Day Review (So Far)

Currently 5pm. So far today I woke up, butchered a ton of hands, before having a very pure epiphany about intuition. Yes I know I'm a stuck record, but the whole problem has been in not trusting my intuition. Like, I forgot it was there almost, or mistook my inorganic thoughts for it.

I mean sometimes it comes out with crazy stuff right?! 'That can't be right!!' is what my low confidence brain says to me. It's telling me to fold KK preflop, or fold 2pair where I don't have any stronger hands to call.

But it is right, it knows, it fucking knows!

We think our thoughts control our actions, but science has shown that we actually mostly follow our intuition day to day, and then thoughts about it can kick in up to 6 seconds afterwards. The same is true of poker, we think that our thinking leads us to press the button, but in fact we press the button and then rationalise it afterwards.

If this seems wrong, then bear with me....

Say you want to make a huge fold on turn, he bets and you know your AA is dead. You know this almost instantly right? What happens then is an investigation takes place, we fill in the details about why we should fold, and then either say these out loud or perhaps in our mind. This step is very crucial to improvement, so should not be taken for granted.

What I've been doing though is ignoring the first instinct, then attempting to use thought to conjure me up an answer. But to do so, is like trying to use words to represent the same thing as say, an actual tree. The tree is infinitely complex, words can't come close to describing it.

The first answer that comes to us in poker is like the tree. The mind's description of the tree though is a poor poor imitation.

So I've been ignoring that first answer, the one that is always in the moment, and instead reaching backwards or forwards in time to try to find me a 'better' answer.

Here are the morning's butchered hands that illustrate:



Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
UTG raises to $4.50, 1 fold, CO raises to $15, 2 folds, Hero raises to $38, UTG calls $33.50, CO calls $23

Flop: ($115) 10, K, 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $62, 1 fold, Hero calls $62

Turn: ($239) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $94.35 (All-In), Hero calls $94.35

River: ($427.70) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $427.70 | Rake: $2.75

Results below:
Hero had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).
UTG had A, K (one pair, Kings).


UTG is a whale, a wide whale. Intuition snap told me to fold the flop when he snap bet this size. That's crazy I replied, he has 55 vpip, so many bluffs. Agonisingly I clicked call. Then agonisingly clicked again on the turn. Straight away, the hand below occured.

Button ($60.87)
SB ($206.45)
BB ($192.80)
Hero (UTG) ($208.50)
MP ($174.43)
CO ($200)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, K
Hero raises to $5, MP raises to $16.70, 4 folds, Hero raises to $40, MP calls $23.30

Flop: ($83) 10, 5, K (2 players)
Hero bets $30, MP calls $30

Turn: ($143) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $104.43 (All-In), Hero calls $104.43

Running it twice

First River: ($175.93) 9

Second River: ($175.93) 3

MP had Q, J

Intuition said just shove flop. Mind replied 'no dude, we don't have any offsuit clubs to bluff, shoving is silly', ignoring the AQo which intuition already knew we had in our range. So I bet small. Turn 9, intution said check decide. Mind said, 'no man, gotta protect or something'. Intuition said FFS I give up with you, lose all your money if you want you fucking degenerate.

I stood up in despair. Walked around the house, kicked my dog (not really). As I was pouring me some water it suddenly occured to me that I knew in each moment of spew that it was the wrong move. So even though I was obv in mad tilt, intuition was still there trying to be my mate, guiding me. All I had to do was trust it, no matter what it said.

So had a five minute break, sat down again and suddenly felt amazing again. No super sick hands or anything, but poker just felt easy again and my strategy felt clear. Trust intuition, relax, stay in the moment, and then again, don't grab onto any ideas, even this one, and in each spot simply listen to the one part of my brain that knows how to play poker well.

Like I'm still aware of what my mind has to say for itself. Sometimes it even comes up with something useful that my intuition can then use, but the thinking mind should never make the final decision. Its main problem is that it has too many other priorities than playing poker well.


Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, J
1 fold, MP raises to $6, Hero calls $6, 2 folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($19) A, 8, 3 (3 players)
BB checks, MP checks, Hero bets $12, BB calls $12, 1 fold

Turn: ($43) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($43) 8 (2 players)
BB bets $20.42, Hero raises to $40.84, 1 fold

In the above hand intuition told me to barrel off VS MP reg on basis of blockers.All good. BB fish calls then leads river 1/2 pot. Mind snap said obv fold, but I tuned in and intuition was saying 'wait, maybe there's another option'. Slowly dawned that 8x would bet bigger, Ax probably doesn't bet at all, we don't block hearts. We can't call because might be bluffing K9hh etc. So minraise. Yay.


Preflop: Hero is BB with 7, K
4 folds, SB raises to $6, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($12) 2, K, A (2 players)
SB bets $6, Hero raises to $24, 1 fold

Intuition doesn't just provide answers in the moment. It can also organise the brain into doing useful things, mainly providing strategic thoughts based on what the intuition is doing. Above, I think I like the idea of starting to bluff raise 2nd pairs IP a lot more. They make such excellent blockers, ability to turn things etc.


Preflop: Hero is CO with J, A
1 fold, MP raises to $4.34, Hero calls $4.34, 3 folds

Flop: ($11.68) 4, A, J (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $7, 1 fold

Just included this hand because I was thinking the same here with like all Jx had he cbet. If we just raise JT instead of calling we have such control over the hand, able to manipulate his range using sizing on the turn, etc.


Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
3 folds, Button raises to $4.34, 1 fold, Hero calls $2.34

Flop: ($9.68) A, Q, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2.94, Hero calls $2.94

Turn: ($15.56) K (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $22.17, Hero calls $22.17

River: ($59.90) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $42.86, Hero calls $42.86

Button had A, 7 (two pair, Aces and sevens).

The above hand was the one hiccup on the session, and it occured in an interesting way. Essentially on the turn, I think I have the nut hand to bluffcatch his overbet with. Villain is a reg, we have improvement potential, block JT AK KK. Deffo a good call, says intuition.

River I got tricked! Not by the villain, but by my brain. Intuition snap wanted to fold at this point, but brain came in and said 'look Dan, you said you were going to trust the intuition, and on the turn it said bluffcatch! Why would you forsake your intuition now, huh? It said bluffcatch on turn, so obv bluffcatch now, fool!'

Meanwhile my every fibre of being felt like folding, lol. 

I called. 

Lesson to learn is: intution is always right now, in this spot right now. It doesn't exist a second ago, or a street ago. If you think it does, that's ur brain masquerading as it.

PS: I am aware that having seemingly split personalities and talking about them as I do is slightly weird. Please don't get me sectioned :-) .