But what possible tells can you pick up online where the feedback is limited to an interface device that filters out nearly all of the analogue information available to you? How can you read bluffs and semi bluffs through a computer screen?

1. Watch the timing carefully

This applies to live poker as well as online but is especially prevalent online. Certain players have patterns for when they like to bluff, when they have a big hand and when they are chasing and all of these often have a different time frame when it’s their turn to act. Think about it for a moment. If you are suspicious of someone’s actions don’t you pause before you act? The more suspicious you are the more likely you are to try and rationalize why someone would do this or that. In an online situation this amounts to TIME. The longer they take the more likely it may be that they are considering how to flush you out. If I have a big hand but think another player may have a bigger hand I may slow down to convey suspicion. That player will then most likely go into “milk it” mode and try to coax me to call by making smaller bets. My tendency to act more slowly may create a situation in which I can try to out draw my opponent who is betting smaller to keep me in. If I have a draw or a marginal hand and my opponent thinks they have the better of me they may allow me to see the river more cheaply than if I just called quickly. However, I may wish to convey hand strength in a situation in which I perceived them to be stealing and may wish to call more quickly ie. no hesitation. Subtle variations in timing can mean different things to different players so be aware of not only your actions but of the time it takes you to make them. You will be able to give away false tells this way and pick up tells from your opponent at the same time.

2. Pay attention to the table talk

Some players like to lay out their playing strategies for you because they think they are great and want you to know it. They will tell you exactly why they played a hand a certain way and may even tell you that they always play that particular hand the same way. Some will give you the whole “woe is me” scenario. Rather than asking them if they would like some cheese with their whine, recognize that they are conveying a mindset that makes them an easy target for certain types of play in given situations. “I always get outdrawn by a flush, but at least I know when I’m beat.” If you are heads up and the flush card hits the turn bet it. They may fold to you with the best of it because their mind set tells them they just lost the hand. PAY ATTENTION! It could make you richer.

3. Bet sizes and betting patterns are often fixed

Some players always bet 8 x BB with AA, 6 x BB with QQ, 5 x BB with AK, 3 x BB with QJ suited, 4 x BB with a pocket pair etc etc etc. Ignore the specific amounts in this example but acknowledge the principle behind it. It will vary from player to player but many players like to bet and raise pre flop this way. In addition, some players will bet any low flop with high cards and some players will automatically check a big flop they raised looking to check raise or slow play/trap. I even know players that will re raise pre flop with any two cards to a pre flop raise in front of them.. Basically any pattern of betting or rebetting behaviour that follows a pattern can be noted and used at a later time to read their hand. Some players don’t have fixed bet amounts but they still have set ways of betting their hands. For example, I know a particular player who will bluff bet roughly the same all the way but will raise at turn and river when he has a strong hand or make big raises at each juncture. He plays any two cards and has often told me in chat that I have no chance of a read on him but he has never figured out why he can’t bust me. He is impossible to read in regards to knowing what he is holding but in a more general sense I know when to get out of the way.

4. General playing styles seldom change

If you are unfamiliar with generalized playing styles there are predominantly 4. Tight aggressive, loose aggressive, loose passive and tight passive. Ideally as a player you need to practice each of these styles and become comfortable in all “gears” but in the early stages it is useful to be able to recognize each style in your various opponents. The names are obvious so being able to use the categories (and the note function at your favourite sites) will help in knowing how to play a given player in general. There is a 5th category I like to call the Mixer. These are players that I have seen use more than one style. I tend to avoid these guys at all costs. They are not easy enough and must thus be considered fellow sharks. Being able to match it with each style and adjust your play accordingly will greatly assist your ability to read any opponent you face given time and enough hand histories to draw some conclusions. The more you play and the more players you encounter the better your generalized ability to read tells will become. Hopefully, this gives you a sound starting point in knowing the kinds of things to look for.

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.

At the micro limits you are likely to encounter some pretty amazing fish. The profits come easier but the beats are often bad enough to make some wonder why they play. Here are six ways for making long term profits if your budget is restricted to the lowest available limits.

