JV'S KILLER POKER:
Bugs!

BY: John Vorhaus

When a computer program has flaws and doesn't run properly, we call those flaws "bugs." Poker players have bugs in their game - yes, even you - and the harder they work at fixing their bugs, the better their games become.

It's easy to fix bugs in computer programs because the solution is fairly cut-and-dried: Either the program runs properly or it doesn't. Not so easy in poker, where everything is variables, angles, percentages. Plus in software there's no emotional risk: Just because the program is flawed doesn't mean that the programmer is flawed as well. But fixing bugs in your poker game requires flexible thinking, a willingness to learn, humility, and a clear-eyed appraisal of your own strengths and weaknesses.

Whew! That's quite a lot.

But it's also quite simple.

If you want to improve your play, just be brutally honest about your bugs.

Start by listing them, writing them down. Record the flaws in your game.

I play tired. I tangle with tougher opponents. I bluff without conviction. I let my ego rule my judgment. I check and call too much. I play too many hands. I have no humility. I... I... I...

Well, that's what I do wrong, but what do you do wrong? If you can't - or won't - answer that question, then I'm sorry to say that you're not likely to be a winning poker player, ever, for winning player requires honesty, full stop. So hunt up your bugs and take pride in finding them.

For a more informed look at your bugs, get someone else to hunt for them for you. In the software business, these bug hunters are called beta testers, and it's their specific job to identify what's wrong, what doesn't work. Can you stand to have someone scrutinize your game for the sake of finding flaws? Again, without this willingness to withstand bad -- but useful -- news, you really can't hope to prosper in this game. So get a knowledgeable colleague or friend to watch your play for a session and report back to you on what s/he finds.

Some of the bugs they discover may astound you.

You don't protect your hand; you flash your cards to other players. You consistently check-raise when you flop a draw, and your opponents all know it. You draw to longshots when the pot odds don't justify. You chase too much. You don't bluff enough. You don't pay attention to the play of hands you're not in. You have physical tells up the wazoo.

Some call this sort of exercise self-discovery. Others call it punishment, but if you can stand to have someone recite such an ugly litany of your play, and then take that information and put it to work, your game will improve by quantum degrees. I guarantee it. Why? Because bad news leads to good play. It's axiomatic. You can't fix flaws if you don't know what they are, but simple awareness that a problem exists takes you most of the distance toward fixing it.

It's true! Awareness - simple awareness - of mistakes you make will go further toward eradicating those mistakes than any other tool you can use.

Chase too much? Tell yourself you do! Now you know. Now you can dial back on your chasing. Can you honestly not stand to be that minimally honest with yourself about your poker play? I think you can. So what if it hurts to hear the cold, hard truth? Get over it, and get back to improving your play.

There are ego issues all over poker. If you allow yourself to admit that you don't know something, or don't do something properly, your ego naturally feels threatened. But hasn't your ego figured out yet that winning is the best ego-stroke of all? Put your ego aside! Challenge your intellect to play the best you can. Then, when your game improves and you win, your ego and your wallet both get to feel good about your play.

Do you still feel threatened by criticism or self-criticism? All I can say is grow up or get out. Poker's no place for the weak, and defense of ego is weak by definition.

Once you get in the habit of tracking bugs in your own play, start looking for other players' bugs. These bugs, of course, are ones you want to exploit, not fix. You'll find that it's much easier to see the flaws in other people's play once you've become honest about the flaws in your own play.

I'm not kidding. I'm really not. You have the power to read minds! All you have to do is read your own. Because pretty much everything you're thinking (especially at a poker table but also everywhere else) is pretty much what everyone else is thinking too. And every mistake you make is pretty much like the ones they make too. Well, if you know more about mistakes - if you see mistakes more clearly - than your opponents, that's an edge you can exploit.

Consider this scenario: You've been brutally honest with yourself and admitted that you're likely to play any trashy hand right after a bad beat because you want to "even out" the luck right away. Having stopped that nonsense, you now look around to see who else has that bug. See someone take a bad beat? Raise into 'em first chance you get! They're more likely to call with a bad hand for the sake of salving the same wound you would.

Do you call obvious aces with weak aces of your own? That's a bug! Stomp on it! Then see who else does it, and punish them for doing so!

Excellence in poker demands a level of honesty you may not be entirely comfortable with yet. But it's really not so tough. In the end it's as simple as looking in a mirror.

Though maybe one covered with bugs.

(John Vorhaus is author of the KILLER POKER series and News Ambassador for UltimateBet.com.)