The Unconscious (Poker) Mind

[Al Mirpuri]

Dr Al's excellent The Psychology of Poker should make it clear to everyone that the Unconscious Mind is at work in terms of player motivations if nothing else and thus it is worth studying in order to improve one's bottom line.

[jokerthief]

I am convinced my tilt comes from unresolved unconscious conflicts/issues. Everytime I dig deep within myself to bring to the surface these conflicts in order to find resolve, I end up reducing the frequency and duration of tilt in my game. I think it's a useful tool for me, though I really didn't identify what I was exactly doing until I read this post. I bet a lot of players do this same thing without explicitly knowing it.

[Gordon Scott]

In one of Doyle Brunson’s books he talks about a guy that was on some incredible multi session rush. Apparently during this rush before every session this guy would look in the mirror and repeat the following over and over. You will win, you will win, you cannot be beaten. (This may not be exact quote but you get the idea)

Anyway, I think if I recall correctly the guy wound up on girl friend or wife tilt, went busted and never recovered.

I don’t think Brunson was explaining this guys method as prepping the unconscious mind but it does suggest that the player was “in a zone” so to speak after the positive affirmation of the words in his pre-play routine. He was later knocked off his game by an outside factor.

Seems logical, that starting with a positive mind set could trigger or influence the unconscious mind in the right direction whereas negative emotions or feelings may shove the unconscious in the other direction. I can’t recall every having a great session when I was angry or in a flustered emotional state but I’ve had some monster sessions when I was riding an emotional high from something totaly unrelated to poker.

Just my 2 cents worth.


Best of luck

[Shoe Lace]

[ QUOTE ]
My weird two cents.
Conscious mind is a SMALL percent of the brain. We have lots of senses and intuitions that are probably based on things our brain doesn't interpret consciously.


[/ QUOTE ]

Can you really trust intuitions in poker though? Similiar to one of the repliers.

Would you move all-in, call a big bet, or do whatever that might not look right on paper, because you "feel" the outcome would be good?

Sounds like that could lead to a lot of losses. I don't think your intuition can predict what cards end up being turned over.

Now, if you want to dig deeper, maybe after playing so many hands, you have a complete hand history locked away in your memory. Consciously you cannot access it, but sub-consciously you can.

Your sub-conscious detected the outcome of the upcoming hand based on the previous hand, and it gave your conscious mind a feeling that the hand will be in your favor?

That almost makes sense...

If you think about the people who have picture perfect photographic memories. Their brain should be for the most part identical to yours and mine. They just have the ability to consciously access an area of the brain most people cannot?

[BugSplatt]

Once, about a year and a half ago, I was in a big NL tournament. We were down to three tables. Top twenty to make the money. I was in BB, and it was folded around to the button. Button raised what I thought was a small amount, SB folded, and I looked at my hand to find AH 4D. I pushed in my stack convinced that the raiser would fold, and to my amazement he called and flipped over KK.

What I learned from that is my intuition sucks.

I also learned it’s nice to be lucky. I flopped an Ace and crippled the poor guy.

Bug

[Dan Mezick]

Check out SUPER SYSTEM 1.0 startnig at page 143. Brunson talks about intuition and feel quite a bit in that section.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Heck--even on the net I've noticed it--I've even made up a saying for net players:
HE WHO HESITATES IS RAISED



[/ QUOTE ]

Or playing four tables at once with a perfectly good hand, maybe better than yours.

Or having Pokertracker slow his system down while it fetches and loads hands. Or having trouble with his ISP. Or trying to swat a fly. Or wiping his hands free of pizza grease. Or running to the fridge for a sec. Or taking a leak.

But otherwise, your theory is sound.

[paland]

[ QUOTE ]
Heck--even on the net I've noticed it--I've even made up a saying for net players:
HE WHO HESITATES IS RAISED

[/ QUOTE ]

I noticed that too. And if you want them to raise, don't hesitate too long or they'll smell a trap. Just the right amount.

[madcaller]

My thoughts exactly...

Maybe he's busy slow playing the nuts into a group of fish that keep betting and raising into the nuts!