Brain tracking vs software tracking, opinion or factual?

STL FAN

STL FAN

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The human involvement in the game; thinking, reacting, acting, adjusting; then analyzing the situation and making a decision, then learning from the decisions made bad or good. A machine or software cannot come up with the proper decision for every poker play for every possible situation. The human brain cannot interpret and make the proper decision in every poker situation. The player is still only as good as the decisions that are being made from what the brain interprets as a good decision for a situation; from either the information in real time or from past experience.

Confused from what is being seen or reacting from past bad habits in the short term can make a player repeat short term mistakes, then make long term bad decisions; with this in mind then the player is only as good as the decisions they can make consistently good or bad, and not the data a person receives from software because a person can receive the best data or advice but make the worst decisions in the short term that carry over to the long term.

How can the brain interpret a decision from data that is considered to be small % percentage that can cost a player a little money or a lot if they make the wrong decision in a situation in real time in the short term? The brain cannot resolve the difference in this small %’s and neither can the software gathering the data. Speculation or truth? Opinionated or factual?

I could debate page after page but it is still an opinion. Most are probably forming an opinion about what I have said from above. The brain is trying to resolve my opinion from the data about poker that the brain has encountered throughout their journey so far.

The decision only comes from what the brain had recently experienced good or bad, the brain then interprets this as good or bad information, the information might be factual or opinionated; the decision might be good or bad? Opinions only leave grey areas, incomplete information, for the player to interpret what is factual or good; not factual or bad information? Anxiety, emotion, and fear good and bad, the brain recalls the most recent experience, decisions good and bad stem from these feelings, both good and bad.

I believe for the brain to work optimally in poker situations understanding how to learn, then how to recognize, then correct bad decisions is most important. Otherwise, when the brain is not working optimally, understanding a poker situation or knowing the proper decision is now lost or not the most important thoughts. Anxiety, emotion, and fear are taking the wheel then steering our poker ship, then clouding our decisions when the situation is not clear or obvious to the player because, the experience of the player will now come into play from prior situations to make important decisions.

I do not use poker tracker but understand many do and from what is being said in books and what my coaches say about poker. I have turned to playing the fish image and I understand how poker tracker will track my actions, as well as the player whom is analyzing the information in the short term. However, does the player who is interpreting my play from the information understand what they or seeing or just relying on what the data is telling them?

The brain in this situation can only repeat what the player interprets from what a fish means to them then make decisions on past situations from i.e. “the fish”. I believe since this is obvious with or without poker tracker people understand these situations, and have plenty of unconscious thought about the “fish” because this is whom they target to take money or chips from.

The brain is now on auto pilot and the unconscious competence will take over, and when I get the right situation the brain of the player that is reacting to what is being seen in real time does not get knocked off auto pilot until it is almost too late or too late to make the proper decision. So, who is tracking who? I believe it still comes down to how well the player understands what is being seen in real time even if they have real time data to analyze and make decisions. Then knowing how to learn, correct their own play, and making adjustments are just as important as or more important than playing the game.

So, I believe the poker tracker actually helps with how the player will perceive my play then not being able to make the proper decisions in situations when they lose focus, because of the lack of being able to make the proper decision when the % is small or the situation is not obvious. Then giving my opponent the chance to make a bigger mistake; when they have the best information where they are used to playing against a “fish” image?

Polarized situations just like the small %’s and unclear decisions, when they are way ahead or behind, when the decision that will cost a player a little or a lot of money, whether they have a comfortable situation or a difficult situation are now polarized in the players mind. Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt have been created in my opponents mind and the brain will react to the first three words in this sentence. Poker tracker just enhances these situations for my play, it is up to the player who uses poker tracker or if they do not, they will be forced to adjust to my play before I adjust to them thus, keeping me one or two steps ahead depending on how skillful they are at adjusting to my specific play.

These situations will repeat themselves over and over every day. This is where I maximize my profit from a miss-conception of thinking when a player deems their skill is above mine because of what they perceive as weakness from data, and from what they visually see in real time. I set up situations to catch them drawing dead or nearly dead, bluffing at the wrong time, having to pay off extra bets. The better decisions I make will help my brain staying in optimal focus with minimal anxiety, emotion, and fear.

When I do not make good decisions then I analyze my session write down what happened and learn from my mistakes. My brain is my tracking software. I have to understand how my brain works to understand my opponent. This helps to understand my play and my opponents play. I have to make a mental model of my play and my opponents play each day for my information to be factual as possible to make the proper decision.

