Phil Hellmuth on to something?

This from Phil Hellmuth's column in Card Player magazine :


" There is some biorhythmic element in poker that is often overlooked by us poker players. On some days, I can sit down in a tourney after not playing poker for a month and play so well that I am shocked. When this happens, I know from past experience that I will play great poker for the next 40 days or so. At other times, I can't seem to execute my game plan very well. In both cases -- stellar play and subpar play -- I maintain roughly the same routine as far as exercise, sleep, diet, and so on are concerned.


If my theory is right ... I can only hope that this last month of subpar play [by me] is about to end. "


* * *


Since Mr Hellmuth is a world class poker player, the above cannot be taken lightly. If his insight is accurate, how can a poker player take advantage of his opponents' biorhythms?


An idea would be to combine a straight biorhythm program with a database of opponents' history of results. So that when we sit down to play at a table with John Doe, who our data says is "hot", we should be folding more often against him. And when we sit down against a player who's been so spectacularly wrong recently, his hair was shaved as punishment, we must attack him mercilessly.


--Comments ?

I think Phil Hellmuth was just trying to say long streaks are part of poker. I respect your thoughts but i believe like many others here will that you cannot in anyway know whether a player will win this particular session or not from keeping records on their streaks etc. If he is a good player he will win in the long run otherwise he will lose. You should stop wasting some much mental energy on such things and start taking time to reevaluate and analyze your game that were the most profit comes from.


-MJ

ive heard that the diet, rest, sensible exercise, etc., that you get today will set the stage for how you feel two days from now. (tomorrow?, 3 days?).


not to be glib but it would be very interesting to hear from women about this as they have monthly cycles, whereas im not sure science has established whether men have something similiar.


'If his insight is accurate, how can a poker player take advantage of his opponents' biorhythms? '


i think the main advantage would be a sort of optimal health for oneself.


pretty sure top athletic trainers/sports psychologists have a lot to say on this subject.


brad

Sometimes running hot (which is purely a result of good luck, hence beyond our control) makes us feel alert, positive, confident, and energized. This usually leads us to playing well. In a tournament, running hot and playing well will give us the big stack which will then allow us to manufacture a rush (thus making our run even hotter) once we've used our table command and big stack to run over the shorter stacks.


It's a momentum thing where running hot leads to playing well which in turn leads to having a big stack which in turn results in a commanding table image which then widens the "gap" which then leads to a lot of steals which make us run even hotter and so on. It's a feed forward loop momentum thing. This is especially true for Phil Hellmuth, a player that sucks at short stack play but who may be the best big stack tourney player of all time.


Hellmuth, a very high strung individual, is extreme in terms of the emotional rollercoaster. And in his case, where he's at in the rollercoaster has a tremendous impact on his level of play. He is a very volatile individual who can go from world class to live one and back again in a few hours time.

Since Mr Hellmuth is a world class poker player, the above cannot be taken lightly.


Yes it can.

Assuming such biorhythmic patterns exist, it's going to take so much data to separate such trends from simple streaks of luck that by the time you have it established, you probably won't be playing that player any more.. it usually takes a good 500 hours of play (at least) before you can even determine statistically if a player is a winner; watching his stack over 4 (or 40) hours is not going to help us touch his biorhythm. Much better to analyze a player while you set with him to determine qualitatively if he's in the right mindset for his top game.


And as someone else mentioned, I think there are a variety of things you could do with the time it would take to figure all this out that would benefit you much more at the poker table (52nd re-read of TOP, anyone?)


2ndGoat

I can't remember precisely but the Japanese lets their pilots rest during the trough of the pilots 3 biorhythmic cycles. They done some scientific research on it, try to search the Japnanese psychology or biology papers.


Not only women experience hormonal fluctuations but male also, think testosterone bottoms in October, which reduces activity of the right brain. The right brain is popularly believe to be the feeling, facial cue, reading emotions part which is obviously very important for playing poker.


You can check out research papers on Brain hemispheric function's relationship with testosterone, stuffs on human breeding season, etc which I believe is Feb-Sep.

What I liked about Phil's words is that he is resigned to some things, nearly mystical in cause and effect, mutating his game, beyond his control.


Then, when the replies jumped right in with the word "data" and all that that implies, I couldn't help but wonder what the world would be like if Jesus had been a geek.


Tommy

If memory serves me correctly one of the owners of this site talked to this in the last six months, or something close. I can't quote, but it was along the lines of X amount of BB wins is the start of so many loseing sessions. Sorry I can't be more specific.

I tried to post with my best poker face on, and it worked better than expected. (And I thought the "hair shaved as punishment" bit would be a tell.)

Cyrus,


My faith is restored.