Card Player just published one of my articles about a challenge that I gave myself at the casino one night when it became clear that the game I wanted to play wasn’t going to go off:
Rather than leave immediately, though, I gave myself a challenge. I had to pay attention to everything at the table for one full orbit. After every hand, especially those in which I was not involved, I needed to be able to recount the action, who won the pot, and how. When it was my turn to act, I had to look left and see if any of my opponents were telegraphing their intentions before I made any decisions. If I failed to do any of these things, the count would go back to zero and I’d have to start again trying to observe the game diligently for nine consecutive hands.
Read the full article, Learning to Look Left, to find out how I did and what I learned from the experience. Believe it or not, I wrote this before I knew that Elements of Poker would be the Thinking Poker Bookclub selection this month, although it’s a concept that Angelo discusses specifically.
If you read the article, and especially if you set yourself a similar challenge, I’d love to hear what you think!
Perceptive and thought-provoking, as always.
One thing I like to do occasionally in our small-stakes home game – especially if I feel that I’ve been playing on auto-pilot (e.g. reverting to thinking mostly about the strength of my own hand and unduly neglecting other information) – is to play “semi-blind” for a few orbits. Usually this will involve looking (and re-evaluating) on the turn, or earlier if there’s significant action. Nothing forces you to focus on your opponents’ ranges and behaviour – and look for spots to put pressure on weak ranges – quite like not knowing your own cards! (This is obviously not the most +EV way to play – but as an exercise in self-improvement, I think it has some merit.)
Looking forward to the return of Tommy to the podcast too. I really must get around to reading ‘Elements of Poker’…
I play in a home game that is entirely seven study hi-lo declare. I’ve found that playing blind for an orbit or two in that game is the single best way to improve at it.
“I had to pay attention to everything at the table for one full orbit.”
A full orbit is long time to be focused on everything without becoming distracted.Again and again.This is indeed big challenge for our restless mind.
Saw this yesterday. That’s a really good article.
It brings to light how much info there really is
to be had at the table.
Ah but you left out the real question! All of this incredibly close attention comes with a cost. It costs you energy – you may tire or burn out quicker. It may make other players dislike you (you are likely slowing the game down), decreasing the emotional goodwill you have at the table. So what is your assessment of the dollar value of the extra attention compared to the cost?
Dollar value? In any hand you fold/call the opposite and it works out in your favor. Information is invaluable at the table, whether it be during a hand you are in or not. It costs no time to the table to observe things when you are not in the hand.
If the table even notices what you are doing it can ‘keep them in line’ more and ‘make’ them play more ABC since they know they are being watched.
I agree in tournament play where each player waits to look at their cards until it’s their turn can slow things down and you get less hands per level. I’m not sure the benefit of letting each player see your reaction to your cards, but it does prevent you from giving off any signs of what you might be ready to do before action is on you.
I do play some hands in the dark PF/Flop during my sessions … It works out most of the time!! Rarely does someone ask me if I looked at my cards or not … this alone tells you that most at the table aren’t collecting informaiton on you during play.
Interesting indeed and definitely difficult to stay focus on the task at hand. What are your thoughts on the merit of doing this online. Say instead of opening 6 tables, open only one sng table, and actually write down everything that our opponent our doing for an entire sng. Note taking online tends to be clunky depending on the software so writing it down on a book seems like a good idea.