In this episode, Jack Sinclair, WSOP Europe champion and final tabler at the main event in Las Vegas, reveals what he did to go from recreational player with a day job to WSOP champion – in two and a half years. Elliot and Jack discuss what it feels like to get into flow state and why understanding psychology can give you that extra edge. Listen in to hear a professional who fast-tracked his way to success share some insider tips that’ll inspire you to take leaps of faith, improve your game, and experience your own flow state. Visit The Mindset Advantage Podcast or find us on iTunes to subscribe, visit previous episodes, and learn more about your host, Elliot Roe. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:50 – Introducing Jack Sinclair, a pro who made it to the final table at the main event in Las Vegas and won the World Series of Poker Europe 01:30 – He’s been a professional poker player for two and a half years now; he started playing online MTTs in London 01:40 – He had a coaching session with Phil Gruissem and later became his roommate 02:30 – He got 8th in the main event at the World Series of Poker in 2017 and won Europe’s WSOP this year 03:30 – He was happy to have placed 8th; he was playing above his highest level and was happy with his performance 04:27 – The decision to leave his day-job and play poker full-time 04:52 – He took a leap of faith before he was good enough to play full-time 06:10 – He’s wasn’t that confident, but was willing to try no matter what 06:20 – He started playing poker at university and got hooked 07:15 – Switching between online mid-stakes to live tournaments 07:43 – He’s always been a live player; he has a good understanding of psychology which helps his game 08:17 – With online poker you can’t read people as easily; he plays an exploitative game style which is best live 09:40 – Anton Morgenstern reads “vibes” and Jack is inspired by that 11:00 – Jack’s thoughts on the mental game in poker 11:15 – He was an early adopter of The Mindset Advantage and hypnosis; he was a member of Poker Nerve as well 12:17 – He’s suspicious of everything but thinks that these tools are helping his game 13:50 – It doesn’t matter how good your mental game is if you are unsound; the question is if improvement to your mental game helps your poker game 15:12 – Producing your best technical game at the table without failing due to energy loss, stress, or tilt 15:30 – You can’t always play to the best of your ability, that’s why mindset improvement is important 16:22 – Jack doesn’t enjoy meditation, but when he did it, he won the tournament 17:00 – Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to meditate 17:35 – He wears lucky socks when he plays 18:11 – The pressure at the final tables 18:25 – It didn’t feel momentous; he was just blown away being in Vegas and it was an overload 20:10 – He got into flow state on day six; he felt like he was no longer thinking and that every move was being gifted to him 21:10 – Describing flow state 21:16 – The day went by quickly, like there was no time 21:52 – He felt he was using his brain more and that the stream tables helped 23:33 – On day four or five of WSOP Europe he had a hand where he thought he was beat but called anyway; he knew he should have folded 25:20 – Now he doesn’t care and does what he believes is right; this mentality helped him at the final table 26:00 – On playing stream tables 26:02 – You’ll always look like an idiot because the audience can see things you can’t 27:05 – The reality is that there aren’t high-level poker players giving free, good advice on YouTube or stream comments 27:33 – On the getting the trophy 28:00 – He is satisfied with the way he played; he minimized basic errors and honed in his mental game 3 Key Points Going from recreational to professional poker player requires a level of faith. A trained mindset is important because you can’t always win on skill alone. Flow state makes time fly and decisions feel like they are s