Confidence

[Bilgefisher]

I’m no psychologist and I haven’t read the Psychology of Poker (its on my to read list), but this is a topic I have had in my mind lately. Confidence in your playing abilities and its positive and negative affect on your overall play. Confidence can cause you to play good poker, miscalculated poker, and also affects your opponents. It may even be an underrated category of poker that many players fail to look into. tl;dr below.

If you have confidence in your playing ability you can sit down at a table and play your “A” game poker. The bad beats affect you a lot less since you know through superior play you can make up for those loses. You also are able to make moves vs players that you may not otherwise. For example a weak passive player limps in the cutoff while you are on the button. You know that you can isolate this player with a wider range of hands because you can outplay him post flop. You make a flop 3 bet vs a known aggressive player who tends to overplay his hands. These things can improve your play. Believing in your playing abilities can have an extremely positive outcome in your sessions.

But the lack of confidence can have the opposite affect. Missed river value bets vs someone who has made poor decisions with good results in the past. The guy that calls you down with his gutshot to hit on the river 3 times in a row vs your top 2 pair. You check behind because he just has to have it again. No, no, no. This is MUBS, monster under the bed syndrome. Overvaluing your opponents hand because he could have it and not making the correct play. This can partially be attributed to a lack in confidence in your own play. Other things can hurt otherwise good players. For the veterans out there who can handle a few bad beats, think about how your play is affected when you go into that 300bb slide. When you are no longer confident in your poker game you will not be playing “A” game poker.

Warning: Over confidence can get you into trouble too. Again you isolate that weak cutoff player while on the button. You play into him and he bites back. But you’re a better player, you can outplay him and take down this hand. Stop! Use your skills and outplay him. Outplaying him is not a one hand deal. You want to beat him throughout the session. Or how about taking shots to far over your roll with a great chance of busto? Be careful to not let confidence lead you into being cocky and misplaying. This is still skilled game with a fair amount of chance.

Observe your opponents, confidence affects them too. A cocky player sits down and thinks he’s going to run the table. Use that to your advantage. Give that type of player enough rope to hang himself and let his over confidence be his undoing as his chips are shipped your way. I think passive play is at least partially if not mostly caused by a lack of confidence. If a passive player wins some pots, that can very easily boost his confidence and cause him to play more aggressively then he usually does. Observe your tables and watch for these things. How about a player that just can’t seem to win a pot? Many bad players will tighten up and fold hands that they probably shouldn’t. Use this to your advantage. A well timed bet can take down a pot.

There is no cure-all way to become a more confident player. You have to learn through experience, pay attention to your tables, session reviews and anything else that is preached on this site. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to take chances. The only way to get stronger is to push your muscles, your mind is no different. Make the most out of your time at the table, especially while at the lower limits where it doesn’t cost nearly as much. Also, I do believe that a player must break out of their shell to become a better player, “take the training wheels off’ so to speak. All of this will result in superior play and cause your confidence to increase. This increased confidence will help your “A” game become better then your opponents.

Overall, be mindful of your play and how your confidence affects your play. Be mindful of how your opponent’s confidence affects their play. Nothing I’ve said is anything new in poker philosophy, but may be worth thinking about now and then.

tl;dr
Your overall confidence can affect your play.
-Lack of confidence can cause you to misplay hands or play hands scared.
- Over confidence can cause you to overplay hands or take ill advised chances.
- Your opponents can have can be over confident or have poor confidence, use that against them. Watch for changes in opponents and how it affects their play. Adjust accordingly.
- If you get into an uncomfortable situation that may be above your head, by all means move. When your done with that session figure out what put you out of place and attack it head on. Then get back on that horse until you are comfortable.
- Practice, take chances and learn from your play to increase your experience and confidence.

As with any post, I am very interested in what others thoughts on the subject are. Please feel free to add your insight.