YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → The 8 Reasons You Underperform at Poker

The 8 Reasons You Underperform at Poker — Transcript

by Carrot Corner - Poker Education · 7,690 words · 1,232 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00Why do you constantly under perform at
0:02the poker table?
0:03Actually, if I eat this, I'll have to
0:04chew for like 20 seconds. It'll ruin the
0:07start of the video. So, we'll we'll
0:09resume the sushi in a minute.
0:11You under perform at the poker table for
0:13the following eight reasons. Probably
0:16all of these
0:17or if not all of them, then most of
0:19them. So, sit down comfortably
0:22and learn
0:24what you need to do today
0:26to start getting closer
0:28to what you know you can achieve in
0:30poker, to that level of understanding
0:31that you actually have.
0:33How do you bring that to the table and
0:35stop frustrating yourself and driving
0:37yourself crazy by under performing in
0:40almost every session that you're
0:42playing. Reason number one why you under
0:44perform at poker, this is probably like
0:4690% of you.
0:48You have
0:49most points in a poker session, on most
0:52days that you play this game,
0:53a gambler's mindset.
0:56What does that mean? You may be
0:57thinking, "No, I don't. I'm not a
0:59gambler. I'm a poker player. I play
1:02poker because it's not gambling." You
1:04know, that could be you.
1:06It is gambling, actually.
1:09Playing poker is gambling. It's gambling
1:11with a skill edge, like sports betting
1:13with an edge would be, but it is still
1:15gambling.
1:16And as a result of that, it does things
1:18to your brain that gambling does to your
1:20brain. We are living through a massive
1:22online gambling epidemic at the moment.
1:24Some of that is spilling into online
1:27poker.
1:28We're seeing people rock up to our
1:30starter Discord, that's our free one.
1:32It's not as good as the one you get when
1:34you get bronze carrot, that's our first
1:36paid serious course where we have a pro
1:38moderated hand channel, advice channel,
1:41all that sort of stuff. Alex Sherpatel
1:43lives in there. Don't let him out very
1:45often, just let him get sunlight and he
1:46just has to reply to all of your your
1:48questions and hands. You get that if you
1:50get bronze, by the way. I'll talk more
1:51about bronze later since I've got this
1:52overlay on screen. But, it is very much
1:56a gambling thing. And in that starter
1:57Discord, we've started to see people
2:01pop up and say, "Can I get a tournament
2:04ticket, please?"
2:05I [snorts] had to remove someone from my
2:06server the other day for begging for
2:08tournament tickets. I've never had a
2:09free
2:10server up until this point. I always
2:12just ran the
2:14silver and more recently bronze
2:16paid Discord communities that are lovely
2:18places where you don't get any of that.
2:19So, serious poker players have invested
2:22in their poker education, blah blah
2:23blah. But, yeah, like this
2:25online gambling epidemic is unfolding
2:28before our eyes, is spilling over into
2:30poker. And even before that, people who
2:32played poker still had
2:35gambling related issues. And that might
2:37not mean an addiction
2:38or bad bankroll management or that it's
2:40bad for your life, but what it can mean
2:43is that you really want to win your
2:45session in the same way that a gambler
2:47really wants to win their bets.
2:50That you get a high out of winning, that
2:52when you make a straight on the turn, a
2:53little bit of something lights up in
2:55your brain, your dopamine receptors go
2:57crazy, and you feel awesome on when the
3:00river comes a flush card and your
3:01opponent shoves, you feel terrible. And
3:03you ride this roller coaster up and down
3:06day in day out throughout your session.
3:08You lose four blinds, you check your
3:10graph, you look at how much you're down,
3:11you look at your bankroll, you calculate
3:12how many blinds you've got, but not
3:14just in a pragmatic way, let's face it,
3:16not just to see, but because you're
3:18trying to
3:20check the damage, assure yourself of
3:22what's happened to your lovely graph.
3:25It's a reflection on your own
3:26self-worth. This is gambling. This is a
3:28gambler's mindset. When you feel like
3:30it's dramatically better to win than it
3:32is to lose
3:34that day, and you're checking the
3:35monetary result in the cashier or the
3:37PT4 graph or whatever it may be, that is
3:39a gambler's mindset issue. And it stops
3:43you from performing
3:44to the best of your ability, because it
3:46replaces the goal
3:48of curiosity
3:50and optimal decision-making that are the
3:52evergreen holy grails of poker that you
3:55always need to aim up at.
3:57It replaces those with the goal of
3:59winning that day. And that's the take a
4:01goal that is very much within your
4:04control, the curiosity
4:06and doing the right thing.
4:09And to replace it with one that is at
4:10the mercy of variance in module five of
4:14bronze.
4:16We talk about that. We talk about volume
4:17and variance, how much volume you need
4:18to play to actually start to see
4:20patterns in win rate, what variance is
4:22going to do to you, what to expect.
4:24Nobody ever expects
4:26the full clout of what variance is going
4:29to do.
4:30Variance is going to hit you like Mike
4:31Tyson at some point in your poker
4:34career, not the one that fought Jake
4:36Paul recently, but the one, you know, a
4:37couple of decades before that. And
4:39you're not going to know what hit you.
4:40You're going to be on your ass and
4:41you're going to be like, this sucks.
