Sun Tzu's Art of War Applied to Poker

[STL FAN]

The post was just an interpretation of what those concepts meant to this writer because of my interests in philosophy of Kierkegaard, and then this writer just meshed the two together. The fun was to do this, the challenge was to apply this from Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” to the “Art of War”. This writer finds your posts interesting and informative. Was hoping just to trade information or perspective, the interpretation of Kierkegaard has helped this writer with the game of poker. The ethical and religious just helps this writer identify certain patterns of opponent and the names help relating the terms from philosophy, this writer just has a different perspective.The writer was not trying to do anything to take away from your thread

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans;

A player's plan at the table is his lifeblood, his method, his strategy for surviving the tournament. When you know he wishes to accomplish something, you should make it your goal to make sure he is unsuccessful. When he raises and you feel he is doing so in order to impel everyone else to fold, be that one who calls or re-raises. When he limps in in order to see a free flop, be that one who raises him. When he puts all his chips in clearly hoping people will call, FOLD (unless you are sure you have him beat). In this way, you "dance with the devil" so to speak; you are face to face with him at every turn making it impossible for him to put any kind of plan into force. You balk his plans, confuse him, and cause him to play recklessly with no abandon: in this way, you will dominate your opponent! But to balk your enemy's plans you must first know them; this is why switching up your play in poker is so important: switching it up from loose to tight to loose to tight will make it nearly impossible for your opponents to know your plans and thus they will likely be unsuccessful in balking them.

the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces;

If you have no idea what your opponents' plans are, the next best thing you can do is to make sure your opponent does not play his best game (which is to say, stop him from playing optimally). One way to discourage a player from playing his best game is by distracting him with unusual play; raise with a crap hand and then show it down when he folds just to get under his skin: do this again, and again, until you feel this player is no longer playing from a logical frame of mind: get the player to play emotionally: get him to play your game so that when the time is right you can crush him! He will be too busy keeping up with you that he will have forgotten what good decisions at the poker table are!

the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field;

If you have no idea what your opponents' plans are and are unable to get into their heads then you must focus on playing good poker against them. Attack (raise) when your opponent is weak, bow out (fold) when your opponent is strong. Play poker and he with the best cards will win. This is among the least preferable ways to play poker: a poker player never wants to be subject to the whims of random cards but sometimes it is necessary when all else fails! A poker player SHOULD ALWAYS be playing his opponents, NOT his cards!

and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

So you don't know what your opponents' plans are, you can not get them to play less than optimally, and now as you attempt to play them mano a mano (playing your cards) you find yourself losing: what this means is that your opponents' plans against you are working very well. The best thing you can do here is acknowledge that you are playing against people who are better than you at the game: they will expect you to play only premium hands against them so you must switch it up and hope to catch them off guard with your flush beating their straight or your straight beating their two pair. Do not try and beat these players with less than two pair: if they are that much smarter than you are, then they will not be putting many chips in the pot with less than two pair themselves and will fold whenever they see you bet into straight draws and flush draws (unless, of course, they have hit the straight or flush themselves). The best way to beat players who are better than you is with sneak attacks like hidden sets, or hitting unlikely straights (i.e. 75 pocket hits 468 flop). In general most people would not play gapped connectors like that (suited or otherwise) but against players who are better than you, it is probably a good idea to do so because they will be expecting you to play premium hands and you will catch them off guard when you do otherwise.

 

[punctual]

The post was just an interpretation of what those concepts meant to this writer because of my interests in philosophy of Kierkegaard, and then this writer just meshed the two together. The fun was to do this, the challenge was to apply this from Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” to the “Art of War”. This writer finds your posts interesting and informative. Was hoping just to trade information or perspective, the interpretation of Kierkegaard has helped this writer with the game of poker. The ethical and religious just helps this writer identify certain patterns of opponent and the names help relating the terms from philosophy, this writer just has a different perspective.The writer was not trying to do anything to take away from your thread

If this exploration helps you find a higher truth and deeper understanding then by all means continue to explore and share your interpretations here. However, some people who read this thread may be looking for more practical advice and are not as interested in the philosophy of poker and the theoretical nuances which may underlie it (theoretical nuances conceived as interpretations of seminal works in other fields like philosophy and theology). Your prose is enlightening, to say the least, but I think it does tend more toward abstraction than applied poker.

