A Brief Look at the Psychology of Poker

By Thomas Kearns

It is humbling to realize how much our basic functions can take control of our conscious minds. Remember the study of Pavlov and his dogs? This was a scientific study done on dogs where they would salivate at the ringing of a bell. A ringing bell meant food. No other sound meant food to them. This experiment has been tried with other animals as well, with pigeons, cuttlefish and mice to name a few. The same phenomenon occurs with them. Habit conditions them to believe that specific symbols or signs result in a specific event.

Moreover, additional experiments show that once an individual is thus conditioned, it will not learn what to a more developed mind, such as ours, may seem a variant of the same. That is, once a cuttlefish learns that a pink circle means food is coming and a blue spot means no food, it will take any additional color to mean no food. It has no capacity to interconnect new phenomena and allow hitherto inexperienced possibilities.

There have been times I am sure that you have been made suddenly aware of a realization that never occurred to you before. Something like the CEO of Ford is one of the finest executives in the country. Is he? Or is he simply Henry Ford's great grandson?

It is not unusual that during an evening of poker, a few of the players take a break and chat about the game. During their discussion they zero in on player number four (not present in the break room). They go on about what a lousy player he is and how could he possibly still be in the game. The two players involved in the discussion leave the table to discuss their observations in almost whispering tones and swear each other to secrecy. By sharing their observations, they discover that each had noticed a completely different behavioral tidbit. The first noticed that whenever number four had a good hand, he would place his bet, clench his hands into fists and lay them on the table, never doing this under another situation. While the second one observed that number four, whenever he had a bad hand, would push his chips around noisily, never engaging in this behavior under any other circumstance.

So number four has two actions that betray him. The smug, secretive twosome who consider themselves to be good players, each picked up on only one. Their minds simply stopped discovering at one observation and never reached beyond for further insight.

This phenomenon is important for the successful poker player to take note of. The best players can be distinguished by their curious and active minds throughout the play. They keenly observe and classify according to importance the traits of their opponents and use them to their advantage. - 31521

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