Perform Like a Poker Pro (How to Make Better Decisions)

Your winrate at the poker table varies from hand to hand. High stakes poker pro Phil Galfond has advice on how to keep your edge high (and strategy to analyze if you still have an edge!)

🧠 If you want to realize your full poker potential, I can't recommend this course by my mental game coach Elliot Roe enough: ➡️ https://galfond.link/ElliotCourse

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“You are not a favorite at the poker table.

You are not an underdog.

This is true because we haven’t given you a lineup of opponents yet, but also because you are not always the you that you are right now.”

Poker is not a game of static skill edges.

On any given day you or your opponents' performance abilities at the poker table are not the same as they were the other days, and it’s often mostly out of your control.

There are things within your control that can affect how well you perform, but most often your attributes like Logic, Discipline, Knowledge Recall, Focus, Problem Solving Ability, and Empathy will fade as the poker session goes on.

Accepting this reality frees you from needing to perform to a specific standard for yourself at all times - it’s pretty hard to think at a high level 12 hours into a poker session and putting that pressure of ‘needing to’ onto yourself can make it even more difficult.

There are things you can do that might boost your endurance at the poker table and ability to maintain your poker skills.

Things like regularly getting a good night's sleep, eating better foods, exercising, and meditating can all increase your ability to maintain your key poker skills at the table for longer.

On the opposite end of learning to play within your attributes, learning to quit a poker session when your poker skills naturally fade can increase your win-rate more than trying a new aggressive poker strategy.

That’s because no matter how much mental game work you do pre-session, or how much stretching you do on your break, you’re always going to eventually get tired if you’re playing a long poker session.

This is why making a plan while you’re clear headed for when you’re going to quit is one of the key important concepts Phil stresses in this video.

It might sound counter-productive but learning when to quit and making good quits at the poker table can easily boost your win-rate in the long term.

By playing less C and D skill level poker sessions your overall average win-rate will start increasing even though your hours spent playing poker might go down in the short term.

There’s almost always a new poker game tomorrow, you don’t have to stay in a bad game just because you have a seat.


Are you a new poker player or a poker beginner?

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