I know a lot of smart players. By "smart" I don't mean, necessarily "good." I mean "smart" as in book smart. They got good grades in school. Maybe that's you. If it is, this article may help you see some inherent weaknesses in your game. But even if that doesn't describe you-even if you weren't a good student-this article should strengthen your game by showing you some of the weaknesses in the game of smart players that you can exploit.
Smart players don't like to be wrong. Why should they? They're used to being right. That's how they got good grades. That's what fed their egos. That's how they got ahead-by being right.
This often inhibits their aggression-holding them back from the risky, but more profitable plays. They are more apt to be passive and less likely to call on the river, lest they show down a losing hand and show that they were wrong in their assessment of their opponent.
But poker is a game of probability, not certainty. A good player must be willing to be aggressive when they aren't sure that they're ahead or certain that they'll win. If I'm a 7-to-1 dog but the pot is offering me 10-to-1 odds I should call, or maybe raise, even though I will lose the hand more often than I will win. If I believe that my raise might drive out a player with a better hand one out of ten times, and the pot is offering me twenty to one odds on my raise, then I should make the raise even though I'm going to be wrong nine times out of ten.
Smart players are often arrogant. They suffer, oft times, from "smartest-guy-in-the-room" syndrome. They are used to being deferred to, regarded highly, and listened to. And so they may also be opinionated, condescending, and otherwise offensive-driving away bad players in the process. The arrogance of smart players may also improve the play of their opponents who become more aggressive in retaliation.
Smart players often rationalize their errors-and keep making them. There are few mistakes in poker so clear cut that they can't be explained as the product of something other than error. Put another way, bad players can, if they are smart, excuse their mistakes as the product of something else: the bad play of other players, bad luck, or just the catch all "variance." So smart players often create intellectually satisfying but completely wrong-headed excuses to continue their bad play, to the advantage of the truly good players at the table.
Smart players often fail to learn from their mistakes. Lacking humility, they often find it hard to admit when they are wrong. This hinders their ability to learn from those who are better than they are, since they are loathe to recognize that anyone else is better. And so they miss opportunities to improve their game-thinking instead that they are beaten by the forces of luck and happenstance rather than superior play.
Smart players are more likely to steam. Those who rarely failed in school are often less able to deal with failure than the rest of the schlubs who did fail. Hey, we're used to it! But they're not. In poker, losing is much more common than winning. A good player can lose dozens of hands in a row and show no ill effects. But for smart players who may not be emotionally equipped to deal with lots of losses, this can be a tough blow to handle-resulting in increasingly bad and erratic play.
There's no question that intelligence is a useful tool in becoming a better poker player. The thoughtful, introspective, aware player who applies himself will almost surely become better. But being smart also carries with it certain risks, so be smart, but be careful.
Ashley Adams is the author of Winning 7-Card Stud and Winning No Limit Low Limit Hold'em. He hosts the radio show House of Cards, broadcast Mondays at 5 - 6 p.m. in Boston, MA, on 1510 AM, and on the Internet at www.houseofcardsradio.com. Contact Ashley at asha34@aol.com.
