Voice In Your Head
Instinct is what has kept the human race alive and kicking for the past millions of years. It has told mother everywhere that their children are lying, convinced trailblazers to build a new path, inspired visionaries to live lives of self sacrifice, given two cars about to hit at a head-on collision the signal to go right and avoid the accident. Heck, it tells us what to do every single day! We listen to it when making decisions in the grocery, we take directions from it when avoiding our most hated enemy at work, we take its advice when attempting to push buttons of others to get them to do something we want. It is this same little voice that helps people win the lottery, the track race, and the wonderful game that is Texas Hold’em.
Games of chance are games won by instinct. Some people say it is luck, some people say it’s talent – but it really boils down to how you are able to listen to that voice whispering to you when you’re at a loss for solutions and unsure about what you should do. Let’s say you have a 2 and a 6. The flop comes around and you see a 3, A and 2. Your brain tells you to fold, but your instinct goes against it. Which voice do you listen to? There is a very limited time to use logic and permutations or statistics when the dealer lays a flop down and you’re the firs to act. It’s difficult to reason out that although you have a chance of getting the lowest straight in the history of Poker hands, you should take comfort in the chance of getting a two-pair. Hence, you just rely on your gut feel and check. This voice can also enlighten you with things that are beyond reason, such as a strong feeling that the next card will be a high or a low card or the inkling that your opponent has better cards than you or that he is bluffing his way to the pot. Learn to listen before you start throwing your money into the pot.