Sheets laughed at me when I said I would be writing an article about psychology and being mentally aware. It is kind of funny; it is so opposite of my persona. I am not that reserved, and I am a very emotional guy (just ask the people in the lobby at Harrah’s after I busted out to a guy who hit his straight draw after pushing me all in). So here is how I break things down, and ultimately, while what I am about to say is simplistic and has been said before, I hope my examples take the concept further and shed some light. <READMORE>

Play less when you are not at your best. This is hard when you use poker as your primary income source. That is why it is necessary to have bankroll requirements with a little cushion. Here is my example, and it was told to me by Hoyt Corkins. I was playing someone heads up and Hoyt called me. I told him this guy was getting the best of me, and it was baffling me how he was doing it. He suggested I quit the game. I was like “why the hell would I do that, I am better than this guy.” His simple reply was, “are you really?” I was a little upset at his insinuation, and he could tell. He asked me what I thought made me so good. So I came up with the quick list. He asked me what I thought of the other guy’s play. I told him the guy was a lucky fucker and I wanted to spay his pets. I did begrudgingly admit that the guy was playing better than I had ever seen him play before. I also admitted that I was probably not giving my best effort and was likely chasing more, over betting hands, and doing all the stuff you do when you are trying to close the flood gates. I agreed I should get out of the game, and I did.

I felt great about the decision actually, and then Hoyt said something that changed my poker life: “Do you think he would have quit loser?” Ram a lama ding dong boys and girls. That’s it, that is the secret. Everything I say after this is just filler; you literally could stop reading right now. OK, I am kidding a bit but my point is made. Your opponents play better when they are winning and so do you. Why would you give the edge of playing tired or playing down? At the highest levels, this is literally the only thing that differentiates good players. Almost everyone has starting hand requirements and such; it is the small edges that make the difference. You might be able to get away with some bad habits now, but as you move up the ladder, it will become more difficult, so start good habits now. It is also important to note that most of what I speak of is short handed play. In short handed play, you and your opponents are faced with many decisions. The better decisions you make compared to their decisions, the more you will win. You can be a good player playing full ring games, but you will never be great until you learn to play short. The best players you can think of do both well but often are better short handed players.

Another real important part of paying attention is to notice how people react when they win hands and lose hands. If someone just took a bad beat and now they are all in from the cut off, my guess is your AJ on the button is good. On the same note people play maniacs all wrong, they get frustrated that this donkey is running the game over and get all macho and gamble pre-flop, ultimately giving the maniac exactly what he wants, a good shot at you. You want to see more hands cheaply, keep the pots small, hardly ever bluff, and pound it when you have the goods. Last night I decided to try the new 6 player tables on UB; I started off at 5-10, and the competition was the same old people and there wasn’t a lot of loose money flying around, so I went 2 rungs down to 2-4.

Right off of the bat, I recognized where the money was going to come from, and I lost about $250 dancing around, and then this hand came up. The guy had been check raising me quite a bit and he had worked $400 into about $700. I had 99, and the board came 9 8 3. He checked, I bet about ¾, he check raises, and I move all in. He calls with Q 8. Now this is a special kind of bad.

So I will share with you something else that has made me a lot of money. Liars think everyone else lies. If you are playing active, you find yourself running into this trap. You know that people will make plays at you because you are really screwing with them, you are lying and they know it. Only problem is, they have been dying to get you, and if they are halfway decent at all, they won’t slow play you, because they should assume that you would be suspicious. After all, you knew someone would play back at you eventually. Only thing is, they often don’t and win small pots with their big hands. If you are playing against bluffers, they don’t like to be bluffed, that is their job, not yours. They will be calling your ass, so make them pay. The opposite is also true, tighter players overplay big hands, because for goodness sake, they have been waiting all day to get those Aces. Have you ever noticed some of the best players making bad calls with big hands that you would have laid easily? That is because they don’t see as many hands as you, so laying down the good ones doesn’t fit. When you catch up to these people, it is important to feel them out to see how much you can extract. You will be shocked to find out it is quite a bit.

Lastly, I want to talk about tells and the best way to use them against your opponents. Only problem is, I am not talking about what you are thinking. Everyone knows that tells are used to get information about your opponents that they are unknowingly giving away. Mostly you use these to figure out whether your opponent has you beat or if they are bluffing, right? Usually it’s to win a WPT event--in other words everyone has come to think of tells in a very narrow way. Well wouldn’t it be helpful to know if your opponent would call a $200 bet or a $50 bet? This is likely the most useful use of tells there is—figuring out what you can manipulate your opponent to do based on what you know about how they are playing their hand.

The best description I have ever heard of this is that you are telling a story each hand you play, and it is how convincing you are in telling that story that gets you the desired result. This will require you to put your opponents on ranges of hands and be correct more than you aren’t. Have you ever noticed that you can put your opponents on hands better when you aren’t in the hand? It is easier to do because you can pay attention to so much more. Well, when you reach a certain level in poker you are able to do that better while in the hand. Its kind of the old “see the ball, be the ball” bit.

So here is what I will suggest you do. Spend the day putting people on ranges of hands based on how they are playing when you are in and out of hands. Try it for a week. I will guarantee you that you will be more successful as the week goes on. Then the next extension is to attempt to use this information against your opponents. Experiment with a couple things; act differently than you are accustomed to acting. It may help to think to use other people as pseudo mentors, if you need to emulate a tighter player think about how Dan Harrington would play it, for an active player maybe Carlos Mortenson. Just mix it up and use your new set of skills.

It rarely matters what you have pre-flop in a cash game, you are in a constant state of analyzing where you are in the hand. Use your bets to gather information and pay attention to the mental state of your opponents. What I have basically given you is a way to begin to play the players and not the cards.
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