In chapter 3 of The Mental Game of Poker, Jared Tendler introduces the Process Model, a simple structure that organizes everything you do as a poker player so that improvement becomes steady, measurable, and repeatable rather than random.
What the Process Model Is
The Process Model divides your entire poker life—single hands, sessions, months, and even your career—into five connected stages:
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Preparation / Warm-up
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Performance
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Results
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Evaluation
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Analysis
These stages already exist in any performance activity, but most players use them in a disorganized way. Tendler’s goal is to make them deliberate so you can apply the Adult Learning Model and Inchworm concepts in daily practice.
Preparation: Stacking the Odds Before You Play
Preparation is everything you do before you sit down to play. Its purpose is not to guarantee a win, but to increase the chance that you start closer to your best level of play and avoid slipping into your worst.
This can include reviewing goals, reminding yourself of common mistakes, revisiting mental-game strategies, or using techniques that help you focus and calm down. A consistent warm-up reduces how much bad runs, nerves, or distractions affect your play.
Performance: Just Play
When you are playing, your job is simply to play. Tendler stresses that preparation and evaluation should not happen at the table. If you didn’t prepare beforehand, the early part of your session becomes sloppy warm-up time. If you constantly analyze past hands while playing, your attention gets split and your decisions suffer.
Adjusting to opponents is necessary, but deep self-criticism and hand analysis belong outside the session.
Results: What You Measure Shapes How You Feel
Most players judge results almost entirely by money. Because variance dominates the short term, this makes emotions swing wildly.
Tendler argues that you should track qualitative results as well: how well you focused, how well you controlled tilt, and how effectively you applied what you are working on. When your emotions attach to things you actually control, results-oriented stress naturally decreases.
Evaluation: A Short, Honest Review
Right after a session is the first chance to step back and look at what happened. Instead of focusing only on profit or loss, you should briefly review:
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How you handled difficult spots
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How much variance influenced the outcome
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Whether you met your session goals
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Whether you improved in the areas you are training
This helps you mentally close the session and reset for the next one.
Analysis: Where Improvement Really Happens
Analysis is the deeper work you do away from the table. This is where you study hands, use software, watch training, talk with other players, and look closely at both strategic and mental leaks.
What you learn here should feed directly back into your preparation so that each new session starts with better information and clearer priorities.
Why the Model Works
The Process Model turns poker into a continuous learning loop. Instead of only working on your game when things go badly, you are always preparing, performing, reviewing, and improving. Over time, this prevents stagnation and steadily pushes both your poker skill and mental game forward.