When looking to improve, most of us are mainly focused on the technical aspects of the game. How much to raise pre-flop, when to c-bet, the Expected Value of a semi-bluff, etc.

Whereas we should definitely study these aspects closely, there is another dimension to poker that is often underestimated and neglected. I’m talking about the mental side of poker.

Tommy Angelo’s latest book Painless Poker gives a great insight into how you can improve your mental game by eradicating the “pain” in poker. He explains how to stop experiencing “thought pain” and tilt, so that you can instead focus your mind entirely on what poker should be all about: coming up with the best possible decisions at the table.

A simple formula, but oh so hard to attain.

In this blog post I’ll give you some top tips on how to achieve painless poker and increase your profitability. But first, let’s take a look at what poker pain is and what kind of effects it has.

I'm a big fan of Daniel Negreanu.

It's always fun to watch him play. Not only because of his lively and friendly table talk. But also because of his tremendous poker skills and talent.

I wanted to share one of his hands with you today, as it shows a concept that is incredibly helpful if you want to improve your postflop play. And that is: play with a plan!

An overpair is a great hand, especially if you're holding a big pair like Q-Q, K-K, or A-A.

In low stakes games against bad or mediocre opponents, the best strategy when flopping an overpair of Queens, Kings, or Aces is usually to play it fast. You want to get some value from your hand and making decent sized bets on 2 or 3 streets is usually the way to go.

While overpairs are easy to play in many situations, there are also plenty of ways to totally butcher them!

That's what happens in the following hand played at the WSOP Main Event. Overpairs should not be fast-played in all situations. In this case, it ends up being a rather big mistake, potentially costing a few million dollars.

With a garbage hand like 7-2o of 3-2o, the equity of your hand is so low that you're usually not going to win the pot at showdown.

If you have a medium to deep stack, you will often go in check-fold mode when you pick up these sorts of hands in the blinds. However, if you're under pressure to accumulate chips, you can consider using your bluffing equity to still make the most of these trash hands.

In order to decide whether bluffing is going to be a profitable option, there are a couple of factors that you need to consider.