Example of Ego Running the Show

Suppose you’re in a shorthanded game and just crushing it: raise, continuation
bet, everyone folds. Next case! Suddenly, a new player arrives, and he starts
preempting all your bully behavior and bluff runs. At this point, it’s
natural to feel thwarted. Frustration blooms, and you find yourself thinking,
“Who the hell does this dickweed think he is? This is my game, not his.
I’m gonna show this bitch what’s up!” Next thing you know,
you’re making decisions that are purely ego-based. All strategic thought
processes have halted and then, well, you’re doomed. Especially since
you’re playing shorthanded, where the pace of play amplifies small errors
and turns tiny leaks into flash floods.

Avoid Value Judgments

A big part of ego in poker is assigning labels to players. Player A is a donkey.
Player B is a fish. Player C is horrible. These labels do nothing to help you
while you’re playing. Identifying a player as good or bad doesn’t
tell you how to play against that person. All it does is inflate your ego when
you’re against an opponent you perceive to be bad, and possibly prompt
you to process with unwarranted caution against someone you perceive to be as
good. Instead of using ego-based value judgments, shift your thoughts to focus
solely on betting patterns and ways you can profitably exploit the game you’re
in.

No Ego Ever

To play poker hands profitably,
we must check our egos at the door. Let others take the glory road. Strive to
be the emotionless assassin whose only interest is to kill as efficiently as
possible. Treat all bets, bluffs, and confrontations as mere points of information:
information you can feed back into your game to improve your performance and
your results. It will help you detach from ego, and from emotional investments
of all kinds, if you stop thinking of outcomes in terms of good and bad. Just
think of what’s going on without assigning value judgments because value
judgments are bad. And once you leave the tables, continue to leave your ego
behind, so you can perform clear-headed post-game analysis away from the tables.

Tony
Guerrera is the author of Killer
Poker By The Numbers.