My style in tennis is very Mayweather like. I was the
ultimate counter puncher, using my flawless footwork and craftiness to put my
opponents off balance. I won a lot of matches with my efficiency. I didn’t make
many mistakes, got to a lot of balls, and never ever gave up. I punished you by
forcing you to make more mistakes than me. My coaches stressed physical fitness
and I definitely outworked so many people with superior preparation. What’s
really interesting is that I feel like the way I approached tennis is very much
my personality. I’m chill for the most part, flexible and ready to attack a
problem in the most effective, efficient ways. Yet, I’m pretty defensive and
stubborn, often afraid to make a bold new move and be looked upon as brash and
offensive. I was afraid to make mistakes because I cared too deeply about my
results rather than making the right play. This key mental flaw was something
that hindered me in my tennis development and was something that I didn’t learn
to master until playing poker.
Poker is about forcing your opponents to make a mistake.
Everyone is dealt the same number of winners and losers in the long run, so it’s
all about how you play those winners to maximize your value, and how you
minimize your losses. Essentially, there are two ways to win a hand – to have
the best hand, or to bluff. Because poker is so math based, each decision you
make can be analyzed algebraically. Based on the hand range you perceive your
opponent to have you can come up with what your expected value (EV) in a given
hand is. (I just wanted to note here
that this is an imperfect art as poker is a game of imperfect information. The
key is to become as accurate as you can with the EV calculations with the
information that you have). With this value, you can find out how different
ways you play a hand affect your EV and you can come up with the optimal
strategy. This is where it all clicked for me. When I first started playing
poker, I didn’t always make the optimal bluff or the marginal call because I
was afraid to be wrong. When I started analyzing my game I realized I was
leaking a lot of money because of these fundamental errors.
Essentially, I was too results oriented in poker as well. My
downfall in tennis is also my biggest leak in poker. I started to realize how
mad I would get when I didn’t bluff on the river and my opponent showed down a
pathetic hand that beat mine and would have folded to a bluff. Bluffs do not
work every time, but they also do not have to work every time. If you bet $50
into $100 on a bluff your play only has to work greater than 1/3 of the time
for it to be profitable.
I can make a very relevant analogy to tennis. One of my
biggest weaknesses was that I wasn’t aggressive enough on some of the short
balls I would get in tennis. I should of thought of this in terms of
percentages. If I hit a consistent shot back, I will make the shot nearly 100%
of the time, but will only have a 55% chance to win the point. However, if I take
an aggressive swing, I may win the point instantly 40% of the time, 40% of the
time I will win 75% of the time since I am in a winning aggressive position,
and I will out right miss and lose the point 20% of the time. In this example I
would win the point 70% of the time with an aggressive swing and 55% of the
time with a consistent swing. I definitely didn’t see it this way because I was
too focused on the 20% of the time that I would miss. Not only did I cheat
myself out of percentages in these matches, but I also wasn’t able to develop
as complete a game as I would have liked which would have benefitted me more in
the long run. I looked to correct this mental flaw and feel like I got a second
chance through poker.
Humans are dependent on positive feedback and incentives. In
poker, when you make the right play and lose, a correct mindset would to be
content with your play. Conversely, when you make the wrong play and win, you
should be upset for having been outplayed. This is unnatural. When I make the
best play and lose, I remind myself that I made the right play and try to stay
on an even keel. If you are off it, it’s time to take a break. Otherwise, move
on and play the next hand. When I make the wrong play and win…god damnit I am ecstatic
lol. Poker because of this, is a mind fuck. You are constantly at a battle of
managing your expectations and emotions. Tennis is not as mental as poker, but
also shares a lot of the same fundamental strategies. A point does not define
the match. Yes, there are important points, but just like hands of poker it is
all about making the right play in the long run. You want to win the match, not just one point. By truly understanding this concept, it’s easier to
have no regrets and feel like you’ve done what you can to give yourself the best
opportunity to win a match. And that is all we can do… control what we do and
give ourselves the best chance to win.