4:43And then your gambler mindset's really
4:45going to fire up and you're going to
4:46realize that you're an emotional wreck
4:48and you're at the mercy of variance and
4:50what it does to you each day that you
4:51play poker. And while you have this
4:53mindset, you're screwed. You can't do
4:55it. You can't perform at the best of
4:56your ability or even close. So, what I
4:58want you to do, if this applies to you
5:00and it will apply to 90% of you whether
5:02you like to admit it or not, is to
5:04journal
5:05about your gambler's mindset and how
5:08much you
5:09suffer from it. This is almost like an
5:11AA meeting
5:12for for poker players, where you know
5:15how in like Alcoholics Anonymous and
5:17other cult-like treatment programs like
5:19that. Sorry for using that word, but it
5:21is kind of a cult-like treatment program
5:23in my opinion.
5:24And it does work for a lot of people,
5:25too, by the way, so I'm not knocking it
5:28if you've benefited from that or know
5:29someone who has, but
5:31there are these sort of dogmatic mantras
5:33that you have to say like, I am not in
5:35control, there's a higher power in
5:37control of me, blah blah blah. Take each
5:39day as it comes, whatever it may be,
5:40right?
5:41And I want you to take each day as it
5:42comes in poker and understand that
5:44you're not in control. I want you to
5:45actually apply, after just like mildly
5:47mocking it, I want you to apply the AA
5:50um doctrines to to your gambler's
5:53gambler's mindset, sorry, in poker. I
5:55want you to to journal
5:57what it felt like each day that you
5:58play, how much you wanted to play, and
6:00what it felt like to lose, and gradually
6:02over time I want you to try to replace
6:04the goal of winning on any given day
6:06with the goal of being maximally focused
6:08and curious on any given day and give
6:10yourself a score out of 10
6:12for that and take each day as it comes.
6:14You wake up in the morning, your goal
6:16that day is to do your best job that day
6:18that you can and forget about
6:21the movement of the graph
6:22or the cashier balance if you're
6:24checking your cashier balance is a
6:25really bad way to be. You're very, very
6:27sick and ill if you're checking your
6:30cashier balance as a poker player. You
6:31are ill and you need urgent treatment.
6:34That's what I'd recommend you do.
6:35Okay.
6:37Let's go. Still not going to eat any
6:38sushi. It's going to take too long. It's
6:40winking at me.
6:41I could eat it.
6:43I'm I'm I'm not going to eat it. I'm
6:44going to I'm going to go on with number
6:46two.
6:47Cuz I'm doing minimal editing these days
6:49in these videos. You guys seem to like
6:50this free-flowing rambly content.
6:55We have much more organized content on
6:57Carrot Corner, but for YouTube, I really
6:59like this, too.
7:00The freestyling. So, let's continue.
7:03Hope you're still sitting comfortably.
7:04The second
7:06reason
7:07for which you underperform at poker is
7:09that you
7:10are
7:11terrified of your own inadequacy.
7:14You have a big lack of confidence.
7:16And when I first got into coaching,
7:19I've coached over 650 students, blah,
7:21blah, blah. I have coached like probably
7:23almost a thousand to be honest. I just
7:24don't have a
7:26a ledger of it.
7:27It's easy to dredge up, but in the early
7:30days of me coaching one-to-one, when I
7:32did that before I made the training
7:34program at Carrot Corner and tried to
7:35just outsource it all to you in a more
7:37economical way, when I was actually
7:38coaching
7:40at one of the ridiculous hourly rates
7:41that poker coaches inevitably charge,
7:43right? I was charging people over 200 UK
7:45pounds an hour for coaching even when
7:47they bought a block and I felt a ton of
7:49pressure
7:50um from coaching. There were times in my
7:52life when my mental health wasn't that
7:53good actually when I was coaching 6, 7
7:56hours a day
7:57of one-to-ones. I wouldn't recommend
7:58that. That's intense. It's not good for
8:00your mental health. My mental health was
8:01bad then anyway. Going back
8:03um quite a few years now to about 2020
8:06lockdown times. Yeah, lots of demand,
8:09not enough energy, not enough mental
8:11health, not enough physical health,
8:13burnout,
8:14anxiety, bad.
8:16Bad, bad, bad.
8:17But, when I was doing that,
8:19I'd frequently get students who were
8:21also struggling with
8:24their mental game, their mental health
8:26at the tables, that kind of thing.
8:29And they'd be underperforming so badly
8:31because of a lack
8:33of
8:35confidence and knowledge.
8:37And I used to go wrong. I used to treat
8:40this very badly. I used to give people
8:42the wrong treatment as a coach charging
8:44lots of money.
8:46Sometimes.
8:47Not that everything I did was bad. A lot
8:49of my coaching I think was good even
8:50when I was struggling mentally with it.
8:53But, some of it wasn't good because I
8:54prioritized the wrong thing. In many
8:56students' case,
8:58they were going through like a bad time
8:59cuz it was lockdown and everyone was
9:01sort of struggling with their mental
9:02health. I think at that point most of us
9:04were.
9:05And a lot of those students were, too.
9:07And it wasn't really my job to fix that
9:10as a poker coach. And I took on that
9:12burden and I tried to treat their mental
9:14game issues directly
9:17by treating
9:18the tell, the emotion, the triggers,
9:21what it represented,
9:23going into their background, that kind
9:25of thing sometimes, like really trying
9:26to get to the bottom of it.
9:29And
9:31you know, I do know a lot about mental
9:32game and how to treat mental game issues
9:34and how they relate to real life. I've
9:35written a book on it. I've coached this
9:36game for a long time. It's not that I'm
9:38bad at that or that I was trying to do
9:40something I couldn't do.