Poker is not a pattern, but the brain does in fact react to patterns, the interaction of people and incomplete information from situations in poker keep the information from being concrete. In situations where information is not hidden the brain understands patterns well but information that is hidden the patterns have to come with assumptions.

In situations where my opponent is obvious good or bad do I need a poker tracker? In situations that are not obvious, I believe additional experience in real time situations that keep us from making the proper decisions, and more learning in this area of the game will help more than data from software over an X amount of time as an example.

The human brain will make information fit a pattern because as players we want to be right from the data from software and what is visually seen as an example. Just like small %’s the brain cannot decipher, the person will make a pattern fit their opponents play or their counter strategies rather understanding what they perceive might or might not be a pattern in a specific opponents play in the short term. I hope everyone has success, happiness, today and the upcoming year.
 
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GWU73

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Everything every person does with regularity is a pattern. We eat, sleep, use the restroom, travel to work, shop, spend, dress, socialize, and think in patterns. Advertisers have known this for a century. Applying this knowledge to poker is just common sense.

We forget things, over analyze situations, feel emotions and regularly fall pray to common logical fallacies.

Tracking software reduces forgetfulness, detects hidden patterns, promotes strong logical decision making, and allows you to more accurately assess your own play. Good players are better when they have & correctly interpret more information. Over time, if two players of similar skill level play, the player with the better information will prevail. Numbers do not lie.
 
STL FAN

STL FAN

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Everything every person does with regularity is a pattern. We eat, sleep, use the restroom, travel to work, shop, spend, dress, socialize, and think in patterns. Advertisers have known this for a century. Applying this knowledge to poker is just common sense.

We forget things, over analyze situations, feel emotions and regularly fall pray to common logical fallacies.

Tracking software reduces forgetfulness, detects hidden patterns, promotes strong logical decision making, and allows you to more accurately assess your own play. Good players are better when they have & correctly interpret more information. Over time, if two players of similar skill level play, the player with the better information will prevail. Numbers do not lie.


Thank you for the reply and glad to meet you, hope your day is going well. In my post I did refer to poker not being a pattern but never explained why. Poker can be viewed as many routines that patterns are identified from the information gathered about specific routines. However, your reply gave information about your brains interpretation of patterns and your post has examples to support what your brain recognizes as patterns.


However, your post did not define the word pattern before giving your examples, other than the example “travel to work” this would be the pattern from what road is taken to get to work as an example; from a routine of going to work. The other examples given in your post are the definition of a routine. The small difference between these two terms, without knowing or having the proper understanding of the exact definition between the two terms; the brain will miss-interpret the difference between the two terms, just like my theory explains on the small differences the brain has a hard time defining when playing poker, when faced with a tough decision, and then have to make the proper decision.


Routine, commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity. We eat, sleep, use the restroom, shop, spend, dress, and socialize. We do these activities everyday without thought of doing them.


Pattern, a combination of qualities, acts, tendencies, etc., forming a consistent or characteristic arrangement. The path or road taken to “travel to work” would define the pattern from the routine of going to work. When the person takes a different path to travel to work then the pattern changes, just like in poker or life we recognize the change, but the routine of going to work or playing poker remains the same.


A poker a player whom routinely “calls with a hand they will not bet with” post flop is defined as their routine. The pattern would be for example, in what position, in or out, do they check call out of position, did they call in position, why they did this, how often and why, and with what cards at showdown etc… this information will help define their patterns from their routines. Without seeing their cards at showdown their patterns from this one routine are assumptions and theories until more information is gathered to identify their exact patterns of play. This is the process of how I use both of these terms with poker.


This process helps with my decisions to be made on as many facts that I have gathered while doing research that help eliminate assumptions or guessing. I recognize the mistakes that I have made short and long term, the information gathered about my opponent’s mistakes, this recognition came from me making the same mistake but have corrected the problem. This does not mean I have mastered the problem because this process takes longer because it is hard to fix this forever. We are human and make repeatable mistakes especially in poker.


Our brain reacts and is attracted to patterns, however, when focused, the brain does not work this way, the brain unconsciously knows routines, we just unconsciously do the “routine”, task every day in life or poker because we know to do them every day without any thought, people just confuse the difference between these two terms. Patterns have to be identified consciously and then transferred to the unconscious after a period of time because the brain reacts differently to patterns. People however, do not apply the two terms properly in life, poker, including myself until I returned to school. This is one example of a miss-conception of confusing two similar terms. But when the brain is confused then it does not work optimally it will shut down unconscious thought. Since the brain then cannot recognize the small differences in information or %’s; the brain can also be confused in the small differences in definitions of terms and how they are properly applied in poker or in life as well.


