The World Series of Poker is the Super Bowl, Olympics, and World Cup all rolled into one for poker players. The only difference is that amateur players get to play alongside the professionals. All you need to enter an event is the registration fee, which starts as low as $500 and goes as high as $250,000. The winner of each event is awarded the top prize, typically a six or seven-figure sum, along with the coveted WSOP Bracelet.
It’s the dream of most poker players, both recreational and professional alike, to win one of these bracelets. But, to do that, it takes defeating hundreds or even thousands of opponents over a minimum of three grueling days.
This year, long-time Primed Mind user Lara Eisenberg outlasted a field of 644 players in a $1,000 buy-in event, claiming the top prize of $115,000 and the gold bracelet.
Meet World Series of Poker Bracelet Winner Lara Eisenberg
Lara isn’t a professional poker player by trade, yet she approaches the game as if she was. When she’s not working in her primary career as a radiologist, she’s studying the game with the assistance of poker’s most respected teachers and coaches. This year she headed to Las Vegas to put all that hard work to the test, with the goal of coming home with WSOP gold.
After her victory, we caught up with Lara and asked her about her journey to achieving this long-held goal and how she used Primed Mind to help her get there.
Congratulations on winning your first bracelet Lara! Let’s start off with a brief back story on who you are and the journey you took to get to where you are now in the poker world.
Before 2002, I had never played a hand of poker in my life. I was watching TV when a commercial came on for an online poker site, and I was floored that you could actually play poker for money on the internet!
I immediately set my sights on learning how to play, bought all the books I could get my hands on, read them all, and started playing online. I eventually started taking trips to Atlantic City, and eventually discovered tournaments which seemed so much more fun.
As the game grew, more and more learning opportunities became available. I took advantage of as many as possible starting with a WPT Bootcamp, to now working closely with Apestyles, one of the most successful tournament players in the world, and the BBZ team.
The training sites and software available now are so amazing and they accelerate your learning tremendously.
As someone who doesn’t have as much time to dedicate to the game as a full-time professional, I saw the value of mindset training as a way to play as optimally as possible within my skillset and to try to narrow the gap between myself and a full-time professional.
I started using Elliot Roe’s MP3s even before Primed Mind launched and took every mindset course he released, including his A-Game Poker Masterclass, which covers every aspect of poker outside of pure strategy.
How has Primed Mind, and mindset work in general, helped you achieve success in the poker world?
I use Primed Mind for a pre-session warm-up, and post-session cool down each time I play. Additionally, there are a ton of other Primers in the app that help with specific issues like dealing with downswings, folding when you are beaten, and other common mental leaks poker players commonly face.
I was so excited to use the WSOP Final Table Deep Primer before my recent final table!
Primed Mind is really great for getting you in the mindset to play your best and also to settle your mind after a session so you can get the most restful sleep possible, which can be a challenge when your mind has been working so hard all day, and suddenly you need to shut it all down and get to sleep!
Elliot’s A-Game Poker Masterclass has so much useful advice around the habits and routines of a successful poker player, such as proper pre-game preparation, diet, exercise, sleep and everything else that creates the foundation of a successful poker player.
With the big fields and long playing days, World Series of Poker events can be a competition of logistics and endurance just as much as poker skills. Did you have any routines or habits that helped you navigate that area so that you could focus on the cards?
Absolutely. The A-Game Poker Masterclass was an excellent tool for building those routines.
I exercise regularly and also do some sort of physical activity before playing.
I have healthy eating habits, and I usually avoid alcohol leading up to and during events (other than after a big win!).
I wear an Oura ring to optimize my sleep.
I always do something to warm up my mind before I play, like drills with poker apps or watching a BBZ seminar video.
I also try to do whatever I can to make the morning before I play as simple and hassle-free as possible. I bring an electric kettle and everything I need to make great fresh coffee and oatmeal. Before I head out, I make myself a PB&J sandwich and have a lot of healthy snacks in my backpack.
Then I am never annoyed by the long WSOP lines or forced into a situation where I only have low-quality food options.
I even bring my own seat cushion, which is so much more comfortable and that can mean a lot at the end of the day!
Throughout the four days it took to take down the bracelet, what was the moment where the work you’ve done on your mindset came into play the most.
That would for sure be on the day of the final table.
This was my first live-streamed event, and there are a lot of bright lights on you.
You know your family, friends, and a ton of people in the poker community will be watching and judging your play.
I felt a little bit nervous for the first 20 or 30 minutes, but then I settled into a groove and really just focused on the action.
Having spent so much time working on my own mental leaks and working on mindset in general with Elliott had a huge impact on my ability to maintain focus and really tap into my intuition in many spots.
He always has the mantra of playing one hand at a time, and keeping my attention on each present moment and not thinking about possible outcomes was instrumental in playing my best!
Well, once again, congratulations Lara! It’s always great to see hard work pay off. One last question: What advice would you give to a new user of Primed Mind?
I would suggest doing the Introductory Mindset Coaching Course to understand how the guided meditations work and then dive into whatever interests you most. Having a daily meditation practice of any kind is a massive benefit for mental and physical well-being and learning to be happy in the present moment, whatever your walk in life!
Thanks, Lara! Best of luck in your poker journey.
We won’t be surprised at all to see Lara make another deep run in a huge poker tournament, such as this year’s WSOP Main Event.
We hope you enjoyed this instalment of How I Prime. We’ll continue to bring you stories that showcase how people from all walks of life use Primed Mind to activate the best version of themselves. If you have suggestions on stories we should cover in this series, please drop us a message on Twitter or Instagram.
And, no matter if you are a poker player looking to take their game to the next level or someone who is simply looking to get the most out of life, Primed Mind has something for you.
Check out the Poker category on the app, with 35+ poker-specific Primers available to help you bring your A-game to each session.
You can also get started with the Introductory Mindset Coach course, relax and recover with Melt Away Stress, or get deep, restorative, sleep with Fall Asleep Fast.
When you start your free 7-day trial to Primed Mind Plus, you unlock our complete library of over 200 Primers. So start today and get Primed like Lara!