9:42It's actually that if they sorted their
9:44own mental health issues out in their
9:46life, they would have got a lot better
9:48at performing at the poker tables.
9:50And more importantly and relevant for
9:52you guys watching this,
9:54if you get better at cards, your mental
9:56game issues tend to clear away, not
9:58fully, but largely.
10:00Because many people's mental game issues
10:02and performance issues
10:04are a result
10:05of
10:07not having
10:09a confident
10:10foundational pyramid poker knowledge to
10:12lean upon
10:14and feeling lost all the time. And when
10:15you feel lost all the time
10:17your self-image is one of a helpless
10:19flailing poker player
10:21stabbing around in the dark rather than
10:23actually
10:24one of a competent human.
10:27And so
10:28you lack that conviction, that
10:30self-belief that if you just take like a
10:31a normal trade, right? You take like a
10:33police officer or something. Like a
10:35normal profession
10:37outside of this weird gambly zone, gray
10:39area that we're in.
10:41A police officer will generally be
10:43pretty confident because they'll get
10:44good at being a police officer. They'll
10:46go into that mode. They'll adopt the
10:48persona of them, the police officer and
10:50not them when they're like shouting at
10:52the dog in the morning or something like
10:54that. Like they're going to be a a
10:55professional, authoritative, confident
10:59individual who knows how to treat people
11:01and what to say and is generally
11:03professional at it, right?
11:05And the poker player is not held
11:06accountable in the same way because
11:07poker player is
11:09behind their screen. So, I'm going to
11:10segue in a second actually, but just to
11:12finalize this point on reason number two
11:14the you underperform is you don't have
11:16enough theory knowledge yet and
11:18exploited the pattern knowledge and
11:19that's what we do at Card Counter. We
11:20teach you that. So, get a poker
11:22education, kids. Like make sure you
11:24actually
11:26before you
11:28diagnose yourself as being
11:31a ref- irreparably damaged in terms of
11:33mental game
11:35make sure that you actually build poker
11:37knowledge in the first instance because
11:39if you don't, no wonder you have this
11:42self-image of incompetence.
11:44You need to have the self-image of a
11:46winner
11:47to win. And to do that, you need to be a
11:49winner. So, you it's a bit of a
11:50catch-22. You need to be the thing
11:52you're trying to become.
11:53But that's what it is. It's fake it
11:55until you make it. So, get knowledge
11:57under your belt and then tell yourself
11:59that you're good because of that
12:00knowledge cuz you are. It's making you
12:01better.
12:02And then feel proficient and then your
12:04performance is going to go up.
12:06Okay.
12:08I want to segue a little bit now by
12:10going back to what I was just talking
12:11about.
12:13Okay, I admit that I paused the video. I
12:15did have a bit of sushi.
12:16Hopefully I wasn't too disruptive.
12:19So, we talked about the police officer,
12:20right? Being out in the public domain,
12:22having to be around other humans,
12:25having to build a lot of confidence and
12:27self-belief to confront and apprehend
12:29and battle such humans like actually
12:31fight
12:32crazy drunk people sometimes and
12:34like that, depending on
12:36where you are and what your line of work
12:38normally involves, but you have to be
12:41very, very outwardly competent.
12:43And there are always people watching
12:45you. You're always concerned with how
12:47you're coming across, right? And that
12:48becomes part of your identity is how
12:50you're seen in the public domain.
12:52And live players have that, too. How are
12:54they seen at the table?
12:56Keep them accountable. Usually keeps
12:57them from doing stupid stuff. In fact,
12:59live poker players are very, very
13:00behaved compared to Sorry, it's a bit of
13:03brace stuck in my throat. They're very
13:04behaved compared to online ones.
13:06So,
13:08a live poker player
13:10is like a person in a queue at the bank,
13:13right? Have you ever heard a person in a
13:14queue at a bank shouting and swearing
13:18and giving the middle finger to other
13:20humans in a queue at the bank? Like
13:21sure, sometimes, and that's a really
13:23unhinged person
13:24or someone that's out their face on
13:26alcohol or drugs or something like that,
13:28right? It's not a normal person,
13:30generally.
13:32Now, when you are
13:35online, you don't see the opponents
13:37across
13:38the world from you behind the other
13:40screen.
13:42But, they are shouting and screaming
13:43sometimes or
13:45hitting themselves in the face as I once
13:46did in 2010 when I made a bad call.
13:49That's right. Slapped myself. I punched
13:51myself, in fact, really hard in the
13:52face. If you don't know that story,
13:54happened happened to me.
13:56I kind of did it saying it happened to
13:58me. It's a bit weird, but yeah, there's
13:59people doing that sort of right?
14:01Because they're not accountable.
14:03No one's watching them. The eye of
14:04society is not peering
14:07down on them.
14:08And it's like when you're behind a a car
14:10windscreen. Like how often at another
14:12driver or seen another driver screaming
14:13at you or seen people having like a road
14:16rage argument. That would never happen
14:19at the bank in a queue, right? They're
14:21in their encased armored vehicles,
14:23you're behind the screen, you're no
14:25longer accountable, you're safe, you're
14:26in your own little tank or bubble. You
14:28can do whatever the hell you want when
14:29you're in your own tank, and that's not
14:31a good thing.
14:32There's a reason we have societal
14:34structures, tribes have always
14:37functioned in this way, is that we need
14:38to be held accountable. We only really
14:42thrive as a species, in my opinion,
14:44when we are part when we're a cog in the
14:47machine of a tribe or collective or
14:49community or state.
14:53And so,
14:54the minute you become a human in a box,
14:56isolated and divorced from your
14:59normal societal identity,
15:02you begin behaving like a And in
15:04poker, that means pressing all the
15:06buttons that you know are wrong,
15:08because you're taken out of your natural
15:10habitat, which is the tribal habitat.
15:12So, in order for you to function well,
15:15you have to recreate the environment of
15:18the savanna, of the jungle, of the state
15:20of nature. You have to become
15:23one
15:24with the overall
15:26poker game ecosystem environment.
15:29What does that mean?
15:31It means that you need to see
15:35yourself, the poker player, as just the
15:37one pressing the buttons, but the actual
15:39thing of beauty that's unfolding is the
15:40game of cards on your screen.
15:42And you need to see yourself as part of
15:44that dance,
15:46as one performer on that stage, and not
15:50as the protagonist to a gambling game,
15:53because that's what's killing you. It's
15:55seeing yourself as a scorekeeping
15:57protagonist gambler.
15:59You might not do it explicitly, but I
16:01bet you do it, and it's killing you.
16:03Let's face it.
16:05Poker self-help by Pete Clarke. Maybe it
16:07should have been called that, that book
16:08that you get in Silver Carrot, not Poker
16:10Therapy.
16:11Okay.
16:12So, that's a few things already. That
16:14says up to three things. I'm just coming
16:16up with this, by the way. I don't even
16:17plan these videos. I like them to be
16:18very natural off the cuff. I like to
16:20draw from the wells of my experience
16:23first and foremost. Okay, here's the
16:24next thing that that stops you from
16:26being um able to apply yourself properly
16:29to that causes you to underachieve
16:31is that you are the anti-professional
16:33when you play poker. This is a bit
16:35linked to the the last point about
16:37accountability and being in your own box
16:39and stuff like that.
16:41But, here's the deal. When you sit down
16:42and play an online poker session
16:45you probably don't
16:47put yourself through a warm-up routine.
16:49If you're a sports person, you're
16:50playing for a team, they're going to
16:51make you run around the pitch first,
16:52they're going to make you stretch,
16:53they're going to make you train, they're
16:55going to make you do all of these
16:56things. But, poker players are slobs and
16:57they sit around and they just play cards
16:59and they click the poker client open and
17:01before they know it they're playing four
17:02tables, they've not warmed up, they've
17:04not studied, they've not invested in the
17:05poker education, they've not thought
17:07properly about what stake to play, what
17:08games to select. None of this. They just
17:10sit down and play and click buttons and
17:11hope to win and think they deserve it
17:13and get mad when they don't and it's not
17:15going to work, ladies and gentlemen,
17:17it's not going to work. So, being a
17:19non-athlete
17:20is the fourth reason.
17:22What can you do about this? You can have
17:23a pre-game routine.
17:25That could be a little bit study. My
17:27favorite thing to recommend these days
17:29that's worked the best over the 671
17:32people I've taught or whatever I want to
17:33say um
17:35just making this up, but what's worked
17:38best is 30 30 30
17:40which is 30 minutes study, making your
17:42way through Bronze Carrot if that's your
17:43current tier, silver or gold or whatever
17:45you're up to in your Carrot Corner
17:47poker education pathway or whatever else
17:49you study, God forbid. Then, you have 30
17:51minutes of play. You're warmed up,
17:53there's an idea in your head, you you're
17:55curious, you're primed, you're in the
17:57right zone, hopefully. Then, there's 30
17:59minutes of of review where you look at
18:00like the key hands and you go into them
18:02in depth, maybe with a solver, maybe
18:04with peers, maybe you post one in our
18:06Discord group get some feedback from me
18:08or another sensei or coach in there.
18:11And then the whole cycle repeats again.
18:13You just do this over and over again, 30
18:1530 30. This means that you only play 33%
18:18of the time when you're in one of these
18:19phases. But if you're here watching this
18:21video,
18:22you care somewhat about your poker
18:24learning. You care about getting better.
18:26You're not just here to click buttons
18:27because this video,
18:29you know,
18:30with me waving bits of sushi about and
18:31putting them back in the box, it's
18:32probably not going to go make it viral.
18:34It's probably not going to reach someone
18:35that's just like, "Lol, I like cards. I
18:37like to watch the the Hustler
18:39livestream. Lol, I like Nick Airball.
18:41Lol, like that guy." 19 crying laughing
18:43faces. Probably that guy is not
18:44watching. If he is, he's in the comments
18:46telling me I suck. And he's saying,
18:48"Bro."
18:49But he's probably not here. And so, if
18:50you're watching this, you're probably
18:52someone that genuinely wants to get
18:55better. So, what's wrong with having a
18:56phase where it's two parts learning and
18:58one part playing? Why can't you do that?
19:00Why can you not do that?
19:02Because you're a gambler.
19:04You're dopamine addict. You're treating
19:06it like a video game or a slot machine.
19:08If you can't dedicate a day
19:11where you have a two-to-one
19:13study-to-play ratio,
19:15you're a zombie grinder. And I can't
19:17help you.
19:19I can't help you with that. You have to
19:20change that. You have to figure out what
19:21you actually want out of this game. So,
19:23yeah, that's that's a big problem. Like
19:25not being trained, warmed up, not having
19:28the right training study routine. All of
19:30that poker athlete stuff
19:32is a very
19:34very
19:35big problem. The fifth reason for which
19:36you underperform at cards is that your
19:39head
19:40is
19:41full.
