Better Poker

It seems that many serious players in poker, in trying perhaps to project a minimum of tells, project a kind of moody, somber, or even sinister effect, sunglasses and sun-visors sealing off unshaven faces as if they had a pair of six-shooters under the table. One wonders whether they know what exactly they are trying to gain or whether they simply underestimate the influence of appearance on their own game and on the players around them.

There must certainly be some idea lurking behind their Halloween masks. Very likely they are trying to confuse and discompose opponents by putting on an intimidating show, discouraging players from meeting their bets and challenging their banks. A kind of sulky bully persona which, I think, in many cases stems at least partly from the simple inability to create any other image of oneself. As with the actual sulky street bully type, it betokens a somewhat anxious lack of imagination. Some persons may certainly be actually comfortable with and good at precisely such impersonation. But with many there is a feeling that they hide, rather than project a well thought-out image.

If you have not carefully considered the actual benefits of your image, I am not sure how effective the bully persona finally is. Even if somewhat an effective deterrent – and it is likely to work on somebody; which, however, is not a guarantee of overall effectiveness – in the end it is most likely to attract the kind of opponents you would rather have avoided in the first place. It is like setting a decoy vulture, instead of a decoy duck, and attracting more unwanted vultures rather than the desired game.

It the first place, it may attract the rare professional player who is actually naturally moody and dark to an extent which may intimidate you. After a few such uncomfortable encounters you may find it difficult to get rid of these grim reapers who – with cynical glee – sense in you the weaker prey and grimly reap the rewards. Subsequent games might then grow unnecessarily complicated by your suspicions of how serious some of the sulky opponents at the table actually are.

It may also prove untrue that behind that impassive façade you are concentrating on the game more intensely then the rest, since, as it were, you don’t have to do much except keep the shades on. The truth, however, is that for the mind – which is precisely what poker is about – there is no such thing as an impassive façade. If the sulky persona does not come naturally to you, but is the result of your inability or fear to try more conversational and cheery images, your mind is actually hard at work suppressing those reactions more essential to you.

Though one is not advised to be fully natural in poker, one had better create an image which is the most natural to impersonate. A more “openly” social image may take some practice to maintain, but it will result in your greater enjoyment of the game and greater focus, since your mind will be busy doing what it more or less enjoys.

Keeping up a persona radically antithetical to yourself won’t allow your full potential to unfold, since you are virtually playing poker in a straightjacket, while the effort saps even more of your concentration without contributing any vigor to your game.

Thus, shades and a baseball cap in the dimly lit poker room may only seem to require less effort. It may be better, for the professional player, to spend some time observing one’s own ways and selectively organizing them into the poker player you wish to be and actually can be at the table.

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