Picture the scenario, if you will. You’re sitting at the last table of the World Series of Poker, facing off against Doyle Brunson, Annie Duke, and Scotty Nguyen. You know you’re facing three of the top players in the game. You know you’re playing for bragging rights, the status of being recognized as one of the top dogs in the sport, and that luscious cash prize. You’ve got one of the best hands you’ve seen in your entire life, but you know that there’s a very good chance one of the other players at the table has a better set. You also know that there’s also a very good chance that none of them have a better hand. Then, when one of them decides to raise the stakes just that much higher, you cave to the pressure and you fold. It happens to every poker player sooner or later, and it can be taken as a sign of performance anxiety.
The fact is, performance anxiety is something that every tournament-level poker player has to deal with, particularly if they’re up against players with reputations behind them. Now, as every true-blue gambler knows, reputation is hardly everything when it comes to poker. However, big-name players...