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THOUGHT PROCESS VERSUS FEELINGS IN POKER

It is easy to separate good poker players from the not so good ones.  You could see the intensity with which good poker players expend on every turn of the game.  They give the image of strong players who knows a lot but gives away none to their opponents.  Let’s see how each type of players process every move while playing poker.

Subjectivity Ruins

I know some players who tend to feel than think more while playing poker.  These players tend to make more mistakes when their decisions are driven by their emotions.  Think long and hard.  When you’re watching players in action during poker tournaments, you’d witness players throw their hands with exasperation at the cards they’re dealt with.  You would also hear outbursts from some corner of the room at one of the tables of a player who lost his bet.  Players with these attitudes are a danger to themselves and should not be allowed to play poker.  If you start feeling angry at your opponents for raising your bet, your decision most likely leads to a reckless end result because you were thinking of massaging your ego instead of saving your chips from sure waste.  Decisions clouded by emotions usually fail to provide any good returns for a player.

Objectivity in Play

On the other hand, we see a smooth operator with a poker player who cautiously studies his hands, the cards dealt on the board and the pattern, if any, presented by his opponents around the table.  Your experience and knowledge of good hands and odds will lead you to assimilate with shrewdness if your opponent is bluffing or if he actually has good hands to follow through the raise.  You look at your hands and you got nothing but a bad hand at that turn.  Best option is to pass at that point and you saved yourself extra chips too.

Choice between Objectivity and Subjectivity

The choice between thought process or actions driven by emotion is easy enough to decide.  The act of putting this to actual practice makes the decision difficult to do.  But that what good players are made enough.  You need to learn to master your emotional instincts and let the higher human side of you take charge.  You have to consciously make that effort every time.  If you can’t do it at least most of the time, time to cool your heels off or better yet, just call it a day.