Hand Reading Without Thinking

Sometimes with just a quick look at a situation, all I can think is “this is fucked.”

And I mean those three words exactly. There’s no fancy thought process going on. No “What does my hand look like here? What’s his range and what’s he representing? Would he do that because of (x) (y) or (z) reasons? What’s my expected value?”.

Nope, nothing like that. Just an instinctive repulsion at what’s on the screen in front of me and a weird cloudy feeling of disconnection from what’s going on.

Somehow, some part of my brain is making a split-second judgment that something’s not right.

And then it’s only after that feeling part that I start to catch up with conscious thoughts about what it is specifically that could be wrong — out kicked? bum straight? set over set maybe? (That one’s especially gay, and I do my best to believe the read and keep the size of the pot down but, 9 times out of 10, I’ll pretty much just ignore it and lose a stack).

I think after seeing so many hands of poker, my brain must have started doing some of its own slick neural-netty insta-calculations. Calculations which bypass the English language bit — the “what if? yeah but maybe.. actually nah” — and just throw out a simple good or bad feeling. That’s all it produces, a simple Yes/No, 1 or 0 answer — instinctive repulsion or instinctive attraction — where I don’t know why I know, but I know.

What the tits are you talking about?

Well, sometimes I flop bottom two and it causes an involuntary fistpump spasm.

I congratulate myself on being the best middle position raiser that’s ever lived and I happily bet 3 streets of value without hesitation. But then the next time it happens, maybe even with the exact same 3 card flop, the fistpump becomes a headscratch and my spidey sense tells me I’m in trouble.

When that happens, I obviously still congratulate myself on being the best player ever by miles, but I change my approach to the hand. If it’s a headscratcher like that, I’ll bet or raise in ways which will uncover their super-strong hand so I can fold. Unlike when it’s a fistpumper, where I’ll bet in ways which look spewey or suspicious or something.

(It depends on the opponent — everything’s always a level so sometimes against some people, deliberately looking over-strong when you are strong is the way to get paid).

How does it work again?

You mean why would you ever think bottom 2 pair is a bad thing before anything really significant has happened in the hand? — dunno, ask my brain.

I realise it sounds stupid. Maybe it is stupid. Maybe I’m stupid. Maybe you’re stupid. I don’t know, but I’m completely open to the possibility that it’s merely a reflection of how confident I’m feeling at the time or something simple like that. And if it was useless I’d drop it.

I’ve thought about it a lot, and the main problem is that my brain seems to be way smarter than me and it’s usually right — something usually is fucked and theoretically good situations on paper turn out to be bad situations in reality.

Of course, like any good completely un-qualified amateur neuroscientist, I have a couple of theories. 1) I am superman. 2) Anyone who’s played a lot of poker knows that the game nearly always develops a “flow” or rhythm — some basic underlying level of consistency that wouldn’t be obvious to someone who had sat down just 2 or 3 hands ago.

So maybe the brain is really good at latching onto that rhythm unconsciously, and when the flow of play is significantly disturbed — i.e. something happens that’s out of place in the pattern — alarm bells sound. Kinda like hearing someone play a duff note in the middle of a symphony.

I have to say I’m leaning more towards (1) though, especially since I find myself wearing red underpants over bright blue lycra more and more often these days.

I think it’s just the way I play. Intuition first, rational brain as a backup for the tricky shit — “don’t really know where I am here but I’m getting 4 to 1 so ppffff, I’ll go with it”. I know some people like to play the other way round: Rational brain first and if logic isn’t enough, go with your gut.

I guess ideally you’re supposed to mix it up and do both so you don’t fall into bad habits.

I don’t think I’m crazy…

1. #1 - May 4th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
   Mike says:
   

   There’s an old saying - I can’t remember how it goes or who said it, but it applies really well here

   Hope that helps.

   Reply  |  Quote
2. #2 - May 4th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
   majc says:
   

   Of course it helps.
   Shit, I practically feel enlightened.

   Reply  |  Quote
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