The Downsides of Positivity in Poker

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Are there negative side effects to having positive thoughts during a poker session?

I realize it seems like an odd question, but I think it’s an important one. What I’ll be doing in this article is laying down the arguments against being positive, posing an alternative and asking important questions. The arguments are:

1) High expectations lead to big let downs when things inevitably don’t go your way.

2) Your thoughts should be on the hand(s) in question only.

3) Positivity can lead to complacency. For example a player who’s so sure he’s the best that he thinks he doesn’t need work/help with his game.

I feel like all of these arguments have applied to me throughout my poker career. When I’d get a big stack in a MTT I’d basically start playing the “Cash Out (Bling Blang Blaow)” song in my head, imagining the win before it even happened. Then when I would hit the inevitable setback I’d start complaining, losing my composure, getting distracted and sometimes I’d get tilted.

Argument #3 applies to me in poker and in life. So often I try to be positive and think things will turn out fine and consequently don’t work as hard as I would’ve if I’d have analyzed the situation objectively.

Have you experienced similar things in your life/poker? Can you think of other ways positivity has been counterproductive for you? Do you think the pros of positivity outweigh the cons? Before you answer, listen to the alternative.

The alternative is to try and stop both negative and positive thoughts as they arise. It’s basically similar to a Zen/meditative approach. Every time you’re playing and you find your mind wandering to negative/positive thoughts you gently bring your mind back to the task at hand.

This isn’t perfect, just like as in meditation nobody can go the whole time without having their mind go astray. The key is to always bring your thoughts back when they go astray.

The problem is if you have tried any type of mental control before, (obviously you have) you know that it doesn’t always work. In fact, it can often makes things worse. This has been studied by psychologists and they have names for it like the “Law of Reversed Effort”, “Counter Will” and “Ironic Processes of Mental Control.”

I’ll try and explain what supposedly happens, without getting into all the complex details (I would probably fuck them up anyways). Mental control typically works. The times that it doesn’t work is when your brain is under mental load (cognitive load, time pressure, distractions, stress, etc.) and when that happens you get the opposite intended effect.

Desired happiness becomes sadness, desired relaxation becomes anxiety, desired interest becomes boredom, desired love becomes hate and so on.

So what the fuck do we do when this happens Daryl?

Process theory suggests that you avoid mental control when under significant cognitive load. More importantly it suggests that you try make mental control automated (subconscious) through repetition/practice.

Theoretically, automatized operations are significantly less likely to experience ironic effects. It is said that when people “choke under pressure” it is due to them thinking about a process that should just be automatic, like a two foot putt in golf or a free throw in basketball. When you make a conscious effort (mental control) coupled with the intense stress/pressure at the end of a golf tournament or basketball game (mental load) it is likely to lead to ironic effects.

This clearly isn’t cut and dried. Even the guy who thought of “Process Theory”, Daniel Wegner, admits there is no overwhelming evidence to back his claims. So don’t necessarily buy into it without thinking about it or doing your own research. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Peace.

Link for the fellow super geeks who wanna learn more about ironic process theory, check this out.