1. Never slow play a big hand
   If you thought there were fish at higher limits you would not believe the amount of fishing that goes on at micro. Any two card bingo is commonplace and you certainly don’t want to be left wondering “what if” after you let someone into a pot for 5 cents with 5 2 off suit and they cracked your set of aces with a wheel. If you have a big hand bet the hell out of it. You would be surprised at some of the loose calls you get because it is so cheap.
2. Don’t assume someone else’s all in means they have a big hand
   Lots of lesser players think any pair is good for an all in. If you have AK or AQ there is a good chance you have a coin flip pre flop. Use your discretion. I tend to chuck those hands away in that situation in a cash game simply because I can always find a better entry point with better position down the track and I don’t need to risk my stack on what will essentially amount to a draw.
3. Play lots of connectors, suited and otherwise
   For some reason, inexperienced players (and there are lots at low limits) tend not to see the more exotic hole cards you might be carrying. Players will tend to over bet strong high cards like A 10 suited to a low flop like 7 4 6 and if you happened to play 5 3 of diamonds you will often get paid off because nobody wants to believe you played that hand.
4. Steer clear of bluffing
   You will be able to pull off the occasional bluff dependant upon the table make up but in general micro players are too inexperienced to know when to lay a hand so your skill and timing with a bluff may be wasted on them. Bet when you have it and be prepared to throw away marginal hands you would play at higher levels. Since it’s easier to get paid when you have it, you may as well have it.
5. Play shorter sessions and multiple tables
   The longer you sit at any one table the higher your chances of getting donked by an inexperienced player or a loose fish. If you win an all in and double up, move to another table to lock in your profits, unless you have a table with some really tasty fish on board that will continue to reload and make donations to your roll.
6. Take player notes at every opportunity
   Lots of low limit players are too lazy to take notes but their plays are so patterned that it’s financially lucrative to pay attention and make notes on anyone who demonstrates obvious playing tendencies. Not only will it make profits easier to find at your favourite sites but it is an extremely healthy habit for when you get to the higher limits.

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.

Last week I went to a computer shop and bought a new wireless keyboard and mouse. I took my daughter to lunch at the local shopping centre and even found time to hurl a baseball with my middle kid. Last weekend I went to see my folks and we went out to lunch at a local restaurant and bar. It was my birthday so my mother managed to convince me to bet on a horse race because she said my luck would be good. She insisted I tell her what I was backing so she could back it too. Needless to say, it’s still running and the tree that died to print me my losing ticket is lamenting its lot.

I have seen two movies in the past week, one of which I liked and one I thought was thoroughly weird and unwatchable. I have even forgotten its name. No wait I haven’t; I was just trying to forget but couldn’t. It was called Elephant and an elephant never forgets, does it? In between times I have been developing a new NFL ratings system that is showing signs of being my best yet, but it is still early and I need more data to draw any worthwhile conclusions.

Looking around my cluttered office I see the edge of a blue packet about the size of a deck of cards up and to the right of me but I cannot recognise it. I reach up and grab it between my thumb and forefinger and slide it to the edge of the bench so I can pick it up. It turns out to be a pack of playing cards, something I haven’t seen in quite some time. I had been meaning to play the local live Sunday league for the past two months but with one thing and another I haven’t found the time to get there. In amongst all of my priorities somehow poker just didn’t seem to fit for the past couple of weeks, and coupled with the recent US Gambling bill release that has stifled the traffic at many of the online sites I frequent, I simply decided that now would be an excellent time for a break. Until the moment I looked up and grabbed that pack of cards I hadn’t even thought about poker, save for my desire to write this article about, well, not poker.

Sometimes the more we try to forget something the more we tend to become absorbed within it. But somehow this week was different. The Plasm Olympics starts today and I half wanted to play but I will be trading the NFL futures and will be too busy to concentrate on poker. Sometimes the universe conspires to provide us with self-imposed roadblocks to help us to achieve what our deep-seated unconscious knows we need more than anything. I had been noticing a mild tension across the bridge of my nose and a tightening of the sinuses such that my eyes began to water for no good reason. In the process of wiping my eyes I had to pause momentarily from what I was doing and by luck or good design was able to pick up immediately from where I left off as if I had never stopped.

I read the article of an esteemed colleague recently who began his article with the recounting of an experiment involving some scientists and some dogs. The lines became blurred at one point and nobody could really determine who was who. Nevertheless, the scientists (at least we assume it was them) decided to conduct an “experiment” in which they placed some of the dogs into an electrified harness and every time an alarm sounded they were given an electric shock. In the process, the dog “learned” that not only did the sound of the alarm mean it was about to be electrocuted, but there was nothing it could do to avoid this consequence.

Once these dogs had been conditioned to expect this electric shock they were placed on an electrified floor with a barrier separating them from a non-electrified landing. The barrier was made so they could easily jump over it and away from the electrified section. At this point the control group was brought in and soon learned to jump the barrier to safety at the sound of the alarm, thus avoiding the inevitable shock of remaining where they were. However, the group that had been conditioned to expect the inevitable did not escape and remained steadfastly and stoically on the electrified side of the barrier, resigned to being given shock after shock for as long as the scientists deemed necessary to prove their point. What was their point? That we can learn helplessness just as easily as we can learn to walk, and if our efforts to escape bare no fruit we will eventually give in and accept the “inevitable.”

I am willing to bet some of us have learned some pretty unsupportive habits and beliefs pertaining to things we consider important. This is my attempt to remind us that we are not helpless and that we can escape the drudgery of a misguided and malformed effort. We can actually change the habit that leads to the unsatisfactory performance, but sometimes thinking about how to solve that dilemma is not the answer. Sometimes we need to jump the barrier in spite of our belief that the effort is pointless, and from the other side we can see the well-intentioned but unproductive decisions of our former selves and construct the incantations for growth and potential unconsciously in the act of doing something totally unrelated.

