The Science Of Poker Minds: Intuition

To be good at poker "psychology" - to effectively predict your opponent's likely thought processes - there is no need to take a seminar on Card Games and their Relation to the Unconscious. Your opponent is not your patient, and even if he/she is, no matter how well you apply Jacques Lacan to their neurosis, you are still not guaranteed to win.

Strategy is more basic to poker than psychoanalysis. But strategy is only the first step on your way to fame and fortune. "Reading" your opponents' minds is the key to smart play, but such "reading" does not require you to listen to the other's life story.

The best of players, as the best of artists, never required a manual on the subject of their professions. They proceed intuitively, by means of naturally sharp observation which they practiced and developed individually in the course of the years.

This is not merely the reason why so few good technical manuals on poker psychology exist. This is also possibly the most key point about the issue: whatever tips you may find on the net or in books, you will never be able to put them to much good use unless you have that touch of intuition which puts your thought processes beyond the reach of your opponents.

If everyone played according to strict principles, the games would be no different than relatively complex computer simulations and prediction would be relatively simple, depending on the number of variables. This is in fact more or less how novices and people without much gift for games generally play, and it is why they generally loose more than they win.

The talented player, on the other hand, disdains crude cribs. Instead, they make their own observations about their own play and about that of others. Guided by their own intuition, they then combine those observations into principles according to their own whim and fancy. The resulting strategy is known only to them. The more talented the player is, the more complex (or ingeniously simple, which is basically the same thing) and idiosyncratic his secret strategy, making him less vulnerable.

This may be another reason why artists and players (two creatures in the same family) do not easily and never fully reveal their trade secrets to the general public: at best they allow some general theoretical discussion of their work or a few relatively trivial technical tips. Which may be very nice of them, but the problem is that they did not achieve their status by reading somebody else's tips.

The first and most vital principle of any game then seems to be this: to commit oneself to intense individual study from individual practice; develop observational and imaginative skills by individually engaging similar activities; and become as independent in one's ways and views as is sanely possible in order to acquire a manner of playing which is uniquely yours in its minutiae.

Everyone is familiar with the common concept of bluffing, for example; but the best bluffers are those who do it consistently in a way which other players, no matter how smart or experienced, have no way of "reading". And the only way to be able to do that is to employ a well muscled intuition which only you have access to.

It takes not only hard work, persistence, and erudition, but also the courage and independence to use your imagination in ways which might seem ridiculous but may prove innovative, individual curiosity and a spirit of discovery which keeps you ahead of the rest.

One could now proceed to elaborate on the processes of intuition, or suggest where to start or what not to neglect, but even that would be too much. Everyone is blessed with intuition; not everyone has the drive to aggressively hone and use it. If the results of your unique intuition are to be unique, you had better start on your own.

Be prepared for a lifetime commitment: nobody who was ever great at anything, was somehow mysteriously and effortlessly great - they worked hard; and they worked independently.