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  Obi-Wan Kenobi said a lot of things to Luke Skywalker during the movie Star Wars: most of it was not particularly helpful. Sprinkled in with the bits of listening to his feelings and avoiding the unpleasant topic of who Luke's real father was, he did have one nugget of wisdom: "let go".



  Poker is a game of decisions, and very often we don't make the right ones. For example, during the 2007 World Series of Poker Chip Jett was playing against a player who could only be considered debris. The problem was that Jett was having the hardest time beating this guy because he couldn't put the player on a hand. There was a point at the table when Chip only had $35,000 in his stack compared to his opponent's $135,000.



  The board read K/Q/8/9. The anonymous opponent moved all in with his hefty stack. After thinking about it, Chip moved all in as well. He had three eights, and his assessment of the other guy's behavior convinced Jett that his nemesis was holding a K/Q.



  Chip was wrong. With both players all in the kid turned over an offsuit J/10 - giving him a straight. The only thing that saved Chip Jett was a lucky King on the river that delivered him the victory with full house.



  Chip was reading the man, not the board. The board was screaming straight, but his opponent's behavior confused that message. If you are reading the behavior, there are a lot of factors that can screw up your read. Your opponent could be inexperienced, incredibly tricky, or just plain brain damaged when it comes to poker, but you should never forget to read the board.



  Sometimes you have to let go of your read and listen to what the cards on the table are trying to tell you.