A professional attitude in poker is essential as it builds the foundation for consistent performance, resilience, and growth. It involves treating all aspects of the game seriously, committing to improvement, and taking responsibility for mental and physical well-being. Developing this attitude means embracing discipline, setting goals, and being open to feedback. It also requires a proactive approach to challenges, viewing them as opportunities to enhance skills and character.

A strong work ethic is crucial for steering your development in the right direction. Lacking clear goals and consistent habits can make it challenging to manage your poker career effectively. Mastering time management, setting priorities, and cultivating habits that build discipline are essential steps in this process. By setting achievable objectives and sticking to a structured routine, you lay the groundwork for steady improvement.

A stable and healthy confidence level enables you to manage emotions effectively and stay resilient during challenging times. Building trust in your abilities while keeping your ego in check is essential to maintaining control, especially in the competitive environment. This balance allows you to make calculated decisions without letting pride or frustration interfere. Remember that confidence should be grounded in your preparation and skills, not in an inflated sense of superiority. By cultivating this steady confidence, you can approach each hand with clarity, increasing your chances of success in the long run.

Mindfulness is the skill of being fully present and aware in the current moment, without judgment. It involves paying attention to thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, helping us respond to situations with clarity rather than reacting impulsively. It is a foundation for change, as it enables us to recognize old patterns of thinking and behavior and make conscious adjustments to them. By incorporating mindfulness into daily life, we gain better control over our reactions, which can lead to more thoughtful decision-making and greater resilience in the face of challenges. Over time, this awareness fosters a deeper connection with ourselves and improves overall well-being.

To succeed in the poker world, mastering emotional control is essential. This means learning how to identify and understand your feelings, recognizing their root causes, and managing them in a healthy way. A professional player develops strategies and techniques to handle challenging emotions like anger, fear, insecurity, frustration, and disappointment. With these skills, you can stay focused and make more rational decisions, even in stressful situations. High emotional intelligence not only strengthens your resilience but also enhances your ability to adapt, giving you an advantage over players who let their emotions dictate their actions.

The purpose of working on this area is to develop mental skills that will improve effective coping with stress and prevent burnout. In addition, the implementation of a healthy balance between the game and personal life (work-life balance) and eliminating ineffective ways of regulating stress and tension. The ability to recover quickly and effectively will allow you to maintain focus, energy levels, and build greater resilience against setbacks.

Motivation encompasses all the processes involved in starting, sustaining, and guiding action. Enhancing motivation involves understanding your personal drivers, creating a tailored system of rewards and consequences, seeking a deeper purpose in your actions, and defining what „mastery” means to you. A well-developed motivation is steady and resilient, unaffected by mood shifts or external challenges. By strengthening this foundation, you can remain consistently driven, even when facing obstacles.

Improving concentration is focused on maximizing the frequency of your A-game during play. Reaching peak performance involves understanding yourself deeply—your sources of motivation, ideal arousal levels, and selecting challenges that align with your strengths. By refining these aspects, you create the conditions needed to consistently perform at your best. Work on concentration requires not only preparing an appropriate deep work environment but also developing concentration skills through regular training.

I am a certified cognitive-behavioral therapist with many years of experience in working with clinical issues such as mood disorders (depressive episodes, recurrent depressive episodes, adjustment disorders) and anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and PTSD). I also provide support in difficult life situations, sleep problems, and behavioral addictions. In my work, I utilize not only CBT but also incorporate third-wave approaches, including ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). Mindfulness-based approaches are also an integral part of my practice.