FreakDaddy
08-01-2005, 03:25 AM
It’s that time again, you’re faced with a difficult all-in flop decision on a very coordinated board while holding pocket Aces. You have less than one hundred hands on villain, but he’s played aggressive, solid-tight poker and shown down some big hands. There’s a straight possibility on the board, but you could just as easily be against trips. You have a backdoor straight draw and nut flush draw, so you have roughly 48% equity in the hand and you’re getting almost 2:1 on your money to call. Just another mandatory call?
A voice inside of you is screaming, “I know he has a set, he has to. He just wouldn’t play any other hands this way.” Now the logical side of you chimes in and is spitting out ranges of hands quicker than Jerry West folds the best hand. “It’s nearly a break even call, so why invest the money in this spot? Including bluffs and TPTK hands, I’m getting good odds, but if I’m correct in my range of hands, then I’m losing money on this call.”
So what is one to do? Every poker player has been in these situations time and time again. The ‘voice inside’ of you is screaming out that you’re beat, BUT you’re getting fairly close odds and your voice may indeed be wrong. And by the way, what the hell is this ‘voice inside’ your head anyways, and why the hell does it always insist that’s its right? Oh, and has it ever been wrong?
Now what if there was something that resided inside of you, which was completely aware of everything going on around you, always present, and always correct? Could it read cards? No, because it’s only aware from your unique position, BUT could it take in the times when Joe moves his elbow slightly left on the table when he picks up big pocket pairs, or when Sally shirks her nose when she’s on a bluff? There are a few people out there who believe this to be true, and they of course call this ‘intuition’. Whatever you want to call this ‘thing’, how can we hone this ‘thing’ to get it to relay the most perfect information possible, while at the same time sort through all the other competing thoughts in one’s mind?
Those of us who have become quite partial to logic and reason have at times learned to block this voice out, do the math, and make the call. Others have made careers on going primarily on their ‘gut’ instincts (internal voice), while others have tried to strike a balance between these two phenomenon. Yet is there an ideal way to combine these two seemingly diametrically opposed forces in order to play to the pinnacle of our abilities? Those cards you hold in your hand have become just another analogy for finding one’s center, which in turn is your opportunity for growth, not only at the poker table, but in life.
Ancient spiritual traditions have referred to ‘discovering’ this center within ourselves. In Taoism they refer to this as balancing the ying/yang. In Buddhism it is walking the middle ground. In Plato this is becoming the philosopher-king. In Christianity, although often misunderstood, this is entering the kingdom of heaven. Again and again, the same themes run through most great spiritual systems, and it’s important to understand why they do if you wish to play poker, or do anything for that matter, with any degree of excellence.
“Why did I make that call?? I knew he had [blank].” How many times will we find ourselves repeating this mantra until we ask some serious questions about the nature of this ‘voice’, which will sometimes be at odds with this amazing logical mind we posses? Where does this ‘internal voice’ really come from? The simple but complex answer to this question is from you, but it’s not ‘you’. All of us have a natural tendency to bend our thoughts toward the negative aspect of the spectrum, while others naturally slide to the positive. Ok, of course we all do, so what? Do you understand why you’re on one side of the spectrum or the other? “Yeah of course I do, my Dad was real negative, and so I find myself being really negative.” No, that’s not an answer to the question. Do you really understand why you’re on one side or the other?
Ack! Stop, you’re hurting my head, too many questions going on here. Why do we have to get so deep in order to play a simple game of cards? You of course really don’t have to, but just like in any endeavor in life, when you set a meaningful goal for yourself, such as becoming great at poker, your ability to reach greatness (and especially excellence) will depend on how well you understand the competing forces ‘in your mind’. To the degree in which the goal is personally meaningful, is to the degree in which you will be challenged the most in order to achieve your goal. For instance, getting a drivers license may have been a goal for you. In order to reach this goal you had to study, practice, and pass a test. To some degree you were challenged to over come fears or other obstacles you may have had in your way. While it may be a very meaningful goal for a 16 year old, in the scheme of life it’s a bit more minor then let’s say achieving your PhD. And while achieving your PhD may have presented many obstacles for you, it is perhaps also less than let’s say reaching enlightenment. Thus there may be an internal hierarchy of goals, and the higher one you reach for is going to present for you the most blocks and obstacles to overcome.
Now back to that ‘voice(s) in your head’. Can you check to make sure it’s still there? Checking 1-2-1-2. Ok good. If you want to achieve excellence to any degree in your life, it’s important to identify the different voices in your head, and name them. So does that mean I’m psychotic, or perhaps have multiple personalities? No of course not. If you take a moment to just sit with yourself and observe the various thoughts that come through your mind, eventually you’ll notice certain patterns that may/or may not apply to certain people you’ve known in your past. The thoughts may even have a particular tonal quality which may sound like Aunt Emma, Uncle Bob, or Mom. The trick now is to notice anytime you’re in a pressure decision making situation, which one of those voices comes up the most, and who it may sound like. Becoming aware of this voice is the first step.
The second step is to understand why it’s there, but we’re not going to go into that for now. It’s going to take awhile to identify the voice, and name it. Yet once we’re there, and we can move to the next step of understanding it, a strange phenomenon will occur in one’s mind. Slowly the ‘intuition’ aspect of oneself will become crisper, more accurate, and thus more reliable. And once it’s combined with the logical and reasoned side of oneself, well, the sky’s the limit.
A voice inside of you is screaming, “I know he has a set, he has to. He just wouldn’t play any other hands this way.” Now the logical side of you chimes in and is spitting out ranges of hands quicker than Jerry West folds the best hand. “It’s nearly a break even call, so why invest the money in this spot? Including bluffs and TPTK hands, I’m getting good odds, but if I’m correct in my range of hands, then I’m losing money on this call.”
So what is one to do? Every poker player has been in these situations time and time again. The ‘voice inside’ of you is screaming out that you’re beat, BUT you’re getting fairly close odds and your voice may indeed be wrong. And by the way, what the hell is this ‘voice inside’ your head anyways, and why the hell does it always insist that’s its right? Oh, and has it ever been wrong?
Now what if there was something that resided inside of you, which was completely aware of everything going on around you, always present, and always correct? Could it read cards? No, because it’s only aware from your unique position, BUT could it take in the times when Joe moves his elbow slightly left on the table when he picks up big pocket pairs, or when Sally shirks her nose when she’s on a bluff? There are a few people out there who believe this to be true, and they of course call this ‘intuition’. Whatever you want to call this ‘thing’, how can we hone this ‘thing’ to get it to relay the most perfect information possible, while at the same time sort through all the other competing thoughts in one’s mind?
Those of us who have become quite partial to logic and reason have at times learned to block this voice out, do the math, and make the call. Others have made careers on going primarily on their ‘gut’ instincts (internal voice), while others have tried to strike a balance between these two phenomenon. Yet is there an ideal way to combine these two seemingly diametrically opposed forces in order to play to the pinnacle of our abilities? Those cards you hold in your hand have become just another analogy for finding one’s center, which in turn is your opportunity for growth, not only at the poker table, but in life.
Ancient spiritual traditions have referred to ‘discovering’ this center within ourselves. In Taoism they refer to this as balancing the ying/yang. In Buddhism it is walking the middle ground. In Plato this is becoming the philosopher-king. In Christianity, although often misunderstood, this is entering the kingdom of heaven. Again and again, the same themes run through most great spiritual systems, and it’s important to understand why they do if you wish to play poker, or do anything for that matter, with any degree of excellence.
“Why did I make that call?? I knew he had [blank].” How many times will we find ourselves repeating this mantra until we ask some serious questions about the nature of this ‘voice’, which will sometimes be at odds with this amazing logical mind we posses? Where does this ‘internal voice’ really come from? The simple but complex answer to this question is from you, but it’s not ‘you’. All of us have a natural tendency to bend our thoughts toward the negative aspect of the spectrum, while others naturally slide to the positive. Ok, of course we all do, so what? Do you understand why you’re on one side of the spectrum or the other? “Yeah of course I do, my Dad was real negative, and so I find myself being really negative.” No, that’s not an answer to the question. Do you really understand why you’re on one side or the other?
Ack! Stop, you’re hurting my head, too many questions going on here. Why do we have to get so deep in order to play a simple game of cards? You of course really don’t have to, but just like in any endeavor in life, when you set a meaningful goal for yourself, such as becoming great at poker, your ability to reach greatness (and especially excellence) will depend on how well you understand the competing forces ‘in your mind’. To the degree in which the goal is personally meaningful, is to the degree in which you will be challenged the most in order to achieve your goal. For instance, getting a drivers license may have been a goal for you. In order to reach this goal you had to study, practice, and pass a test. To some degree you were challenged to over come fears or other obstacles you may have had in your way. While it may be a very meaningful goal for a 16 year old, in the scheme of life it’s a bit more minor then let’s say achieving your PhD. And while achieving your PhD may have presented many obstacles for you, it is perhaps also less than let’s say reaching enlightenment. Thus there may be an internal hierarchy of goals, and the higher one you reach for is going to present for you the most blocks and obstacles to overcome.
Now back to that ‘voice(s) in your head’. Can you check to make sure it’s still there? Checking 1-2-1-2. Ok good. If you want to achieve excellence to any degree in your life, it’s important to identify the different voices in your head, and name them. So does that mean I’m psychotic, or perhaps have multiple personalities? No of course not. If you take a moment to just sit with yourself and observe the various thoughts that come through your mind, eventually you’ll notice certain patterns that may/or may not apply to certain people you’ve known in your past. The thoughts may even have a particular tonal quality which may sound like Aunt Emma, Uncle Bob, or Mom. The trick now is to notice anytime you’re in a pressure decision making situation, which one of those voices comes up the most, and who it may sound like. Becoming aware of this voice is the first step.
The second step is to understand why it’s there, but we’re not going to go into that for now. It’s going to take awhile to identify the voice, and name it. Yet once we’re there, and we can move to the next step of understanding it, a strange phenomenon will occur in one’s mind. Slowly the ‘intuition’ aspect of oneself will become crisper, more accurate, and thus more reliable. And once it’s combined with the logical and reasoned side of oneself, well, the sky’s the limit.