“Wow, he played that perfectly.” This was said under the
breath of an opponent sitting to my left that was not involved in the hand. Why
is this important? Well I guess it is important to me because, it sounded
sincere. It was not something that he said that was meant to be heard, it was
more a subconscious mumbling of sorts and thus with it more value than the
common “oh congrats you played that perfectly” that so many people say after a
hand that involved a lot of chips and not necessarily truly good hands or good
play. So what is perfect poker? And how can you even assume you are playing it?
Arizona Don once said “I like playing with people that know
the game and know that the real winner of the hand was not the one that walked
away with the money, but the person who got in with the best of it”. I think he is right, sometimes when you lose
you really win and sometimes when you win you really lose. So basically you can
play perfect poker and still walk away a loser, but you are still a winner. I
guess it’s like a chin up saying to tell people hey you did the right thing and
you made the right moves, but how often do you tell yourself that? Maybe to
play better and to feel better about your play you need to be your own best
cheerleader and your biggest critic.
There has been a lot of negative talk on the forums recently
of people talking about quitting poker and not playing anymore. While that is a
decision that you have to make on a personal level, I think maybe you need to
start looking at your game from another perspective. Stop thinking about what
other people are doing wrong and stop thinking about bad beats and suckouts and
learn from it. Make those mental notes about players. Cause if they are truly as
bad as you make them out to be then they will be paying you off in the long run
as long as you play not poker perfectly but play them perfectly, cause lets
face it poker is not just a game of cards it’s a game of people. That is what
makes this game dynamic. Its not dynamic cause of the cards, there are a set
number of possibilities that can spew forth from the deck, it’s a game of
people that are ever evolving and always changing to suit their surroundings and
mental states. If you are pissed at the conduct or lip service of the other
players, invest like so many do in a good set of head phones. Block all that
out and concentrate on what is important to you, the math and not the people.
Playing the math will get you to a profitable outcome but will not take you to
that next level.
Playing perfect poker ought to be a goal of every serious player.
You ought to go into every game with the intentions of playing your best. If
you don’t think that you are going to play your best you won’t, you have
already lowered your expectations and failure is now an option. You have to
find a way of bringing your “A” game to the table when it is the hardest to do
so cause of whatever is troubling you or bothering you or making you feel like
its going to be a failure of a session.
For the last several weeks I feel like in some sessions I
have played close to perfect poker. This is not to say that every time I got my
money in with the best of it. But I think it is more to say that I made the right
decisions at the right time. I took my chances on races when those chances
needed to be taken. I have pushed, bluffed, slow played, over bet, under bet,
check-raised with the nuts and with absofuckinglutely nothing all in an effort
to win and to accomplish the goal of playing poker, a game that is not just about
what hands you have but about the hands your opponent has and doesn’t have.
I guess it sounds
demented or insane but on occasion as the board materializes I can visualize
what is going to come out next. Maybe it’s the fact that I have seen to many
hands played out and maybe it’s that my mind is calculating odds in a visual
pattern of cards that create possible hands and my subconscious mind is faster
than the conscious. But it’s real. Maybe it’s on another level, a whole
different plane that poker is played on the sights, sounds math and gut
instinct all coming together faster than any computer can compile, it’s your
human mind. You have the power to control your emotions, your thoughts and your
poker play. You should not be on auto pilot when sitting at the table. You shouldn’t
be auto folding shitty hands and auto raising premium hands. You need to
process each hand in your mind as to what will happen “if”, these “ifs” are all
based on the dynamics of the game and your opponents that sit around you in
various positions and states of mind.
The strength of your game is not based on luck, the strength
of your game rests inside your head. Not just with how you think hands should
be played or your poker knowledge but with your ability to control your life
outside of poker and to not let it effect you when you are at the table and to
isolate and block out the distractions that can effect your play, and cause you
to play less than perfectly. Control your mind control your play, and you can
play perfectly.
This had been another senseless rambling written late at
night, I think I am delirious.
