On reflection I have removed the posts as it is clearly just plagiarism and making Jared"s content available in this way is probably ill advised.
Swinebag - the first point you make I disagree with. I cannot see that anyone who would find the content of the book to high-brow would pay so much for a learning text in the first place. It is very well-written, easy to follow, and full of practical advice. If you think it is over-complicating things I believe you have misunderstood, or perhaps you feel the scale of the work involved is too much to bother with - which is completely fine if you have no desire to put the work in.
I don"t see anywhere where Jared rambles on and I wouldn"t have thought that your knowledge in the field is on anything even close to the scale of Jared"s so to be able to say that the cures are pretty straightforward in your opinion is a bit of a throwaway remark.
Professional sports people and teams at the very highest level, Tiger Woods is the example Jared used in how golf as a sport changed it"s view of how to be competitve (players looking at fitness and mental game to create an edge), so it stands to reason that everyone could benefit from working on their mental game. New problems reveal themselves ongoing to, so, much like poker itself, it is never "solved".
In my opinion, you cannot assess whether you have a pretty good mental game, without actually assessing it. Otherwise it is just as throw away as the lad who wins a £5 game in the pub declaring his status in the game. When Jared list the main indicators of a mental game fish, it is certainly not a "test" to see if you are one or not.
It is good that you have identifed a weakness and started to unveil the underlying reason for it, something which Jared talks about a lot. As an example, I raised two concerns with Jared which on the face of it seem obvious, but it is important to dig a little deeper:
1) I felt that I was not focusing when playing poker being too easily distracted - browsing, social networking, watching TV, talking to people in the room, etc.
2) I have had a go at making improvement in my game but lacked a consistent approach.
Jared asked:
1) What are your overall goals with poker?
2) What"s the reason your motivated by these poker goals? (Basically the why you want to achieve them.)
3) Why are you motivated to develop a consistent approach to learning?
4) Why are you motivated to eliminate distractions while playing?
5) What do you want to get out of poker, and from doing this extra work to improve?
I then replied with some goals, but what Jared picked up on as being most useful was that I had uncovered a desire to be productive with my time and feel satisfied that I"ve used it productively and to have accomplishments in poker that are entirely in my control.
You may not see the significance of undertstanding that, but to me it has had an effect and helps me to review those senitments before each session.
Jared"s advice:
Pulling these out aren"t going to blow your mind, but when it comes to eliminating distractions they"re critical. Now when you notice your mind drifting, Inject Goals, like you would Inject Logic, as a means of regaining control of your state of mind.
To close this post - the Mental Game field is largely misunderstood and players have traditionally followed some fairly poor available advice. There is quite probably nobody better qualified due to the training and hours Jared has put in to this field. To create a unique edge in the game, mental game becomes an essential element of the most successful players and is as much of a game as the game of poker itself.
