Nitwit Internal vs External Locus of Control

Most people who have this trait are more than willing to share their sentiments with the table and may have many reasons (based on their psychological needs) for continuing to play, even though they seem to feel helpless. This is a beautiful part of an opponent to identify.

It is one of the most recognizable traits, and plays a huge part in the likely skill level of an opponent. In parts of this text, I refer to the guiding force of your opponent emanating from either a perception of skill or luck. This is the key to identifying which of your opponents have either an internal or an external locus of control.

The folks that have an external locus of control will frequently say things like, "I can never win with this dealer", or "I can never win at ABC casino". They cannot beat certain players and they never get good cards, bad things keep happening to them! These people will never be talented players.

Until a person realizes that virtually all of how they fare playing cards year after year depends upon them, they have no hope. John Feeney says in his book, Inside the Poker Mind, (Two- Plus-Two Publishing, 2000): "Many poker players would benefit from analysis". Without a doubt, changing a person's view as to their locus of control would certainly be an area for treatment.

Of the poker students I have taught, I could struggle to convince them of correct playing strategies, but until they realized that they were not victims of bad circumstances they could never truly benefit from my instruction.

They had to understand that they were the only controllable part of the poker equation. Their opponents would continue to make unlikely draw-outs, their own draws would not materialize as often as they wished, and no matter how well they played, they would still book losses.

With some students, it was not until I could point directly to mistakes over a number of misplayed hands and say, "You add all of those mistakes up, and that's why you're not doing as well as you should!"

analyze a person's

the poker students

levels of learning the game