A lot of times during your life, especially at the poker table, situations will arise where you have to make critical decisions very quickly. The first decision that comes to you in any dilemma is usually from your inner instincts or “gut feeling”. This gut feeling is a combination of your intelligence, experience, and knowledge that all work together to instantly give you a final conclusion. Poker players should always trust their instincts but it is not always that simple.You have probably been told before that when you have a difficult decision to go with your gut. The problem poker players face is that the theory to trust your instincts is easy to learn, but can be extremely hard to implement correctly. It becomes a completely different story when you are late in a big tournament with just a marginal holding and you need to make a crucial decision immediately. Under this type of pressure it is very common to go against your instincts and try to out-think yourself into a decision. It takes practice, experience, and a lot of self-trust to let your instincts takeover for a huge decision like that.
It is not always clear when your instincts are taking over a decision, but there is usually a common theme: An instincts-based decision will not always make clear or logical sense to you. If you can think of a time when a decision instantly popped in your head during a hand of poker, and then you hit the time bank to think of the reason or logic behind it, then you have experienced your instincts to some degree. Many players will then start to over think their decision, even when their instincts have already made the right decision for them. When you rely on your experience and let your instincts take over in tough situations, it will allow you to think more freely and stay on your A game.
Another reason why you should trust your instincts is because poker situations are always unique in nature but will also sometimes feel like déjà-vu. This feeling of déjà-vu is your inner instincts kicking-in telling you what to do, when it is not exactly clear what you should do, because your sub-conscious is remembering a similar situation. It is easy to use logic or reasoning to change our minds for this tough decision, instead of trusting our instincts in the first place.
I have experienced many situations like the ones above in real life and in poker. Tough situations come up on a daily basis and they usually need immediate action. Whether I am making critical investment decisions for my clients or just playing a hand of poker, my instincts are always a big part of my decision. Throughout the years, I have gradually learned to let my gut feeling play a bigger part into my daily life as I continually gain more knowledge and experience. Being able to trust myself has been a big part of my success; just as not trusting my instincts has lead to failures.
One lesson that you can take from this is the next time you are in a tournament or cash game try and identify when your instincts instantly jump in during a critical decision. You should then hit the time bank and try to reason why you came to your decision but without changing your first instincts based decision. Once you start acknowledging and using the poker decisions you make based on gut feel, you will then know that you are using your skill and experience to the fullest.
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