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October 12, 2012
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What is the consensus on trying to win, versus learning the game?
TPE Management
April 6, 2010
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Im not sure I understand the question..can you clarify?
October 12, 2012
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For long time I hav ebeen trying to win tournamanets, unfortunately with out a lot of success. Should my head space be more focussed on learning as much as possible about the game than focussed on winning ?
I guess mentally it can make a big differenceto how you handle bad beats etc as well. Interested in comments.
TPE Pro
August 25, 2012
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Trying to win tournaments will destroy your mental game. You have no control over whether you win a tournament or not. Zero. You might as well try to control the weather when you wake up in the morning.
The only thing that you do have control over is the decisions you make at the table, so if you focus on learning and improving, and becoming the best poker player you can be, the tournament wins will come as a side effect of this. Accept that for a long time after you start playing poker, you're going to lose money. Even once you become a good winning player, you might continue losing money. The opposite could also be true – you could win a big tournament early in your career, but it wouldn't make you a good player. Winning one individual tournament means very little. Just think about improving and making the right decisions, and before you know it you'll be winning tournaments regularly.
September 24, 2013
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There is no doubt ones focus needs to be on the ongoing development and improvement of your own game; however I do think this does need to be undertaken in a controlled manner. What has helped me is picking one specific aspect of my game I am keen to develop or improve and then focus on that for a perod of time, via all tools available through TPE – Forum reviews and discussion and certainly the Videos and podcasts etc…
I think joining a community like TPE shows that you are keen to to learn and develop your game… I have only been a member for a 3 or 4 weeks and there is no doubt my game is improving and this is flowing into improved session results.
Good Luck… The results will come.
October 12, 2012
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I have been thinking a lot about this in the past few days after listening to the podcast with matt hunt and it kind of hit me this morning ( after losing with KK to JJ last night to go to about 5/50, and instead busting, from nearly 2000 starters) that this game really has so many elements that I cant control, I cant control the cards, I cant control my opponents, or how they act. I can really only control MY decisions and those decisions are based on many things. They are based on my knowledge of the game, odds, stack size and many more.
What I find interesting is that so many people say “play to win” and yet if we sit and listen to strategy on poker we will always find and mmany strategies as there are people in the room and every one will believe there are right. Of course sometimes every one will agree on something but they are usually only on really obvious preflop and or short stacked play.It is therefore possible to have any number of people in a given tournament playing what they belive to be “winnning strategy”, and yet some arelong term loosers and some are long term winners.
Playing to win tends to invoke an agressive nature, perhaps in the wrong spot and aggression tends to close its eyes to the nuances of the game that can be used against it. What im trying to get at is that my epiphany is that the “play to win” mentality is flawed by nature, as without the right skills the likelyhood of winning are diminished many times over. I can assure that if I was learing to fly a helicopter that with all the best intentions I'm likely to die (if i get it of the ground) if I'm just “playing to fly”. I would need to learn to be the best pilot that I could be, one step at a time. If i was taught to fly by someone that had some underlyig flaw then it would be difficult to become the best. If i was taught bto fly by someone that new 10-20- or 50 year old helicopter technology then it would also be difficult. To be the best I would need to learn from a skilld instructor and question everything so that i understood it. I would need to adapt my knowledge and re learn when new situations or helicopters were available.
Same with anything, if I just learn to be the best heart surgeon, ballet dancer or marathon runner, without my eye on a prize that I have no control over, then my chances of winning could actually go up dramatically.
Matt what you say about the mental game is so true, If I'm just learning and playing to be the best I can then the results dont matter as long as I played the best that i can with an aim to improve my knowledge.
Your comments are really appreciated, thanks.
Brent 
TPE Pro
August 25, 2012
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Thanks Brent, really glad you enjoyed the podcast and my advice! If you want to discuss things further, feel free to hit me up via PM.
TPE Management
April 6, 2010
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Brentl2 said:
For long time I hav ebeen trying to win tournamanets, unfortunately with out a lot of success. Should my head space be more focussed on learning as much as possible about the game than focussed on winning ?
I guess mentally it can make a big differenceto how you handle bad beats etc as well. Interested in comments.
ahh, ok, this makes sense and I agree with Ginger 100%! Great advice.
October 12, 2012
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The more I think about it the more obvious it is that playing to win is fundamentally flawed strategy. Not because winning is bad, and not because winning is not the aim of the game. But because of what it does to cloud your judgement and the games it can play in your head.
I will be in touch Matt. thanks so much for your offer.
September 29, 2012
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One thing I think you may be misunderstanding is the mantra “play to win” and the application that you see it used on the internet forums. To me, when seeing it used correctly it applies to a decision where a player poses a question should he fold a certain to get into the money or should he play the hand, which is likely ahead of opponents range. In these situations the mantra play to win is 100% correct. Make the decisions in the game that give you the the best chance to win the tournament.
But once you've made the best decisions for the situation, that is all you can do, after that there are too many variables out of your control.
When you review your play of a tournament, do not review it whether you won or lost, but inthe light of how good were your decisions.
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