19:42It's full
19:44of disorganized poker concepts that you
19:47cannot access in the right order with
19:49the right prioritization,
19:51right relevance, sifting at the right
19:54time.
19:55And therefore, what happens is you sit
19:56down to play and you're like, "Range
19:57advantage, board coverage, blah blah
19:59blah blah blah. I don't know what to do.
20:00Click button, wrong button. Oh, no. I
20:02suck."
20:03God dammit, I'm underperforming again.
20:06So,
20:07this happens because people are
20:09irresponsible with their learning
20:11because we live in a world where it's
20:13almost impossible to learn responsibly
20:15anymore.
20:16Why is it almost impossible to learn
20:18responsibly these days?
20:20Because learning is given to you by an
20:23algorithm that's trying to hold your
20:24attention and doesn't care how much you
20:26actually learn. So, what that algorithm
20:29can do is it can take perfectly good
20:30educational content and it can make it a
20:33disaster for you by throwing it at you
20:35at random times when you're not primed
20:37for learning, when you're seeking a
20:38dopamine spike, when you're in your bed,
20:40when you're about to fall asleep, and it
20:42will give you the wrong thing to study
20:43at the wrong time. It will give you the
20:45windows to put on your house before you
20:47have even created like the spaces where
20:49the windows go. It's basically like
20:51being given random objects that you will
20:54need at some point in your day, but
20:56being given them at the wrong time of
20:58day, being given an umbrella to sign a
21:00form instead of a pen, and be given a
21:03pen when you go outside in the rain.
21:05That is what it's like to live in 2026
21:08and to learn with an algorithm as you
21:10are doing right now because otherwise
21:13you wouldn't be watching this video. In
21:15the words of Jordan Peterson,
21:17ha!
21:18Gotcha.
21:22So,
21:23so yeah.
21:25This is a a major issue, right? What do
21:28we do about it? Organize. Courses,
21:31syllabuses, tuition. There's no
21:33centralized body of governance that's
21:36making poker content, right? It doesn't
21:37exist. Like you get this in other
21:39fields. There's physics textbooks,
21:40there's universally appraised and
21:42accepted mathematics textbooks. There's
21:44a a core thing that you take for every
21:47subject in university and you're given
21:49just the right thing at the right time,
21:50the right pages to read, the right
21:52seminar topic, the right lecturer
21:53running it for you, and hopefully that
21:55all makes you get competent at your
21:57subjects you can graduate with the
21:58knowledge of your crafting go on to get
22:00a good job, and that is the classic
22:03rat race life that I managed
22:06to avoid. Not that it's always terrible.
22:08There are great things you can do within
22:09the so-called rat race life, but I
22:11managed to avoid it and chose this weird
22:13game instead. And it just so happens
22:14that in this weird game, you've also got
22:16to learn in the same way that you do in
22:18the normal life, you just don't get any
22:20guidance or realings to do it. You have
22:22to do that yourself, and that used to be
22:24okay because you were forced to get
22:26courses and stuff, because you couldn't
22:28just click next video on your phone, but
22:30now you're screwed because of the
22:32algorithm and all of the that
22:34exists in 2026. It didn't exist before.
22:36It has destroyed your brain, and now
22:39you're just full of mush, and you cannot
22:41learn. And when I work with someone
22:42playing like 50 NL on average, then I'm
22:45like, "Okay, this guy's got some idea
22:46what he's doing." Someone asked me the
22:47other day, by the way, "What chess Elo
22:49is a 50 NL player?" And I was like, "I
22:50think it's about 1,700 these days,
22:52depending on the site." If it's Sam Club
22:54WPT Gold, it's probably 209
22:58or four.
22:59So, yeah.
23:01We've reached this sort of apex of mush,
23:05right, in the in the modern day, where
23:08it's no longer
23:10accessible to learn unless you go out of
23:12your way to learn in a way that's
23:14expensive,
23:15because relative to YouTube,
23:16everything's expensive, cuz YouTube is
23:18free,
23:19and not as
23:22easy for your brain to do, because your
23:23brain likes the deeply dug trenches of
23:27familiarity when it comes to neural
23:28pathways. It likes to go down the same
23:31deep ditches all the time that have nice
23:33big steep sides that can just glide down
23:36like water, the neurons that is. Don't
23:38like to craft new ditches in the mud,
23:40right? We don't like to do that. We
23:41don't like to do things that are out
23:43with our comfort zone that aren't
23:44habitual, but that's kind of what I want
23:47you to do, cuz I want you to learn poker
23:48properly and in a structured way, like
23:49it's a university subject. That's what
23:50the Carrot Poker School is.
23:52The big giant course that's, you know,
23:54with our tier structure. The tier
23:55structure confuses you, by the way.
23:58We have the starter kit. You should
23:59check that out for free. It's three
24:00videos on finding your biggest leak. It
24:01can give you a taste for what we're all
24:03about. Then we have a 15-video module
24:06called bronze.
24:07There's no Carrot Poker School content
24:09yet there. It's like a a pre-Carrot
24:10Poker School course.
24:12And then you have silver. We get into
24:14grade one, and then some supplementary
24:16courses, cash injection about exploits
24:18and tree v, how to combine
24:20the theory you learn in grade one with
24:21the exploits you learn in cash injection
24:22to click the right buttons at the tables
24:24in a pragmatic performing well kind of
24:26way. And then in gold, you have all our
24:28other content. That's how the tier
24:29system works at Carrot Corner. You can
24:31go between tiers by upgrading anytime
24:34and it's all lifetime access. We've
24:36built this structure
24:38so that people can once more go into the
24:41curriculum-based learning that served us
24:43so well for centuries and maybe even
24:45millennia.
