Instinct vs. Intellect

[JJNJustin]

Many times during I hand I find myself in a dilema: Making a decision based on what the statistically correct decision is (i.e. intellect) vs. what my instinct is telling me to do.

Such situations usually occur when you hold a very strong hand (somewhere around the 2nd nuts) and although most of the time you should play this hand extremely strongly, for some reason or another, your instinct is telling you to back off or even to fold because you fear your opponent has the absolute nuts. An example would be in no-limit when you hold pocket KK vs. an early position raiser or limper.

Another example would be when you hold the Ace high flush when a straight flush is on board. Another example would be when you hold middle or bottom set. Yet another example is when you flop a non nut flush or non nut straight. Although you would normally play these hands very strongly, there are times when you getting a sinking feeling in your stomach that you are drawing dead or close to dead.

Other times the opposite may occur: you may be holding a very weak hand but have an instinctual sense that the hand is the best hand, yet normally you would probably hold such a hand. An example might be when you flop middle pair and there is a bet and a raise. Although normally you would fold middle pair, for some reason you have a "feeling" that your opponents are on the draw and merely trying to get you to fold. Another example would be when you have AK or AQ or a small unapproved pair on the river and all of a sudden there is a bet. Another example is when you hold a good, but not great hand before the flop, say KQs or AJo and you raise and get re-raised a very large amount. Although normally you might give up the hand if your original investment was very small, for some reason you get the feeling your opponent really doesnt have much of a hand and is just trying to get you to fold.

My advice: Never totally ignore your instinct. In fact, you should get in the habit of asking yourself, "What is my instinctual read on this hand." There may be many hands where you dont have much of an instinctual read. In these situations you have have to rely mostly on your intellect. However, there will be times when your instinct starts to peep itself into your congintive thought. Depending on which ability you use to play, your mental thinking will usually be alot quicker, alot busier than your instinct. Your cognitive thought may be something like, "Only one hand will beat me. Nobody raised before the flop. It is unlikely anyone would limp with AK in this situation. This player is a lose aggressive player, maybe I should re-raise. I just cant fold this hand the pot is too big. <fear>. <caution>. Well if he has the nuts there's nothing I can do." The words I put in <> are your instincts. Notice how small in relation to your cognition your instincts are. If you are an aggressive confident player you might even dismiss your instincts as "weakness".
What I have found, however, is that you should learn to think the other way around. You should dismiss all those cognitive thoughts and learn to amplify your instincts. If your instincts are fearful, then there is a reason. And the converse is true: If your instincts smell weakness even though you hold a weak hand, you shouldnt let your cognitions make you fold. Let your cognitions run your basic strategy, let your mental ability play the odds, the statistics, the math, but always be subservient to your instincts. And NEVER totally dismiss them as just a meaningless "feeling". If they are strong enough to interupt your conscious thought, then there is a reason.

Let me relate an example from my own playing. I was playing a no-limit game and I had pocket KKs. I had a decent stack, about 1 1/2 the max buy-in. A lone player under the gun raised to 15 times the big blind. My mind told me that he must have a big pair, because the last two times he held such a hand he played it in a similiar way. My mind told me he could have anyone of these possible hands: 99, TT, JJ, QQ, or AA. It was unlikely he had KK since this is what I held. I ruled out overs because I never saw him raise overs in this fashion. So since I held KK, and could be 4 out of the 5 hands I thought he could possibly have, I called his raise, however, at the time I called, my instincts begged me to fold. I dismissed my instincts, reasoning I was a big favorite to have the best hand. At the very least, I should look at the flop. The flop came JJJ, giving me a boat right off the bat. Still, my instincts begged me to get out of the hand. I laughed at my fearful instinctual self, saying, "This is such a huge hand, how can I possibly fold?" We got to the river and now 1/2 my chips were in the pot when my opponent went all-in on me. The board read JJJ98. The whole time during the hand, my mind keep thinking "I hope he doesnt have AA. I suspect he has AA. I am fearful he has AA." I called his all-in on the river, committing the rest of my chips, only to see that he did indeed have AA.

The is an example of when your mental intellect should heed to your instincts. The whole time I played the hand, the crux of my mental thought was "Does he have AA." I never even considered that he could have the case J. And there was a reason for that: He had AA. It is that simple. My instincts picked up tells and signals that my conscious mind was unaware of and refused to listen to and it cost me a lot of money that had I headed to my poker instincts and let my more ponderous, organized, systematic thinking go I would have made the correct play.

So the next time you find yourself dismissing your "vague and non-substantiated feelings", instead perhaps, especially if you are a well experienced player, there are times when you should instead listen to those vague instincts and instead ignore your mental cognitions.

Lastly, when a player has the absolute nuts, whether it is AA before the flop, top set on the flop, or top hand on the board, or whatever, he reeks of a certain type of confidence and all fear leaves him. When you make an aggressive play at this player and he shows no inkling of fear or refused to "check it down", beware, your 2nd nuts is a loser. Your instincts can easily pick up on this, even more so than your intellect. Learn to listen to your instincts. Never, ever, totally dismiss them. Instinctual feelings develop for a reason.

[TreyOfLight]

[ QUOTE ]
small unapproved pair

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Hide those in your pocket.

Seriously, it looks like you put a lot of thought into this, but the message is nothing new. Even novice players can intuit the value of instinct.

[Salerosa]

Cliff notes needed.

[Proofrock]

Most of the time you must use instinct & intellect together -- it is not usually either/or. For example, in your KK hand, you noted your opponent's hand range was 99-AA. If you didn't know where your kings were, why not raise? Your opponent's reaction will give you more information to evaluate where you are without busting you. Instead, your instinctive feeling that your opponent had AA stifled your ability to play your hand - you feared his AA, so instead of trying to use your "intellect" to verify your instinct (i.e., to get information about whether he had it), you resigned yourself to calling away your stack.

Here's how I would play it in that situation. He raises, which tells you AA-99. You have KK, but something tells you his raise has a greater than normal probability of holding aces here. Presumably, you have some idea how he would react with aces vs. a lower pair. So, you raise and watch what he does. Now I normally don't fold KK preflop, but with the right opponent and right reaction here, I will muck it without hesitation. Instead of losing your stack, you lose ~ 1/4 of your stack if he has aces.

The "statistically correct decision" depends on the hand range of your opponent. Your instinct, combined with your intellect, is used to define that hand range. In this case, if your instinct says "he has aces at least 75% of the time he plays like this," but you don't incorporate this into your decisions, then you're using intellect improperly when evaluating your action.

-cj

[CliffsNotes]

[ QUOTE ]
-When you read someone for AA, fold KK
-This happened with me and my buddy, but I didn't fold. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]


[/ QUOTE ]

Editor's note: The use of 'instinct' in the full version of this post should be replaced with 'physical and betting pattern related tells' or 'fear of monsters under the bed' in various places. Research data provided for the uses of this term was not sufficient to differentiate the 2 uses.

[yvesaint]

This all boils down to:

- Reads are sometimes more important than odds
- Big case of results-oriented thinking a.k.a. I think I have ESP!