When I heard that Elliot Roe was releasing his new book, A-Game Poker, I got really excited. As someone who follows Elliot’s advice on poker mindset, I couldn’t wait to check it out. Having delved into the pages of this book, I must express that it was truly exceptional.
In this article, discover my take on A-Game Poker by Elliot Roe and the top quotes from the book. Enjoy!
My Thoughts on A-Game Poker
Inspiring, logical and eye-opening, A-Game Poker is more than just a mindset book for poker players. It’s a profound exploration of the human psyche and a roadmap for personal growth and success.
What I loved about A-Game Poker is its practicality. It is packed with exercises and challenging questions that aid in understanding and navigating through emotions experienced in poker and those encountered in everyday life, such as fear, anger, injustice, confidence, and motivation.
This insightful book has taught me how to spot my Detrimental Mental Programs and face my significant roadblocks head-on. It led me through the process of recognizing these mental hurdles or self-imposed limitations and provided effective strategies to overcome them.
Conclusion: If you’re serious about taking your poker game to the next level, this book is a must-read.
A-Game Poker by Elliot Roe: Book Overview
Elliot Roe is a leading mindset and performance coach, celebrated for elevating the mental game in poker. With a foundation in hypnotherapy, Elliot has developed ‘Primed Mind,’ an app acclaimed for helping players achieve peak performance. His expertise is not limited to poker; he also advises high performers across various disciplines, from UFC fighters & Olympians, to CEOs, Founders, and Hedge Fund Managers. Elliot’s holistic approach to mindset and performance has positioned him as a pivotal figure for those seeking to conquer stress, enhance focus, and master the emotional complexities inherent to high-stakes decision-making, both on and off the felt.
In A-Game Poker, Elliot Roe draws upon ten years of experience to reveal strategies for enhancing your mindset and mental game. You will explore the peak performance systems essential for success in any poker game and you will discover the tactics used by the world’s top players to distinguish themselves from the competition.
To demonstrate how the A-Game Poker system works in real life, Elliot Roe’s clients, including Phil Galfond, Fedor Holz, BERRI SWEET, Kevin Martin, Jon ‘apestyles’ Van Fleet, BenCB, Matt Berkey, Alex Foxen, Kristen Foxen, and Lara Eisenberg, share their stories of applying the concepts from the book to reach and maintain the highest levels of success in the game.
Within the pages of this book, you will uncover:
- The essential habits that set the biggest winners apart from the rest and discover practical ways to incorporate them into your daily routine.
- To quickly enter the zone and sustain intense focus throughout your entire poker session.
- How to overcome the most common mental blocks that prevent poker players from reaching high-stakes success.
- The strength of a resilient mental game, enabling you to stay composed and make clear, calculated decisions even under pressure.
- Techniques to enhance focus and concentration, prolonging the effectiveness of your poker sessions.
- A sustainable routine for acquiring poker skills, striking a balance between study, gameplay, and personal well-being.
- What to do when motivation to play wanes and why it’s crucial to avoid the common pitfalls that most people fall into.
- The strategies elite poker players use to manage variance and maintain a positive mindset through ups and downs.
Top Quotes From A-Game Poker by Elliot Roe
“Poker is one of the most robust environments when it comes to mental performance. To be successful at the game you must be resilient, determined, curious, and able to think in a way that is almost completely opposite of how your brain tends to operate naturally.”
“Making poker their choice of profession comes with significant social resistance or downright disapproval. There are certainly easier and safer ways to earn money. Someone who has what it takes to be a big winner in poker could easily apply their skill set in other areas and do quite well for themselves. Yet there are more doctors, lawyers, and financial professionals who dream about making the switch to full-time poker pro than poker pros who dream about pursuing those professions. There’s just something about the game of poker that’s different. It scratches an itch that seemingly nothing else can. And, as I say, those who choose it, do so for a myriad of reasons.”
“One of the least sexy topics in all of poker, bankroll management, which also makes it one of the most important ones.Bankrolls are the lifeblood of any business, and your bankroll is the lifeblood of your poker career. Many good businesses fail because of poor financial management, and many excellent poker players go broke for the same reason.”
“Poker is a different animal entirely. To be successful you must have the ability to craft a strategy that is theoretically profitable. You must also have the fortitude to apply that theory over a long enough period of time to test its viability. In that sense, you’re more like the house taking bets in a casino.”
“My definition of freedom is the ability to make conscious decisions about how you want to allocate your time. Most poker players come into the game thinking they want the do-whatever-you-want-whenever-you-want-to-do-it definition of freedom, but they quickly come to realize that’s neither effective for achieving success in the game nor as a fulfilling way to live your life.”
“Whatever happened in the previous hand is irrelevant, other than as data points for understanding your opponents’ ranges and tendencies. Maybe last hand you were chip leader in a massive MTT, then lost a massive pot and are now down to “just” 10BB. This is where you have an option. You can punt the 10BB stack because it feels so insignificant compared to when you had the chip lead, then complain afterward about how unlucky you got and how you deserved to win the tournament. Or you can approach the next hand as a new puzzle you must solve with the limitation of your 10BB stack.
This also holds true when you’re”
“Getting in the Zone doesn’t have to be something that happens by serendipity, it’s not a magical or rare state you just stumble upon, it’s a skill that starts with a choice. When you play, you can choose to observe, collect and make sense of the most important information revealed by your opponents, or you can choose to place your focus elsewhere in the hand.”
“As funny as it sounds, some people can’t cope with people playing bad poker. I get a lot of people coming to me complaining that “I just can’t cope with seeing bad plays, plays that don’t make sense to me.”This is amplified when those plays are rewarded, and even more so if you’re the one on the losing end. This can trigger all sorts of emotions such as injustice, greed, impatience, frustration and so on.”
“Knowing what to do, and actually doing it are two very different things. It’s the difference between becoming one of the best in the world and being in the middle of the pack.”
“Here’s something to remember: Your long-term vision dictates your short-term decisions, and your short-term decisions dictate your long-term success.”