I find your interpretations philosophically captivating as they have spurred a deeper thought process in my meticulous analysis of every word of Sun Tzu's "Art of War" but this inspired cavalcade of mental gymnastics is, for the most part, a digression away from poker which is to say tangential to the initial aim of this thread.

That said, I have no qualms whatsoever with your inspired colocation of the philosophical, and the theological as applied to poker. Anything that gets me to further challenge my mind's status quo is worthwhile in my opinion; getting the creative juices flowing is something only philosophical ponderings can effectively do. Once those creative juices stop flowing well, I might as well cease to exist!

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #19

The preparation of mantlets, movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take up three whole months;

and the piling up of mounds over against the walls will take three months more.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The preparation of mantlets, movable shelters, and various implements of war, will take up three whole months;

and the piling up of mounds over against the walls will take three months more.

While these lines seem to be very specific to war we can generalize to poker: expect your off the table preparation to take many months if you are serious about becoming a top notch player. Trying to rush the process would be like trying to watch paint dry. For many months, perhaps even years, you must actively pursue excellence in poker in every game you play. You must be introspective, think about mistakes you have made in order not to repeat them. You must keep yourself in the game with few gaps lest you lose touch with current applicable methods (the nature of poker at the table changes over time and when you stay away for too long you become like an outsider who has to relearn the game as it is currently played). Know what you've done wrong so you might avoid repeats and pat yourself on the back when you've made good decisions; reinforce your good decisions with positive self feedback and feel good about it. Know what you've done wrong and feel good about that too because next time you will not make the same mistakes.

 

[mojoe2209]

i like your play (Y)
nice hand

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #20

The general, unable to control his irritation, will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants,

with the result that one-third of his men are slain, while the town still remains untaken. Such are the disastrous effects of a siege.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The general, unable to control his irritation, will launch his men to the assault like swarming ants,

with the result that one-third of his men are slain, while the town still remains untaken. Such are the disastrous effects of a siege.

At the poker table, we must make decisions based on what the optimal play is. We cannot allow other players to "get into" our heads and impel us to play less than optimally. Being annoyed, getting mad, feeling the need to exact revenge: these are not valid reasons for making decisions in a hand. In fact, if you find yourself suffering with any of these, you should probably sit out for a few hands and re-discover your center. Otherwise, you will likely find yourself losing a significant portion of your chipstack or, worse, being quickly busted out of the tournament because of a rash decision based not upon rational reasoning but on emotion!

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #21

The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

The best situation at the poker table is when opponents voluntarily give their chips to you through sub-optimal play. How do you accomplish this? You convince your opponents that they can beat you with sub-optimal hands: this means raising every so often with hands like 72o and gapped connectors and being sure to show your hands at every opportunity (if they don't see you raised with garbage, they won't know you raised with garbage). By doing this, you train your opponents to be more likely to go against you with less than premium hands. And when you do wind up putting all those chips in the middle, you must make sure you are doing so with a premium hand. Confusion is key to getting your opponents to play looser against you; if you confuse them into believing you always play garbage hands, then they will start to play less than premium hands against you. In this way, you impel your opponents to essentially give their chips to you voluntarily!

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #22

With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.

It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.

If equally matched, we can offer battle;

if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;

if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.

Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

With his forces intact he will dispute the mastery of the Empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph will be complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem.

It is always better to win a tournament without having lost any of your chips. Of course, this is rare in poker but it does happen!

It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.

The point here is to know that when you are deepstacked, it behooves you to always use your stack to your advantage. If you are over 200 BB then you probably need not do much preflop: everyone at the table will already fear you and will not be eager to go up against you unless they have premium hands (surround them). Betting on later streets makes more sense here because you will be betting after you are more sure of what you have and of what opponents have. After all, there is no "rush" to build a chipstack, you have already done this; now you need to keep those chips. If you have 100BB, this is considered to be a normal stack size, for the most part. You can not sit and wait with 100BB: you should actively pursue more chips (attack). With 50BB, you will still not be the shortstack at the table, in most cases; aim to risk at most half of your stack at a time knowing all along that the bigger stacks can put you all in and bust you out: better to go up against the smaller stacks and risk less per hand (divide the army into two).

If equally matched, we can offer battle;

You and your opponent having the same number of chips, you are both essentially on a level playing field. So play poker; ascertain the nature of your opponent and aim to use it against him (i.e., bet if he tends to limp/fold, limp/fold if he tends to raise and wait for the opportune time to catch him off guard with a reraise).

if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;

When shortstacked we wish to avoid getting into confrontations where we are not favored to win. So when shortstacked we must do a lot of folding until we happen upon a hand good enough to put all our chips in with. So we avoid the enemy until the opportune time at which point we strike and double up our chip stack! Laying in wait for too long, however, can be perilous: waiting costs you chips. Because you are slightly inferior, chipwise, you can afford to do some waiting and you may well hit that premium hand you desire; wait too long and you will be blinded out!

if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.

In a cash game, this is possible: just get up and leave when you are outmatched (either bankroll wise or skill wise). But in a tournament, it is DO or DIE! So here, we must do as we would do in the case of being slightly shortstacked: wait for the opportune time to put all our chips in with the best hand possible. As your stack diminishes after each round of play, you must make a tough decision: now you are no longer looking for premium hands to go in with because if you wait for too long you will be blinded/anted out of the tournament. Now you look to put all your chips in with any decent hand: as you get shorter and shorter stacked, you get less picky about the hands you are willing to put all your chips in with.

Hence, though an obstinate fight may be made by a small force, in the end it must be captured by the larger force.

Now you are just hoping, wishing, and praying, but most likely will not survive! Without the option of fleeing, you must choose to die honorably: do not afford yourself the slow death by blind-out: die fighting through until the very end! Die as you had hoped to live: die a warrior!

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #23

The general is the bulwark of the State; if the bulwark is complete at all points the State will be Strong; if the bulwark is defective, then the State will be weak.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The general is the bulwark of the State; if the bulwark is complete at all points the State will be Strong; if the bulwark is defective, then the State will be weak.

In poker, you must plug all of your leaks. Just a single leak could be enough to bust you out of a tournament again and again and again. You must fill the gaps in your poker proficiency; you must constantly explore what you do wrong so that you might not do that same thing next time. Without a dynamic ability to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them, you will always be vulnerable at the poker table and, worse, such vulnerability will be easily discernable by opponents since its the same vulnerability you've always had (since you were not proactive in plugging the leak, it remains and will be exploited over and over and over again!). Thus plugging leaks should be of utmost consideration at all times....

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #24

There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:

(1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.

(2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldiers' minds.

(3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

There are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:

(1) By commanding the army to advance or to retreat, being ignorant of the fact that it cannot obey. This is called hobbling the army.

This amounts to throwing all your chips into a pot randomly without knowing who the opponents are, what the blinds/antes are, what the structure is, or even what game is being played. To do such a thing is to essentially ask for a quick bustout of the tournament. You must be passive until you develop a feel for the players at your table and feel comfortable with how fast or slow the tournament is progressing.

(2) By attempting to govern an army in the same way as he administers a kingdom, being ignorant of the conditions which obtain in an army. This causes restlessness in the soldiers' minds.

A ruler who administers a kingdom may not be intimately familiar with every facet of the kingdom. To prevail in a poker tournament, you must garner as much information as possible about players and tournament conditions: you must become intimately familiar with player betting styles and attempt to use this information against your opponents in order to take their chips from them. Playing in a poker tournament, the more information you have the better your chances of prevailing! Poker is a war of sorts: your objective is to bust out as many opponents as you can, take their chips, and eventually prevail as the lone survivor. Every decision you make must be shaped by the knowledge you have acquired about other players at the table for otherwise you will have no edge against your opponents. You can not expect things to simply "fix themselves" automatically: you will only prevail in the tournament if YOU make correct decisions and essentially take what you want through accurately timed aggression. Accurately timed aggression can only occur if you know thine enemy!

(3) By employing the officers of his army without discrimination, through ignorance of the military principle of adaptation to circumstances. This shakes the confidence of the soldiers.

Do not indiscriminately throw bets out there. Ideally, your bet sizes should be different depending on the opponent you are facing. Different opponents will react differently to different bet sizes: for some players it will take but a small bet size to get him to fold while for others you must show aggression. In the same vein, you should not go up against all players with the same strategy: each player is different and you must therefore switch up your strategy based upon who you are going up against. Any time you venture to make a move at a poker table that is not specifically tailored to the opponents you are up against, you are making a mistake: employing a strategy at the poker table without discrimination will garner no reward; the only way to consistently win is to have a dynamic strategy in place which constantly changes based on tournament conditions and the players you are up against.

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #25

But when the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from the other feudal princes. This is simply bringing anarchy into the army, and flinging victory away.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

But when the army is restless and distrustful, trouble is sure to come from the other feudal princes. This is simply bringing anarchy into the army, and flinging victory away.

You must trust yourself in poker and know in your mind that you have the potential to be the best player in the world. Without this self confidence, you will always question your decision making even when you have made correct decisions. Without every part of your being on the same page, you will find yourself in situations where you will be confused and know not what to do. When opponents start to see that you do not trust in your own decisions, they will consider you weak and attempt to take advantage of you over others. At the table, be always confident and matter of fact in your decisions. Take your time but do not allow your confidence to be broken!

Now please do not get me wrong here. I do not mean to suggest that you should not analyze your decisions. I only mean to say, this analysis should probably take place more off the table than on the table. When you go into a tournament, you should go in ready to conquer with no doubt it your ability to take the whole thing down. After the tournament is done, go ahead and analyze all the decisions you have made and learn from the many mistakes you will undoubtedly find. There is no point in playing a tournament in an unsure, scared, fashion; this is one way to guarantee a bust out!

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #26

There are five essentials for victory:

(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces

(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks

(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

There are five essentials for victory:

(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

There is a time to throw your chips in and a time to be more passive.

(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces

You play against superior players differently than you play against inferior players. Likewise, you play against shortstacks differently from the way you play against chip leaders.

(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks

You are "matter of fact" in your play. This is to say, you never show your opponents that you are confused about what to do unless you are attempting to trap them. Set goals at the table and be persistent in achieving them. Focus is key: do not allow your mind wander beyond the action at the table: every fiber of your being needs to be on the same page to increase the likelihood of victory.

(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

Much of how you prepare for a tournament occurs off the table. You must get yourself centered and mentally prepared for the "battle" that is to come. Your years of reading books and proactively learning from your mistakes will only pay off at the table if you force upon yourself a conscious awareness of your most persistent faults and hard to plug leaks. And of course, it is the best situation one could hope for when one is prepared and one's opponents are not prepared. Victory will always favor the prepared!

(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

Do not try to play another player's game. You must develop your own style. When you allow other players' styles to infiltrate your psyche to an extent where you feel like you want to play like they do, you are setting yourself up for failure. You are who you are and there is a style you need to play that best suits you; you will spend much of your poker career discovering just what style is best suited for you. Don't try and imagine "what would phil ivey do?" or any nonsense like that; YOU are YOU and you must develop a style of your own.

This passage from Sun Tzu can also be interpreted as "do not allow your backers to dictate the decisions you make at the poker table" A backer has backed you presumably because he has faith in your ability to achieve victory. Allowing him to dictate your moves at the poker table would be just like attempting to play like another player rather than implementing your own style. You must know yourself at the poker table: when you try to play another person's strategy or style you will often lose yourself and find yourself in states of confusion during the tournament since you can only go so far in predicting what "phil ivey would do" or what "your backer would want you to do" You must play your own game, your own style, and develop your own decision making process.

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #27

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Knowing yourself in poker means knowing your strengths and weaknesses, Knowing your enemy in poker means knowing your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. If you know these things, there is no opponent that could withstand you when you apply the proper strategy.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

Knowing yourself IS NOT enough! You must also know your opponent. For if you just know yourself, you will find yourself winning many battles only to fall short in the end when said opponent is able to take you by surprise due to your ignorance of his ways.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

To go into a poker game completely ignorant of your own proclivities and completely ignorant of your opponents' is a sure way to bust out quickly. If you do not know your own strengths and weaknesses you will never know when, definitively, to raise or fold; if you do not know your opponents' strengths and weaknesses you will not know what kind of strategy to for against them. In both cases, the outlook is grim even after one considers the luck factor in poker.

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #28

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

 

[punctual]

Commentary

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

How does one put oneself "beyond the possibility of defeat" at the poker table? You come to the table more prepared than your opponents with a confidence that can not be matched and a matter of facted-ness about your prospects of winning that will strike fear in the hearts of your opponents. You will win the tournament: this is what you should expect: this is what you should know from the very beginning up until the very end: YOU WILL WIN!

To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

What this means is that we are often our own worst enemies and that our opponents at the poker table will fall before us only if they allow themselves to. Our strategies will only work against opponents if our opponents allow them to.

 

[punctual]

Excerpt #29

The good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.

One may KNOW how to conquer without being able to DO it.