Many poker players don't prepare thoroughly, and some don't prepare at all. They just sit down and play. Playing is fun, but preparation can be tedious and time-consuming work.
Because they are so intensely competitive, winners are willing to work, and it
pays off. They do at least four kinds of preparation:
• Develop their knowledge and skills
• Prepare for specific events
• Prepare in the cardroom
• Prepare at the table
Develop Their Knowledge and Skills
Many people are reluctant to invest time and money in self-development because they:
• Dislike studying
• Arrogantly believe that they are so talented that they don't need to study
• Argue that Johnny Moss and many other immortals didn't read books and magazines or use high-tech training tools
But they don't have the immortals' gifts, and most training tools did not exist in "the good old days." Books, magazines, and high-tech tools are powerful weapons. We have
Card Player, many excellent books, DVDs, training camps, coaches,
Internet forums, and discussion groups. Television shows enable us to see great players' cards and hear the commentators' and players' analysis. High-tech tools such as the
Card Player Odds Calculators, Card Player Analyst, computer
simulations, and poker tracking software collect and analyze information in ways that the old-timers could not even imagine.
Your opponents are using these weapons, and to stay competitive, you have to do so, also. Fighting poker battles without them is like fighting gunmen with a bow and arrows. In fact, because they have invested the time and money to master so many tools, today's players know
immeasurably more about poker than Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts, Jack Straus, and the other immortals.
People romanticize the old-timers in poker, football, and so on, but wherever we observe
objective data, we can see that the old-timers were hopelessly inferior. We can't objectively compare poker immortals to today's players, but modern athletes have shattered virtually every record. They run and swim faster, jump higher and farther, and lift heavier weights. If the record-holders of 20 years ago competed in recent Olympics without using modern tools, they would finish toward the back of the pack.
Progress is even greater in mental activities. Today's physics students know more than Isaac Newton, his era's towering genius. A teenager with a computer can solve problems that used to baffle geniuses.
Dan Harrington was once a world-class backgammon player. After not playing for several years, he used the new computer tools. He told me, "I was unquestionably a much better player than I had been before, but I was no longer world-class. The game had advanced more than I had." Poker is advancing just as rapidly. To stay competitive, you must acquire, study, and use the same tools as your opponents.
Prepare For Specific Events
In addition to developing your general abilities, you should prepare for specific events, including playing in a new cardroom or entering a different type of tournament. For example, if you don't know a cardroom's rules, you can make expensive mistakes. If you don't prepare for a tournament's blinds, payouts, and competition, your entire strategy can be wrong.
Some people who qualify online for the
World Series of Poker main event don't prepare
at all. I called it "The Lottery Mentality" (Aug. 13, 2004, at CardPlayer.com). Despite playing for millions of dollars and immortality, they don't prepare by entering live events, and a few actually hold their cards so that others can see them.
Several members of our discussion group qualified for a large freeroll tournament. They discussed the implications of the size of the field and the blinds and payout structure, and they planned strategies for these conditions. Several cashed. They did the same before the
WSOP, and again, several cashed. To learn how to start a discussion group, read my
Card Player column, "Wednesday Poker Discussion Group's 100th Meeting" (July 18, 2003).
In addition to learning a cardroom's or tournament's rules, blinds structure, and so on, you should prepare for any important event by sleeping properly and getting into the right frame of mind. Countless players have started well, but had their play deteriorate because they weren't ready to play for 12 or more hours.
The most thorough and sophisticated form of planning has been called "war gaming." More than 2,000 years ago, Sun-Tzu wrote his classic book,
The Art of War. He pointed out that good generals use spies and other means to get information about the terrain and the opposing armies and generals, analyze that information, and then plan their strategy.
Modern generals often conduct war games (simulated battles) to try out various strategies. They arrange for an opposing force to fight the way that the enemy does, see how well various strategies work, and then make adjustments. The Pentagon often simulates battles and entire wars on computers.
Football teams use a similar system. If the Giants are playing the Redskins next Sunday, their scouts observe the Redskins'
previous games, and the coaches and players watch videotapes. Then, the offense practices against a defensive unit that simulates the Redskins' defense, and the defense plays against a simulated Redskins offense.
Linda Johnson war-gamed for
Ladies Night, a one-table televised tournament. She asked five friends to take her opponents' roles:
• Jim Leitner was Kristy Gazes.
• Mylene Leitner was Pam Brunson.
• Cary Darling was Melissa Hayden.
• Ed Galvin was J.J. Liu.
• Jan Fisher was Mimi Tran.
They studied tapes of these players' previous tournaments, asked friends to comment on their play, analyzed their strategies, styles, strengths, and weaknesses, and played the way that each one would play. Their practice sessions used the tournament's blinds structure and timing. Linda tried various strategies, and they jointly analyzed each one's effects. Before the tournament started, she knew how she would play, and when and how to adjust her strategy.
Her thorough preparation paid off. She finished second, got very positive television exposure, and easily could have won it. Alas, when playing heads up against Kristy, she was dealt pocket jacks against pocket kings. No amount of planning can overcome such a disadvantage.
These anecdotes don't
prove the value of any type of preparation, but we don't have solid proof for almost everything in poker. However, their experience and the records in athletic competitions certainly suggest that using the best preparation tools available can greatly increase your edge, and that's what poker is all about.
My next column will discuss ways to prepare in the cardroom and at the table. At every point, you should remember what Nolan Dalla told our discussion group: "The battle is often won or lost
before it is fought."
Dr. Schoonmaker ([email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues, such as controlling impulses, coping with losing streaks, going on tilt, and planning your self-development.
