It is surprising to discover how thoroughly our basic functions sometimes control our conscious minds. Scientific studies have shown that mice and pigeons, and recently other animals such as cuttlefish, can be taught to react to a specific arbitrary sign with a specific set of behaviors: animals learn to expect food at a sight or sound, and learn to receive food by manipulating a lever, ringing a bell, or pecking a certain spot. Through habituation, they are conditioned to consistently believe that specific phenomena or actions regularly lead to the same specific results.

Additional studies have shown that once this conditioning is thoroughly ingrained, the subject will not seek to learn more possible variations of the same phenomenon. So, once the cuttlefish understands that a certain sign, say a red square, means food is on the way and a blue circle means no food, it has already come to the conclusion that that only a red square means food. It is stuck with this one experience and ventures no further.

Having thoroughly mastered one condition, he blocks his mind to any other possibility, even though there may be strong indications there is one. Think about your own experience. Have you ever been jolted into a sudden illuminating thought that had never occurred to you before? Like maybe the group of intelligentsia running our country have no more capability to do so than you do?

It is not unusual that during an evening of poker, a few of the players take a break and chat about the game. During their discussion they zero in on player number four (not present in the break room). They go on about what a lousy player he is and how could he possibly still be in the game. The two players involved in the discussion leave the table to discuss their observations in almost whispering tones and swear each other to secrecy. By sharing their observations, they discover that each had noticed a completely different behavioral tidbit. The first noticed that whenever number four had a good hand, he would place his bet, clench his hands into fists and lay them on the table, never doing this under another situation. While the second one observed that number four, whenever he had a bad hand, would push his chips around noisily, never engaging in this behavior under any other circumstance.

So our loser outsider has two ways of conveying his hands, but each of our smug insiders have only discovered one. They stopped at only one notion.

A good player will not consider this realization trivial. He will take advantage of it by learning to be flexible in his observations and keep his mind active throughout play. By classifying other players habits and behaviors as to high and low importance, he is increasing his odds of winning.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at Victory Poker. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.

Tags: gambling, games, Poker, poker psychology, Psychology, recreation, Tilt

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