Decision Science

Once upon a starting hand: When all you have is the hammer, everything is a nail. The implicit value of 7 deuce-Leading uphill against conventional wisdom. Under the right circumstances you can play ANY Two Cards---ATC, and expect a positive return, either immediately or down the road. From Worst To First-The best hole cards you've never played The book value and herd mentality of 72 offsuit in holdem is squadush. It is the worst hand in NLH.-Yet the Hammer can go from zero to hero. It makes a great raising hand in position. Play them like aces--When everyone misses on the flop, throw in a continuation bet, and you take down the pot. Money certainly has been won from players' mis-reading of the situation, and the 7 deuce first in money guy working magic-or mis-direction-- creating the illusion appearing as real--Now that's playing with no cards. Starting hands can be created or dissolved with the change in its implicit value, which is determined by the personal perce...

The universal tell in poker is called betting! No limit holdem is a game of ins and outs, need and speed, aggravation and acceleration. Counting your outs , the number of cards that will make you a complete hand is something to reconsider, thanks to what I call, the Bluff Outs: additional scare cards that, if they hit, you bet out, and, force your opponent to fold; mentally dealing them the hand .Bluff Outs Poker is about playing 'in the dark': betting that your opponents DON'T have the cards rather than that they do. Preflop, a pocket pair only has 2 outs to improve, overcards have 6 to draw to the nuts.This is not even taking into account straight and flush draws! That means over cards are at least a 3:1 favorite to improve and win the hand. And with bluff outs, even if you miss, you can bet it like you have it. It requires a shift in thinking---Instead of "I hope he doesn't bet" or " Come on--- pair the board" or "Club, Club Cl...

The possibility of sudden significant change in your game. The Secret is about the law of attraction and results—the secret of poker is the complete opposite! The way to get better is to think about process not results —focus on better decision making and ignoring short term results. This is extremely hard to do because neurons that wire together fire together--- that's the sex of poker ---Having fun. In fact, it's not about winning or losing any one hand, but excelling and having an "experience" There's a wonderful phrase in Gladwell's Blink --"the power of thin slicing"--which says that as human beings we are capable of making sense of situations based on the thinnest slice of experience. That's what I mean about the difference between having fun and "having an experience"---pure house games like black jack and slots, verses poker. NLH is not just a "sport", it's a concussion. The difference between l...

The Hero's Journey · Answer the Call · Macau Field Ledger The First Asymmetrical Bets Getting My Baht Outta Macau and Back to Bangkok I quit the straight job, carried a one-way ticket toward my home of record, and entered a foreign poker room where baccarat instincts invaded no-limit hold'em, the number 8 carried its own gravity, and the first rough equations of a later doctrine began writing themselves in chips. Open the Macau Archive Continue to The War Years One-way ticket Foreign land Lucky eights Macau to Bangkok Decision science before the name Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir Before the books, memoirs, mental models, and doctrine, t...

The Poker Years / Decision Science Under Pressure Trials Your Brain on Poker: Zero-Gravity Thinking Poker does not think. The player has to. The edge appears when you stop waiting for certainty, create pressure without becoming reckless, and judge the decision before the river rewrites the story. See Full Image The One With the Most Chips Still Dies A Real Cool Hand Online Poker Full Tilt Archive Selective Aggression Variance Resourcefulness Show Text Ordinary World The Call Answer the Call Foreign Land Trials The Elixir Opening Signal Everything we think we know about online poker keeps changing, which ...