31 Jul 2025 Intermediate This material is for medium-skilled players discipline mindset variance Daniel Negreanu is one of the best poker players in history, and many consider him the best. While the average player may think he's just unlucky, Daniel Negreanu sees something else that keeps everyone else stuck at their level forever. Today, you'll learn what it is about his mindset that makes him great compared to thousands of other great players. And how to fix it. Reason #1: Tilt Tilt doesn't always feel like a meltdown. Sometimes it's not noticeable at all - especially in the heat of a session. You go in for another hand, stay another hour, but... you're not chasing chips, you're chasing control. So, The #1 reason you lose at poker is tilt. Negreanu knows this better than anyone. He's been through the fire, water and copper pipes of poker, regularly finding himself under incredible pressure from the money, the importance of the spots and the toughest opponents in the world. And yet, he admits that tilt almost killed him once. And most players don't even realize that they tilt almost all the time, and not just when they start swearing, slamming the table and throwing mice. Most people in the game think they are playing with discipline, but in reality they are playing to get even with their opponents. They are caught up in the emotion, and the worst part is they continue to think they are okay. And what does Negryanu do? - He allows himself to rant about what he thinks his opponents are doing and their ranges. Then he lets off steam silently, then inhales again and returns to the Now. What does he feel inside? What are the physical signs? Finger tapping, heart palpitations, etc. - As soon as he notices this, he takes control of it. This is what separates the pros from the pretenders. Not so much strategy or a tailwind, but the ability to stop the slide. If you want to win more, then start by realizing that you are usually not playing your A-game. So, if everything is under control, and the losses continue, then Daniel advises to look deeper. Reason #2: You've Become Too Predictable It creeps up on you. You're not playing visibly worse, but you're not winning anymore. And those you used to beat are now beating you. Negryanu sees it all the time, and here are his words: A player has been crushing the locals' usual game for months. The same room, the same limit, and the same opponents. => But they get used to the player and study him. And then his game stops working because he's become a living HUD. Opponents have learned what a probe bet from a player means, have adjusted to his barrel on the turn, and have also come to expect that the player will not double-bluff on the river with missed draws. The player has taught them, without even realizing it. Poker is not just about playing in your own style, but constantly confusing your opponents so that they can't adjust to you. Negryanu's advice is simple: If your results are getting worse against familiar opponents, it's not variance, it's a sign that you've been found out. Predictability doesn't always mean restraint and risk-averse play. It can also manifest itself in the fact that you bluff in the same situations, and your bet size gives away the strength of the actual hand. Or in the fact that your supposedly GTO-balanced range looks exactly the same in every session. You don't have to become a maniac, but you critically need to change something, at least for a while. Add new gears. For example, delayed c-bets. Use non-standard lines of play that will cause your opponents great discomfort. Great players don't just play confidently and reliably - they are slippery and difficult to read because they have pumped up their unpredictability. If you start to think that you are easy to play against, then it's time to improve. Reason #3: You're Playing the Wrong Games This is hard to admit, but sometimes it's necessary. A bad or even negative win rate may not be because you're a bad player (in absolute terms), but because everyone else is playing even better (compared to you). If you're the 5th most skilled poker player in the world, but you're playing with the other 4 who are better than you, then congratulations, you'll be a loser here, with money just being taken away. This is a shame, because we all like to feel like we're in the elite, and we're racing to show off our skills at higher stakes, in tougher games, and in more aggressive play. But in reality, we're just trying to satisfy our big egos. But poker isn't about proving anything to anyone. Poker is about winning chips - by any means necessary, and position, cards, and playstyle are tools to achieve that goal, good or bad. It also means that sometimes you have to give up on a game that isn't right for you. Daniel is brutally honest about this. He's spent his life watching truly talented players waste their time at tables where they simply don't belong. Not because they are bad per se, but because they are not the best at those tables - that's the truth. There is no shame in game selection, lineup and table selection - in fact, it is one of the most underrated skills in poker. Look at your regular game: are you a confident winner or, rather, a survivor? - If you can't say for sure what your edge is over your opponents, then most likely there is none at all. And then the unfortunate variance begins to interfere with the results. Strong players look for weak fields. Smart players play where they are clear favorites, not underdogs. And professionals - they never let pride cost them money. So it's time to ask yourself: are you