Trusting your instinct

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Trusting your instinct

Trusting my instinct is something thats popped up in my game every now and then for years now and it stops me from moving up in stakes, even though I know I shouldnt call I cant help myself even though Ive done this dozens of times. I thought I got it out of my system recently, but its returned in the last two days. Happy new year me!

Does anyone know of how to eradicate this hugely costly and frustrating leak from my game? Or am I stuck with it, forever in the micros... :(

8 Comments

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mike 12 years, 2 months ago
funny i have heading the opposite way and trying to trust my instinct/gut/intuition more. but i have played over a million hands online and countless hours of live poker. i have also spend tons of time thinking, talking, and analyzing poker so maybe my instincts are more developed than yours :)

it sounds like you need a better decision making habits when it comes to calling. here are a few ideas to try:

1) make the goal of your session to play these calling situations excellent - after the session grade yourself just on your calling performance not on your results

2) after session review all HHs where called a significant sized bet and breakout equilab or flopzilla or PS and put in the work to figure out why it was a good or bad call

3) in each of these spots ask your self what were you thinking - try to ID the leaks in your thought process

4) learn to love folding as it might be the most important skill in poker - curiosity kills the poker player

5) when facing a big bet you need to ask - do i beat any of his value range? is this a situation where he is likely bluffing? practices asking and answering these two questions every session until it becomes you new poker habit
James Hudson 12 years, 2 months ago
I would try and logically think through what your "gut" is telling you. If you can't rationalize what you're feeling I would just stick with your brain. I think a lot of the time if there's an incongruence between what you think and what you feel it's because you don't actually have full mastery of that subject or in this case you don't know what the right play is with your hand/ range.
w34z3l 12 years, 2 months ago
You need to rationally decide what the best play is and not be results orientated.

Sometimes when people blame their "instincts" it is only when they lose and not when they win. Sometimes you might lose a hand when your instincts were ultimately correct, while other times you may win a hand while your instincts are ultimately wrong.
jimmyempires 12 years, 2 months ago
Great post....

Is your gut telling you not to call but you are doing it anyway? @jameshudson made a great point about feel and what you know... I agree, mastering this subject in your game can help you with the leak in your game!
MajaIvarsson99 12 years, 2 months ago
Yea I just decided that my gut had shit for brains so unless I can figure out a logic reason for whatever my gut is screaming about I don't pay attention to it.
ZenFish 12 years, 2 months ago
Hoss_TBF said something very useful in an interview a few years ago: "Play exploitively on the margins".

Which means it's fine to let instinct sway you in close spots, but don't try too hard to be smart in obvious/standard spots. If your instinct isn't as good as you think, you're letting your hopes and fears run the show. Good players will notice this and exploit you.
mike 12 years, 2 months ago
@ZenFish Hoss_TBF said something very useful in an interview a few years ago: "Play exploitively on the margins".

i like this :)

just wanted to add trusting my instincts is very much about playing live poker where there is all kinds of information you can't get online
John Beauprez 12 years, 2 months ago
Didn't read all of the posts ITT, but since this is a post involving the mental game, I highly advise everyone to read this book. It's completely changed my game, and I can't believe that I survived so long without reading it.

http://www.amazon.com/With-Winning-Mind-3rd-Ed/dp/1934324264/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357945697&sr=8-1&keywords=with+winning+in+mind

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