By Tony Guerrera

That hot cocoa topped with whipped cream and mini marshmallows was delicious. Unfortunately, my peaceful morning ceased when I began battling traffic on the damn freeway; that drive to work is absolutely horrible! Some days, I’m so fed up that the only thing that can make me feel good about life is the breathtaking sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

We are conditioned to think of everything in our lives as being either good or bad (or somewhere in between or beyond). Since poker is a part of our existences, you’ll hear these types of value judgments all the time when listening to poker players talk. “How do the players at site X play?” will say one person, and his friend will respond something like, “Oh, the fish there are absolutely horrible.”

Making value judgments is almost as much a part of our nature as making sure we have sufficient food to eat. Having sufficient food is important, and the drive to ensure our proper nourishment is something that should remain intact, no matter how far we evolve. Value judgments, on the other hand, are something that we can do without…especially at the poker tables. To evolve as a poker player, you need to start thinking on a higher plane and evolve beyond the point of viewing things as “good” or “bad.”

Simply Think of “What Is”

Evolving to that higher plane of thinking means tuning your mind to focus on “what is” as opposed to “how is.” When observing your opponents, log a database of their betting patterns and tells completely devoid of value judgments-an unbiased database that you can use to optimize your hourly profits.

Suppose I told you that daddyphatnutz420 is a horrible player. How can you use this information to your advantage? Well, you can seek daddyphatnutz420 out sit at his table. However, once you’re at the table with him, how will you beat him? If he makes a pot-sized bet into you on the river, and you have top-pair-top-kicker, should you call? If he reraises you preflop, you have JJ, and you both have medium stacks, how should you proceed? If you have top pair with a medium kicker on the river, and he checks to you, should you make a value bet? If so, how much should you bet?

You can only know how to play against daddyphatnutz420 once you’ve observed him play for a while. Knowing that he’s a bad player tells you to sit at his table, but that’s it. By saying that daddyphatnutz420 is a bad player, all I’m really doing to trying to pad my own ego. I’m saying that daddyphatnutz420 is a bad player because I want to imply that I’m not a good player. Next time you refer to someone as being a bad player, look inside yourself deeply and see if maybe you’re trying to pad your own ego a little bit.

Labeling someone as “good” or “bad” clearly isn’t sufficient. Now that we’ve determined that, let’s be productive and focus on what is sufficient. When sitting at the table, simply take everything in. Observe what’s happening, and fully envelop yourself in the world of “what is.” After obtaining a grasp of “what is,” move on and ask yourself how you can exploit “what is.” Don’t think of yourself as being better than or worse than your opponent. Instead, dispassionately dissociate yourself and your ego from the game and deduce the optimal actions for whatever circumstances you find yourself in.

The Evolution of Your Game

By taking your ego out of things, you will be able to focus on your poker in an entirely new way. You’ll have a more specific information set to work with, and the more specific the information about your opponent is, the more beneficial it is! And while this article has focused mainly on reading your opponents, realize also that focusing on “what is” instead of ego-driven value judgments will go a long way towards preserving your mental well-being and the fun you derive from playing poker. Instead of being results driven in a game whose short-term results are driven by variance, you’ll be engaged in the long-term poker playing process. And in poker, the long-term is the only time span over which you can reliably establish yourself as a winning player.

In short, eschew value judgments in favor of a more zen-like approach to the game. Absorb everything that happens simply for what it is, and nothing more, and you’ll find that you’ll end up winning more and enjoying an enhanced appreciation of the playing experience.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers

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