playing in difficult lineups because you are ashamed to avoid a fight with these opponents or because you feel challenged there? Your bankroll does not care how the money was earned and from whom exactly. Winning $100 against a strong opponent is the same as winning $100 against the worst fish in the universe. So the less effort you have to put into winning money, the better. Reason #4: You have a poor understanding of poker fundamentals Let's be realistic. Most losing micro and low stakes players can't even articulate the exact reasons why they're losing money. It's always easier to blame bad luck, fish who call 3-bets out of position with Q4o and catching their nuts postflop, and even otherworldly forces. But ask them about their ranges, their pot odds, their frequencies - and they'll freeze in a stupor, like, what are you talking about? Poker is all about consistency, and those players who play with their heart, instincts, and passion, but have no structure in their game, end up screwed. They guess and copy cool tricks from streamers that they like, but can barely explain. They make decisions based on emotion, not math. The fundamentals of poker are the invisible engine in the career of every successful player. This game is not full of flashy moves with huge risks, when stacks fly in all directions. It does not attract the attention of thousands of spectators, but it is this kind of game that leads to success, albeit slowly but surely. This is the typical difference between a game of survival and a game of taking all the chips. Watching clips on YouTube and Twitch does not count as learning. If there is no system in your learning, then you will not have a structure of the basics of poker strategy built in your head, and then there is no chance of success in the long term. And the basics include many concepts that determine the course of your career: planning a hand right from the preflop, choosing bet sizes, reading your opponents' hands, positional awareness ... These are the very basics that you need to master if you are ready to slow down and get to work. And the best part is that these are the most easily corrected leaks in your game. And knowledge accumulates. Once you learn the right patterns of thinking and playing, decisions become automatic and profitable. If you are serious, then start right from the fundamentals. You will have to stop improvising and start purposefully learning, because until you start developing, you will continue to play blind. Reason #5: You Give Tells Without Even Realizing It You might think that tells in live poker are a myth, but Daniel Negreanu has built his entire career on what other people miss. For example, his opponent hits top two pairs on the flop and doesn’t make big bets, doesn’t trash talk, and just looks at his chips. But Hero notices the excited look at his opponent’s stack and immediately folds his hand. Why? - Because not only beginners, but even experienced players have subconscious habits. When the flop brings them a cool hand, they instinctively start looking at their stack. Their brain is already thinking about the bet and its size even before the player actually decides to bet. In other words, automatically figuring out how to invest the entire stack with the best hand and not push the opponent out early. For Negreanu, this is the number one tell for a beginner. The player doesn't even realize how he gives away information about his hand. But an experienced player notices this and uses it to leave him with nothing. Here, it's not just a look at the chips that tells the strength of the combination. A smile, breathing, posture, false confidence - every little detail tells a certain story. Professionals can even analyze what is happening with an opponent into individual mouth movements, forced smiles, forced reactions, awkward smirks. And here is where the worst begins. You will most likely give out tells when you are not focused, when you are communicating and you are comfortable, and also when you are playing on autopilot. Negreanu's advice is simple: If you can't get rid of giving information to your opponents through your tells, then at least know about them. Start observing yourself as if from the outside - from the third person. For example, ask yourself: What should I do if I flop a monster hand? Or how does my body behave when I bluff? If any of this caught your attention, then good - you began to pay attention. If you are losing now, it is not because your behavior and spirit have broken, but because you are learning. And Daniel went through this too. This is the part that most players miss. Even the pros never stop adjusting: they change gears and their entire style of play, review their hands, watch for patterns - not just once, but constantly. The difference is that they don't make excuses. They don't get stuck at their current level. You're only one insight away from breaking through - and you'll find it yourself. And today you got five: Tilt isn't just rage, it's any emotional deviation from serenity, Predictability makes you easy prey, Playing in tough lineups/disciplines will probably bury your progress, Knowledge of poker fundamentals is a cornerstone that needs to be laid correctly as early as possible, Your body can give away all the information about your cards. But all of this can be fixed. If you've read this far, you're already much more likely to succeed than the guy who closed the page 3 minutes ago. By gradually improving each of these 5 points, you'll start to see the game much better and the graph will gradually acquire a sharp upward trend.
