There’s an old saying in behavioural modelling circles: “Once is luck, twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern.” It’s sometimes a little difficult to get 3 examples of the same behavioural pattern at a poker table, but sometimes you aren’t looking for the most useful and information-packed pattern. In order to even know you are tracking a pattern you must first see an indication of it through something repeated that you can actually spot. In behavioural modelling this is done by what are called index computations. That is, we can track for sameness and difference by external behaviour, internal process and internal state.
At a poker table you are not going to be able to ask your opponents questions of internal process, you can hallucinate their internal state i.e. do they look flustered, angry, calm, excited, deceitful etc. but you cannot KNOW. Table talk may give you some clues, however. Online you have even less to go on so you have to rely on betting patterns, timing and playing styles for your conclusions. In addition, you have to try to make solid decisions concerning your own cards. This may seem like it is linked but I would suggest how you play your own cards is independent of the external behaviours of others to some degree.
So then how do you decide to play your cards on their merits and when do you play more marginal hands? This is such a complex question that I will not even begin to suggest it can be answered here. Rather than hard and fast rules we are now looking for that intuitive sense that compels you to call when all logic says you should fold. Intuition has often been labelled the gift and birth right of the female of our species but I am here to suggest there isn’t as much genetics to predetermine that sense as many might suggest. In fact, we learn to intuit long before we learn to speak. Behaviourally, the male is encouraged to be more pragmatic whilst the female is allowed to be “fluffy.” In other words, the male is encouraged to rely more heavily on sensory information while the female is “allowed” to rely on feelings to make decisions. Over a period of time the male’s ability to intuit naturally atrophies and he forgets that innate ability he retained as a child.
Learning to be intuitive, then, is a misnomer. It is not so much learning as remembering, but for many people the process of remembering is more painful than ignorance. For some, the desire to learn that skill is worth all the pain that must be endured along the way. No pain, no gain. The journey is not so daunting as a trip to the dentist but it may cost you a lot more in the short term if you try to learn it on the fly while engaged in a “friendly” game. The good news is that learning/remembering to be intuitive can be learned away from the poker table where it’s safe and much cheaper.
So how can we do this? How can we unlock and remember this ability? Well there’s your first mistake. You presuppose that it is locked away somewhere in a vault that you have to crack. It is not nearly so well guarded as that. Ok, so then where is it? The answer to that one is a little more difficult since that is definitely an individual thing. How to find it, however, is a different question with a definite answer.
Can you remember an especially difficult decision you made that turned out to be the right one? Perhaps it was work related or it could have been a major buying decision like buying a home or a car. Be sure to choose a major decision and ensure it is one in which you made the right decision. Immerse yourself in the experience and keep a log of everything pertaining to that in the back of your mind. Now you will need to think of a major decision that you got horribly wrong and repeat the exercise. If you have difficulty thinking of one then try to think of two more good decisions you made. Take a few seconds to immerse yourself in each experience and see it through your own eyes. If you chose a good and bad contrast, notice kinaesthetic difference between the two experiences i.e. notice your body sensations and notice specifically differences between the good and bad. If you chose 3 good decisions then notice sameness between them kinaesthetically. Be sure to give yourself time between each experience and if necessary walk around a little. Now consider a major upcoming decision and put yourself in position of going ahead and not going ahead. Notice any difference in body sensations between the two? Does one give more kinaesthetic similarities to the previous good decision/s than the other?
Hopefully, you found some fine distinctions during that exercise which may give you something to work with going forward. If you did not I encourage you to try it again at a later time, perhaps when you are calm and in a slightly more meditative state, maybe even in bed immediately before you go to sleep. Your task will be to find commonalities within yourself for pre-empting good decisions and then use those commonalities to make future decisions.
Is this intuition? Well, no it isn’t. However, doing this repeatedly over a period of time will eventually lead to a more highly developed intuitive sense. Why? Because once it becomes second nature and you do not have to make a conscious effort your decision making will become more predictable and I presuppose better as a result. Combined with paying close attention and applying solid logic to your more difficult poker decisions, hopefully your results will have improved. In fact, this technique has been distilled from my practice of Neuro Linguistics and I can personally attest to its effectiveness in other contexts. More generally, this can be applied to a great many things and is not limited just to poker. But of course, poker is the most important…
May luck not be the reason you win or lose. Let it only be a companion along for the ride.
Crazy Snake is a professional sports handicapper and amateur poker player. He has made a profit year after year through his knowledge of Aussie Rules Football, NFL, tennis, and golf. He is a senior writer for PokerPlasm.com.
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