Going with your gut

The gut feeling may actually reflect a reliable memory

During a special recognition test, guesses turned out to be as accurate or more accurate than when study participants thought they consciously remembered.
...The study links lucky guesses to valid memories and suggests that people need to be more receptive to multiple types of knowledge, Paller said.

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It's an interesting article about how we often unconsciously know things based on what we've seen.

That's Interesting,

Although in a poker sense I can never seem to make the most of this, Like when I think I should call, but my head says fold look at the odds, then on the river up pops the card I needed! lol

This has nothing to do with "I know I'm beat, but I feel like I'll river my flush" sort of gut feeling. (That's delusion!)

This is more along the lines of, "This guy rarely bluffs but for some reason I think my 2nd pair is good here" so you make a good call. Basically, your unconscious mind is coming to this conclusion based on factors that you do not remember. Maybe you unconscious mind picked up on signs that he was tilting or bluffing, and though you can't give the specific instances leading to your gut's conclusion, the conclusion is often correct.

I found it interesting that if people tried to memorize a long string of information, they knew the first part well but actually remembered *less* about the parts at the end than the people who did not try to memorize it did.

This concept has been covered in the bestselling book Blink if you are interested to find out more about it. It's quite interesting and reassuring that there in fact is something that we could call "the card sense".

Glad you posted this. I believe this to be true. I was thinking about this in response to a thread recently, where the guy had bottom set, but "knew" his opponent had top set, and called anyway to be proven right. I have been in this siutation many times, and often your gut is right. trouble is, you logic mind takes over, thinks about odds, maths etc and you take action contrary to your gut. In SuperSystem, Doyle Brunsen spent some time talking about this very subject, the role of the "subconscious" as he called it. That is, we are subconsciously picking up information all the time. So to what extent should we trust our gut? I'm not sure I know. But I do listen to it, and respect what its trying to say. Its another thing to throw into the mix, and in my view, is ignored by too many poker players, especially extremely logical, cerebral, reasoning types.

I've ignored my gut feeling a few times and each time i was wrong to do so.

I am more of a 'feeling' player and if i feel im beat in a hand i will fold (ill struggle to but i will).

The same goes for when something doesnt feel right as well, odd bets, or strange play i have called and been proved right (phew lol).

We all play differently i suppose and at the moment this is my way :top:

My gut feels like pizza and beer.

thats how i mostly play by my gut feeling, but its been wrong sometimes ,i know Doyle Brunson says always listen to your gut feelings, i would say its about 70% rite & 30% wrong, and the wrong ones are killers,, buck

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Several times I have ignored my "gut" instinct, let the logical side take over and think "there's no way he pf me with 36 then called my large reraise, which is what he would have to have to beat my set right now, only the 36 for the straight can beat me, but man oh man he sure is acting like he has the straight. Screw it, I call, %@#&*! had the 36!!!". It seems to play out like that quite a bit lately.

While I've been reading more in my poker books (instead of just staring at the covers, lol) I've been of course trying to implement new strategies, ideas, etc; and ignoring my gut. This thread is a good reminder it's time to go back to some of the basics.

I think this concept is very true. I have had so many hands that I have followed my gut feeling and they would have been winning hands and many hands that I have thought were good but just wasnt feeling it so I folded and was glad I did.

SavagePenguin said:

The gut feeling may actually reflect a reliable memory


It's an interesting article about how we often unconsciously know things based on what we've seen.

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Yes, very true. Our unconscious mind is always workin' more than it should & in cases like these it reflects what past situations have occured. "Quick reminders" if you will.

I guess it could go with using a post it note, not seeing your cards, i would not say you try it unless your in a freeroll.... Thought i made some calls on that gut feeling, got some big pots

I definitely see how a gut can really reflect thought. $2, 6-max tourney I played tonight; at one point I open for 3X from the button with KQs, called by both blinds. Flop was Q65 rainbow. Checked to me, I bet like 4/5 pot. SB raises a good amount. Right then, my gut was telling me I was beat. But it was only reflecting what I knew, which was that this guy hadn't been making any moves or really doing much of anything. I hadn't made a note, but I knew it. But instead I decided I just couldn't take the chance that he didn't have KJ or KT or 87 or something. So I shoved, and he showed his pocket aces. My gut told me to respect the check-raise from this guy.

I had him covered, but this loss put me in a precarious spot. Which I recovered from and actually finished 9th out of 1896. So it's all good.

EDIT: Or maybe I'm a little off and that's not really gut at all. But it feels like it to me. In my gut.

SavagePenguin said:

This has nothing to do with "I know I'm beat, but I feel like I'll river my flush" sort of gut feeling. (That's delusion!)

This is more along the lines of, "This guy rarely bluffs but for some reason I think my 2nd pair is good here" so you make a good call. Basically, your unconscious mind is coming to this conclusion based on factors that you do not remember. Maybe you unconscious mind picked up on signs that he was tilting or bluffing, and though you can't give the specific instances leading to your gut's conclusion, the conclusion is often correct.

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Did you make a "good call" because your second pair turned out to be the best hand? That's results orientated...

Sometimes your insticts will be right/wrong. The call from your example would be good/bad if the pot was offering the right/wrong odds.