Willing to Be Wrong

I was talking to a floor man recently after he had made a decision in a pot I was in. This casino has some interesting rules around out-of-turn action in a heads-up pot. Most places, out-of-turn action is binding if the action in front doesn’t change. Here, you have to verbally admit to accepting the action instead of it automatically standing. That means that if you instead check, the opponent has all actions available to them. It’s a small distinction, but it’s one nonetheless.

In this instance, the floor man ruled that I had to leave the $25 I had bet on the turn in as my action because he thought the opponent was acting on it by betting $75, even though I was just putting in the bet from the previous street that I had made verbally with an oversized chip. I felt it was an unfortunate ruling for me because it punishes me for my opponent not paying attention. I could, if I wanted to, check and let him have all actions available to him, but I had a very good hand and wanted to get his raise into the pot. It was a difficult decision for me whether I would leave my $25 in and let him make it $75 or give him the opportunity to do whatever he felt he wanted.

I decided to leave the $25 bet in and force him to make it $75. I raised, he folded and after a few minutes, I went to talk to the floor man. He asked me if I had a different solution for the problem and I wanted to have a few minutes to think about it. Within the constraints of the rule as it’s written at this casino, I couldn’t think of a better way to handle the situation.

I felt like both of our actions, mine and the floor man’s, were illustrative of an important point in poker and one that I harp on often. It’s important, always, to be willing to be wrong. Nobody learns anything by always being right. If you are aware that you are wrong, you are presented with a situation to improve. I was willing to be wrong in that situation by putting myself in the floor man’s shoes and realizing that the decision, although it did punish me a little bit, punished my opponent as well for not paying attention. In addition, it was really the only decision the floor man could have made with the rules written as they were, even though I think that specific rule probably needs to be changed there.

He was willing to be wrong if he was presented with evidence that a better decision could have been made. He had to be firm and final in the situation when it happened, but he was willing to talk to me about how it could possibly be handled in the future. I think this is an important skill in all walks of life, but especially as a floor person because it’s a customer service industry after all. They rely on the customers of the casino to make their living in some ways and the more they feel they can trust them to listen to their concerns, the more customers feel like they can trust the floor person to make good decisions that are thoughtful and precise. Sure, a floor person has to eat some angry emotions every once in a while, but keeping a cool head and being willing to be wrong are very important skills in that industry.

In other situations, I’m willing to be wrong as well. I’m still quite new to playing pot-limit Big O, even though it’s my main game for now and there is quite a bit to be aware of that’s different from games I’ve played in the past. At the beginning, I was playing it a bit too much like PLO high and ran into some spots where I was getting in too much money with too few redraws. I’ve gotten to a place, by willing to be wrong and researching how I was wrong, that I understand the game much better and am now doing pretty well at it. By being willing to be wrong about how I was approaching the game, I improved much faster than I would have with a different attitude.

Being wrong isn’t a bad thing and it’s time we started emphasizing that. Being wrong only gives you an opportunity to be right with a little hard work and curiosity. This will lead to more self-improvement, and hopefully, more chances to be wrong, thus leading to more improvement. We will never become better by being right all the time. Open yourself up to being wrong, it feels great. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG