotlight steady.
It’s the ability to direct and maintain your attention on one specific task or object, especially when distractions arise.
In poker, distractions are everywhere. From sounds and smells in the casino or annoying players that try to get under your skin, to thinking about winning the tournament when you start to get a bit deeper. All those thoughts and feelings that arise from there are a distraction from your clear and rational decision making process in the now.
That is why it is crucial in becoming a successful poker player to be able to eliminate distractions and regain your focus.
Circles of Attention
The best tool for this is the circles of attention. It consists of 6 circles that show you how focused or distracted you are. Circle 1 is your task focus, which relies heavily on the process.
In poker, this usually means: How can I collect as much information as possible to make a decision? In most cases, this should be your circle 1.
Circles 2/6 are a distraction from circle 1.
Circle 2 is a direct distraction, like the smells, the atmosphere or behaviour from villains.
Circle 3 is thoughts about what is vs. what should be. This can come into play after losing a big pot or after making an error.
Circle 4 is thoughts about succeeding or failing. ‘I’m not going to win this tournament’ or ‘I am going to win this tournament’ are distractions from the decisions you are going to make and build the pressure unnecessarily. Resulting in you making more errors.
Circle 5 is thoughts about the results of you succeeding or failing. ‘If I’m not going to win this tournament, my career could be over’ or ‘Аm I really as good as I think I am’ or ‘can I still beat the games or should I just give up?’. Huge distractions from making the right play in the now.
Circle 6 is why am I even here? This happens sometimes when you are left with 5bb after a big all-in. You have already given up, and you stop making rational decisions.
Recognizing thoughts and recognizing the circles they belong to can help you tremendously in staying focused and helping you regain your focus.
One way to regain your focus is by using a keyword to shift back to circle one. An example is just reminding yourself of the process: ‘information mode’ or ‘research’ or ‘stick to your ranges’.
If you make this your process goal for the next session, I will guarantee your focus will skyrocket!
For a deeper dive into how to strengthen your mindset and overcome common mental leaks, check out our Top 9 Poker Mindset Tips to Succeed—an essential read for anyone serious about improving their mental game.