From the relative comfort of my high-backed office chair I can hear the shrieks and giggles of my youngest two who are playing a game in which they are trying to lob an avocado seed into a large plastic toy box from across the room. They have been conditioned (or perhaps it was me) so that every time I hear the seed hit the bottom of the box the child that has made the successful lob gets a hug from yours truly. This has become a game in itself and now the child is intent upon getting good and accurate because the warmth of the hug and the anticipation preceding it is more than a little fun. Of course it has made the time required to complete this article somewhat longer than I had expected, but that is ok because it’s not like I had anything important to do, like play poker…

From the serenity of my non-electrified landing I can see the dealer waiting to fling the lacquer coated queen of diamonds and her twin sister, the queen of hearts across the felt to the rather anxious looking gentleman in the cut off. I see the micro muscles in his cheeks and upper lip find gravity as his pre flop raise is called by both blinds and the UTG and the flop comes Ace, King, 8, all spades. I smirk and think to myself, “I am pretty glad I am not him right now.” But I also know that by this time next week I will want to be him again more than anything else and will welcome the challenge, the highs and the lows with all the zeal and fervour of a poker addict. But for now I think I will watch the rest of this hand and retire to the relative comfort of my errant quarterback’s controller.

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.

There was a time when I fully believed that all online poker was rigged against me and for the house, but when I finally sat down and logically thought about it I realised that if it was rigged against little ol’ me then it equally had to be rigged against everyone else. I mean, what possible benefit could a site gain from rigging anything against me? Surely, I was too small time for their attention.

When I first started playing online poker I had a good deal of success. I won consistently and quickly developed a solid reputation amongst those that played with me regularly. As people who experience success often do, I moved up to a higher level expecting that my success would continue and I would improve my efficiency. I did not. In fact, it was like someone flicked a switch and suddenly I couldn’t win a hand. My first thought was that somehow I had been targeted because I had been winning and when they saw me move up they saw their chance to get my money and suck me in to chasing it, thus yielding them even more of my money, whoever “they” were.

I owe it to two of my regular playing partners that I was finally able to break out of my “slump.” In actuality, it was nothing they said to me directly that turned it for me. I happened to be eves dropping a conversation between them while waiting to sit and one said to the other, “I have gotten to the point where I have made that much from playing, I expect to win any time I sit down.” When I looked at myself I did not identify with that statement and hadn’t for a very long time. I had convinced myself that the kill switch had been flicked and I was playing for entertainment only. In that moment I thought, “I know this guy and his game and I really don’t think he’s that much better than I am.” The next little while became a period of severe self-examination until I was satisfied that I was doing everything in my power to give myself a fighting chance. I found a multitude of holes in my game and when I was able to iron them out I suddenly began to break even, and eventually make a little bit.

In the movie, Joe Versus the Volcano, Joe was convinced by his two benefactors that he had a “brain cloud” and was going to die. He had a mundane job that he hated and was desperate for his life to change. He was told that his life could mean something if he would commit himself to sacrifice to appease the gods overseeing a tribe who lived at the base of an active volcano. Literally seconds from hurling himself into the lava-filled crater, he decided that his love for a woman was worth living a little longer for, and reneged on his deal. It was only after this that the truth about his condition came out and he was told that he did not have a brain cloud. In fact, he was in perfect health and could live to a ripe old age. He never went back to his job and went on to marry the woman of his dreams…

Simply believing that you are going to win is not nearly enough. In fact, believing you’re bullet proof can often cause you more harm than any limiting belief that cautions you against action. Regardless of your belief you still have to play the right cards in the right position for the right amount and continue to make quality decisions from pre flop to river in every hand you play. There is simply no room for lapses. With the proliferation of information and the massive amount of available games there is a lot of sharks out there awaiting your next big mistake.

I am not trying to frighten anyone away from our great game. On the contrary, I am trying to encourage those out there that are already afraid that losing is more about that fear than anything set against them by the online site at which they play. As with anything, poker has ups and downs that oscillate either side of the chance to which they relate. In a million years across a trillion hands every combination of cards and circumstances and disasters and suck outs and rises and falls will have transpired. How will you have been represented across that vast roller coaster of success and failure? Will you be one of the ones that decries the game as one for fools who wish to experience the surgical extraction of their wallet through one of their eye sockets? Or will you be one of the many that play for the love of the game with a happy go lucky approach? Or will you be one of the few that doesn???t believe in gremlins in the works, flies in the ointment or clouds in the brain that cause you to lose even if you do “everything” right?

In the “Magic of Thinking Big” we were taught that conceiving a monumental plan and programming yourself to envisage success through that concept was part of the formula for success. In “Think and Grow Rich” we were taught that what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. Now I am not merely a person who advocates positive affirmations. In fact, I am one of the cynics that will tell you jamming your internal radar with mantras simply doesn’t work and that you need slightly more than just that. I do not believe telling yourself you are this or that in spite of yourself or your incongruent behaviours will ever get it done. But I also do not believe that telling yourself and others that it cannot be done exonerates you from the responsibility to wise up to your own shortcomings. If you are not winning consistently nobody has thrown the kill switch on your account. No amount of supporting evidence will confirm your claim to me that you have been marked for long term losses and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

In closing, let me share the final comment of the person who originally inspired me to write this. The professional poker player and part owner of an online site who said, “I would be delighted to hear from anyone who has any evidence of rigged sites, not least because I have done very well out of playing online and if sites are rigged then someone higher up is looking after me and I would love an opportunity to thank them.” What more can I say except…

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.

If you happen to consider yourself a book player then you will know how simple this game can be. What may have escaped you, however, is the subtle adjustments even a good book player will make in their thinking and timing depending on the environment and context. If you cannot make those adjustments, then as a book player you will plateau at a certain level of the game never to improve beyond the types of players that don’t care enough to pay close attention. I see it as my job to explicate some of the more subtle and less understood aspects of the game (read human psychology and physiology) and make them conscious and applicable to the average player such that this player can rise to the next level. That is not to say that these ideas cannot be applied at the very top level of the game, although I cannot be so bold as to suggest that because that is not where I live either. However, human beings are somewhat predictable when you know what you’re looking for, and since live poker is all about human interaction I see no reason why a solid understanding of these interactions would not give you a significant advantage.

When I say stop a moment and think about this and that what I really mean to say is step outside of the square for a period of time and think of the game from a completely different perspective, for this is what is required if you are to improve beyond anything you may glean from repetition. One of the greatest tools for personal growth and improvement is self analysis and critiquing, for there is nobody on Earth that understands your decisions and motivations better than you. The proviso to this statement is if and only if you are in touch with yourself and are already cognisant of how much you cheat, lie and pretend with yourself each and every day. If you are in denial about this perhaps that is the greatest lie of all; that you know yourself and are always honest at a conscious and unconscious level.

In my article, Congruency Signals, I wrote about intuition and a possible means to get in touch with your own decision-making based upon the accurate interpretation of a gut reaction. This article is more about improving your interpretations of the activities of yourself and others from the behavioural inputs you can discern. These two mechanisms are closely linked and it should be obvious to you that one mechanism is the interpretation of information gathered via the other. So let’s take the next step right now, shall we? I am not going to be able to interact with you directly so cannot get any feedback for us to proceed. This will rely heavily on your willingness to be honest with yourself, and if you cannot then this will be a thorough wake up call for you going forward.

Imagine yourself sitting across the felt from your poker idol. I am not even going to suggest who this could be but whomever it is, let it be someone whose game you totally admire and someone you perhaps even admire on a personal level. If you do not have a poker idol then pick someone from another context for this particular exercise. If you don’t have an idol then pick your best friend. I just want it to be someone you would be comfortable becoming for a few moments at some point in the exercise; someone with whom you identify.

Now if you look directly at that person opposite you on a poker table notice the level of their eyes compared to yours. To your right and equidistant between you and your idol is the dealer. For the sake of the exercise make sure the dealer is seated and at the same eye level as you. The dealer is an impartial and passive observer completely devoid of expression. If the person across from you (the idol) is at a different eye level it is now time to ensure you are both at the same eye level. This is a vital step because for many of you it may have been that you had your idol on a pedestal and this simply won’t serve you on the felt. A conversation should now ensue between you and you will be able to hear your idol’s input in stereo ie. in through both ears. As you respond your voice will emanate directly from your voice box in your throat. As obvious as that may seem it is not uncommon for people to imagine their voices emanating from other places and this will not serve our purposes. Humour me if you must. Now you will begin to notice a loop between you, the idol and the dealer, all at eye level. Get a very clear and concise version of events from your position because I am going to ask you to do something a little unusual which requires a strong focus on who you are. I am now going to ask you to assume the position of dealer, keeping you in the original position ie. now you are the dealer looking at YOU and your idol alternately. From this position take an inventory and notice any subtle changes that may have occurred. If no changes have occurred this is also perfectly fine. Return to your original position again and look across at your idol and subsequently at the dealer. Notice any subtle changes or not. Repeat the shift to dealer and back 4 more times, each time noticing any macro or micro changes at each juncture before returning to your original position across from your idol. This should take a few minutes and you can take as long as required. Please do not take short cuts as the next step will presume you have done this step thoroughly and properly. Now, from your first position move to the position as the dealer and after a few seconds accommodating that role move carefully and gently to the position of the idol, seeing the person directly across from him or her and the dealer to the left. Stay there for no more than 15 seconds and return to the position as dealer for around 15 seconds before finally returning to first position (as yourself). You may initially find you feel a little “out of body.” This is perfectly normal and won’t last. Make sure you get thoroughly comfortable with first position again. Shift around in the chair until you feel like “yourself” again. If you find you are still feeling a little weird go and do something uniquely “you” until you feel completely normal again. This may be listening to your favourite song or some such thing.

