The Personality Flaws that Restrict Poker Improvement

Save for Later

Let’s get this out of the way right at the beginning – this one is going to be a tough read for some of you. If that’s the case, good. You’ve taken your first step to becoming a better person and a better poker player. The reality of poker is that it is just as much about improving your thought processes and expanding your mind in an holistic way as it is about anything else – it’s no coincidence that most of the world’s best poker players are extremely well-rounded, high-performance individuals.

Here are a few of the most common personality traits among poker players that should probably be eliminated if those players seek to achieve great successes in the game – these are things you simply don’t see among the world’s best.

Lack of self-awareness

I consider this to be the most important quality any human being can possess. You simply can’t make good life decisions if you don’t know yourself very well. Likewise, a lack of self-awareness can lead to poor poker decisions – not being able to recognize when you’re on tilt, not understanding your own motivations for playing the game, or simply not knowing your own table image can all be destructive factors in a player’s game. Knowing yourself better than anyone else knows you is vital for poker success.

Lack of humility

This one isn’t hard to spot. There might be one or two players at the high stakes who still lack a little humility – it’s probably not hard to spot who they are – but in some of those cases it may all be just an act for the cameras. This quality is most common among young players who have achieved some degree of success before they’ve really matured as an adult, and think they’ve got it made – they might play buyins way above their bankroll or ability, since they overestimate their own skill, or they might simply act like they’re better than everyone else when at a live table. It almost goes without saying – don’t be that guy.

Low EQ (Emotional Intelligence)

This is one that often goes overlooked. It’s easy to assume that poker players don’t need to be emotionally aware individuals – after all, isn’t the game based on logic? Aren’t emotions bad? The reality, though, is that emotions are a key part of the game. Understanding your own emotions is key to making progress, and understanding the emotions of others will allow you to interact with the poker community more effectively away from the table, and respond to circumstances more profitably at the table. Ignoring the role of emotions in poker is a dangerous choice.

Negative self-talk

This one affects virtually every struggling low-stakes player, the same way it affects a massive number of people outside the game. While a well-rounded pro with the right approach might say to themselves, “well, that was probably a mistake, but it’s no big deal, let’s move on”, a player with a heavy inclination towards beating themselves up over mistakes might say, “man, I really suck at this game, I can’t believe I did that, so stupid”. It should not be hard to see the differences in mindset that those two contrasting approaches to self-talk might generate.

Antagonistic behaviour

Another one that applies primarily to younger players, but there are members of the poker community from all walks of life who suffer in this area. It all really boils down to a question of whether you truly believe it’s a good idea to have everyone at your table dislike you, or to be a ‘controversial’ figure within the poker community. In most cases, this is simply attention-seeking – see Will Kassouf’s behaviour in front of the WSOP cameras – but it can sometimes be a defense mechanism against deeper insecurity. Regardless, there is no advantage to antagonizing opponents, other players, or random people on the street. Get over it.

Ego projection

There’s a close connection between this one and the previous one. Many people are more concerned with trying to project a certain image or persona out into the poker world, than they are with whether or not they’re actually making the right decisions. They’re more concerned with looking like a successful poker player than they are with actually being one. Again, this mostly comes down to ego, self-image and insecurity, but it’s definitely something that can prove the downfall of many a player. After all, you don’t want to be the guy making the terrible hero-call and busting the tournament, just because you want to look good on TV.

Poor work ethic

Players aspiring towards future success, take note. Malcolm Gladwell’s well-known book Outliers suggests it takes 10,000 hours of conscious practice to become a master in any one field. Ten thousand hours. Are you willing to play poker for 10,000 hours in order to achieve your goals? If you’re currently a losing player and you have plans to be a professional poker player within a year, you better be willing to work damn hard in order to make it happen. If you’re working on your game at 20% and other players are working on their game at 70% efficiency, you’re falling behind the pack, even if you’re improving.

Short-term thinking

Finally, many players are too concerned with where they want to be a year or two years from now – usually living it up in Vegas, playing high stakes and making millions – and not concerned enough with whether that’s what they might want ten years from now. They might make a six-figure tournament score and decide to put it all into a bankroll for high-stakes tournaments, instead of saving half of it and starting a business ten years down the line. Being ‘in the moment’ is a good thing, but being unable to plan for the future can be fatal to a poker career. If you don’t know where you’re trying to go, the road will always be a bumpy one.