September 01, 2010
improve your grasp of psychology
http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/why-we-all-stink-as-intuitive.php
Very relevant to playing poker. Â One of the biggest leaks players have is a poor understanding of how their opponent thinks. Â One of the most useful ways to spend your time would be in making yourself a better intuitive psychologist. Â Your opponent doesn't think the same way you do, he doesn't even think about the same things that you do nor does he weight them the same way you do. Â What would be the "right" move against yourself can be the wrong move against another person. Â They take their seat at the table under an entirely different set of circumstances than you do.
A good way to get better at this is to always ask why. Â Why did he open shove the river? Â Because he is a fish is usually not the most useful answer. Â Why did he 4-bet pocket fives? Â There is usually never one obvious answer to these questions at first. Â Instead there are a variety of possibilities that you can weight based on your experiences at the table, with him and other opponents that have made similar moves against you in the past.
Always try to understand why. Â Make it your mantra. Â We should put it on a t-shirt.
6 Comments:
inavacuum posted on September 02, 2010 at 09:13 AM
Great post. The "I would do X here so villain must X also" is something that I deal with on an almost daily basis with students. Tougher still is breaking through the myth that there is no rhyme or reason behind why laggy fish do the things they do.
buddy_reno posted on September 03, 2010 at 05:45 AM
Can any recommend some good psychology podcasts? I found a bunch but none that are that great when it comes to poker.
ulikemehpokaface? posted on September 04, 2010 at 07:37 AM
Anyone have any poker psychology books?
rincker posted on September 07, 2010 at 02:37 AM
joe navaro book of tells is a live play look into a bit of psychology. wish there was an in depth look into online playing.
KRANTZ posted on September 07, 2010 at 15:52 PM
i don't think there's any great material out there yet specifically devoted to poker. the psychology forum on 2p2 is probably a good place to start.
AshThePro posted on September 11, 2010 at 23:26 PM
This is conflicting from what I've heard in the past. People are excellent intuitive psychologists. Women specifically can soul read brilliantly. They can detect the smallest changes in patterns of behavior. This has evolved in us since the begining.
Apparently its emotions, social pressure, being a degen, etc that clouds your intuition and judgement. It sounds very shallow but your gut feeling is usually correct. Where people get confused is that their "Gut" is in conflict with emotions and social pressures
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