Five Ways to Develop Poker Instinct

Poker calls on more than mathematical and psychological skills. Poker also calls on instinct. There are two ways to make any decision: analytically or instinctively. You make analytical decisions when time permits and when the problem is complex. At the poker table, there isn't usually time to conduct long, drawn-out analysis. While you're limited to 2-3 possible decisions, there are endless considerations. Just like athletes train, you need to train to build your poker instinct. Here are five ways to help you get started.

Some people already have instinct, and they didn't need to be taught it. For them, it's a natural ability, and I wish I was one of them. You'll get a sense throughout this article of whether or not you already have and are already exercising the skills that build a strong poker instinct in a player.

Experience

Play, play, play. Lots of hours. Lots of sessions. And, lots of long sessions. No book or article on poker is going to give you instant improvement. The best lessons take time to learn, and like anything else, instinct is born of experience. You need to play as much poker as you can against as many different opponents as you can. It's only through experience that you will start to recognize patterns of play in your opponents, and scenarios that repeat themselves. Great poker players run into situations similar or identical to ones they've run into before. The accumulation of that historical information translates into an instinctive response. That can only come of experience. Have you ever seen good players call another player's hand before they see it? That's from experience.


Focus / Concentration

Most people know that after they fold from a hand, it's to their benefit to pay attention to the action. It's your no-charge opportunity to gauge other players and the general climate of the table. I've known this for years, but have always had difficulty doing it. When I fold from a hand, my mind wanders. That's because I have a low attention span and always have. I can't naturally give the game the concentration and focus that it deserves, and have to make a conscious effort to do so. With every session that you enter, tell yourself that you MUST pay attention to the action at all times. You MUST catch your mind wandering and tighten it around the game. Much like reminding yourself not to go on tilt, you have to keep reminding yourself to stay focused. This is an ongoing struggle for me, but one that's critical to plugging a hole in my game.


Never Jump to a Decision

Online poker rooms all offer checkboxes that let you decide how you want to play the hand when the action gets to you - for instance, "Fold", or "Bet / Raise", or "Check / Fold". These checkboxes will hurt your ability to build instinct. You very rarely want to jump to a decision before taking in all of the information and cues ahead of you. You want to make a conscious effort not to have your decision already made before it's your time to make it. The entire benefit of a player's position in a betting round is to be able to take in as much information as possible. Beware of coming to a decision before you need to. Instinct involves decisions in a short period of time. Having said that, some decisions are so easy to make that you do before you need to. For instance, I don't mind using the "Fold" checkbox when playing online because sometimes I'm dealt a hand so bad, I know I'm going to fold it regardless of what happens ahead of me.


Analyze Losses

One characteristic of poker is that it's possible to be the 'perfect player', without weakness. There aren't too many perfect players in the world, but it's attainable. To that end, analyze your losses following each lesson to discern whether you lost money because of bad luck or bad play. I wrote an article on this recently that I invite you to read for a more full explanation. Every poker session involves a series of instinctive decisions, and if you determine from your afterthoughts that you lost money from bad play, then you've identified an area that needs improvement. You take that improvement into your next game and the lesson learned becomes one of the elements that instinct turns to when making a decision.


RELAX!!!

I've saved the best for last. You won't develop poker instinct if you can't stay relaxed at the table. Have you ever seen a player's hand shake as they make a move in the hand? It doesn't necessarily mean they're bluffing, or that they've got a great hand. It means that they're terribly anxious because they're involved in the pot. While some would argue this is a benefit because it doesn't relay any accurate information, I disagree that it's a benefit. It's the sign of a very tense player, and no player with that much tension could exercise poker instinct. I find many professional athletes appear very relaxed (but focused and concentrated) while in the heat of battle. Instinct is born of that calamity. When it's your turn to act, you always have at least two options. If you consider your bet size to be a separate decision in itself, then you have an endless list of options. The relaxed player is laid back enough to consider the merit of each available option in order to pick the best one. The relaxed player's advantage is that the multiple options are much 'clearer' to him because he's relaxed. When you're tensing up at the table, you need to remind yourself to relax. Relaxing usually doesn't take anything more than telling yourself to. It's the proverbial slap in the face that you give yourself to calm down.


Conclusion

In summary, play as much poker as you possibly can, since poker instinct can only originate from poker experience. From there, enter each session with the following three reminders to yourself:

• Stay focused on the action.
  
• Don't have your decision made until you need to.
  
• Stay relaxed and work the tension out of your system...it's all in your head.