In order to determine the thought processes of your opponent, it would help to read their minds. But not being a mind reader, are there any seminars or classes offered on the subject? Not really and even if there were you are not going to learn the psychology of your opponents neurosis from a class. If you were able to, this is still no guarantee of winning.
When thinking of poker, one would think of it as a game of strategy rather than one of psychoanalysis. Strategy is only one of the components of winning play, however. Getting into your opponent’s head is the essence of smart play. This does not mean that you must suffer while he goes over the details of his life story ad nauseum.
Outstanding players, like outstanding artists, don’t get that way from reading a manual. They progress intuitively, summoning their powers of observation, diligently practiced and enhanced over a period of many years.
Good technical manuals on poker psychology are rare. This is at the very crux of the matter. Whatever tips and advice you may find off the net or in the bookstore, you can not practically or successfully put them into real play. You must have that inexplicable talent of intuition that puts your own creative mind processes over the limit of your opponents.
If the game could be played based on principles, it would be boiled down to predictions, simple or complex depending upon the variables by use of a computer program. Actually, this is the approach of amateurs and the not-so-gifted players – the ones that mostly lose.
A talented player will spurn any computer-spun model and make their own decisions on how to play their game and their opponents’ game. They are led by intuition into observations that they then combine into rules of play according to their creative imagination and wit. The strategy that comes out of this is distinctively their own. No matter how complex or how elegantly simple their secret strategy is, it makes them less vulnerable.
This may be another reason why artists and players (two creatures in the same family) do not easily and never fully reveal their trade secrets to the general public: at best they allow some general theoretical discussion of their work or a few relatively trivial technical tips. Which may be very nice of them, but the problem is that they did not achieve their status by reading somebody else’s tips.
It is then most vital to commit yourself to the intense study of personal observation from your own practice to develop your observational skills as well as your imagination. Do this and you will independently create ways of acquiring a manner of play that is unique to you in its every detail.
By far the best bluffers of the game are those who do it with regularity in a manner that prohibits anyone at the table from deciphering the bluff. This requires a strong intuition developed by lots of practice and known only to them.
While hard work and persistence are involved here, they are of little benefit unless you have the courage and independence to use your imagination in some cases that make you seem less than sane but are innovative and demand a curious nature and the soul of an explorer which puts you way out in front.
At this point, a look into the processes that make up intuition might be in order. In fact we all have intuition. Few have the initiative and guts to tune it up and make use of it. To get results, you must develop and work on your own unique intuition. It doesn’t fall from the sky and it cannot be taught.
What I have written about here calls for a lifetime commitment. Nobody who was ever considered a master at his craft, whatever that may be, was given that title. They worked long and hard and on their own and they earned it.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Players Only Rakeback and Paradise Poker Rakeback.
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