Out of Body Poker, extremely long and possibly ridiculous.

[Monty Cantsin]

Ok, so in the spirit of "Poker as a Martial Art" I have a theory about how to improve your game and take some of the suffering out of poker, sounds good right?

The theory is that we have way too much ego invested in the game. Moreover, this excess of ego is the root of a lot of our mistakes and most of the pain we feel when we lose.

One of the essential conceptual skills needed to be a winning player is the ability to de-program some pretty deeply embedded mental habits concerning cause & effect and action & result. It can be extremely counter-intuitive to think in terms of long-range statistical patterns and overlapping possibility fields instead of the solid surfaces and either/or realities of the material world, but this is a necessary part of expert play.

The idea of Out of Body Poker is that ego-centric thinking is another deeply embedded mental habit that needs to be overcome.

I don't just mean ego-centric in the sense of selfish or arrogant. I mean the completely natural, normal human sense of individual identity that we carry around with us on a day to day basis. You know, the feeling that you are a separate, discrete entity, with its own little private package of being.

Ok, maybe it seems like an overly ambitious project to transcend what is, after all, pretty much the bedrock of human consciousness in the interests of improving your poker game, so let's take a step back and look at some more obvious places to trim back the ego's influence on us.

We've all encountered players for whom every bad beat is a personal affront to their honor, players who carry grudges and enact pointless vendettas and fume and rage against other players at the table. And, as we study the game and improve our understanding we've learned to pity these poor idiots. They represent the quintessential aspect of ego-based poker - just as they are too wrapped up in short term results to see the long term patterns, they are also too wrapped up in themselves to to see the big picture.

A more subtle but just as a destructive type of ego-based poker can be seen in numerous two plus two posts in which players ask "was I wearing a skirt here?", "did I behave like a little girl?" While they are clearly struggling to overcome one form of ego (fear), they fall into the trap of another form (pride). For them, success at poker is a test of their manhood, a measure of their courage, a guantlet to be run, a kind of elaborate personality profile.

But if the most important question is "what is the best play in this situation?" then answers that have to do with your virility, your bravery, your strength of character, or in fact any aspect of your personal identity are misleading distractions. How others perceive you may be crucial, but how you actually are is completely irrelevant.

It is extremely easy to fall into ego-based play. To get caught up in pissing matches and ego duels. To steam with indignation when our strong hand is busted by a ridiculous long shot draw. To feel insulted and disrespected by the actions of other players. To invest our psyches so heavily in the pots we play that by the end of the hand our ability to make clear, objective decisions is completely distorted.

Ego-based play is embedded in the very language of our hand histories, each one a tiny fable about bold heroes and sneaky villains.

Out of Body Poker is a drastic (and perhaps impossible to achieve) alternative to ego-based play. Here's how it works.

Fire up your online Poker client and find a table with an empty seat. Click on the seat. Do you see the avatar or the nameplate or whatever little representative icon that appears in the seat?

That is not you.

The big blind comes around and you post it.

That is not your big blind.

The cards are dealt. Two of them are sitting in front of you.

That is not your hand.

Wait, what? What am I talking about? Of course that's your hand!

No, no it isn't. Those cards don't belong to you. That isn't "your" hand. You don't own it, you didn't make it, it doesn't belong to you, it doesn't reflect or express anything about you. It is simply two cards that you can see.

Your job is not to love or hate this hand, not to discard it, not to invest in it, not to nurture it, not to grow it from a tiny seedling to a mighty tree, not to protect it, and then at the end of a gruelling struggle proudly, or meekly, reveal it.

Your job is to find the best play in this situation.

Picture yourself hovering over the table, floating above all the players. You can see two of the cards and you get the opportunity to choose the best play for that player. You aren't going to win or lose the hand. You aren't going to drag the pot or not. You are simply given the opportunity to find the best play for the situation and that's it, that's the whole game. That's Out of Body Poker.

You no longer view the game through the narrow perspective of your own, tiny, private worldview. You see the whole table, all the cards, all the players. None of them belong to you and you don't belong to any of them. You're given a certain amount of information and you seek the best play and you win the game by finding it. Actually, forget that. You win the game by looking for it.

While the rest of the players are snorting and jousting and posing and strutting you are simply looking. Looking for the best play.

You are not tight or weak or loose or aggressive or brave or frightened or anything else. You just look. Every hand is like an animated, real-time hand history in which you are given a lot of very detailed information. It's not your hand, it's not your pot, it's not your game to win or lose. You're just looking at the whole situation and trying to find the best play.

I wish I could do this, even a little.

/mc

[ZeroGravitas]

Excellent post. Also, Brian Eno rules.

[Dan Mezick]

(This is a great post because it's really all about experiencing the 'now'. This has a great many applications away from poker.)

[ QUOTE ]
I wish I could do this, even a little.

[/ QUOTE ]



Getting on the path to getting there starts with taking 100% responsibility for all your results.



