Stay Young; Play Poker Part VI

Part I said that combining poker, diet, and exercise can help you to stay younger, healthier and smarter. Parts II-V recommended ways to delay aging at various times. This article will recommend two more ways to analyze opponents that increase profits and delay aging.

Nearly everything written about analyzing opponents emphasizes observation. Mike Caro and Joe Navarro wrote excellent books about reading body language. Countless authors have taught us how to interpret betting patterns. You should certainly work on observational skills, but they’re not enough.

To understand your opponents and increase poker’s anti-aging effects, you should listen carefully and probe for additional information.

Listening

Since you can learn so much by listening, there shouldn’t be any need to recommend it. But countless players, including some famous ones, can’t listen well because they wear headphones.

Before becoming a Card Player columnist, Matt Lessinger, wrote, “Headphones? Why Bother?” (Poker Digest 2/23/2001). A professional looking player “who had his earphones on and was probably listening to some music, missed three key clues during the hand… that could have saved him at least three big bets.”

Matt had previously worn headphones because, “I thought that listening to music would put me at ease… block out extraneous distractions, improve my focus … and thus increase my chances of winning… I suddenly realized that my whole rationale for wanting to wear headphones was faulty. .. it became obvious that I wanted to hear EVERYTHING that my opponents were saying!”

He’s right about hearing everything¸ including information that’s generally ignored. For example, you probably “tune out” when someone tells a bad beat story. If you listen, you’ll learn something about both the storyteller and his opponent.

The story will tell you how his opponent plays, which is obviously valuable, especially if you’ve never played with him. More importantly, you’ll learn how the storyteller plays certain hands and how he thinks and feels about poker and players.

Any hand discussion can be educational. For example, when an obnoxious “expert” lectures, suppress your annoyance and listen. He may think he is teaching weak players the correct strategy, but he’s really teaching opponents how to play against him.

You can learn about an unknown player’s general style by listening to what others say about him or to him before he has played a hand. “The stakes just went up.” “He never saw two cards he didn’t like.” “I hate to play with him. He’s too tight (or too loose, or too tricky, and so on).” If you don’t listen carefully, those remarks will go right over your head.

Don’t just listen to facts. Listen with your “third ear.” An eminent psychoanalyst said we have two ears to listen to facts, and a third ear to listen to the underlying feelings and thoughts.

So listen to the way words are said. Let’s say that a wild gambler tells a newcomer, “This game is too crazy for you.” If he grumbles, the newcomer is probably conservative. If he’s teasing light-heartedly, he’s probably welcoming another action player.

You may not even try to use your third ear because you overemphasize poker’s rational aspects. But emotions and other irrational factors affect everybody, even the best players.

Probing

Because probing is uncomfortable, hardly anyone does it well. Most of us wait to be given information, but we will learn much more by asking questions and probing in other ways for reactions.

But you must probe infrequently and sensitively. If you probe too often or too directly, you’ll irritate people. For example, don’t ask, “What cards did you have?” Opponents will be more comfortable and honest if you ask about how they played cards they’ve already shown.

Some people want you to understand them. After seeing their cards, you might say:

“Why didn’t you check-raise?”
“What a great call.”
“Why would you bluff such a loose player?”

They may then tell you something important about themselves or their opponents.
You can get important information by criticizing plays, but do it gently. If they don’t feel threatened, they might explain their moves.

“I hate having my blind stolen.”
“He’s so aggressive that I don’t respect his raises.”
“I was raising for a free turn card.”

You should also indirectly ask why someone is playing unusually: “I noticed that you’re more aggressive than usual.”

“I’m losing two racks.”
“I just won a big football bet.”
“I’ve had too many drinks.”

Probing bets and raises are attempts to learn where you are cheaply. You future moves depend upon your opponents’ reactions.

Non-verbal probes are actions such as reaching for your chips to see how your opponents react. They can provide useful information, but have two weaknesses:

Many people do them so predictably that they give away more information than they get. For example, when they’re a blind, countless weak players automatically grab chips to prevent a raise. They may fool weak players, but smart ones quickly “crack the code” and raise.

• Some non-verbal moves such as moving your chips forward and then stopping violate written or informal rules, and they look like “angle-shooting.” Don’t do anything that will damage your reputation or make you feel guilty.
Occasionally, someone will object to your probing. If you’ve acted properly, don’t worry about it.

Listening, Probing, and Staying Young

The earlier articles described five anti-aging principles:

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.

Mental Stimulation and Social Interaction: Both listening and probing stimulate your mind by forcing it to work. Instead of listening to music or waiting passively for the next hand, you’re trying to get and understand information.

Listening with the third ear is particularly stimulating: you’re trying to understand signals you never noticed before. Probing requires social interaction and deciphering new kinds of information.

Mental and socially activity: Instead of waiting for information to be offered, you’re digging for new and different kinds of information.

Novelty: You’ll be doing things you don’t usually do, forcing your brain to work in new ways.

Stress: Because new activities are stressful, most people stick to the same old patterns. Forcing yourself to listen and probe will be uncomfortable, especially if you’ve rarely done them before.

Good! If you stay in your comfort zone, you’ll get old faster.

Score Keeping: You’ll try harder to develop these skills if you keep score. Keep track of the information and money you gain by taking these uncomfortable actions. When you see the benefits, you’ll work harder, which will increase your profits and delay aging.
Treat opponents as challenging puzzles. Constantly and actively try to answer two critical questions:

• How do they think, feel and play?
• How can I use this knowledge to increase my profits?
Listening and probing will help you to answer these questions, which will increase your profits and help you to stay young and sharp. ♠

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.