Heading in to the 2010 World Series, we’ve learned from reliable sources, Matusow has retained the services of Sam Chauhan to give him a mental edge. Two other well-known TV pros also apparently signed up to become Sammy’s mindset disciples, but based on my own eavesdroppings, they want to keep the relationship private … so I’ll respect that (for now).

But maybe his luck is running out? He dad have a few clients on Team USA in this week’s WTP, including Matusow and team captain Phil Hellmuth, and yet the Americans had no one make the final table.

I sign up for a lot of poker-related subscription spam in the course of trying to keep my finger on the pulse of the poker world. One that hasn’t yet been relegated to the auto-junk folder is Chauhan’s “Free Weekly Positive Thoughts”.

Anyhow, was just writing about Matusow’s … er, not sure the word … signing? partnership? enrollment? … when this showed up in my overstuffed email-box. Found it semi-interesting as it offered mindset advice specifically related to the WSOP:

Removing Psychological Blocks for the WSOP

Meditation is an inner journey. Ego is an external one. Meditation removes fear and conflict of the mind. I would suggest that you focus on meditation everyday. It creates that inner confidence that one needs to be at their best. Here is a technique you can use to be at your best at the WSOP.

Start by saying a mantra or affirmation 40 times. Then start taking deep quick breaths through one nostril and release in the other for 5 minutes. The process of of inhaling and exhaling recharges your body with electric current, you feel light and relaxed. Indulge your mind with empowering thoughts of yourself and the people in your life. Start seeing yourself go through the toughest decisions or situations you might be faced in at the WSOP and see yourself overcoming it in your mind. Roger Bannister ran the the 4 minute mile in his head before he ran it physically. No human was able to run it, until he did. Many people started running the mile in 4 minutes after he did. Once the brain removed that block is was achievable. That way if you can face adversity in your mind first and find a solution to get through it. You wont be faced with shock or doubt. You will be able to handle it instantly at the tables. Try to go through as many situations you can. Make this your year!

Sam

OK, sure. My year, go! While I have my own personal thoughts on the importance of properly breaking paragrafs to get the very most out of the words you choose, one thing I gotta wonder is … if everyone in poker became a Chauhan disciple, instead of making poker an overall more positive place, wouldn’t that make it impossible to beat the game?

Check out Chauhan’s recent appearance on Poker2Nite (which just had the plug pulled on it by UB, btw). Huff and Sebok draw out what exactly it is he does that seems to be working, and address the skeptics and haters who balk at his position as the Tony Robbins/Deepak Chopra of Poker, let alone the Joe Navarro of Inner Tells:

John Monnette, who banked $59,587 for finishing in 2nd place in the $2,500 2-7 NL-1d, can take pleasure in knowing that he won more money for his last win — “Big Poker October” — than Ivey did in this one.

Not counting sidebets, of course.

I think the only thing he forgets in this model is “lucky rivers”.

He gave an interview in July to CardPlayer* where he talks about the stunt sociological poker experiment, the benefits of anonymity, and how players can change their live persona at the table over the years.

*CardPlayer goes embeddable!?! Great, now what’ll we bitch about? Nice!

Best pic of Phil in disguise here.

The event was one of last week’s big-field $1,500 NLHs … and the problem began with a single table in which every player started with an extra 1k in chips. Conclude what you will about donkament ethics and how the “prisoner’s dilemma” applies to poker … but no one said a word, and cards went in the air with every player at one table given a 33 percent starting-stack advantage.

It was supposedly about 20 minutes into play when a dealer recognized the problem. Floor supervisor Jimmy Sommerfield made the quick decision to rectify things by removing 1,000 chips from each player’s stack. Sounds simple enough, and in this situation it really was — very few chips had moved around, and not many decisions affected by falsified stack sizes. And besides, every one of them at the table was technically a dishonest bastard, so what are they gonna say?

But what if a few more hands had passed, and one of the players had only 900 chips remaining?

Every floor person I spoke with said, yeah, yeow, that’s a tough one … and ultimately would defer as high up as possible, to top-dog TD Jack Effel, for a ruling. But if they had to make the decision themselves, it was a 50-50 split on whether that short-stacked player would simply be eliminated, or allowed to continue play with the same 900 chips, thus leaving an extra 1,000 chips in the tournament.