|
"Getting by on getting by is my stock and trade."
-- Jerry Jeff Walker
I live twenty-seven miles from the
Bicycle Casino --
or at least, twenty-seven miles when I drive one way. I actually have several ways I can go. I can take Interstate 5,
or Highway 101, or Highway 110. I could even take Interstate 405, or surface streets. There is a standard route I try
to take, but sometimes traffic or other considerations make me choose a different route.
The standard way I travel happens to give me the most options. At several points in the journey, where traffic sometimes
might bottle up, I can choose an alternate route or two. Since tournaments have a set starting time, getting to the casino
in a timely fashion is what matters. I don't particularly care which route I take.
What is interesting is that all these routes have positives and negatives, and those aren't constant. Sometimes taking
the 5 is similar to taking the 110, but not the 101. Other times the 101 may offer a similar choice to the 110 but be
very different from the 5. Then, sometimes incidents on one affect the other. If the 5 is bottled up, the 101 will get
more traffic from people trying to avoid the mess.
Navigating this puzzle takes skill, resources (the traffic reports on the TV before I leave, and on the radio when I'm driving) and experience.
As a player, you want to have options. Not counting the times you have a no-brainer good way to proceed, you want to have
multiple ways to "get by". It is seldom a good idea to box yourself into one action or road.
At the same time, if we can't manipulate our opponents
into doing exactly as we want them to do, we want to present our opponents with choices. Let's face it, the human race is
lucky to have survived as long as it has. We do dumb
things all the time. Now compare the amount of dumb things you see people do to the amount of brilliant things you see people do. No
contest. It's not like you see people writing Hamlet every day. Given the chance to screw up, people do it all the time.
Now think about the example of driving on the freeway. It takes skill, and if we are good, we can do well at it. But now
suppose the radio doesn't work, so you can't hear traffic reports. Now further suppose that instead of driving on freeways
in your hometown you are now teleported into a car in a strange city and forced to make decisions then.
In a nutshell, we want no-brainer happiness in front of us but are prepared to make tough decisions, while we want to force
our opponents to constantly make decisions, most of the time while having not enough resources, or unfamiliar resources,
to draw on. If we accomplish this, poker becomes a wipeout. Imagine playing hide-and-go-seek in a thousand room mansion you
live in against an opponent who has never been in the building before in their life. You will be able to hide better. You
will be able to seek better. Your opponent's only hope is blind luck.
As a player, you need to be prepared to make decisions. Solid decision-making is absolutely crucial in poker. But it is also
critical to force opponents to make decisions, more decisions than you. People are dumb. They make mistakes. Give opponents
the chance to make mistakes, and they will. People drop coffee cups more often than they invent the wheel. So work to make
games exist on your turf, at your pace,
in your comfort zone. You may not be able to teleport an opponent into another city, but sometimes we can turn off their radio
and confront them with difficult choices. They might choose wisely sometimes, but they will choose unwisely often. If we don't
have to make choices, or if when we make choices we have the radio on, we'll take the right road a lot more often.
See also Poker Decision-making and
Bad Poker Decisions
|