You can usually tell who takes 100% responsibility. They guy that is "there" never blames anyone but himself for all his results. He is never displaying behavior that suggests that he is any kind of victim. No bad beats. All credit for any success is also credited to him alone. He is never a victim of chance, or other people, or circumstances. In his view, if he is a victim at all, he is a victim of himself.

The path of 100% responsibility for all your results may lead to enhanced self-knowledge, deeper insight into others, greater overall awareness, and new kinds of perceptive power. It is literally the first, and essential, step.

Committing to taking 100% responsibility for all your results may actually lead to consciousness expansion. By first identifying and then ultimately stripping away all the limiting beliefs, judgements and attitudes that are holding you back, you gain important insights, and accumulate wisdom.

Few people have the willingness to intentionally change limiting beliefs that are no longer working. Beliefs after all are at the bottom of everything we do. Upon beliefs we build values, and from there we "behave our values and beliefs". A typical person must live through an acutely painful 'forced awareness' experience (such as huge bankroll wipeout) which causes them to begin to face the facts about limiting beliefs, without denial. The most limiting belief in the world is the belief that you are not 100% responsible for all your results-- in every area of your life.

Working from this belief can get you to "behave" yourself all the way to this place:

[ QUOTE ]
You no longer view the game through the narrow perspective of your own, tiny, private worldview. You see the whole table, all the cards, all the players. None of them belong to you and you don't belong to any of them. You're given a certain amount of information and you seek the best play and you win the game by looking for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker is a ruthless meritocracy. As such it forces each player to face or deny the central issue of 100% responsibility. This is big part of what makes poker great.

[Mark H]

MC That was an excelent post.
Thank you

[USGrant]

Nice.

I think there are a few books out there titled the "Zen of Poker" and the like...similar thoughts, but I like your approach here. I used to be an ego-driven player (I still do fume on occasion when I get a short-term hosing by loose/passive donks) but have come a hell of a long way. I knew I took a real turn for the better when a few months a go I went down about 25BB in Party 2/4 and was actually in a good mood at the end of it. I played the cards the way I was supposed to and was outdrawn by donks pawing Rosary beads.

Now, the trick you don't mention is figuring out what is the "best play" in every situation.

[keikiwai]

Nice post.

For me the biggest factor in being able to play hands w/o putting my ego into it is my bank roll.

I started w/ $10 no-deposit bonus. I hit an $8 downswing at $20 to bring me to $12 playing $0.05/$0.10 LHE. Now this sounds like nothing, especially since I didn't have to risk ANYTHING for the bonus..... but wait there was my ego! I remember I basically sat down one night and said I'm just gonna play until I lose all the money and get it over with... luckily I broke even and at 5am went to sleep. That was the breaking point. I made a come back, and now I play 2/4 LHE at party.

Now, if I have a few hundred dollar downswing I don't even sweat because my bankroll is big enough to not have to worry about. Plus I have the cushion of going down in multiple limits in case of a drastic downswing.

Seeing all the money in my Neteller account makes all the difference to me in being able to evaluate hands logically and not emotionally...

That being said I still TILT sometimes. It's a hard skill to master.

I think the first step in getting to what you are talking about is playing w/o fear. And busting out is my biggest fear and probably most peoples... luckily you can take care of that by being bank rolled correctly..

The second biggest fear (or first I guess) for many people is being looked at as a "fish" or "bad poker player" or "weak tight" or whatever it is you don't want people to think you are..... now overcoming this, and being able to detach yourself from this can be very difficult.... I think everyone has different ways to try to get over this...

Next, and a HUGE one, must be being results oriented. After all we're all in the game to win money, but there is no better way to put your ego into the game than by trying to make money.... you have to play well w/o being results oriented, now that's even harder, and many people don't even realize or think it's a probem when they think about their BB/100 as they sit at the table....

Here's to floating above the big table!

[SlowStroke]

I keep scanning 2+2 because one or twice a week I read a post that makes the scanning worth my time.

This was one of those.

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

[poker-penguin]

I like this thread.

OP writes goot.

[Mayhap]

That I had some idea of what you were saying made me feel validated in my own observations. Great post - you write with great clarity.

[Orpheus]

Today, you have done 2+2 a great service

That's how I play. I didn't when I was starting out, but I sincerely no longer understand why so many people flip out time and time again (especially when the rest of the table saw the "bad beat" coming a mile off). The stress would kill me, and I'd probably give up poker.

(Truth in advertising disclaimer: I did get rattled by one bad beat earlier this year: I was dealt AA, flopped Aces full of kings, capped at every level, and... you guessed it, the player next to me had flopped quad kings. I was only pissed at myself, though, for having completely overlooked the possibility. Still, given that player's stunning reload rate, I'd play it the same way today. Did I mention that I am a moron? A serene moron, but a moron nonetheless [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )