Champion of Poker

These traits in my personality and this “don’t trust anybody” outlook was steering me towards paying people off who were betting and raising in heads up poker situations. I was doing this because I was refusing to believe what their betting was telling me in the hand like I would be refusing to believe them if they were telling me something in real life. Of course what does that say about me as the saying goes “it takes one to know one”.

I was taking people to be lying to me at the poker table because in the same situation I would be lying to them. Many a time I broke even or lost in a session simply because I had called my money off through silly suspicion. At the time I did not even realise what was happening but it is clear to me now that my personality was taking over in marginal situations.

Once I cottoned on to what was happening to me then I quickly adjusted and my poker earnings sky rocketed. I am the type of person who would miss a great opportunity simply through mistrust. The flip side of course is that I am highly unlikely to get ripped off because I will simply not trust a person enough for them to get their hands on my money.

But it was this same mistrust in my personality and paranoia that was literally killing me whenever I was playing Hold’em online. It is exactly the same if you have an impulsive streak to your nature. You need to ask yourself if you are acting impulsively whenever you play poker. You see, in the online poker arena the pace of the game is that much quicker. The side effect of this is that you are having to act that much quicker and when you act quicker you do so with less thought.

OK you say, you knew that and I have to admit that it is obvious. But how many people are aware that their natural personality starts to take over when the amount of time to think is limited. What I suggest that you do is to have a very serious think about yourself. What things do you like and what things don’t you like. What things annoy you and do not be afraid to look very harshly at yourself.

If you have masochistic tendencies then admit it to yourself at least. Try to make a list of descriptive words that fits your personality and then try to assess how each one is pertinent to poker. This is a seriously good exercise because the results could earn you a very substantial amount of money or save you a very substantial amount of money which amounts to the same.

So take some time out and have a good think about yourself and what kind of person you really are, once you know this then you will be aware of what you are likely to do in marginal situations and you can be ready to combat your own poker weaknesses.

When I spotted my flaw it earned me a lot of money and this is why I am telling you to do this exercise because it could just do the same to you.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson