The Poker Skill Set

Published on January 19, 2006 By PacDragon In Gaming

Oh man, I'm totally nervous about that tournament tonight. I only have to finish in the top 40 to advance, but it's through a field of 400. I'm visibly shaking with nervous energy as I type this. I want to win it bad. Anyway, onto the article...

Playing poker well requires a rather wide skill set. Lately, I've been thinking about those skills and how I stack up.

Math skills: This is more essential in limit, but still plays a critical role in no-limit. You need to be constantly comparing the pot size & bet size ratio with your odds of winning the hand. Staying on the right side of the statistics is what makes you money over the long term. This took a bit of study for me to get the hang of it, mostly by creating a spreadsheet of common math problems that I use while playing online. I can do the common problems fairly intuitively now while playing a live game, but I still could use some work in this area. Maybe I should do up some flash cards to practice? I'm sure more experience will help, too.

Psychology: You really have to be able to get into the other players' heads. In a live game, you can pick up all kinds of clues just by watching a player. Online, you have to rely on their betting patterns & the time it takes to make a decision. If you can figure out what they're thinking (and what they think you're thinking) you'll have a huge advantage. I heard a theory about how people are able to do this that I think is pretty cool. Essentially, your brain creates simulators of people you know. You may actually have isolated brain patterns of other personalities, pieced together via pattern recognition, that you unconsciously access when trying to second guess somebody. I've gotten pretty good at knowing what other players are up to, as long as they're logical. I still have trouble with players who are completely illogical, or who intentionally randomize their play, so I often have to rely on the math for those situations. Experience should help sharpen that skill.

Diplomacy: Especially in cash games, it's essential to make the weaker players feel good about themselves. You want them to keep playing, rebuying, and coming back the next day. Not everyone plays poker for the money, some people just like to be social or kill time. If you can make sure they're having fun, they'll stick around and everybody wins. I think I'm pretty good in this department, I don't think a fish would ever leave a table because of me. Heh, but sometimes it works a little too well. I tend to have a lot of players that want to talk to me when all I want to do is concentrate!

Strategic Planning: Being able to plan out a long term strategy, and competently adjust it to conditions in real time, is an essential skill to bring to the table. Sun Tzu's Art of War should be required reading for any serious poker player. You have to understand the appropriate use of force, how to exploit weaknesses, when to flee & when to make a stand, how to protect yourself with limited resources, and the art of misdirection. I've always been a huge fan of strategy board games, historical campaigns, foreign policy, and working on game theory problems.

Acting: At a live game, being able to present a persona, especially a false one to confuse players, is a valuable skill. I know some people that actually have multiple personas they'll employ at different venues. Acting skills are also very useful for bluffing, of course, and for making it appear you're bluffing when you've got a strong hand. Being a poor actor can really hurt a player, since an observant opponent will see right through it, and you'll simply give too much information away. I was heavily involved in theater, from about age 6 to 18, so playing a persona shouldn't be that difficult for me. But honestly, I really haven't done that much acting in my live games. I tend to play fairly strait forward, and my persona reflects that. I should probably try to appear more wild and out of control.

Willingness to Take Risks: You really have to be able to overcome your fear of risk to succeed at poker. Many plays increase your win/loss variation but are profitable over the long term. You have to be willing to make those moves if you want to be a winning player, even if they might cost you money in the short term. You also have to have a certain lack of respect for money, so you aren't scared to put the bets in. I handled that part by separating out my initial investment into an isolated bankroll and treating it as just a score. As for the risk taking, that's never been much of an issue for me... I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie

Controlled Aggression: When you have an edge, you must be willing to make the killing blow. You have to sniff out weakness and pounce mercilessly. You have to sometimes be aggressive simply because the other players will allow themselves to be intimidated. But this aggression must be controlled, you should only do it when you can succeed. Go too far too often and you'll quickly go broke. I'm competitive by nature, but fairly passive most of the time. I had to work to overcome my fear & guilt of aggression, but I'm getting much better. I play much stronger short handed (5 or less players) than I used to, which requires a lot of aggressive play.

Patience: A lot of time in poker, you're really just waiting around for a hand worth playing. They don't come very often and sometimes you can go for an hour or more before you even have a hand you can play. This can be frustrating, but losing your patience and playing hands with poor odds will lose you money over time. Luckily for me, I've got an active imagination and can always escape into my head if I get too bored.

Willingness to Study: This skill is critical if you want to improve. Most people learn through action/response. Like say you touch a hot stove and burn your hand. From then on, you know not to touch hot stoves. But poker has such a large luck element, you can really confuse your brain. You can make a really terrible play, but get lucky, and your brain might start thinking you should make that play all the time. Or you might make the right move, get terribly unlucky, and then never make that move again. Only by studying hands away from the table are you able to figure out the profitable plays to make, completely independent of your actual results. I'm sure this blog will attest to the fact that I'm constantly thinking, reading, and studying about poker when I'm not at the table.

I don't think it's any small coincidence that many of our U.S. Presidents have been very skilled poker players.

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