24:47And we just have to come to a a point
24:49where we accept ultimately
24:52that while YouTube is good for learning
24:54how to put a certain kind of light bulb
24:56in a certain kind of fitting. I'm the
24:58kind of guy that needs YouTube videos
24:59for that I don't know about you.
25:01It's not good for big, dense, difficult
25:04subjects like cards.
25:06Okay, some cards. It's like Snap and
25:08it's good for Snap and Uno, but it's not
25:10so good for the game.
25:13Six, you underperform because you're
25:15entitled.
25:17You feel entitled to win even though you
25:19don't deserve to win because you've not
25:20earned it, you've not learned enough
25:21about the game, but you think you should
25:23win because you're you and you want you
25:25to prosper and survive ahead of all the
25:27other rival humans.
25:29So, you just expect to win. Maybe not
25:31consciously. Maybe when you sit down to
25:33play
25:34and you have a bad skill set,
25:37you don't know much about the game,
25:38you've been playing for a while though
25:39and you've been just bashing your head
25:40off the wall of not getting anywhere,
25:42and you sit down to put in a session,
25:44maybe if you were really
25:46prodded about it and you were you were
25:48really asked to say whether you thought
25:50you were winning player, you would say
25:51no.
25:52On a conscious level, once provoked, you
25:54would say no.
25:56But most people's subconscious outlook
25:58is that they're just going to win. Like
25:59I'm going to sit down, I'm going to fire
26:00up a session, I'm going to try and win.
26:03And this entitlement is just like I
26:05think it's part of human nature. I don't
26:06think it makes you a bad person or makes
26:08you like a a particularly narcissistic
26:10or delusional person. I think we are a
26:12very narcissistic and delusional species
26:15just innately.
26:17And when we do something,
26:19we just want to do it well even though
26:21we suck at it. Like I'm like this. I get
26:23really mad when I can't do things even
26:24if I've never learned how to do them. I
26:26can't sit there and be like, "Okay, so
26:29let's let's just accept I can't do this
26:31cuz I've never tried and I'll try to
26:32learn how to do it. I'm like, "Why can't
26:34I do it instantly? Why don't I instantly
26:36understand how to assemble the
26:37wardrobe?" I will never build a wardrobe
26:39again in my life, by the way. I'm going
26:41to get someone to do that for me. Mostly
26:43my wife, but if she doesn't want to I'll
26:45pay a guy to come and do it.
26:46So, there.
26:48That's the
26:49That's one of the benefits of um being
26:51at a certain point in your life where
26:52you can outsource But when I was
26:54younger I had to build a ton of
26:55wardrobes cuz I was always moving and
26:58going into some different stupid rental
26:59flat with some girl and building a
27:01wardrobe and falling out and going into
27:03a different a year later or some other
27:05girl that, you know, wasn't yet mad at
27:07me for getting raging about building
27:09wardrobes. And And the cycle repeats
27:11over and over again, right?
27:13And we just expect to be able to do
27:16things. And with poker it's the
27:18There's so many of these natural human
27:20traits that just lead to us being
27:22completely screwed when it comes to
27:23poker. And this is absolutely one of
27:25them. Students are delusional. They're
27:27like, "I'm winning at 5 NL over 4,000
27:30hands."
27:31And it's just like, "Why don't you yet
27:33know what variance is?" Okay, cuz you're
27:35new to the game, but are they if they've
27:36been playing for like 3 years? They've
27:38just They've just moved to a new site
27:40having lost for 2 and 1/2 years, played
27:42a few thousand hands, it's gone well,
27:44and now they're a winning player. Like,
27:46it's so delusional. It's crazy. But it
27:48happens all the time. You've got to
27:50accept you suck. Like, when I was coming
27:52up in the old flop turn river days, that
27:54beige and brown forum they always talked
27:56so fondly of,
27:57you know, it was just like fashionable
28:00almost to say, "I suck. I know nothing.
28:02Help me." It was almost like like going
28:04back to that whole AA dogmatic doctrine
28:06It was almost normal to be like,
28:09"I am um a fish. I accept my
28:10shortcomings. I will take the advice
28:12that's given my way by the end bosses,
28:14even if they call me an when
28:15they give me the advice."
28:17And that's kind of how it went. And I'm
28:18not saying all of that was great. And
28:20I'm not saying we need to go back to
28:212010 and live that way now, but maybe we
28:25can take the humbleness and the lack of
28:28entitlement and the sort of I need to
28:30work hard to get somewhere. Like,
28:32my generation
28:34the millennials
28:36I think we always had a kind of
28:39I've got to work to get stuff mentality
28:42cuz our parents instilled that in us,
28:44right? Because they they our parents
28:45were like
28:47really terrified of like dying because
28:49the potatoes didn't work or something
28:50like that. So, that all trickles down
28:53and my generation are definitely
28:56we understand that we have to work. We
28:57understand that like we have generally a
28:59good work ethic, I would say the
29:00millennials. Like we're pretty
29:01hard-working generation.
29:03And sometimes, you know, not to say that
29:05Gen Z is awful or that everyone in Gen Z
29:08is lazy. That's definitely not the case.
29:10There are loads of really hard-working
29:12Gen Z people. Loads of them are really
29:13hard-working, but some of them aren't.
