The phone rang while I was taking a bath over winter break: “Would you be willing to do an interview about online poker with KSDK Channel 5 news once you get back to school?” the voice asked.
I was really excited to be on television and to have my poker playing featured on the air, but when it came time to do the interview, I was a little nervous. I had spent about an hour cleaning my room (for those of you who see the interview on TV next week, yes, that is what I consider “clean”). My past few poker sessions had been less than stellar, and I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to demonstrate what I do on a session-to-session basis. But interviewer Mike Bush’s arrival with cameras and lights in tow quickly turned into an hour-long observation of my card-playing and my routines.
As good hands came and went, and opportunities presented themselves, I gradually built up my winnings to about $700. Mr. Bush would sometimes sit in silence, sometimes ask questions, but more often than not, he would express his astonishment at my ability to follow the events happening on eight different tables consistently. He would then focus in on a specific table where something interesting was happening, and asked detailed questions regarding my ability to make the correct play in that situation.
As I sat there, actively explaining to Bush what I was doing on each of the eight tables I was playing, it finally dawned on me. There comes a point in almost every player’s career, be they professional or amateur, when they start turning the decision-making process into an instinctual one.
This has been gradually happening to me over the past few years. While it certainly can lead to some success, it will never replace the high level of thought that needs to go into each decision that each player faces. Was I put in great situations with good hands while Bush was there? Most definitely. Did I take advantage of almost every opportunity when it presented itself due to increased scrutiny? Did I quickly recognize the weak and strong players because his questions forced me to focus more detail on the players surrounding me? Did I consistently make the mathematically correct decision as I tried to help him understand the probability that underscores the decision to check, call, bet or raise? Absolutely. In fact, I sometimes found myself “checking down” from my initial reaction to a given situation, instead choosing to utilize the wealth of information available at each table to make what, at the time, I considered a better alternative.
When a player actively thinks about each decision as I was doing while explaining my play to Mr. Bush, taking every player at the table into account before acting, the result is going to be positive. He won’t win every time, but he will win more often. It doesn’t take a professional television interviewer to force this kind of analytical thought. Instead, just ask yourself this as you prepare to take your turn: what are the ramifications of this decision? What is the player sitting two spots to my left most likely to do? Try to justify every choice you make with data you’ve been collecting during your session, and most important, if you can’t rationalize your decisions, search for better alternatives.