Now what was the point of all that you may ask. Well, it’s quite simple really. The effect of this is threefold. Firstly, how you view things on the poker table may take on a different and more enriched perspective. Secondly, you may discern some interesting observations about the interaction between two players and hone your ability to pick up fine details. Thirdly, you may begin to identify with your idol more readily and this may assist some of your poker habits. You may even get a different perspective on you and how you behave such that you can make some helpful adjustments to improve your results on the felt.

I should point out that this can apply to online games but its main purpose is as a first step to modelling and is designed primarily as an assistance to live play and for better reading of opponents. As you practice this you will notice vast improvements in your reading of others, not just on the felt but elsewhere. This technique is often used in conflict resolution by enabling multiple perspectives on a given situation by all involved parties. In the poker context, multiple perspectives can enrich your experience and render certain matters far more visible and predictable. You can create this triangulation with any player in any position and the more you practice what is called “perceptual position shifting” the greater your ability to pre-empt and read the actions of others will become. I am sure you will agree, a solid grasp of this concept can significantly assist you in the poker context and I trust you will find a way to apply this to your future games. It is well worth your while to practice.

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.

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.

I am far from merely a poker theorist, in that I play the game I write about. Many of my subjects are based on events and circumstances from my own play and from those whom I call friend. The stakes we play at are largely irrelevant to the circumstances since we are usually playing against people who value their money as much as we do. But it is not the valuing of money and its subsequent loss that will cause us the most pain in the end. It is the seeking of “revenge” against someone who had it coming!

In a recent discussion with a close friend he was relating to me a particularly painful beat he received while playing $3/6 Limit Hold’Em on a European based online poker site. I had repeatedly warned him that it was a very different game from a US based game and he was likely to get burned on more than one occasion by a fish without a clue chasing down a draw against the odds. Now my friend is somewhat volatile and prone to, shall we say, episodes of irrationality such that any bad beat could have the potential to send him into a state slightly beyond tilt. The beat in question was far from one of the worst I have seen but it was a combination of the nature of the betting, the cards that beat him and the devastating river that made it all the more painful. You will be glad to know this is the precise version. He held AsAd and raised pre flop. He got two callers and the flop came Ah Js 6h. He bet the flop, got reraised, reraised himself and the other player capped. What would you put the other player on at this point? The turn came 2s and my friend bet again, got reraised, reraised again and subsequently capped. The river was another heart, my friend checked and called the final $6 to lose to 7 3 hearts by means of a flush. Bad beat? Not really. Betting strange? Obviously the opposing player wanted to build value into his draw. Pre flop raise call? Well, they were sort of suited connectors!

In trying to justify why my friend’s opponent might have made the play I didn’t spend any time trying to figure out if my friend had played it right, but in hindsight I think he played it perfectly and lost $70 to a fish. What wasn’t so perfect, however, and something of a disappointment to me was what happened next. My friend got the notion of revenge in his mind and began trying to “catch” his fish by unconventional means ie., fishing himself to try and get back the ill-gotten gains more quickly. What followed were several fruitless chases that resulted in my friend losing yet another $60 to add to the damage. I did not see this occur, but in the aftermath it is ironic to me that he said, “I know what you would have said to me and I MAY have listened.” I know he probably would not have listened because he had revenge on his mind and my words of rationality would have been wasted on his intensely emotional disposition.

The paradox of poker revenge is that revenge of the righteous is very rarely the result of the chase. Chasing the fish to teach him or her a lesson inevitably results in the chaser getting schooled. This leads the angry chaser to ask, “Where is the justice?” If you thought revenge was a double-edged sword then “justice” must surely be Pandora’s Box. In other contexts the mere mention of justice can lead to the most vehement of protestations that none exists, and this is not just on the felt but in far more global applications linked to the very humanity of humankind. So then, stirring up such monumental emotions over something so trivial as a game of poker would seem to be flawed in logic. But then this is what makes our game so great; that something so seemingly trivial as the fall of cards could somehow create a conduit to the very core of our identity and bring into full cry the omnipotence of our Limbic brain.

Okay, so perhaps I am overstating things a little, but humour my poetic license for just a moment or two. If anger and indignation is your response to foolishness and ill-advised and illogical chases by your opponent, how on Earth can you wallow in self-pity and proceed to make the exact same moves you were only moments before decrying as inane? So then poker is no longer just about anger, frustration, revenge and justice, but now it’s about hypocrisy, the idea of which is sure to stir up only the very strongest of all emotions and lead us to the question of mortality itself.

Isn’t this all getting a little absurd? Are we in danger of taking ourselves far too seriously in the context of a game, though important, certainly not important enough for us to question our very being. The notion that poker is linked to our identity then is not far removed from the truth for some players. The more competitive and egocentric we are the greater the danger that we will commit the cardinal sin of the poker genius and give the fish his revenge over and over again. This in spite of our knowledge that the only true winner in a game of egos is the black hole into which ours disappears when we are handed our own behind.

What is my suggestion going forward then? That we let the fish swim all over us continually until we stress ourselves into abandoning the game we love? That we abandon our pride in favour of a passive response to everything that once fired us to the core? No, not at all. I want us to ask ourselves the fundamental questions of our stock and trade. Did we get our money in at the right odds? Did we play each hand on its merits mindful of the relative action around us? Did we keep our focus and continue to pay attention to all players so that we could gain access to information that would enrich us both mentally and financially? Did we give the fish only the attention he or she deserved in the context of the game in which we were currently involved? Did we keep our emotions in check long enough to know when to hold, fold and walk away, or did we sit one hand too long chasing Moby Dick, and in the words of the famous book state, “If my chest were a cannon I would fire my very heart upon the beast!” Save yourselves the melodrama, my friends and maybe once in a while you may also save your money along with your ego. And the next time you find a fish who needs to be taught the error of his ways ask yourself only one question, “Is it really worth that much to teach this fish a lesson, Captain Ahab?”

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.

Take the following hand history as an example:

30/60 – No Limit Hold’em
Player 2 calls 60
Player 1 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Kh Qd Ac]
Player 2 bets 180
Player 1 calls 180
*** TURN *** [Kh Qd Ac] [9d]
Player 1 bets 405
Player 2 raises to 1,900, and is all in
Player 1 has 15 seconds left to act
Player 1 calls 1,495
Player 2 shows [Jd Tc]
Player 1 shows [9h As]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Qd Ac 9d] [Ah]
Player 2 shows a straight, Ace high
Player 1 shows a full house, Aces full of Nines
Player 1 wins the pot (4,610) with a full house, Aces full of Nines
Player 2 stands up

Check out the after chat:

Player 4: wow n catch
Player 1: thanks
Player 1: got lucky
Player 3: full tilt is rigged

So what do you think? Was this hand rigged? I mean apart from the fact that Player 3 wasn’t in the hand, what would lead him to conclude that the site or this hand was rigged? Looking at this hand, I don’t realistically think there was much wrong with the play here. I loved the check raise all in by Player 2. This was a quality move and definitely a way to maximise profits. The fact that it turned bad is something that will happen to us all. Recognise also that Player 1 acknowledged the luck she got and moved on: bad call, good result. The “rigged” call came from the peanut gallery. Ironically, if the “rigged” comment came from Player 2 himself then I guarantee he would conveniently forget this beat the next time he did it to someone else. To his credit he just left without so much as a whimper. The clue is in the mindset of the player. Anyone who thinks “rigged” is predisposed to notice as many examples to confirm their flawed opinion as possible. In reality, the odds of this occurring were 4 in 44, or 10 to 1 expressed as odds. If you back a horse at 10 to 1 in a race and it wins you don’t scream “RIIIIIGGED!” at the top of your voice from the stands, do you?

Seriously folks. We need to collectively get over the idea that sites are rigged against us and that we will continually get shafted by the “not quite random” random number generator. Even if this is true, it just doesn’t serve us to think this way. This will lead to playing scared, and that is far more damaging to your chances of making profit than any possible site rigging. I personally know many players that make regular monthly profits from poker, your’s truly being one of them. I hate bad beats as much as the next guy but my dealing with them involves walking away until I stop steaming rather than continuing to play in a bad frame of mind. Chasing losses will only exacerbate the problem and a player serious about long term profits simply won’t do it.

Now I know you are probably not reading this willing to be diligent or self examining enough to conduct a true test, but just in case you are there is some merit in being willing to keep hand histories and take stock of your bad beats versus those you inflict upon others. There is little chance anyone would be so caught up in analysis paralysis to actually do this so at least let’s agree on a way forward. Ask yourself only one question when playing. “What am I mostly paying attention to?” I am willing to bet those among you that are looking for bad beats and playing cautiously are looking for ways to lose. By double guessing yourself you are possibly going to make calls you simply should not make and this will tend to lead to even more fear and trepidation going forward. The other possibility is that you will be overly aggressive trying to prevent bad beats and this is counter-productive to your cause. The more you try to prevent suck-outs by over playing hands the more often a bad beat is going to occur with all your chips in the pot.

