Poker Psychology

[Djcoax]

This came up in a discussion with a friend of mine recently.
Do you think a certain "kind" of people are more succesfull or have more chance to succeed in poker?

I mean , and I will just give my view on it here : I think that people who are negative , have anger management issues (short fuse) or people who assume the victim role WILL go down in poker and probably also in life.

I know there's a book from Matthew Hilger about 'The Poker Mindset' , and I haven't read it.

But aren't people who are looking to better themselves , people who can withstand stress and people who are optimistic just more capable to do better ?

Perhaps being down to earth and realistic helps too. I see people here that have not played 10k hands proclaiming they want to go pro. Isn't that setting yourself up for failure?

I think that in poker - as in life in general- you should reevaluate constantly and adjust to the situations as they present themselves.

This all seems a nice theory , but on the other hand , some very well known pros seem to fall in the negative person category.

What is you guys' take on all this?

[Betts]

I do think people with the right mindset will find it easier to become better players. I'm not saying that certain personality types can't ever be great poker players, but positive thinking, patience, dedication/motivation and self-control go a long way to easing the learning curve. I think it applies to lots of areas in life too; I really dislike miserable negative people who whine about their problems instead of doing something about it. Self-pity is the ugliest, most damaging human emotion.

[SellingtheDrama]

Yup - there's a certain kind of person that will succeed in anything.

Someone who's outgoing and sociable is going to be better in sales than a grumpy uncommunicative person.

Poker imo takes alot of different traits to be very good. You don't need all, but anything you don't have is going to be your biggest leak.

*Good with basic/intermediate math
*Even keeled - don't get too high or too low
*Workaholic - it takes alot of hours to get good and to make the money.
*Financial discipline - bankroll management
*Good memory - both for players and for strategy
*Competitive
*Whole bunch of other stuff but work calls