Some may think that the talent of unraveling what lurks in their opponents mind is the secret to playing poker well. It might also be considered that If one could attend a class or seminar on the science of the unconscious mind while indulging in games of chance that it would be a great help to their game. No way. If one was able to be taught how to read another’s mind and discover their various neuroses in the process, it would still be no guarantee of a win.

When thinking of poker, one would think of it as a game of strategy rather than one of psychoanalysis. Strategy is only one of the components of winning play, however. Getting into your opponent’s head is the essence of smart play. This does not mean that you must suffer while he goes over the details of his life story ad nauseum.

Outstanding players, like outstanding artists, don’t get that way from reading a manual. They progress intuitively, summoning their powers of observation, diligently practiced and enhanced over a period of many years.

Good technical manuals on poker psychology are rare. This is at the very crux of the matter. Whatever tips and advice you may find off the net or in the bookstore, you can not practically or successfully put them into real play. You must have that inexplicable talent of intuition that puts your own creative mind processes over the limit of your opponents.

If everyone played according to strict principles, the games would be no different than relatively complex computer simulations and prediction would be relatively simple, depending on the number of variables. This is in fact more or less how novices and people without much gift for games generally play, and it is why they generally loose more than they win.

A talented player will spurn any computer-spun model and make their own decisions on how to play their game and their opponents’ game. They are led by intuition into observations that they then combine into rules of play according to their creative imagination and wit. The strategy that comes out of this is distinctively their own. No matter how complex or how elegantly simple their secret strategy is, it makes them less vulnerable.

This may be another reason why artists and players (two creatures in the same family) do not easily and never fully reveal their trade secrets to the general public: at best they allow some general theoretical discussion of their work or a few relatively trivial technical tips. Which may be very nice of them, but the problem is that they did not achieve their status by reading somebody else’s tips.

It is then most vital to commit yourself to the intense study of personal observation from your own practice to develop your observational skills as well as your imagination. Do this and you will independently create ways of acquiring a manner of play that is unique to you in its every detail.

By far the best bluffers of the game are those who do it with regularity in a manner that prohibits anyone at the table from deciphering the bluff. This requires a strong intuition developed by lots of practice and known only to them.

While hard work and persistence are involved here, they are of little benefit unless you have the courage and independence to use your imagination in some cases that make you seem less than sane but are innovative and demand a curious nature and the soul of an explorer which puts you way out in front.

One could now proceed to elaborate on the processes of intuition, or suggest where to start or what not to neglect, but even that would be too much. Everyone is blessed with intuition; not everyone has the drive to aggressively hone and use it. If the results of your unique intuition are to be unique, you had better start on your own.

What I have written about here calls for a lifetime commitment. Nobody who was ever considered a master at his craft, whatever that may be, was given that title. They worked long and hard and on their own and they earned it.

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