Nick Wealthall's revelation
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
This may be the most important 940 words you ever read.
I’ve had a revelation. It’s something that’s going to completely change your life. In fact, this may be the most important 940 words you ever read.
OK, I can’t back that up. I mean, not entirely. It’s about poker so it’s unlikely to completely change your life but it might it enhance it a bit – and it is a legitimate revelation, which, in today’s cynical, demystified world is, you know, something.
By the way, why is the phrase “change your life” so routinely trotted out by people trying to get your attention, sell you something or have you sign up to their $5,000 a seminar personal development cult …sorry … course? Do we all want our lives changed that much? And why does everyone assume it’s always change for the better? Pop your right arm in a threshing machine and I promise you you’ll get a pretty fundamental life change almost instantly.
So, here comes the revelation of the revelation: Your ability to make the right decision in poker is decided by how good you are at seeing the hand as your opponent sees it. And the reason players get so frustrated with playing “bad players” is that they do not have this ability.
To take a step back, I should explain why I think about this so much. In my years as a poker columnist, analyst and coach, one question comes up consistently from struggling players. They constantly want to know how to play against “fish” (their word) and ask if they should move up limits where the players are more predictable and their raises are “respected”.
Now, if I’m cranky I tend to dismiss the question. I mean, if you can’t beat a player at your local tennis club the answer can’t be to seek out Roger Ffff-fff-er and challenge him to a five-setter. The same in true in poker, but my dismissiveness, I realise, was preventing me from answering the question truthfully. Why do players struggle to beat players they are “better” than? Why do they feel like they can’t win against “fish”?
Some of it has to do with the nature of poker, of course. You can never guarantee to beat anyone because the edges are too small. Over time, sure, but in the moment, on a night, in a tournament, the worst can beat the best. That’s why poker isn’t a sport or even a pure skill game. It’s a game in which skill can be used to win in the long run. You have to be able to handle the frustration that your edge may only be apparent over time, not in the moment, and if you can’t handle that you should quit poker, so let’s take that as read.
The more fundamental and addressable reason players struggle against weaker players is a lack of ability to see the hand, or even the game, as those players do. I like the term “see-through” to describe this, as in the ability to “see through” your opponents’ eyes.
It’s a massive skill in life and also a challenge. After all, we all have a tendency to be ever so slightly self-obsessed. You are always the most important person in your life. Or in the words of Oscar Wilde, “A bore is someone who’s talking about themselves when you’re waiting to talk about yourself”. That won’t cut it in poker, though – thinking only about your own hand is level 1 thinking and will only get you through the first few steps up in poker.
Most players know this and try to think about hands from their opponents’ point of view. Here’s the problem and the heart of my revelation: when most players think about their opponent’s hand, they think about it as if they were playing it NOT as if their opponent were playing it.
You see, it’s not as simple as thinking about what your opponent might have – the key is to think about the hand as he sees it. A very weak player doesn’t see the game the same way that you do. He may not understand stuff like pot odds, or bet-sizing at all. He may not understand what your bets mean – he may not even care.
Years ago in a live game a player said to me, “You know, some of us are just here to have fun – you don’t get that, do you?” Back then I was a very earnest young man taking poker very seriously. But the mysterious drunken stranger was right – I didn’t understand any other attitude. Some people who sit down at a poker table aren’t trying hard to win, they’re there to have fun, or to gamble, or to learn or just to try something new. If you assume that they’re all there to play tight, make the “correct” poker decisions and extract 2bbs/100 hands from their opponents you’ll make mistakes when you play against them.
The secret to beating the weak is to understand how they see the game (which varies from individual to individual), how they see this particular hand, and then to figure out how to exploit them and make chips. And here’s the good news: it’s never that difficult because weak players are … you know… weak… and bad. And if you can’t beat them you need to keep working till you can because playing better players is never the answer!
How are you doing? Life changed? No? Poker mildly enhanced? OK, good.
Remember, if you tell someone about this column you will be revealing my revelation about my revelation. Ask them to tell someone else and we can keep this linguistic farce going, and maybe the English language will collapse in on itself like a dying star.