The Value of Studying Poker part three

Many players go into poker games with one strategy and one strategy only irrespective of who they are playing. This one strategy approach is fine up to a certain level but it falls far short of being the optimal strategy. The optimal strategy is to select the most effective strategy based on who your opposition is.

Football teams do this and poker players do this or least the very best ones do. Game theory tells you to do this and this is what game theory is all about. It underlines why in order to reach the top in poker, you must understand your opponents.

Getting back to the subject of martial arts style in poker, this is why I don’t make many of the perceived plays that conventional poker wisdom dictates that you make. Like steal raising with an A-5 for instance. The blinds are expecting the attack so I need to be very careful here.

That is akin to Barcelona having prior knowledge that Man Utd are going to steam into them Gung Ho. I am attacking the blinds position almost like an army attacks a castle and Man Utd are attacking the Spaniards position as well.

But if it is Grimsby Town who are in the blinds then simply attack without reservation. Failure to do that is akin to an army laying siege to a castle when the defendants are so weak that they could not withstand an initial attack.

Whether it is warfare, business, martial arts, football or poker, principles and concepts span them all because they are all subtly connected. We have all heard about the need for the element of surprise in warfare and there have been countless examples through the ages where this one factor has won the battle for the numerically inferior force.

Many of the authors who are writing the poker books are making glaring errors because they have only ever studied poker in its isolation. If they understood the bigger picture then the books that they write would be totally different. It is why I expect to receive criticism when my book hits the shelves.

The element of surprise is never more important in poker and especially in NL. Every time that you make a play in poker then you have to ask yourself “am I giving away the strength of my hand to the opposition”. Because if you are then you have to factor this in to your play because your opponents play is now far more accurate because they know the content of your hand.

The process of using your opponent’s aggression against them is a key principle of Judo but this also applies to other sports and especially football. It is why a lot of teams play on the counter attack against other good aggressive teams.

Playing a counter attacking game is exploitation of aggression or at least it is attempting it. Whenever an attack is too direct and blatant then it can really only succeed against opposition of limited ability irrespective of the game.

When England resort to playing long ball tactics against world class teams then that is a sad admission that we lack the imagination and the ability to do anything else. The England staff would probably look at me and say “what is your record in football, who are you to tell us what to do”.

Football expert I am not but game theory expert I am and England’s tactics go contrary to what is classical game theory in my opinion. It is no coincidence that we struggle against world class sides in games that actually matter. Even on the occasions that we beat them then we are always hanging on by our finger tips.

When you look at a world class NL poker player, they are constantly mixing up their game in such a way as to deceive their opponents.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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