29:15And it's because the that that
29:18you must work for stuff ethos, [snorts]
29:20you don't deserve anything inherently,
29:22that's been lost somewhat by the time
29:24it's trickled down to some of Gen Z. I'm
29:26not saying that's everybody, right? So,
29:27please don't think I'm accusing the
29:29entire generation of that. But, yeah.
29:32Um this entitlement is there is there in
29:34my generation too. It's a human thing.
29:36It's probably worse
29:38in younger people
29:40on average than older people. And yeah,
29:42you're not just going to win cuz you
29:43think you should win because you're you.
29:46Doesn't make you special. You're not
29:48going to win.
29:48You have to put the work in. You have to
29:50learn about the game. Okay, got two to
29:52go. I said I was going to come up with
29:53eight of these today, reasons you're
29:54under performing. So, let's come up with
29:56another two.
29:58Reason number seven
29:59for which people under perform is that
30:00they don't like poker.
30:02They like the things it gives them.
30:05Most notably, they like winning days.
30:07They like the feeling of outplaying
30:09someone, winning a hand, putting someone
30:10on a hand, and being right.
30:12That sort of stuff. Taking a concept
30:14they heard in a video, doing it, and it
30:15working this time. They like that kind
30:17of
30:18you know, chasing
30:20the instant gratification side of the
30:22game or maybe using it as a means to an
30:23end. I'm going to play poker because I
30:24don't want to get a real job. I'm going
30:26to play poker because I don't want to go
30:27to university. I'm going to play poker
30:29because I want to travel.
30:32None of this is good. These are
30:35okay
30:36supplementary reasons to want to have a
30:38career in poker.
30:40For me, not wanting to ever have a
30:429-to-5 job, cuz I had a load of
30:449-to-5 jobs I hated, was a motivating
30:47factor.
30:48But that was a reason for me to not have
30:50a 9-to-5 job. It wasn't a reason for me
30:54to be a poker player.
30:56The reason for me to be a poker player
30:58and later a poker coach and education
31:01poker business guy
31:03was loving
31:04strategy, loving poker, and seeing
31:07the beast for itself and not for
31:10something it can do. Looking into the
31:12heart of the beast that is the game of
31:13poker and saying, "You are grizzly and
31:16horrible and you do nasty things to me,
31:19but you are beautiful and I love you
31:22anyway and I want to make you my thing."
31:25That sounds very romantic, doesn't it?
31:27That's how you have to be with poker.
31:28You have to be able to see its essence
31:31as a strategy game that is extremely
31:34deep and curious and complex.
31:36You have to never let go of that and you
31:38have to love it for that. Because the
31:40minute you try to love poker for being a
31:42means to your end, Immanuel Kant style,
31:46Kant, the philosopher, if you say that
31:48in a London accent, by the way, it gets
31:51gets age restricted on YouTube. But um
31:53he said that if you
31:56What was it called? The categorical
31:57imperative or something? If you treat
31:59people
32:00as means to your own ends and not ends
32:03in and of themselves, then you are
32:06doing something really egregious, like
32:07morally bad, bankrupt moral
32:10And I think that that makes sense,
32:12right? Cuz in a collective, if you use
32:14someone as a means to your end, you're
32:15kind of a sociopath, you're
32:17you're a manipulator, you are a
32:19Machiavellian, you're not a nice person,
32:22you're cold, you're callous, it's not
32:24good. So you shouldn't use a thing like
32:26that either. Okay, maybe like chopsticks
32:28you can use that way. That's okay.
32:30But poker is
32:32almost like a living, breathing thing
32:34that has all this complexity and depth
32:36and
32:37is such a
32:38a volatile thing that if you treat it
32:40like an inanimate object and just try to
32:42use it as a means to your end, it's not
32:44going to go well. You kind of have to
32:45treat it as a thing of beauty in and of
32:47itself and never lose that respect for
32:48it. Much like if you were like a lion
32:50fighter, is that a thing?
32:52Let me know if lion fighters are a
32:54thing. No, Pete, lion fighters are not a
32:56thing. Lion tamers are a thing. Okay, so
32:58if you have a lion tamer,
33:00that guy's going to respect the beast,
33:02right? He's not going to be like, "Ah,
33:03jackass lion." He's not going to be
33:05like, "Hey, bro, laughing crying face,
33:07bro. You suck." He's not going to do
33:09that.
33:10Cuz those guys have been eaten.
33:12And they're not watching this video.
33:13This video is too boring for them.
33:15You're watching this video cuz you want
33:17to get better at cards. So, no laughing
33:18crying faces in the comments, please.
33:21So,
33:23you have to love the thing.
33:24And when you hate it
33:26because actually it's annoyed you
33:29and you're clicking buttons and just
33:31hoping that you win and it's not
33:32happening,
33:33you will bring a terrible version of
33:36yourself
33:37in to that game. Much like if you hated
33:40your spouse, you would bring a terrible
33:42version of yourself to that marriage. If
33:43you hate poker, you'll bring a terrible
33:46version of a poker player to the game.
33:48And ask yourself, is that happening to
33:50me? I should have been using these
33:52chopsticks the whole time to make a
33:54point and point at you guys. That's what
33:56I should have been doing. This video
33:58would have had so much more impact had I
34:00been doing that.
34:02It would have been better.
34:04Right. One more point to make.
34:06Let's have a think about it.
34:08Excuse me while I eat a piece of sushi.
34:10Pause the video and come up with my
34:12eighth and final point.
34:16You
34:18underperform
34:19at poker
34:21because your opponent is your enemy.
