The Mental Game of Poker: Proven Strategies for Improving Tilt Control, Confidence, Motivation, Coping with Variance, and More

by Jared Tendler

Overview

Published in 2011, this book by Jared Tendler -- a licensed mental game coach who has worked with professional poker players, traders, and athletes -- provides a systematic approach to the psychological challenges of performance under uncertainty. While focused on poker, the principles are directly applicable to trading, as both disciplines require emotional control, probabilistic thinking, and consistent decision-making under variance.

Core Framework

Tendler's approach is rooted in the "Adult Learning Model" and sports psychology. He rejects the common advice to simply "stop tilting" or "control your emotions," instead providing a structured method for understanding the root causes of emotional dysfunction and systematically resolving them.

Key Topics

• Tilt Control: Identifying the specific type of tilt (bad beat tilt, injustice tilt, entitlement tilt, revenge tilt, desperation tilt) and developing targeted strategies for each.
• Confidence: Building stable confidence based on competence rather than results, so that inevitable bad runs do not destroy self-belief.
• Motivation: Maintaining drive during extended losing periods and avoiding burnout.
• Coping with Variance: Understanding that short-term results in probabilistic games are largely random, and developing the emotional resilience to focus on process over outcomes.
• Performance Under Pressure: Techniques for maintaining "A-game" performance rather than degenerating to "C-game" under stress.

Trading Relevance

Poker and trading share essential characteristics: both involve decision-making under uncertainty with real money at stake, both require managing emotions when results are negative, and both reward consistent process over short-term outcomes. Tendler's clients include professional traders, and his methods transfer seamlessly to trading psychology.