Trust your instincts

Poker Strategy / Matthew Pitt / 13 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

Feel the force young Luke

How many times have you been playing poker, be it in a cash game or a tournament scenario and have just known that either your hand is now second best or that your lowly second pair will be enough to scoop the pot? How many times have you called despite knowing you are behind or failed to pull the trigger when you should have only for your opponent to show the exact holding you put them on?

I know I am not the first person to experience this and I know I certainly will not be the last but I wonder how many of us fail to take any notice of that instinctive feeling that you are ahead / beaten and how many people act on it each and every time it rears its head.

Some poker players, though not so many in today's climate, rely on being able to play by what is known as feel, that is they feel where they are in a hand and trust their instincts and reads 100%. I was amazed to discover that former Betfair sponsored pro, Sorel Mizzi, used to be one such player and only took the time to learn about pot odds etc after reading Gus Hansen's book "Every Hand Revealed" which was only published in 2008.

Relying solely on your instincts would for the most part be a recipe for disaster as I believe it takes years of self training to become fully in tune with them but by using them in conjunction with other factors that occur during a hand you could be onto a real winner.

By taking into account the ever so important pot odds, implied pot odds and coupling them with any reads you may have such as timing tells or physical tells if you play live you will already have a relatively solid read. You can then use your instincts as a back-up to confirm your thoughts or fears about the hand, just do not be afraid to act on them. It will not be the end of the world if you are wrong.