Allow me to explain some more situations which make me wonder about psychic abilities among poker players. Again, some are easy to explain by talking about body language, subtle tells or unconscious cues. Others are not so easy to dismiss.
A "favourite" hand?
I was playing $2/$3 at Crown in Melbourne, which was a $200 buy-in game at the time (Australian dollars, of course) - sometime around 2012. I picked up AKo, with the button about three seats to my left. The guy one or two seats to my right, a big and beardy guy in his mid-twenties, whom I'd pinned as an above-average player, put in a small (for Crown) raise, to about $9. I knew the table was pretty passive, and I figured I could buy position, so I raised to around $26. I did indeed buy position, heads up to the flop. Effective stacks were about $300.
The flop comes out A 3 4, rainbow, which is pretty much close to the perfect flop for a top pair, top kicker type hand. Beardy checks to me, and I bet about $40. He quickly calls, and the turn comes a blank, a 9 let's say. He quickly checks. Having made my hand, with this being a live game in a lively cardroom, I would normally stack off here without thinking. But as I picked up my chips, I had the feeling that betting now would be like betting into a set. I checked.
The river came another blank, say a 7. Beardy leads for about $100. I make a crying call, and he turns over 25o for a wheel, a straight A-5. I was puzzled, and made the mental note that this guy occasionally raises and calls out of position with trash, and he probably wasn't as good as I had thought.
I remember saying to my friend Dave later that I should have trusted my gut and folded the river, knowing I was beat. He said that I did well to limit my losses there, as I made my hand on a beautiful board, and probably should have lost my stack.
This hand could be an example of me picking up a mental vibe from the villain. Of course, I had many years of sales experience, and a few years of poker experience at the time, so it wouldn't be unusual for me to pick up something from the way he was acting, the way he checked quickly, the expression, his lack of looking at me throughout the hand, and obviously that could lead me to a gut feeling.
Another gut feeling
Playing a micros tournament online, I had ATo in the cut-off. It's folded around to me, and I raise 2.5BB, with 50BB behind. The big blind calls. Flop comes 26J, all diamonds, giving me a middling flush draw with my Td. He checks, I bet a little more than half the pot.
The turn comes the 4 of clubs, very blank. I consider betting again with my flush draw, though it's generally not a good idea at this stage of a tournament, because people are so willing to call. Then, I get the distinct impression that this guy wants me to bet. So naturally, I check.
On the river, I pick up a pair of tens. He bets half the pot, I call, I lose to a set of deuces.
The Secret
Another session I had at Crown playing $2/$3, I ended up cashing out ahead about $800-$1000 after 6 hours or so. I remember relating the key hands to my friend Dave later, and after explaining 4-5 hands, he said "wow, how hot do you want to run?" I was saying things like "Then this other time I picked up aces in the cutoff..." The fact is, that night, I was extremely focused on feeling good, and I was visualising stacks of hundreds of dollars in $5 chips - so strongly that I could feel the stacks. Surely enough, the stacks appeared. Was it a coincidence? Did it just get my mind primed for success? Or was it something else?
Of course, if I could do it consistently, I might be relaxing on the beach rather than writing this post.
The telepath
Around 2012, I had been playing very well and running very well on $2/$3 at Crown, and decided to take a shot at $2/$5, a $500 buy-in game. There was a fellow directly to my left, with whom I got into a few hands.
Normally when I'm in a hand, my mind is relatively quiet. I like to practise mindfulness meditation as it helps me ride through the waves of emotion which pass, especially when playing above my normal stake. Yet, when I got into hands with this guy, I would have a good hand, it would come to the turn, and he would look at me. Instantly, my hand flashed into my head. Instinctively, I started thinking about many other hands, because in that moment, I was certain that this guy had just read my mind. My mental tricks didn't work though, as he always seemed to know when to fold.
If you want an easy out to explaining this away, read ahead. I was playing on higher than normal stakes, stakes I'd pretty much never played before, and so I was playing cautiously. At one point, the guy on my right poked fun at me for being a rock. So, it was natural for this fellow to assume I had something good.
However, for me, the unusual mental patterns that occurred in hands with that player stand out as something interesting. I had felt the presence of his mind in my mind, and that's something which I can't easily dismiss.
Negreanu makes an amazing prediction
Daniel Negreanu is known for being very good at reading others' hole cards - perhaps even the best. Of course, part of this is his easy-going charm and relaxed demeanour, which makes other players feel comfortable telling him their hands - information which he later uses to estimate what they have.
But, then there are cases where that is not a factor.
In this hand, Negreanu accidentally predicts the turn and river card, with a probability of (1/45)*(1/44) = 1/1980. Did he just get lucky? Or is there a reason he can read cards so well, outside of Daniel's excellent grasp of player's minds?
Our sense of wonder
I don't expect you to take my word for the stranger events I've reported to you here. In fact, I hope you don't. But, what I hope for is not just that you'll doubt me, but that you'll doubt yourself. If you are so convinced that there is no magic in this world, that science understands 98% of what happens, that any advance will be in the third decimal place, then I implore you to wonder, and consider.
Wonder leads us to mysteries, and it is never through anything but wonder which we find great truths. Consider that just maybe, we don't understand 98% of what happens, but maybe we only know 2%, for as we have seen in poker, and many other pursuits, it is very easy for a novice to mistake himself for a master, and it's very rare for a master to proclaim "We've got this thing figured out."
Deep personal growth rarely comes from building on what we know, but instead from questioning what we think we know. As I once wrote:
Lions can be held by whips and a cage
It takes an idea for a man to be enslaved
The question is, who is to be the master?
Shall your beliefs lead, and you follow after?
If an idea tells you what you can and can't know
Where your mind can and cannot go
Which belief systems are prohibited zones
Are you a human, or a drone?
You are always free to consider, and reconsider - don't waive that right. You are free to wonder.
About me
My name is Kurt Robinson. I grew up in Australia, but now I live in Guadalajara, Jalisco. I write interesting things about voluntaryism, futurism, science fiction, travelling Latin America, and psychedelics. Remember to press follow so you can stay up to date with all the cool shit I post, and follow our podcast where we talk about crazy ideas for open-minded people, here: @paradise-paradox, and like us on Facebook here - The Paradise Paradox
Some other cool posts
Here are some other posts of mine to check out:
Alien economics - the economy of ideas
A Mexican Independence Day trip - ¡Viva México! - Day 1: San Miguel de Allende