Listening to Your Gut Instinct, or ESP?

I was teaching a WPT Boot Camp when a student asked me if I believed in listening to my gut when I played poker. I replied that I did, and she said that she did, too, and then proceeded to tell me a story. It seems that there was a decent-size raise to her, and she had Q-9. She said that she had a feeling, so she played it. She flopped two pair, and won a big pot.

I felt kind of bad when I had to explain to her that that wasn’t what I meant by listening to my gut. What I meant was that I often listen to my gut instinct when I play poker. A situation will arise and I’ll just get a feeling as to what to do. It’s not always the logical thing, but it usually proves to be right.

This doesn’t mean that I’m following some magical mystical force that guides me. This is called instinct, and it’s when the limbic side of your “subconscious brain” tells your frontal lobe (which ultimately makes all decisions) what it thinks you should do. This “advice” is usually based on some kind of memory from a previous similar situation, or from something that side of the brain picked up that your conscious side didn’t — such as a tell.

You won’t always know why your instinct is telling you to do something. You might not realize that your opponent’s eye twitched when he made his bet, and might not remember that he did the eye-twitch thing the last time that he was trying to bluff. But your subconscious brain often remembers all of that, and that’s often what your so-called intuition or hunch is.

It’s not ESP, or something mystical or crazy. It’s actually something that the back of your brain is picking up on. Learn to listen to “your gut.” I’ve found that it’s usually right.

Not long ago, I was playing in a no-limit hold’em game. There was a guy running his mouth and splashing around a lot. He raised from up front, and I smooth-called him with pocket nines. The flop came with a jack and two babies, and the splasher fired out a decent-size bet.

I thought for a minute, and decided to raise him. I picked up my chips and started to go forward, when it seemed like a very loud alarm went off in my head. I froze, very confused, for a second. What the hell had just happened?

The best way that I can describe it is that it was like some kind of an alarm that indicated danger. I thought for a while, and decided that my subconscious mind must have seen something that I didn’t, and I threw my hand away. My opponent showed me top set, and told me how lucky I was that I didn’t have a pair, because he would have busted me.

Now, please don’t read this and go play J-5 offsuit before the flop and then explain to the table that I said you should listen to your gut when you play poker. That’s not listening to your gut; that’s more like listening to your backside.

When players play bad hands preflop and make statements like they had a feeling or other such nonsense, they are talking about ESP or some mystical power. If you have such a feeling and hold a fairly decent hand that may be just slightly out of your range for the situation, I think it’s fine to play it once in a while.

But I would call that “mixing it up,” “changing gears,” or something along those lines — not ESP. This is important to do from time to time in order to keep your opponents from being able to narrow down your range too much. Playing outside your range occasionally will keep them guessing and slightly off balance.

I’m playing with a guy right now who never does this, and I have his range down pat. What I mean by this is that I might not know his exact hand, but I do know what range it’s in, and I can play accordingly; that is, does the hand I hold beat most of the hands that he is most likely to have? If not, I can safely fold even a very good hand, knowing it’s the right play.

So remember, try to listen to your gut when it is logical to do so. Keep the ESP nonsense down to a minimum. It doesn’t matter that you had 10-2 offsuit five times in a row and some guy won the World Series of Poker main event two years in a row with it; muck it! ♠

Todd Brunson has been a professional poker player for more than 20 years. While primarily a cash-game player, he still has managed to win 18 major tournaments, for more than $3.5 million. He has won one bracelet and cashed 25 times at the World Series of Poker. You can play with Todd online at DoylesRoom.com or live at his tournament, The Todd Brunson Montana Poker Challenge, in Bigfork, Montana. Check his website, ToddBrunson.com, for details.