Psych-Out

If you’re someone who sees poker as a game of luck, then chances are you’re not a very good poker player. Elite poker players are master psychologists. They know themselves — their tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. They read other players. They understand the probabilities behind their choices.

A great poker player understands that luck is a part of the game, but Lady Luck is not where he or she rests their hopes. When taking a chance, playing a bluff, raising, or folding, the best players understand the probabilities, the psychology of the game and the other players. At the drop of a hat, they can tell you why they played their cards the way the did.

Alan Schoonmaker lays out several central principles that great poker players live by in his book, The Psychology of Poker.

* Your greatest enemy is denial. We deny the truth about our own abilities. We exaggerate our wins, and fail to register our losses. We chase weak cards, or sit at games where we have no hope of winning. We tell ourselves stories that a flush is easier to draw than it actually is, or that we lose because we’re just unlucky, or someone else is luckier. Or, we fall prey to betting a hand that we know has no chance of winning because…well…just because.

* You should understand yourself more deeply. Why do you play the way you do? What are your tendencies? How does your style of play affect other players around you? Do you blame others, lousy luck, make excuses? Or, do accept responsibility when you have no chips left at the end of the day?

* Focus on other players. Are you self absorbed? Weak players fixate on their own hands. They think only of themselves.  Strong players study the players around them, their tendencies, their talk, and what their talk says about them. They engage the other players as much, if not more, than their own hands. Who is he? What moves the way she plays her cards?  They get to know the other players intimately.

* Playing styles are caused by and reveal people’s desires and fears. What do you want? Why are you playing this game with these people? What are your fears? How many times in our life do we get hijacked by wishes and fears — we chase that one card denying it’s poor probability, or we fold with a winner?

* Think visibly. Make your assumptions and thought processes explicit. Great poker players talk to themselves, at least in their own heads. They can tell you what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Great poker players live mindfully, attending to each check, raise, and call made, as well as each card dealt and how it changes the whole table.  They play knowing that the last hand, win or lose, has little to do with the cards in front of him.

* One of the best ways to improve your results is to change your style. Change it up. If you tend to be loose and aggressive, tighten up. If you tend to hold back, push forward. Great poker players don’t have a one size fits all style. They are continually adjusting to the players in this game, and this pot.

In life, success is not always about winning or losing, but how effectively we navigate the bumps, opportunities, and good and bad chances that fall our way. There are times when that great hand we are dealt, falls short. There are other times, we win on a bluff that was better not taken. Either way, don’t fool yourself that the failure or success of one hand means anything. Until that last hand in life is dealt, there’s always another hand to play. There’s always room to improve our game.

Great poker players are self-aware, conscious of who they are for better and worse, take responsibility for their own results, understand probabilities, aren’t given to superstitions, don’t play in games they’re not suited for, and are brutally realistic about the hand they are dealt and the game they are playing.

Gotta know when to hold ‘em, and know when to walk away.

Watch Daniel Negreanu talk himself out of a winning hand!