For a couple weeks now, I have been dabbling into a bit of the psychological aspects of the game of poker.   It's no accident; I've been doing this in an attempt to make you folks look at things from a bit of a different perspective.

I do this because it's not only your cards you are playing, you are also playing against other people.   Keeping things unpredictable and making your moves hard to read can work to your advantage and put extra money in your pocket.   The object is to keep your opponents guessing to what you're holding.

Now having said that let me tell you about a hand I recently had in a live 10-handed ring game.   In the Big Blind, I looked down at two black 9's.   I was thrilled to see them at that point as I had been card-dead for quite a while.   A middle position player raised to $15 and I was the only caller.   A dubious call for someone out of position but I really wanted to see a flop in the worst way.  

The flop comes down as the Ah-9c-5c.   A very disjointed flop for a straight but there is an obvious flush draw out there.   Obviously, I like this flop since I have flopped a set of 9's.   This is where the mental aspect comes in.   I know I'm going to check because if my opponent has Kings, he will likely fold at my representation of an Ace.   I check and see what he does.   He instantly fires out $40 into the pot.   His action tells me exactly what he has and what he's thinking.   By betting so much into the pot, he is telling me he has Big Slick, Ace-King, and he is trying to push me off a potential flush draw.   I eliminated pocket Aces because he would want to keep me hanging around to extract bets out of me.   By betting so high, he made it abundantly clear that he was trying to protect his hand. So the decision comes down to whether I should raise him here or wait.   I pretend that I'm thinking long and hard about it.   Why?   Well, if I wait a while before calling, I'm making him think whether I'm considering calling with hopes of hitting my draw.   Little does he know I already made my hand.   So after 30 seconds I call.

The turn is the 10s.   I check quickly and immediately he bets $80.   At this point, I know I have him in my trap.   I call all-in for my remaining $200 and he calls me lightning quick.   He shows his Ace King and I show my pocket 9's and he quickly realizes he is drawing completely dead and I scoop up a nice $500+ pot.

I hope that by reading this you gain a little insight into how your actions can influence a player. Had I raised the flop or come out betting, he would have become suspicious quickly and I wouldn't have won nearly as much money.   By hesitating before acting, he had to believe I was trying to decide whether my flush draw was worth it.

Try incorporating some poker psychology into your next game and see how you do.

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