Poker Sabotage – Ignoring Correct Poker Strategy
We have met the enemy, and he is us – Walt Kelly.
Why do otherwise sane, smart poker players occasionally play like fish? I’m not talking about recreational poker players who don’t bother to know better or just plain stupid players who can’t. I’m talking about serious players who have studied the game, read books, bought software, and analyzed hands. The players who really should know better but inexplicably make bad decisions at the poker table, not just once or twice but repeatedly.
Most of us have fallen prey to this phenomenon at one time or another. Have you ever found yourself making a call that you knew was too loose, a call that you knew would end up costing you money, and yet you went ahead and made it anyway? It’s almost like an unconscious reflex, a tic or spasm that works independently of our brains. Your mind is saying, No! But there goes your hand, tossing chips into the middle of the table. Or perhaps your particular weakness is playing too aggressively when you know perfectly well that the situation doesn’t warrant it. Or maybe the problem is that you keep passively flat-calling when you realize you should raise it.
Make a mistake like this occasionally, and it shouldn’t be a big deal. But as we know, some reasonably intelligent poker players have studied the game, repeatedly making these types of mistakes. Either we’ve seen this player or both, or we’ve been this player. The one who knowingly makes a bad choice that he knows will probably end up biting him in the ass; then, when it does bite him in the ass, he acts surprised, and then worst of all, he makes the same bad choice again later. It’s a very effective form of self-sabotage, poker masochism.
And for what? Why do otherwise astute poker players behave in ways that are so obviously contrary to the goal of winning? It’s a complex question, but the answer is fairly simple: on some level, those bad choices work for them. Nobody repeats a behavior repeatedly unless he is getting something out of it, something positive – a payoff. Some hidden benefit that is ultimately more important to him than being a winning poker player.
For example, let’s take one of the most common poker mistakes open calls. Whether it’s playing too many starting hands, refusing to let go of the second-best hand, or chasing too many long-shot draws — as long as the size of the pot doesn’t warrant the open call, it’s a dreadful and potentially very expensive mistake. But it’s amazing how many good, top-notch players can fall prey to this problem. In a pot-limit or no-limit game, just one open call can wipe out your entire stack. But even in a limited competition, the constant drip-drip-drip of one open call after another can be disastrous to your bankroll.
So what alternate payoff could be worth losing all that money? In a word… action. It’s not very exciting to sit on the sidelines and fold hand after hand. The immediate “buzz” the player gets from being involved in the hand is more important to him than the more remote payoff of being a long-term winner. In a real sense, he comes to the game hoping for two different payoffs: to win money and to have fun. But those two goals will often conflict unless he is blessed with an unusually good run of cards that day. With a typical run of cards, he must either sacrifice the fun, fold a lot or play a lot and sacrifice the profit. When faced with choosing between two different and conflicting payoffs, most people will go for the quicker and easier to get. It’s a sure thing now – the instant gratification of being involved in a hand – versus the more elusive and distant payoff (which is still by no means a guarantee) of walking away from the table a winner.
While aggressive play certainly is critical to poker success, for even the smartest player, there can be times when aggression goes overboard. Timing is everything, and the supposedly smart player who can’t stop himself from overplaying his hands is burning through his money just as surely as the one who calls too much. Maniacs have a good excuse for playing this way: they don’t know better. But again, why would a thinking player regularly commit this error? What is the payoff that makes this play worthwhile? Every poker player is different, but revenge against an opponent is one possible payoff. However, the most likely explanation is the simplest. For many players, it feels more glamorous – and for the guys out there, more “macho” – to be a hyper-aggressive player who can steamroll over any opponent. Even if that opponent is a non-steam rollable calling station, it’s a feel-good payoff that ends up being another form of poker sabotage. This player also wants two fixes: to win and keep up his image as a fearsome, aggressive poker player. If he can’t have both, winning gets chucked out the window in favor of the image.
For the poker players who can’t seem to stop themselves from playing too passive – the ones who only raise with the nuts even when they know they should be bumping it up with a lot of other hands, who continually check-call instead of betting out for fear of getting raised – the payoffs can be varied. Still, they all boil down to some form of avoiding risk. The risk of losing more money is the most obvious, but there are other, more subtle forms of risk to be averted. The risk of confrontation, being disliked by an opponent, or even standing out in the crowd is an issue for some people. So the payoff of remaining “safe” and secure becomes more important than making money at the game.
What good is it to study poker, read books, analyze hands, and gain much knowledge about the game, if we don’t use that knowledge at the poker table? It’s one thing to go against the “book play” because of a read on an opponent, a gut feeling, or even a result of tilt. It’s quite another thing to ignore the correct poker strategy regularly and make unprofitable plays when we should know better. If you ever find yourself making a play that you know perfectly well is a bad strategy, and then if you keep doing it repeatedly, ask yourself, what are you getting out of it? What payoff is more important than the long-term profit that compels you to undermine everything you’ve learned about poker strategy and keep committing this mistake? Once you’ve figured that out, then and only then can you break the cycle of poker sabotage.