Getting beaten by a runner/runner straight is not nearly as bad a beat against top pair as it is against two pair or a set. Consider carefully the odds you have to win and lose and remember that 80/20 is still only odds of 4/1 against the underdog. If you really think you have caught a particularly bad beat then try to examine it in terms of how you could have played it better rather than how they should not have called you with their lousy draw. If you would have lost the hand by any means you played it and you had good cause to press on then be satisfied in the knowledge that things will even out so long as you are looking for the upside.The smarter and more sneaky you are, the worse and more frequent your beats will become. Take a bad beat as a sign you are improving (as long as you are being honest with yourself) and seek to get your money into a pot at the right odds. I guarantee you if you do that you will find you win plenty enough to make sure the bad beats will only rob you of profit, rather than take you into loss. Try to remember that a roller coaster ride has many ups and downs but it almost always ends where it started.

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.

It’s been said that a person cannot think and feel at the same time. But since poker is a game of logic and feel how on Earth can we accommodate both of these functions simultaneously? Well, the fact is we don’t; they are fast sequential. Thus, in order to play effective poker we need our minds and bodies to operate in a synergistic cybernetic loop. So what the hell does that mean? Simply put, it means that we must be focused in our minds, stable in our state and cognisant of the relationship between the two. Even more simply expressed, we must be self-aware at all times and on guard for times when one or other of the major components is off balance. In order to be able to know this we must first know what the ideal state of being is. Some exercises will follow later, but begin now to recall a time where you had your ultimate poker experience. Perhaps it was a great tournament win, a memorable winning hand, or perhaps a great comeback. Maybe you just found a way to finally beat someone who “had your number.” Hold that in your mind as we continue to explore.

It should be intuitively obvious to all who read this that you need to be in the correct frame of mind to play poker. But what may not be so obvious to some is precisely what that frame is. In addition, some people will not play their best poker in a particular state while others will play best when they have a devil may care attitude. Know thyself, but be under no illusions as to what constitutes a “useful” poker state. I have heard and read people say they play their best poker angry. I have heard others say they play their best poker when they play like it means nothing when it means everything. Personally, I would subscribe to the second statement long before I entertained the first. The reason is simple and linked to the idea of a cybernetic loop. Anger can be a strong emotional state and inhibits logical brain processes. It naturally dovetails that anger leads to “tilt”, since “tilt” is the action of making decisions based on hope and carelessness rather than logic. This is why you most often see people playing the very next hand all in after taking a bad beat, and it’s no coincidence that many good players bust out of tournaments under just these circumstances after having played a patient and tight waiting game for hours prior. “Steaming” is one form of tilt that many have experienced, but there are others. If you have ever found yourself “unable to pull the trigger” then you are also “tilting.” If you spend any time thinking about past hands and”what ifs and maybes”you are “tilting.” If you are paranoid that people are trying to bully and bluff you constantly you are “tilting.” There are many other examples, but at least one common theme. Any time your state governs your behaviours and decisions in an unuseful manner at a poker table you are “tilting.”

So then we cannot necessarily offer a solution for what not to do, but what to do instead might be kind of valuable. What should we look to replace anger, frustration, call reluctance, regret, paranoia or any other unuseful poker state with? At the risk of upsetting the realists and pragmatists out there I will need a metaphor to help me with my answer. If you’ve ever sat by a lake on a calm, crisp, still and misty morning and skimmed stones then you can remember a state close to what I am recommending, at least as a baseline. Now with that scene held firmly in your mind, seeing clearly across the still and shimmering lake, hearing the bird’s dawn chorus, feeling the cold mist drifting across your face and smelling and tasting the crisp morning air, notice if you will, how the scene changes as you drop a stone into the still, crystal clear lake. The ripples advance across the glass, ever diminishing as time passes but under the surface permanent change has taken place because a fish lying in wait at the bottom of the water is startled by the stone and allows the dragonfly on the surface to escape. Like sliding doors you are curious as to what the implications of that irreversible change will be. You are now conscious of every ripple and minute change in the surrounding environment and the careful and tenuous balance pervading around you. As flaky and strange as that may seem, THAT IS THE BASELINE. From there we can build your ideal playing state.

If you began to think about your predominant playing style, what would it be? If you were able to capture that style in a metaphor, be it an animal, or some other iconic representation what would that representation engender in you? What state would you find yourself in if you imagined yourself as that object, animate or otherwise? Personally, I like the idea of an owl perched on a limb above that lake surveying the surroundings and taking in the peripheral nuances I detect. I am unflappable, barely twitching to anything but the strongest of stimulus. I feel as much as I see. I listen intently to everything. I spend no time thinking about interpretations until I have enough information to form conclusive opinions. I see my prey on the ground far below me and I wait for exactly the perfect moment to strike. I float down silently and in one fell swoop I seize my prey in my vice-like talons and take it back to my branch to feed. I have few natural enemies and as long as I maintain my full awareness there is little danger about me.

