Poker News

James McKenna Ph.D.

Playing poker with just your “left brain” will mean that you are probably easy to beat and you have short stacks of chips. Left brain players are those who play very conservative, play only when the odds are in their favor, and are very predictable by their opponents. Few of these players ever win tournaments and they seldom walk away from cash games with a lot to show for their knowledge.

These players have no heart, or in other words, they lack the courage to take risks. Players with heart seem towin more than left-brainers. That doesn’t mean that it’s better to play with your right-creative, impulsive, and imaginative-brain. Players who consistently win seem to know when to have sense and when to have heart.

Mike Sexton, a professional poker player, winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions and host of TV’s World Poker Tour, agrees. In an Associated Press article, entitled “It’s Heart to Make Something out of Nothing,” Sexton is quoted as saying: “If you don’t have heart-and heart means that you’re going to bet at that pot with no hand to try to take it down-believe me, when you’re sacrificing valuable chips in a tournament and you’re wrong or you get looked up or you get beat, it’s crucial,” Sexton said.

“But still, you’ve got to be able to do it. All the great players fire at pots with no hand. They pick up a lot of pots that way, and if you don’t do it, you’re not going to win these tournaments. You’ve got to have heart to win.”

Steve Rosenbloom, in an article for the Tribune Media Services says “Sometimes, laydown isn’t the law.” He quotes Barry Greenstein as agreeing with the philosophy of having heart.

“You can’t win a tournament by continually making good laydowns, because if you do that, you’re going to be out,” said Barry Greenstein. “At some point, you have to play the pot through.”

Barry Greenstein is known as the “Robin Hood of the poker world,” and since he donates all his winnings to charities, he has another kind of heart.

So, what’s hard for some is easy for others. It’s hard for a conservative player to play garbage and it seems much easier for them to lay down such hands.

However, that’s the reason they don’t do so well in tournaments. They may fare better in cash games, but not much better. For a loose player, it may be easier to play garbage to win a pot. The difference in players who have heart and those who end up ruined for being too loose is the balance of their left and right brains.

They seem to know when it’s time to have heart and when it’s time have more sense and to split.

Still, the pros seem to agree that you have to have heart. If you don’t, you will lose more often than you’ll win. Besides, playing so risk-free is not as much fun. So, loosen up and show more courage when you need a boost in your excitement level and your poker profits.

Filed under: Poker News