The following is by Bob Silverstein and originally appeared in his “Understanding Internal Tells” column in Poker Pro Magazine

Rather than becoming a better and more knowledgeable player because I technically and strategically improved my game, I believe that I become a better poker player because I became more aware of what was going on inside of me as I played. I learned how to notice changes in my mental, physical and emotional state as I played poker. In fact, when I started to play poler this way I started a very  nice run that far exceeded by previous success. I on regularly in my local games, won a local charity hold”em tournament two years in a row, won al all-expenses paid seat at the the WSOP Main Event and came in a respectable 780th out of an almost 6900 entrants (top 12 percent) to boot.

By profession I am a psychotherapist, career coach and crisis manager, so some of what I am about to tell you comes from combining my understanding of how human beings are affected by the challenges we face in our lives, and for this purpose, that we face as we play poker.  In this article I define and explain how to recognize and modify what I term internal tells – changes in our state of mind and body such as daydreaming, getting upset, losing energy, being intimidated or conversely, sharpening our focus, becoming calm feeling energized or began began maintaining a nice image – and how doing so can lead to markedly improved results.

In the Beginning ….

I began to develop this awareness a couple of years ago. On this occasion I missed a couple of clear internal tells and how to learn the hard way how to important it is to recognize them.  …… more to follow next week.