I hate to admit this, but recently I had been the bubble boy in several single-table sit n go poker tournaments. It really had me worried. This usually does not happen to me. And, it darn for sure is not my image of myself.
But, no matter how hard I tried, I just kept busting out on the bubble. My confidence was really taking a shellacking. And, the longer the bubble, the worse I felt. I had even nicknamed a long tough bubble after a terrible monster - T-Rex. T-Rex would show up to feed about the same time every tournament. He would find me right away - my smell of fear, I suppose - and, that would be the end of my chips.
Fortunately, I am just finishing one of the best sports psychology books around, Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide To Inner Excellence, by Gary Mack with David Casstevens. I say fortunately, because I figure that my terrible monster, like most terrible monsters, is something in my mind. Something psychological.
So, with every one of my fourth place finishes - the bubble boy in a single table tournament - I began to analyze, and to put two and two together. Indeed, it began to appear to me that my problem was that I had begun choking on the bubble. As the bubble stress would start to climb, whenever things would start to get tough, or were not going my way, my self-confidence would start falling, which is a precursor to choking.
If you are not familiar with the term 'choke', in sports it means that an athlete has failed to perform up to their usual or optimum level of play. And, instead has messed up real bad at a critical, pivotal point in a contest. Basically, when under extreme stress or pressure, an unfortunate athlete's mind and muscles will freeze up, and thus he chokes. Choking is a natural physiological response to stress.
Training and experience generally provide the self-confidence to carry an athlete through the stressful parts of a contest. But, as we will see, sometimes an athlete, or poker player, can rely on few mental tricks for a little extra help to prevent choking.
The poker equivalent of sports choking does not involve the muscles in your arms and legs, but that same trigger- stress - can definitely tie your mental muscle into knots. In other words, stress can make a poker player make critical mistakes at pivotal points. And, in a sit n go tournament, there is hardly a more critical mistake at a pivotal point than that of becoming the bubble boy.
Normally, when your self-confidence begins to falter, it is not long before your mind is awash with all kinds of negative thoughts. Your negative, or should I say, my negative self-talk would begin sounding like this:
- These guys are really tough, I do not think I can beat them.
- Darn, the short stack just doubled up, I will never make it now.
- No one is making a mistake, I guess I will be the first. And,
- Here we go again, another long tough bubble. Hope I do not blow this one, like I did the last one.
There were others, but you get the picture - my inner critic was hard at work filling my head with negative thoughts. Have you ever been stuck in a long tough bubble with these kinds of negative thoughts? If so, then we both really need to work hard on cleansing our minds.
Aside from the obvious perils of self-doubt, these negative thoughts will become so called, 'self-fulfilling prophesies of defeat.' Basically, your subconscious does not discriminate between negative and positive conscious thought. It just receives the thought, which it interprets as a command, and dutifully goes to work to fulfill the request. At least, that is my understanding of the process.
So, for example, when my subconscious heard my negative self-talk, it then influenced my actions and decisions to help assure that "I cannot beat them" or "I will never make it now." Naturally, I then bubbled - my subconscious standing proudly, awaiting orders for its next mission.
Amazingly, the fix is real simple. All that we have to do is just change our self-talk - from negative to positive. Instead of "These guys are really tough, I do not think I can beat them," try something positive like:
"I love the bubble. Playing a long tough bubble brings out the best in me."
This example of my new positive self-talk was inspired by a collegiate tennis player, who was having problems similar to mine with tie-breakers. Her story is recounted on page 102 of Mack's book.
In fact, you might try starting a tournament with that type of positive thinking. Then, you would be mentally prepared for any kind of trouble, no matter when it might come. That is what I have begun. And, it is working. Definitely, no longer a bubble boy here.
There are many other possible forms of positive self-talk or affirmations that could work just as well, or even better. You may need to experiment to find the right one for the right situation. Conceivably, you could develop for yourself a whole arsenal of positive affirmations, one for every type of tournament problem.
The main thing is that whenever you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, or any thought that the result of which is something that you do not want to have happen, then you need to immediately change your thinking. Learn to feed your subconscious a steady diet of thoughts that lead to the results that you actually desire.
Instead of thinking about what you are trying to prevent, or do not want to have happen; try thinking about nothing, if you do not have anything better to think about. Sometimes, we just have to get our thinking out of the way, in order to allow what we have been training for, to happen. It really is almost that easy. In sports, it is called 'playing in the zone' - a thoughtless (no thinking about execution), perfect performance.
There is an old saying, "We cause to happen what we are trying to prevent." If you think about it, you can see the shadow of the subconscious dutifully at work behind the scene.
What is happening is probably something like this:
- You think - "Darn, the short stack just doubled up, I will never make it now."
- Your subconscious hears, essentially - "I will never make it now." And,
- Your subconscious then delivers the emotions, the faulty judgment, or whatever, to allow what you were trying to prevent, 'not making it', to occur - so, you become the bubble boy.
What is a long tough bubble?
For me, a long tough bubble is just that - long and tough. It is a bubble where all of the competitors are fighting as hard as they possibly can, and no one is near surrendering. The situation has escalated to the point, because of the inordinately high blinds, that whoever makes the first mistake will be eliminated. But, no one is making a mistake.
A fight like this takes on even more stressful significance, because, after all, the bubble is more important and more difficult than winning the tournament itself. Right? See, you must win at the bubble stage, before you can have a chance at winning the tournament. Plus, at the bubble stage, you face three opponents. Whereas, only two, once you have made the money. Furthermore, it is at the bubble where there is the highest degree of pressure and anxiety - all in anticipation of making the money.
Here are some typical characteristics of a long tough bubble:
- There is probably a huge chip leader (not you), and three near equal stacked opponents.
- The bubble has lasted through several blind increases.
- One or more of the three equal stacks has barely escaped elimination a few times, and just seem to keep coming back. They just will not die.
- Had any of those near misses resulted in an elimination, you would have been home free. The repeated denial just makes you more anxious.
- All of the three near equal stacks are in the Red M Zone.
- The chip leader is playing his stack aggressively, thereby denying you many opportunities to steal the blinds.
- You entered the bubble with a chip lead over two of your opponents, but because of the missed opportunities and the rising blinds, your stack has been seriously eroded. And,
- By making one mistake, large or small, you would be fatally crippled or eliminated.
As you see, the worst of everything can all come together in a long tough bubble - it is the sit n go equivalent of a perfect storm. Or, for us kids, a terrible T-Rex monster.
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Copyright 2009 R. Steve McCollum
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