JV'S KILLER POKER:
FILTERS

BY: John Vorhaus

Everyone filters reality through perception. Some people do this in a very healthy manner, shrewdly analyzing available information, weighing it objectively and using it effectively. Others filter reality through their wants, needs, desires or fears. The result is often a badly skewed version of reality, one that's weak, reactive, hard to trust and extremely hard to work with well.

In life, we use filters all the time. If someone cuts us off in traffic, we process that event through our what a rude blowhole filter. If something incredibly fortunate happens to us, we process that event through our angels are watching over me filter.

In poker we use filters all the time too. We filter information through such prisms as past experience, awareness of opponents' tendencies, assumptions about how our opponents view us, etc. Precise filters are a very powerful way to use information. For example, when confronted by a surprise raise from an unexpected source, you can filter the information - the raise - through a specific prism: Would my opponent be bluffing in this situation? How likely is he to be bluffing now? Processing information through this filter allows us to reach a reasonable conclusion and act accordingly: He's likely to be bluffing about 20% of the time, and the pot is offering me far less than 4 to 1 odds on my call, so the right thing to do is pass.

Simple, right? We do it all the time.

But we do other things all the time, too. Not so simple, and way more nefarious.

Consider the same situation. Someone has bet into you and you're trying to decide whether to call. Instead of filtering information through a useful question like, "How likely is he to be bluffing?" you filter it through a useless question, even a toxic one, like, "Where does this guy get off, trying to push me around?" Now, suddenly, your whole basis for evaluation is thrown out of whack. Why? You're asking the wrong question! You're no longer contemplating how to use information effectively, you're contemplating how the information makes you feel. This makes all the difference. Concerned with the question of whether you're being brutalized by some bully, you'll call - or even raise - and your action will be a strictly emotional response and not a strategic or tactical response at all.

People use two main filters to deal with information. One is the process filter, which asks the question, "How can I use this information to improve my situation?" The other is the judgment filter, which asks the question, "How does this information make me feel?" Sound players use their process filter exclusively. They're really only interested in the task of taking information and using it to make effective decisions. Weak players use their judgment filter almost all the time. If they win they feel good. If they lose they feel bad. If they're bluffed out they feel angry. If their blinds are raised they feel resentful. In short, they feel, feel, feel. They're obsessed with the question of "How does this information make me feel?" What's more, they have a strong vested interest in feeling good, and not bad, and they'll act according to this interest, rather than according to sound principals of poker. Their decision-making matrix gets further and further bent. It's no wonder they can't book a win. They're not just not thinking, they're actually anti-thinking.

Most people never realize that they get to choose how they process information. Maybe you don't either. But I'm here to tell you that you do, and that this decision is the single most important poker decision you'll ever make. Every hand, every bet, every turn of every card, you have a choice, the specific choice of which filter you'll use to deal with the information you've been given. Will you use the information to improve your play, or will you use the information to alter you mood? The former strategy leads to success in Killer Poker; the latter strategy leads to disaster.

So which choice will you make? Will you play poker according to the higher desire to play the best possible game you can? Or will you continue to wallow in a fantasy land where every bad thing that happens to you - or even every good thing - is automatically totted up on some imaginary scoreboard labeled How I Feel Right Now?

To me the choice is obvious, but if it's not obvious to you, then consider this: The more you move toward perfect poker, the better you will feel about yourself. In other words, to serve the judgment filter, ignore the judgment filter. The less attention you pay to the question of how you feel, the better you will play. The better you play, the more admirable you will seem to yourself. The more admirable you seem to yourself, the better you will feel.

And that's what you wanted all along.

News flash: Nobody's perfect. No one filters information through the process filter all the time. Everyone lets events affect how they feel about themselves. It's inevitable and natural... human. The question is, what are you gonna do about it? Will you yield to your atavistic urges, or will you strive to take your game to a higher level? It comes back - as everything does eventually - to the simple question of self-awareness. The better you know yourself, the better you will play. Full stop. No argument. So make the effort to know yourself.

Or, alternatively, lose all your money.

Anyway, now you have a new tool to use in your quest for higher consciousness. This tool is called filters, and it allows you to see yourself more clearly... if you choose to. Me, I'm just the bearer of information here. How you process that information is strictly up to you. I can lead your horse to water, bwana, but I cannot make you think.

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