JV'S KILLER POKER: TWO TOKES

BY: John Vorhaus

A toke is a tip, this we know: something you give to a dealer or waiter or your letter carrier at Christmas time. A tip, can also be good advice or insider information. So then what we have here are a couple of tokes, or tips, for energizing your poker game through surprising - some might even say offbeat - strategies. You may think of these tokes as exercises or diversions or even just playful games. Their goal, as my granny once said about moonshine whiskey, is to change the sorting system in your brain.

1. TAROT

There are so many different things to think about when we play poker. We have our resolutions - I'm going to attack the damn blinds - and we have our warnings - don't overplay that stupid K-Q again - and we have our affirmations and mantras - no one can beat me but me. With all these information streams flowing through our heads, it's hard sometimes to figure out what to focus on. Poker, sure, but saying to yourself, "focus on poker" is like saying to an astronomer, "focus on the night sky, willya?" Where, specifically, would you have that astronomer look?

For an answer, strange as this seems, you might turn to a Tarot deck. Before your next poker session, pull out your Tarot deck (or go find one on the internet) and select a card at random. Let that card be your inspiration and guide for the session to come. Let it give you advice and warnings and affirmations about the poker work you're about to do. Let it, in other words, filter and organize your approach to the task at hand.

You might, for example, reach into your Tarot deck and pull out the Page of Pentacles. According to my desktop interpretation of the Tarot (also downloaded from the internet) the Page of Pentacles is careful and diligent, with respect for learning, scholarship and new ideas. You might extract the meaning of this card thus:

Today, when I go play poker, I shall play with care and concentration, but keep an eye peeled for ways to turn recent learning into new targets of opportunity.

Does this sound hokey? Fine, let it sound hokey. But notice how new information, even randomly acquired information, can give you a whole different approach to the game you play.

Of course you don't have to use the Tarot deck to acquire random information. You could use rune stones or tea leaves or throw the I Ching. Hell, you can pull down any book from your bookshelf and read any arbitrarily selected sentence.

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man.

And how would you use this idea to inform your poker? Just think about all the times you have been chided at the table for what your opponents perceived as bad play? Or even refused to chop a blind. You knew what you were doing, and you knew you were correct to do so, but their misguided peer pressure may have made you feel bad about yourself. Don't let small minded majoricrats push you off an approach to poker that you know to be sound.

Now look what happens if you draw your random information from not just a book but a poker book. I open my copy of THE PRO POKER PLAYBOOK (written by yours truly - what kind of coincidence is that?) and I read the following words:

As with Freemasonry, there are many degrees of poker consciousness. Someone who can instantly calculate pot odds versus card odds obviously has poker consciousness. Someone who consistently draws for a fifth king obviously does not. In between is the vast gray area inhabited by most of us.

This random bit of information serves to remind us that we're all on the road to somewhere. We're all trying to close the gap between where we are as poker players and where we desire to be. We are, in other words, in the vast gray area. If you keep this vast gray area in mind when you go to play poker today, you are likely to have confidence and yet humility about your own play, and also likely not to overestimate (and thus fear) the power of your opponents.

You don't need Tarot or tea leaves or random reading in order to give yourself this sort of new information. But you do need new information, because it's entirely common to become stale in your poker thinking. No sooner do you think you have this game figured out than it turns around and bites you in the butt. So keep seeking new interpretations, using methods such as Tarot to help you achieve that end.

2. SILENCE

Today's second toke is a fun little game that's easy to play at the poker table: Just be silent. From the moment you walk into the card room until the moment you leave, pretend that you've lost the power of speech. You'll find that not talking has a very interesting impact on your game. For one thing, it focuses your attention by eliminating the distraction of conversation. For another thing, it cloaks you in a veil of mystery. Most of your opponents won't notice that you don't say a word, but they will notice that they're not getting a lot of chatter from your seat at the table. This will make you seem to be disciplined - perhaps more disciplined than you are. You will seem to be concentrating so fiercely on your poker that nary a word escapes your lips. This is a good thing.

But there's more.

Obviously if you're not talking, you're not telling bad beat stories or justifying loose calls or giving lessons at the table or engaging in other similarly counter-productive lines of yack. Whatever verbal tells you may have given away before, you won't give them away now. I know, for example, of a guy who reflexively says, "Pair the board!" when the last thing he wants is for the board to pair. I don't know if he thinks he's using reverse tells on his opponents or reverse psychology on the poker gods, but either way his words betray him every time he opens his mouth. If he kept his mouth shut, this wouldn't happen.

Also, in keeping silent, you are turning off your transmitter. This gives you more energy to devote to your receivers - your eyes and ears. In your silence, you will find that you concentrate on your opponents more easily and effectively, and extract much more useful information from their play. Your silence will also set you apart in your own mind. You will be at the table, but not of the table. This will help keep you centered in your game.

Your silence will require more precise actions. Since you won't be saying "raise" or "reraise" you'll have to make sure that your bets are full and complete when they leave your hand. By not announcing your raise, also, you become a quiet force at the table. People will have to reckon with you, because your raises just seem to sneak in there somehow.

Obviously you'll never ask for a deck change.

Obviously you'll never criticize a lesser foe.

Obviously you'll never whine or snivel.

Or boast.

Or rant.

Or curse.

Silence is golden, they say. Try some on for size and see how much gold it can bring into your game.