Phillips, Larry. Zen and The Art of Poker

86 ZEN AND THE ART OF POKER

or indecision. It’s like a change in the ozone they pick up instinctively.

POKER RULE #55: Prolong the time spent looking at your cards.

Obvious, clear-cut, good cards lead to easy decisions. No player sits and stares at four kings minute after agonizing minute, trying to figure out what to do with them. But perhaps they should.

Vary how long you look at your cards. Your actions are being observed.

Hesitate at different times and at wrong times for the kind of hand you have. Hesitate for a while on cards you intend to fold. Or consider looking at your cards—both good and bad—for the same length of time.

Somebody checking for weakness around the table will be thrown off by someone who always hesitates in his reactions, good or bad.

All of which is simply another way of saying:

POKER RULE #56: Resist your first impulse.

You may notice (by observing yourself ) that if you get a good hand you tend to reach for your chips a little quicker than at other times. It is never a bad idea to resist your first impulse in poker.

14

Stealth, Sneakiness,

and Cunning

The fox knows much, but more he that catches him.

—Anonymous

Several well-known poker writers, David Sklansky among them, have noted the importance of operating on different levels: knowing what your opponent has, what he thinks you have, and what he thinks you think he has. As opponents get trickier and more deceptive, more of this sort of doubleand triple-level thinking is called for.

Playing your hand straightforwardly, for instance, when you have an opponent who is assuming that you will be deceptive, or vice versa. Identifying which level you are currently at in this psychological battle becomes an art form against various opponents.

Conventional wisdom states that straightforward play is better against less-skilled opponents. Subtle, complex plays are wasted on them, because they are not really noticing.

To overcome the intelligent by folly is contrary to the natural order of things; to overcome the foolish by intelligence is in accord with the natural order. To overcome the intelligent by intelligence, however, is a matter of opportunity.

—Zhuge Liang

As your eyes scan the table during a betting round, beware of players who are sitting motionless as others shake their heads and

Make it harder for opponents to see a pattern. Alternate raising with slow playing (playing a good hand very quietly). Throw in hesitations and wrong bets occasionally, but don’t overdo it. Occasionally make a wrong play. Randomize your play. Don’t fall into a predictable pattern.

Whoever has form can be defined, and whoever can be defined can be overcome.

—Sun Tzu II, The Lost Art of War

Zen, as a spiritual discipline . . . is consistently opposed to rigidity . . . Fixity is death; fluidity is life.

—Winston L. King, Zen and the Way of the Sword

Be unpredictable.

Induce others to construct a formation while you yourself are formless.

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Be flexible, but don’t get too carried away with it. In short:

POKER RULE #58: Don’t out-clever yourself.

Stick to basic poker most of the time. Keep the creativity (deliberately wrong plays) to a minimum. The temptation—espe- cially when playing against longtime friends, where insults, dares, and egos are the norm—is to try to be cute, to do a double or triple-reverse on somebody, to give the boys something to talk about; opening with the wrong cards say, hoping for a miracle fill on later cards . . . and so on. The problem with this sort of thing is that it only works, statistically, about one or two times in ten. All such attempts as this get away from basic poker. They begin

90 ZEN AND THE ART OF POKER

to drift into the area of long odds. Be unpredictable—but don’t outclever yourself.

♥ ♣ ♦ ♠

Finally, a positive attitude is helpful. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming paranoid, and seeing unbeatable hands (of opponents) around every corner and behind every tree. Never forget that you’re not the only one who has problems. Your opponents have problems, too. Play into their worst imaginings—don’t be afraid to use their problems as part of your strategy.

In war one sees one’s own difficulties, and does not take into account those of the enemy; one must have confidence in oneself.

—Napoléon Bonaparte

15

The Poker Face and

Body Language

The power of expression resides in gestures of the most sparing kind.

—Eugen Herrigel, The Method of Zen

Zen teaches the greatest economy of expression and action.

—Neville Shulman, Zen in the Art of Climbing Mountains

POKER RULE #59: Perfect the poker face.

Most top poker players don’t react much to events around them. A bomb could go off at the next table and they probably wouldn’t react at all. The reason for this is that sometimes during the game a bomb does go off (a horrific card pops up) and how you react to this fact can cost you a lot of money. Because other players are looking for a reaction—or lack of reaction. It is best to always look as though no card that appears has any effect on you whatsoever; either that, or that every card that appears is exactly the card you knew and expected to appear.

It is all right to allow your eyes to express your will but never let them reveal your mind.

—Winston L. King, Zen and the Way of the Sword

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POKER RULE #60: Determine whether an opponent is acting.

In a general way, assign each of your opponents a deceptiveness rating. If Player A across the table develops a downcast look during a hand and then turns over a very good hand, make a mental note of it. If Player B, next to him, does the same thing, and then turns over a losing hand, make a note of this, too. Player B was reacting honestly to his hand. Player A was acting. Which of these two people is capable of deceptiveness later on in the game? It is helpful to categorize each player because at some time you will likely bump into each of them heads-up in a hand, and into the same expressions.

Watch how players act when they are in big pots and there is a lot of money on the line. How nervous are they? Are they completely calm and composed? If a key card comes up that could affect their hand, do they even blink, flinch, or react? Some players don’t. These are the players who have had more experience and are capable of deceptive plays when you are in against them. They have just rated their experience level for you.

In general, most good players don’t do a great amount of acting because: they don’t want to get caught at it, this tells their opponents something if they do get caught at it, it only works once if they get caught at it, and (most important of all) it is simply too much trouble—it is much easier, and saves a lot of energy, to have no expression at all than it is to do a lot of “acting.”

The “right” face for Fighting Back is probably the blankest face . . . [Keep] the expression as neutral—but powerful— as possible.”

—Aikido in Everyday Life

POKER RULE #61: Learn to read your opponents’ voices.

Don’t forget to listen to players’ voices, too, and act on what you hear there. If a certain smooth, easygoing confidence enters an opponent’s voice, this is usually a sign for you to be wary (or fold). Most players have a sliding scale of certainty in their tone of voice, as well as their other actions, that matches their hand— or at least what they think of their hand. This certainty is usually part of a package—voice, gestures, facial expression, calmness, coolness, composure, and so on. You must go by this, unless you feel it is an act.

I consider it to be the embodiment of swordsmanship to perceive the signs which occur before an opponent’s actual movements.

—Munenori, a Tokugawa shogunal instructor quoted in

Zen and the Way of the Sword