Stay Young: Play Poker Part V

Part I said that combining poker, diet, and exercise can help you to stay younger, healthier and smarter. Parts II-IV recommended ways to delay aging while preparing to play, choosing games and seats, and playing your cards.

The next two articles discuss analyzing opponents. Many people believe are they’re so good at reading people that they don’t need to work at it. They probably aren’t that gifted, and — even if they great “feel” — they don’t read people as well as they could. And they certainly don’t exercise their brains enough to delay aging.

Solving puzzles, especially challenging ones, is a great way to stimulate your brain and slow down aging. So regard opponents as fascinating puzzles: Who are they? How do they play? Why do they play that way? How are they playing differently now? Why?

Part IV said a friend believed he could play only two ways. If he tried to win money, he was bored. If he tried to have fun, he lost money. But applying the Stay Young principles can increase both fun and profits, not just when you’re in pots, but all the time. The principles are:

1. Emphasize poker’s mental stimulation and social interaction.
2. Be active, both mentally and socially.
3. Emphasize novelty.
4. Optimize stress.
5. Create a score-keeping system.

Constantly Analyze Your Opponents

Constantly trying to solve people puzzles can reduce boredom much more than changing the way you play your cards. It will also greatly improve your results and delay aging. You play a small fraction of the hands you’re dealt, but you should analyze your opponents all the time.

If you wait until you’re involved in a pot with someone, you won’t have some information you need to make good decisions, nor will you have enough time to interpret the information you do have. I’ll focus on only a few time periods:

• When you first sit down
• When you’ve folded your cards
• When you’re waiting for the next hand

When You First Sit Down

It’s never too soon to start analyzing opponents, and some information will quickly disappear. For example, how do various people react to your arrival? Let’s say that everyone is a complete stranger. If three players ignore you, two seem to study you, and one welcomes you to the table, you’ve learned a little about six people. If you ignore that information, it’s gone forever.

Then look at more permanent information. People proclaim who they are by their age, clothes, jewelry, speech patterns, body language, and so on. Many writers can help you to understand these signals. For example, my book, The Psychology of Poker, lists the Quick Recognition Signals (QRS) for various types of players.

Are these QRS completely reliable? Of course not. Use them to make preliminary assessments, and then revise them as you get more information.

When You’ve Folded Your Cards

After folding, most people pay little attention to the action, and they focus on the cards, not the people. If they would have lost, they think, “I’m really smart.” If they would have won, they wonder, “Why didn’t I call? I would have won a monster.”

These are very human reactions, but they just waste valuable time. Instead, regard this time as an excellent opportunity to solve people puzzles. After folding, you can learn much more about your opponents than you can while playing a hand. You are more objective because you have nothing at stake, and you can watch anyone for any reason.

Simplify your task by focusing on only one or two players or even just one aspect of one player. When you concentrate, you may find that it’s easy to understand someone you thought was unreadable.

Let’s say you want to learn how to read a tough opponent’s body language. Ignore or minimize everything else and concentrate on the way he sits, moves, holds his cards, makes his bets, and so on. You may “crack the code” and learn how to tell whether he will fold, call, bet, or raise or how to recognize that he’s bluffing or has the nuts. And the process of observing and interpreting his body language will stimulate your brain.

You’ll learn more and increase the stay young benefits by using a standard scientific method: Make predictions and verbalize your reasoning.

When You’re Waiting for the Next Hand

Only the most disciplined players work during the brief period between the end of the action and the start of the next hand. If you don’t work, you’re missing an excellent opportunity to work on people puzzles.

First, review past hands to understand their basic style and skill level. Look for patterns such as tight-passive or loose-aggressive. Then look at how their play changes in various situations. For example, what does it tell you that someone is very tight in early position, but much looser and more aggressive on the button?

It probably means that he understands and adjusts well to position. More generally, he is probably reasonably competent or better because most players don’t adjust enough to position.

Then try to answer a critical question: How should you adjust your play when this player calls, bets or raises?

Then look for pattern changes. When and why do they act differently? For example, if someone is playing more loosely and aggressively than usual, what’s the reason? You may then remember that he rebought twice. Make a mental or written note that he gets more loose-aggressive when he loses two racks. Then keep track of how often he rebuys.

Conclusions

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that most people — perhaps including you — don’t work nearly as hard as they should to analyze their opponents. In fact, one of the most important differences between winners and losers is that winners work much harder at this critical task.

Why don’t people work hard enough?

First, they overestimate their people-reading skills. They think they have a natural gift for understanding other people, especially poker players.

Second, they want to relax and have fun, not work. I certainly don’t object to their playing for fun. In fact, much of my own and my friends’ profits come from the recreational players. But, if you want to improve your results, one of the best changes you can make is to work hard at analyzing your opponents.

But let’s get back to the primary purpose of this series, staying young by playing poker. Everything in this column supports that objective. The harder you work at understanding your opponents, the more you will stimulate your brain, and the more slowly you will age.

My next column will build on this one and explain how some additional techniques such as listening and probing will help you to stay young. ♠

Dr. Al ([email protected]) coaches only on psychology issues, such as controlling impulses and emotions, coping with losing streaks, and developing yourself. He is David Sklansky’s co-author for DUCY? and the sole author of five poker psychology books.