Now I recognise that this exercise may not suit some readers. In fact, I am quite certain about it. What I do know, however, is that as much as we try to deny it, each and every one of us will have an iconic representation to assist us with accessing useful contextual states. I am merely suggesting that we use these icons in a specific and worthwhile context, vis a vis, poker. For those of you that are struggling for an icon, perhaps you may care to think about your favourite character from a book or movie, and if that doesn’t work for you then think about the very opposite of the thing you don’t like most and use that instead. As they say in the classics “whatever floats your boat.” This is about the result, not how we get there. In the dark depths of our own minds who else is going to know or care? Not convinced? Ok, then wiseguy or gal: if icons didn’t matter why did you choose your current avatar or nickname on your chosen poker site? Was that a random event? If it was random, how did you know what not to choose? Say and believe what you like. You are not fooling me, only you.

This article is all about state and preparation. There is not a great sports personality existing today that doesn’t have a routine to prepare for an important upcoming event. As a poker player, why should you be any different? If you have spent any time winning at poker you will know that your playing state is vital to your success. If you disagree then you are in the minority. Of that I am certain. And so, the next time you consider you are in a state ready to tackle the tables allow me to make a suggestion or two, if I may. Firstly, get yourself a cup of your chosen beverage (NOT ALCOHOL!) and spend a moment or two to choose and become the personification of something iconic and palpably you. Then gaze out upon the felt that is the lake and cast a chip, the stone of your poker universe and see what ripples, what feedback you get. Adjust gently and in accordance with that feedback and morph to the resultant information so that you are barely discernable from the surroundings until the moment you are ready to strike. Then strike swiftly and powerfully and leave none in any doubt that you are not to be trifled with. And one more thing before I go and visit the felt. If, as an owl you find your feathers getting ruffled, remember to take a flight of fancy rather than perch on that branch waiting for a hunter to pick you off. Fly somewhere else where the water is clearer and you can see your prey beneath the surface and find a new branch on which to spot.

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.

Many a poker player has done the same thing with their balance, turning a healthy bank into a memory in a very short period of time. If reasoning were flippers, theirs ceased to function long before the ball disappeared forever. In the aftermath of their demise most players have lamented that they knew they were tilting but couldn’t or didn’t want to do anything about it. In short, they didn’t give a rats and their balance reacted accordingly.

If patience was a prerequisite of quality poker then the antithesis of quality would be the most likely result of poker played on any other basis. The fact that a less useful psychological state was omnipresent during any stage of a poker player’s game time would surely be an indication of the likely long term result of that player trying to make poker anything other than an expensive past-time.

Before we get too lost in the aimless meanderings of a would-be philosopher, let’s make a point here, and perhaps give hope to all the habitual tilters out there. Tilting is a natural part of poker and a natural part of life. In poker we call it tilt, but in life we call it living. Getting frustrated when things don’t go your way should occur to each and every human being. The fact that some aren’t susceptible to the negative effects of it is a legacy of their upbringing, their brain chemistry, or perhaps their hard-wired behavioural imprint. Regardless of the whys and wherefores, it is true to say that some don’t ’tilt’ while others play practically all their poker in the permanent state. That being the case, then tilt can best be described as the inability to order one’s emotions in a useful and constructive manner conducive to winning money at poker. If we can agree on the description then we can begin to unlock the secrets to preventing or redirectionalising our less useful states into more practical and useful transmutations.

Before we can talk about what works we must first agree on what doesn’t work. As a human being, or in this case, a human doing, the first thing we know is that states are often triggered by stimulus response. If that statement loses you then let me say it in different terms; for every cause there is a net effect. If you get pissed off then your underlying state will affect your ensuing actions accordingly, and your subsequent results. Your state will affect your end result, irrespective of the context in which you find yourself. Find me an example of where this is not true and I’ll find you a context in which human emotions play no part.

If you stopped to think for a moment you would realize that every turn of a card requires a stimulus response from the player. Posting a small or big blind might be automated on many poker sites but posting any other blind is at the discretion of the player. Similarly, calling a raise requires a decision. Posting a bet requires an assessment of the cards and your relative hand strength, and determining the correct amount similarly requires you to make a decision. Deciding requires you to emote. It is not a strong emotion like anger or frustration, but it is an emotion nonetheless. When faced with a difficult call you must emote a decision as to whether to call or fold. If you call and lose there is often the feeling of disappointment, and if you win the feeling of vindication and triumph. You get accolades of approval from the observers for making an excellent play and in turn you say thanks. In some way the appreciation of those around you for making a good play resonates and you may get an affirmation that you are a pretty decent player.

People often wonder why their decision-making goes awry when they ’tilt’. If you stopped to think about it for a moment the answer would be as plain as the nose on your face. Can you hear whispered dialogue in a movie with a rock CD blasting in the background? Or even a pinball machine..If you allow strong emotions like anger and frustration to take over you will never be able to hear and feel the subtle cues from your own unconscious, see the minute variations in timing of your opponents dependent upon their level of confidence and make the kind of decisions that require a finely tuned sense of feel as well as an unerring sense of logic.

‘Tilt’ then requires you to be nothing more than human. Being a quality poker player requires you to be a little more than that..

In the next installment we discuss techniques for state management. Stay tuned.

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.