This confusion can and will cause mental leaks over an extended period of time, these routine leaks are “roots” to pattern leaks from miss-conception of how our brain interprets poker or how the brain interprets information at the table, how and why this transfers to their play at the table. Does the player know how to recognize this as a potential problem, know how to fix this problem, do they see this as a mental mistake or an issue, the way I interpret and define mental mistakes at or away from the table?


This is why I chose to return to school for psychology, read about philosophy and the mental part of poker because it also helps me away from the table, so I can learn, learn how to recognize my mental leaks, fix my mental leaks that are now recognizable at the table, apply my new and old information properly, and form new theories from old information that will go beyond my old theories.


I agree with you 100% numbers never lie, but I do at the table and I recognize when I have done my job properly. Also the difference in skill level for example, one player who has only played for six months and the other player who has played for five years. The miss-information listed below is a five year player trying to disguise their play as a six month player so, the opponents will visually see the obvious and poker tracker backing up what is seen.


I remember my play and thoughts behind the decisions from the early part of my career; I have studied how to make my game appear this way to my opponents. All the obvious mistakes a new player will make and when tracked the numbers never lie, I count on this. Our brain is attracted and will think unconsciously when we visually observe, obvious mistakes, routines, patterns but the brain is confused when the mistake, routine, pattern is not obvious or has changed from an unexpected action from another person as an example, then the brain is knocked off auto-pilot, the brain now has to consciously think about what is being seen. The player who has more mental muscle will make consistent better decisions than those of their opponents when put in tough situations to perform under stress.


This is why I make my decisions easy and my opponents decisions hard or appear easy because of a reaction to my play in a specific situation. When I get knocked of my auto-pilot my brain has to think consciously about the proper decision to make instead of a comfortable unconscious decision when on auto-pilot for example. When my “A” game focus is on my brain will make the proper decision because my conscious thoughts and my unconscious thoughts are firing together. When they do not I make poor decisions that stem from my “C-“game, this is why when under stress I will repeat bad decisions because the brain is clouded from stress, now my brain has shut down my unconscious thoughts, this interrupts my focus. Mental mistakes are rooted in this area of my game.


When my opponent’s brain is on auto-pilot mode against me when it is obvious to them about my mistakes, routines, patterns, that can be seen visually then backed up by data from software. Unconscious thoughts from what they know about this person are now taking over their decision making in these situations. This is just one small part of what I attempt to do at the table from the information researched, then came up with theories, applied them at the table as researchers do when testing theories, trial and error; adjusted my theories and my thoughts. My conclusions from the experiments are gathered from, observation, note taking, then experimentation against my opponents.


This process will help give my research reliability and validity. The original post is my thoughts and conclusions after long term process (this part of the process never stops because of the desire to become a better player and researcher) of being a researcher and my results are defined in my paper to help if my peers were to judge my work as an example, in a real life situation at my job for example. Poker forums, my peers will comment and reply just like your post. This is part of the process of a poker player.


The example of the similar skill level is another situation that is hard to define and both players can have similar skills and the same information, but the person who can better understand the information, then apply it properly, consistently over a longer period of time would have the advantage. Because just like the first part of my post, a person can have the best information or advice but make horrible decisions in the short term that can carry over to long term bad decision making skills. For example, this is why business’s fail and poker careers die because both can make routine bad decisions that lead to a pattern of bad choices. If either does not recognize they have mental leaks and fix them, then a person running their business or a poker career could fail from an extended period of bad choices.


One final thought, I could have went another direction with my reply, the reply would be only speculation or an opinion, then I would be projecting without any facts to support what would have been said. When I post I try to provide factual information from my theories that have been done through experimentation and I try not to project my thoughts, but when I do however, I try and keep them to a minimum; so they do not seem biased to the reader, this helps the reader form their own opinion without any biased thoughts that would persuade the reader to answer or form a conclusion with a bias from the information provided by the researcher. I try to let my thoughts stand on their own merit. However, I do have theories about your reply and they support why I was motivated to write this post originally, thank you for your reply and hope your year is filled with success.
 
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Cardrifter34

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great thread. Very insitive
 
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