34:24Let's think about that.
34:26So,
34:27what kind of game is this that we're
34:28playing?
34:30This is
34:32a deep thinking
34:34strategy game
34:35of really understanding what's going on.
34:40The player that can think accurately
34:42enough about what's going on and sees
34:44reality for what it is
34:46is going to win.
34:48And the player who gets blinded and
34:50derailed by other is going to lose
34:52in the long term, all else being equal.
34:56So, if you're in a fight or a war
34:59or a battle, these things are also true.
35:02And the best fighters
35:04are generally those who have enough
35:06respect for their opponent
35:08to
35:09take them seriously
35:11and think about what they're doing and
35:12try to counter it.
35:14But also want to destroy them.
35:17Right?
35:18And that's the sweet spot when it comes
35:19to poker, as well, because if you have
35:21too much disdain for your opponent, too
35:23much hatred, too much sort of blind
35:25adversarial reactive scorn for your
35:28opponent,
35:30what will happen is that you will
35:32the red mist will envelop you to such an
35:34extent you can't think strategically or
35:36logically anymore. So, if your opponent
35:37is your enemy in the very real sense
35:39that it's personal and you hate them and
35:41you you're pissed at them
35:44and you see them as this big like
35:45threatening bully sort of character
35:47trying to take all your assets,
35:51then you're just going to lash out.
35:53Right? And lashing out is a very bad way
35:55to play. So, if it feels to you that
35:57your opponents are your enemy,
36:00big problem. And it will be Most of you
36:01will feel that way at the tables,
36:02especially during a bad session when
36:05you're not playing your A-game, that
36:06kind of thing.
36:07You need to see your opponents as just
36:09other aspects of the game. Like, implied
36:11odds is a part of the game.
36:13Did I ever tell you guys about implied
36:14odds guy?
36:15I'll tell you in a minute.
36:17And just as implied odds is a part of
36:19the game,
36:20so too is your opponent. Like, the
36:21button is a part of the game. A big
36:23blind is the part of the game.
36:25Queen nine three with two clubs is part
36:27of the game, so too is your opponent.
36:29That's how it has to be. Not Queen nine
36:32three is a flop and that's an inanimate
36:34thing and my opponent's a horrible,
36:36nasty bully, and I'm going to beat
36:39the out of him.
36:40No, your opponent has to just be part of
36:42the game like Queen nine three is.
36:43That's it. Okay, implied odds guy. Let's
36:45finish with a little anecdote. So, I
36:46once taught I think what I'll start
36:48doing is bring you guys now that I'm
36:50winding up my coaching career is
36:52anonymously
36:53recount some stories of students I've
36:55taught over the years. So, I taught this
36:56guy once
36:58who had so little understanding of poker
37:01that instead of saying like I don't know
37:03or like hmm maybe it's this
37:07he would just spout out poker terms in
37:09answers to every question.
37:13So, if I said, "So, what's your thought
37:14process like here on the turn? Did you
37:16consider barreling this spot?" He might
37:18say
37:19uh implied odds.
37:22And it was usually implied odds, but
37:24sometimes he'd go
37:25uh fold equity.
37:26Like he's literally just heard words and
37:29he would just say them. Just reminded me
37:30there when I said implied odds. That was
37:31a really difficult guy to teach. That
37:33That did not go well. Sometimes it just
37:35went
37:36badly and at times, admittedly, in my
37:39681
37:41number keeps going up if you notice that
37:43throughout this video, student poker
37:45coaching career, one-to-one career.
37:47It was my fault when it didn't go well.
37:49By the way, most times it did go well.
37:50I'm just talking about the times it
37:51didn't. Sometimes that was my fault.
37:54Sometimes the student would just say
37:55implied odds to every question. There's
37:57not really much you can you can really
37:58do with that, but
38:00that's a bit like the problem we talked
38:01about earlier where you've got all these
38:02terms, you've not been shown properly
38:05what they mean.
38:06What a beautiful segue. And that's why
38:07we at Carrot Corner have the bronze
38:09carrot. I've left this overlay up today,
38:11the bronze one that I'm struggling to
38:13point at properly. There we go.
38:15Because it's the first step, right? In
38:17investing in yourself the poker player.
38:20And that's kind of what you've got to do
38:21to build confidence to get past this
38:23hang up of I don't know what I'm doing.
38:25I'm puzzled all the time. I'm lost. I'm
38:27confused. I suck.
38:28You're always going to play terribly
38:29when you're in that zone. You're going
38:31to self-destruct when you're in that
38:32zone. So, get the knowledge. Bronze is
38:33the first step. It's 15 episodes, five
38:36modules, mostly technical, a little bit
38:38of mental and practical stuff in module
38:40five, pre-flop, flop, turn, river, how
38:42winning players think.
38:44Facing aggression, making aggression,
38:46the cornerstones of the game. It's your
38:49pre-flop poker school content. Do it
38:51first before you dive into our more
38:52serious packages, silver and gold. If
38:54you're a newer player in in particular,
38:56do it first. I hope you've liked this
38:57video. I hope that it's shone some light
39:00on some of the reasons for which you are
39:01underperforming. I do think most of
39:03these will apply to most of you. If you
39:05can think of any more I've not thought
39:06of, let me know in the comments. Click
39:08the link, by the way, to check out the
39:10bronze syllabus, and I will see you on
39:12the next video. Bye for now.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of The 8 Reasons You Underperform at Poker by Carrot Corner - Poker Education, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 7,690 words across 1,232 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.