Building Resilience: 5 Mental Toughness Tools for Poker Players!

We must all accept a sad truth: poker (and life, for that matter) is not always fair.

• Sometimes, things go wrong because we make poor decisions.
• Other times, things go sideways because we made an honest mistake.
• Occasionally, bad things happen through no fault of our own.

No matter the reason, we will all face adversity at the tables.

How we respond to these adverse outcomes can make or break us. Some people are very good at bouncing back from adversity, while others go down in crushing defeat.

The ability to recover quickly from adversity is known as resilience. 

A famous Michael Jordan quote sums up what it means to be resilient. He said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life – and that is why I succeed.”

Resilience is a major component of mental toughness.