What you’ll learn about overcoming Fear in poker
- Confronting Fear in Poker: Learn to recognize the situations where Fear can influence your poker decisions. You will also learn how to deal with these situations more confidently.
- Use Exposure Training: Learn how exposing yourself to uncomfortable poker situations can gradually build your fear tolerance and help you improve your decision-making skills.
- Effective Reflexion Techniques: Learn how to use practical methods to analyze past games in order for you to understand fear-based decision-making and plan for improved responses for future sessions.
- Extend Comfort Zones Without Risk: Learn how to expand your comfort zone by playing at higher stakes and with tougher opponents. This will allow you to improve your skills without taking unnecessary risks.
- Develop courage in poker: Accept courage as an acquired skill. Prepare yourself to deal with Fear in the game, and trust your processes to make consistently strong plays.
You are deep in a tournament, and the blinds keep going up. You are dealt AJ at the button. The cutoff is opened, and you realize that this is a great 3-bet position.
You are still holding yourself back. You hover your finger over the raise button, but instead, you call. You get check-raised after the flop completely misses you. You fold out of frustration, not at the board but at yourself.
Fear doesn’t always scream. It can whisper through overthinking or playing it safe. It will convince you to fold rather than look stupid. It’s better to check than get it wrong. Now is not the right time.
Here’s the hard truth:
Fear doesn’t protect your stack sizes–it limits your long-term success.
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You’re not alone if you have ever missed a bluff or avoided tense situations. You’re not the only one who has ever second-guessed rational choices had made.
This article will explain how poker anxiety can creep into your game and how you can play with confidence even when you start to feel it.
I’ll give you an illustration. Matt was playing a $1K live MTT. He had a large stack, was seated on a soft table and two short stacks to his left.
On the cutoff, he folded his action to him. He looked at 98. He knew from his studies that this was an open, especially when ICM applied pressure to the blinds.
Matt just… sat. His hands became a bit shaky. His mind was filled with doubt.
“What happens if I win 3-bet?”
“I would just wait until I found a better place …”
He mucked.
He told me that:
I knew the right move to make. “I didn’t want it to go wrong, so I couldn’t do anything.”
Fear works in this way. It doesn’t always feel like sheer panic. It often appears as a slow, quiet reluctance. If you do not have the tools necessary to identify and overcome Fear, it will take you off your edge.
How Fear looks at the table
Fear doesn’t have to be dramatic. Fear doesn’t always feel like panic.
Fear can be seen in poker games, but it is usually more subtle. Many poker players aren’t aware that they are afraid because they think they are being “careful”, “disciplined”, or “waiting for better spots”.
If you pay attention, you will start to see patterns.
Signs that you’re playing out of Fear:
- Even if your reading is accurate, you don’t go for the kill.
- You choose to flat bet instead of 3-bet because you are afraid they will 4-bet you and “put you in a position.”
- When you fold a strong hand that is part of your opening range, it means the hand is close to the bubble.
- Avoid marginally profitable bets in large pots if you do not want to appear foolish.
- When you are deep into a tournament, you will “avoid variance”.
- Even when math is in disagreement, you can still be cautious and not place a bet.
Why Fear is so Sneaky and Powerful
Fear of poker is not just an emotion. This is a biological system designed to protect against danger. In life, this is incredibly useful. When is the biggest poker tournament? Not at all.
What Happens when Fear kicks in?
Uncertainty and pressure are perceived as threats by your brain. This triggers the amygdala, which is responsible for the fight, flight or freeze response. This floods the body with cortisol and adrenaline.
What does this do?
It limits your creativity and locks you into a short-term safety mode.
Your brain literally tries to protect you against risk just when you are most in need of being able to take calculated chances.
How Fear of Poker Can Hurt Your Game
Every hand in poker requires that you make decisions based on incomplete information.
When you feel Fear, listen to what it says.
- “Wait until you reach a more secure area …”
- You might regret this …”
- “Don’t embarrass yourselves …”
It’s about convincing you to avoid discomfort, play small and play safely. The best (and most profitable poker decisions) are usually uncomfortable. Fear may not stop you from taking action, but it can make your actions smaller than they should.
It’s sneaky because it makes you think that you’re being clever. You’ll assume you are smart when you protect yourself against imagined failures in poker.
Fear and Your Game
Fear isn’t just a feeling; it also affects how you act.
It may be so subtle that you don’t even notice. Fear-based decisions slowly erode your confidence and ability to win.
What does Fear cost you?
Inaction – The biggest mistake you never made
You have studied the area. You’ve studied the spot.
You check again, saying something like, “Maybe this is not the right time.”
It’s likely to be close. “Let’s keep it simple.”
What happened? Fear can be disguised as logic. The opportunity was gone in an instant.
Overcorrection – The Fear That Follows the Spew
Fear can turn the tables after playing scared and missing places.
I’m tired of playing like a nit. Now I’m taking up my positions .”
You’re now overcorrecting, making emotional hero calls, poorly timed bluffs or loose openings to show that you’re not scared.
You’re still playing out of Fear but in the opposite direction.
Image management: Playing for looks, not to win
You don’t take a line that could be profitable because you are worried about what other people will think.
You are no longer making decisions to protect your ego; instead, you are playing to it.
Fear has changed your focus from execution to reputation.
Paralysis – Thinking yourself out of good Plays
You stop playing in places you’ve played 100 times. You doubt every line and are stuck between “what is right” and “what is safe.”
It’s a GTO Poker hoodie that gives you the chills.
You are not analyzing better; you’re simply stalling out of Fear.
Is Fear the Worst Kind of Fear?
You can’t play the game if you don’t know what it is. You’re not untrained or lazy. You were afraid to be wrong, lose chips, or look foolish.
This is not a good strategy. Fear is dictating how you play.
The Mindset Shift – From Fearful To Fearless
It’s important to understand that being fearless does not mean that you do not feel Fear. You don’t let your Fear dictate what you do.
Fear will show up. Fear is most likely to appear when:
- You’re deep in a tournament
- You are facing a large river shove
- You’re playing with high stakes
- You are about to make an exciting move
It doesn’t make anyone weak. You become normal.
It’s not whether or not they are afraid. The difference is how they react to it.
Your new mental cue:
You can tell yourself: “I feel fear, but I still choose the right game.”
No matter how fast your heart is beating or how low your stomach falls, you can still breathe and take the action that aligns with your strategy. You can calm down, centre yourself, and take action that is in line with your plan. This is what poker courage looks like.