Over my lifetime of playing poker, I have talked with many of the game’s top players. This group is very diverse with many different styles of play. From the hyper aggressive to the slow and patient, sometimes it’s hard to find even a hint of common ground between them. If there’s one secret, one rarely publicized thing that they all share, it’s in the attitude. From Gus Hansen’s twitch of his neck to Daniel Negreanu’s smiling shrug of his shoulders to BodogAri’s quietly spoken “OK then,” when the time is right, they are all completely unafraid of losing. <READMORE>

How many of us can say the same thing? When you are all in with your tournament on the line, is it the most exciting thing ever? Are you even able to leave the chair and go feed the cat while you have a free minute and then see the results when you come back? Are you cool as a James Bond martini or do you live and die with every big hand?

Just to be clear, we are not talking about the mindless all in donkey aggression so common especially in the early stages of a tournament. These all in for 1500 chips on a 75 chip pot guys are mostly trying to compensate for their lack of post flop play skills. We are talking about making a call for all or most of your chips with the proper pot odds in a huge hand mid to late tourney when you are fairly sure you are a contender. Or maybe pushing with a big draw when you think you can take somebody off of a better hand. We are talking about smart, aggressive and fearless play.

So it’s damn the consequences, full speed ahead and let the chips fall where they may. I had to see if this was some kind of magic formula, so I tried it in a mini, non-scientific experiment. I had just had a +5k week on stars, chopping the $5 rebuy, winning the Sunday night $20 HORSE, and, in a fit of very bad judgement, chopping the deep stacks plo at 3:30 am. I was flush with cash so I set aside $200 for my experiment to play a total of ten mtts. My mantra, my attitude, my entire poker philosophy for the duration of the experiment was “I don’t care.”

I started with a $5 freezeout and, as expected, my resolve was tested early. The complete maniacs outnumbered the real players at my table and one guy in particular was getting really lucky. He had about 8k in chips by the third hand when I got kk and called his predictable all in bet. He flips 86 offsuit and right on the flop hits 579 so my win percentage goes down to close to absolute zero. No miracle turn and river and I type in “lol vn gla” and move to the next game trying not to care.

The next two games were also freezeouts and went by almost as quickly. I took a break for dinner and as I sautéed some onions I reflected on my play, trying to learn something from what just happened. From the way I butchered the onions and my foul mood I knew that I had not yet achieved a state of “not caring”. I had to try harder – or less hard – or whatever. This not caring stuff was hard for me.

After my early dinner was the RealPokerTraining members only deep stacks game. We started with 10k! in chips and I think the first blind levels were 1/2 (OK – it was 10/20, but still) even with only 90 players this was going late. I only had about two hours before I had to go do something and I had nothing to prove to these guys who had already seen my videos. A wave of not caring swept over me and I knew I was in the zone.

My luck was still lousy though and in thirty minutes I was down to 1300 chips, but I was laughing and joking and having a good time. I made some calls I might not have otherwise made, stole a few small pots, sucked out once or twice and by first break I was back to even. By second break I was chip leader with 36k, but since I had to go I got a fill in player and when I came back in an hour I was still around 35k. I played the rest of the tourney smart, loose, aggressive and uncaring and took 5th.

The next night I played on ultimate bet so I could try to use my new attitude to win a wsop seat, but I never got going and lost early in the wsop sat and both other tourneys I played. Still I was laughing it off and generally feeling good.

My final night I started with two plo games and I quickly determined why most of the “I don’t care” players play nlhe. My final game was the 8 pm $3 nlhe rebuy 20k guaranteed and I was ready. I was about even money wise so far on my experiment so I was prepared to do a few more rebuys than I usually do as well. But I ran well and had about 15k at first break on only my double buy in and add on.

I stayed the course; raising, re-raising, stealing, and re-stealing with gusto. A few things really stand out. Firstly, where my old conservative style would have had me short to average stacked by the time we got close to 549 left and the money (2810 started and there was a 20% pay structure) this style had me livin large and I was mostly near the top ten or twenty the whole time. Second, after a few big calls of re-raisers on my semi-bluffs, people at my table were afraid of me and I was able to steal with impunity. Third, I really was more relaxed and having more fun.

One other interesting thing happened before I lost an all in race for 1.4 million chips and overall chip lead with my over pair vs. a flush draw and finished in 63rd. When we got down around 100 players left I had about 300k and was still in the top ten and I made a great call of a huge all in with aj against the raiser’s a5. Of course the river 5 shows up and I am down to 120k. The very next hand I push with ak and lose to a call from a pair of 5s (lousy pocket 5s ;o) and I am now at 30k. In less than five minutes I am back at 300k again and everyone at the table is scared of me once more!

So, what was the result of my experiment? For starters, although it sounds like an oxymoron, not caring is fun. It is also liberating, allowing me to be more creative. And I did end up ahead a few bucks to boot. So am I chucking all my solid fundamental play and looking to be the next coming of Gus Hansen? Not really, but I will be doing a bit more “experimenting” in the future, so watch out for my new, dark side and steer clear of the wild seal.
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