T
The Nuder
Enthusiast
Silver Level
I was in a tournament a while back and an argument broke out between two of the players at my table. One of them was playing loose and aggressive and the other tight. I watched for a bit and commented that the difference was that one of them was playing to win and the other was playing not to lose.
On face value the same objective but at a behavioural level very different. The guy I said was playing to win did in fact go on to win the tournament. Now this is only one occasion but his style won out.
In any given context most people are inclined towards goals or away from consequences. That is, their focus of attention is influenced, at a level out of conscious awareness, by the prospect of achieving a goal or alternatively the prospect of failure. One or the other - for most people. This has inevitable consequences on choices. Whether one focus of attention is better than another is governed by context - sometimes we need to be aware of potential problems in order to avoid them sometimes we need to be totally goal focused. Most times in fact we need both - but we're inclined towards one and somewhat blind to the other.
In poker I tend to focus on the prospect of losing my chips with a bad call. So I can sit tight in a tournament and I have frequently surrendered a chip leader position and not made it to final table because all around me are doubling up and doubling up and then my huge stack is suddenly not so huge. I've won over a dozen tournaments online, and my biggest cash was $580 so it's not all bad. But I think I would have won more if I'd developed the goal oriented killer instinct. My jaw drops open when I've folded JJ and see that two people have bet large on 9's or 7's.
Ultimately it ends up the same kill or be killed. But we make better decisions when we're in a strong position. Choice is better than no choice. Obviously poker is a learned game and even people who are naturally inclined to focus on the goal of winning will have learned to quickly assess risk. But they will still be inclined towards the win rather than avoiding the loss.
This is a longer post than I thought when I started typing. I wanted to be clear that I'm talking about the below conscious influences on decision making - conscious awareness comes after our choices have already been made - unless we learn to intervene.
So I'd really like to hear from anyone who considers they are strongly goal oriented - what they are focused on / thinking when they make a big call or a large raise. Maybe even anyone who wishes they were a little more risk averse.
On face value the same objective but at a behavioural level very different. The guy I said was playing to win did in fact go on to win the tournament. Now this is only one occasion but his style won out.
In any given context most people are inclined towards goals or away from consequences. That is, their focus of attention is influenced, at a level out of conscious awareness, by the prospect of achieving a goal or alternatively the prospect of failure. One or the other - for most people. This has inevitable consequences on choices. Whether one focus of attention is better than another is governed by context - sometimes we need to be aware of potential problems in order to avoid them sometimes we need to be totally goal focused. Most times in fact we need both - but we're inclined towards one and somewhat blind to the other.
In poker I tend to focus on the prospect of losing my chips with a bad call. So I can sit tight in a tournament and I have frequently surrendered a chip leader position and not made it to final table because all around me are doubling up and doubling up and then my huge stack is suddenly not so huge. I've won over a dozen tournaments online, and my biggest cash was $580 so it's not all bad. But I think I would have won more if I'd developed the goal oriented killer instinct. My jaw drops open when I've folded JJ and see that two people have bet large on 9's or 7's.
Ultimately it ends up the same kill or be killed. But we make better decisions when we're in a strong position. Choice is better than no choice. Obviously poker is a learned game and even people who are naturally inclined to focus on the goal of winning will have learned to quickly assess risk. But they will still be inclined towards the win rather than avoiding the loss.
This is a longer post than I thought when I started typing. I wanted to be clear that I'm talking about the below conscious influences on decision making - conscious awareness comes after our choices have already been made - unless we learn to intervene.
So I'd really like to hear from anyone who considers they are strongly goal oriented - what they are focused on / thinking when they make a big call or a large raise. Maybe even anyone who wishes they were a little more risk averse.
