Understanding and Miss Understanding of Situations

Poker is a game like many others. Your opponents (unless they are true experts) will likely have many areas of ignorance and gaps in their abilities. Unlike other games, in poker, you must distinguish what is a lack of knowledge from a lack of discipline. You do not see too many `wild' chess players.

The decisions they make are often very similar, but the differences between what causes them to make decisions are the keys to how you must deal with them. For instance, from your point of view, there is little difference whether an opponent calls a bet in hold'em with an under-pair to the top card because he does not know any better or because he just cannot fold his hand.

You can frequently predict both lack of discipline and lack of knowledge if you treat them separately. However, how do you distinguish one from the other at the table? Why notice the difference? If you are the person betting top pair, your opponent's play is going to have the same effect, right? For that one hand, yes, but not for the rest of the session.

With poker players, discipline is something that often waxes and wanes, but knowledge is perpetual. A person with a self-control problem will frequently make varied decisions based on his level of restraint at that moment. You can predict lack of control, but you cannot necessarily predict when he will exhibit this behavior.

In a similar situation, a player without prerequisite knowledge will likely play a hand the same way, which is often by making erroneous calls. An ignorant person will probably be quite predictable.

As you move to games in which the stakes are higher, and the players more skillful, the second trait (lack of self-control) will play a bigger part in poor play; but even as players grow more skillful, there are often theories about poker that they just do not understand.

theories about poker

counter strategies indicate

innumerable situational considerations