It is humbling to realize how much our basic functions can take control of our conscious minds. Remember the study of Pavlov and his dogs? This was a scientific study done on dogs where they would salivate at the ringing of a bell. A ringing bell meant food. No other sound meant food to them. This experiment has been tried with other animals as well, with pigeons, cuttlefish and mice to name a few. The same phenomenon occurs with them. Habit conditions them to believe that specific symbols or signs result in a specific event.
Moreover, additional experiments show that once an individual is thus conditioned, it will not learn what to a more developed mind, such as ours, may seem a variant of the same. That is, once a cuttlefish learns that a pink circle means food is coming and a blue spot means no food, it will take any additional color to mean no food. It has no capacity to interconnect new phenomena and allow hitherto inexperienced possibilities.
There have been times I am sure that you have been made suddenly aware of a realization that never occurred to you before. Something like the CEO of Ford is one of the finest executives in the country. Is he? Or is he simply Henry Ford's great grandson?
Sometimes a bunch of good players will discuss at lunch the hands they had just been playing and somebody might say how surprised they are the guy in seat 4 hasn't yet folded, he had been playing so terribly. Upon which another player might add smugly that, yes, and he has a huge tell on him, only to discover that besides one more player at the lunch table nobody else seems to be in on it. Swearing each other to secrecy, these two share their discoveries in somber undertones and immediately discover that each had in mind a completely different thing: the first one noticed that every time 4 has a good hand, he makes his bet and closes his hands in fists on the table and never does it otherwise than with a good hand; the other player noticed that when 4 has weak cards, he fidgets with his chips after placing a bet, never touching the chips otherwise.
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.
This is not a trivial realization. In fact, what often distinguishes the best players is their flexibility to learn and keep actively in mind throughout the game a number of each opponent's tells, classifying each according to importance and plausibility, increasing the possibilities of winning.
Moreover, additional experiments show that once an individual is thus conditioned, it will not learn what to a more developed mind, such as ours, may seem a variant of the same. That is, once a cuttlefish learns that a pink circle means food is coming and a blue spot means no food, it will take any additional color to mean no food. It has no capacity to interconnect new phenomena and allow hitherto inexperienced possibilities.
There have been times I am sure that you have been made suddenly aware of a realization that never occurred to you before. Something like the CEO of Ford is one of the finest executives in the country. Is he? Or is he simply Henry Ford's great grandson?
Sometimes a bunch of good players will discuss at lunch the hands they had just been playing and somebody might say how surprised they are the guy in seat 4 hasn't yet folded, he had been playing so terribly. Upon which another player might add smugly that, yes, and he has a huge tell on him, only to discover that besides one more player at the lunch table nobody else seems to be in on it. Swearing each other to secrecy, these two share their discoveries in somber undertones and immediately discover that each had in mind a completely different thing: the first one noticed that every time 4 has a good hand, he makes his bet and closes his hands in fists on the table and never does it otherwise than with a good hand; the other player noticed that when 4 has weak cards, he fidgets with his chips after placing a bet, never touching the chips otherwise.
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.
This is not a trivial realization. In fact, what often distinguishes the best players is their flexibility to learn and keep actively in mind throughout the game a number of each opponent's tells, classifying each according to importance and plausibility, increasing the possibilities of winning.
About the Author:
The author of this article plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Minted Poker. He is also a contributer at Rakeback Solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment