Pavlov and Poker. Part 2

Pavlov and Poker. Part 2


  Last time we spoke about how you should get your opponents to have Pavlovian responses to your actions. If you can get them to instinctually react to your moves but in wrong ways, you can easily set them up and lead them to make big mistakes. Doing this requires some work at the table, but it can pay off with easy victories.



  You too should develop a set of pavlovian responses, although not to make yourself more easily swayed and manipulated, but to improve your reaction time and allow yourself to act more instinctually at the table. Think about it this way, one of the reasons why lions and tigers are generally better off than people in a fight is that they're instinctual killers, unlike people. If you can act at the table based on instincts instead of having to think about it, you can react more quickly and with greater surety.



  People aren't born with a lot of instincts, however, and none of the instincts we are born with really pertain to poker that much. Because of that, we have to train out own instincts and reflexes. That's exactly what Pavlov did with his poor mutts, and it's something you can do with yourself.