Playing the Player

Many of the top pros have said it, but I still don't think most players believe it: The cards just don't matter that much. As a new professional, it's true to me.

For example, let's say that you get deep into a large tournament like the 2006 World Series of Poker main event with its 8,773 players. The law of averages pertaining to how many playable and non-playable hands you get evens things out over time. You will more or less see a similar range of hands if you last long enough, and that's why skill as a player becomes a larger part of the game. One of the most important skills to have is the ability to read your competition.

Each day at the WSOP, players randomly draw a new table for the following day, which means that you have to learn about a whole new set of players. Whether you are playing against pros or amateurs, you have to try to figure out whatever you can about each of them, and know that even if you have played with them before or seen them on TV, people don't play the same way all the time. I have learned that an overriding factor is the current state of mind of the player. This is a crucial factor, and it can make the difference between going deep and going home.

Your opponents may be hungry, tired, edgy, or aggressive. They may have just had an argument with a lover or friend, and sometimes they just really don't want to be there - believe it or not, with all that money at stake! You have to figure out at that moment where they are mentally in order to make an informed decision about how to play against them. A basic example would be how a player reacts to winning or losing a big pot. Very often, a player's emotional state changes, and you have to be aware of that. A player on tilt is a chip target for the whole table; that is usually obvious. Now take it a step further and learn to pick up on less obvious clues.

I have seen players leave the table to take a phone call, only to come back in a less than happy mood. Whatever it was that happened on that call put them in a certain emotional state that may now cause them to play differently, or make mistakes they wouldn't have made otherwise. Pay attention to players who seem distracted, as they will usually make more mistakes than those who are focused. These can be opportunities for you to win chips from them, and that is your goal.

Playing the player means being aware of all that is going into their decision-making process, and making decisions based on what you sense. Take it all in: how they hold their cards; how they look around the room; how they play with their chips; if they stare at the waitress, are they distracted by her?

People communicate the truth about their state of mind subconsciously. The idea is for you to learn the clues to decipher this communication. Developing this ability takes a great deal of practice.

Now, being able to "read" what another player is actually holding seemed to be a gift that only the best players in the world possessed. As I was learning the game, I asked the best players I knew to teach me how to do that, and their response was always the same: "It cannot be taught; either you have it, or you don't." One player was kind enough to give me hope by telling me that if I played long enough, and workedat it hard enough, one day it might come to me - or not! I experienced a lot of doubt and frustration about this, but a few months before the 2006 WSOP main event, it just hit me, and I now have some of that ability and will work on it for as long as I play the game. So, if you think the way I did, that it's an impossible task, have faith. One day it may just come to you like a "sixth sense," and you will believe as I do, that we can really read other players' cards sometimes. I impress my friends by calling other players' hands with surprising accuracy now, but never as often as I would like, though! If you plan on playing poker seriously, it's a practice that I believe is well worth paying attention to, because as you probably have noticed, if you rely just on the cards, you might as well be playing the lottery.

I wish you all the success I have been fortunate to have.