Many years ago I took a class called History of the Motion Pictures. It was one of those classes that was a real pleasure compared to the boring classes I took for my major, which was economics. The motion picture class was a breeze, and a very refreshing change. It would turn out to be very useful throughout the rest of my life, enabling me to see and understand much about movies and movie history that I otherwise would have not been able to appreciate.
One of the early innovations or concepts in early moviemaking was what they called reverse angle. It simply meant that the face of someone talking was shot, and the next shot was of the person he or she was talking to, but with their positions reversed. As strange as it sounds, when moviemaking first began, they shot an entire movie from only one perspective, a front view.
I often have compared this movie concept to poker strategy. It is obvious how important it is to be able to read your opponent's hand, but it is also important to try to understand what he might be thinking as he looks at you. So, it is valuable to reconstruct a hand not only from the camera angle that you have, but also from the theoretical camera angle of your opponent.
You might be thinking, "Isn't that the same thing as my guessing what he thinks I have?" The answer to that question is a little tricky. Certainly, that is one aspect of it, but just trying to figure out what he thinks you have is overly simplistic. When you go into this exercise, it should go far beyond just trying to get a notion of what he thinks you have. The exercise should not only examine what you have done - bet, check, and so on - but also picture in your mind's eye how your opponent has seen you doing it.
Now that the poker world has so many real movie actors playing with success, it is not hard to see that they probably have a lot of training in thinking out some of the plays they make by using this concept of reverse angle.
As a professional poker player, I know that some of the abilities that are needed to be successful are not always employed by us. It is easy to fall into a rut and get lazy about executing this strategy; that is, viewing yourself as others might see you. This necessary tool can easily escape even the most experienced professional.
If you are just starting out as a pro or are at least a serious poker player, there are ways that you can hone in on the skill of imagining how you are perceived.
The best way, of course, is to get a video camera and shoot some tape of yourself playing. You have to simulate real-game situations and try to imagine that you are playing for a lot of money. The next step is to watch the tapes to see yourself checking, betting, raising, and so on. Once you can picture yourself doing all of these things, it will help when you are playing to think of how you appear to your opponents.
As you are being taped, try several ways of presenting yourself, to see if one will likely be perceived as "a worried bet" or "a confident bet." You also should practice what you say, using different words for the same situation. For instance, when you move in, there may be words to use that are more likely to induce a call.
It reminds me of a new phrase that has recently come into existence in poker, which is, "I'm putting you all in." Now, everyone knows that one player can't put another player all in. The first time I heard that said to me, I became irritated. I wanted to call the bet; the only problem was, I didn't have a hand even remotely good enough to make the call. The question is, if I had had a marginal hand, would that statement have been enough to illicit an irritated call from me?
It is also important to understand how the tone of your voice may sound in certain situations. If you videotape several ways of saying the same thing, by changing the tone of your voice, you might discover what you think may work better in certain situations. Do not be afraid to use them in a real tournament or side game.
If you are a tournament player, you have much less to worry about in regard to someone catching on to something you may be doing to get a call, or to get someone to throw his hand away. In side action, many times you will be at the same table with the same players for a long session, or you may be in a game in which you play regularly; in both of these cases, you may be able to use a word or acting ploy only a couple of times before you have to abandon it. You will have to give your opponents credit for being able to figure out what you are doing. But all is not lost in those cases, because you will then have the opportunity to be able to figure out how you can be tricky; perhaps you can reverse what you have done against players who you know have paid attention to your past actions.
This column may not be something for the smaller-limit player, but if you play medium or high limits or tournaments of any size, one play, good or bad, may make it worth spending some time thinking about these concepts.
Vince Burgio maintains a website, www.pokervince.com, and is the author of his autobiography titled Pizza, Pasta and Poker.
