Jan. 16, 2005
 

All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him. Sun-Tzu

Unless you were among the originators of the hold'em, learning the game is a series of baby steps. You start by becoming so familiar with the starting hands by position that you know them as well as you know your alphabet.

Experience will tell you if you are ready to begin walking at a faster pace. When you stop wobbling, you may find yourself a bit unshaken for totally different reasons. The biggest problem beginners have is hiding their intentions.

No one telegraphs via tells better than the beginning player. Anyone with a modicum of experience can see that tremor, that pulsation, that sudden blinking, that hard swallow, that not-so-subtle look into oblivion, that backward look at a stack. Whether you are holding the mortal nuts or you are bluffing better than Stu Ungar every dreamed of bluffing, in a split second, without notice, you are probably going to let someone know all your secrets.

Now, until you are ready to run like Forest Gump, you aren't going to be able to do much about your tells but there is something you can start doing to help overcome some of those newcomer signals.

Become an actor.

When you are at the poker table, pretend you are someone else, preferably someone you can identify with because you've seen him or her in a movie or on TV. Be one of the Bruce Willis characters or Jennifer Garner's Electra. Psyche yourself into a mindset that puts you on some level other than the one where your submerged, nervousness resides. Before you look at your hole cards, mentally think of yourself as Bret Maverick. You already know what you're going to do with certain hands in your position, so all you want to do is verify which one of the hands you have. That's the only reason for looking at your cards, so look at them from a railbird's eyes and move on.

You could take the acting to another level and use it to develop a table image, but your main concern early in your career is to get as much mileage out of your hand as possible without letting others know what you're doing. Besides, you don't want to overdo the scenario.

You might want to put yourself into Jack Black's mindset but you certainly don't want to emulate his antics at the table. This could well let your opponents in on your plan of action because unless you've actually mastered the actor's technique (and it could be any actor), you're going to be quite transparent.

Now, before you say you're not nervous or afraid, back off. Very few people can walk into a poker room and not be intimidated. First you have to arrange seating with the brush or floorman. While you're doing it, practically every player in the room will be sizing you up before they even know what game you're interested in and what limits you plan to play. Many times, when you sit into a game, the dealer will ask if you're familiar with the stakes and rules, so it's best to find this out from the brush before you sit in to help minimize your anxiety, which will show itself.

Being nervous and perhaps even slightly fearful is nothing to be embarrassed about. You just have to learn how to become the master of your own feelings or the architect of manufactured ones, in other words, learn to act.

Eventually, this newly developed skill will become second nature. When it does, it will serve you well because then you will be the one with the calm mind, the one who no longer telegraphs his intentions, the one who can assess the newcomer, and the old timer -- in a quick time.