Follow the heart or the brain?

HectorTadeu · Feb 17, 2020

Brain most of time

TheDev · Feb 17, 2020

A great poker player knows how to balance the two. If you depend on your brain you can become blind to certain tendencies or tells. If you rely on your heart too much you will lose with hands that you mathematically should be folding. Whether it's the bet size, the draws or outs you have, math is very important in the game of poker. Just as important as knowing your opponents.

I personally would say using you brain is a little more important but you heart still needs to be considered.

SPANKYSN · Feb 17, 2020

I agree with those who say that both head and heart play a role. I generally play with the math in mind, but I do watch others for trends. If the player to my left continually raises my limp calls (especially in the small blind), I tend to fold bad hands, but can take advantage of this when I have a monster that I want them to raise.
I also play some hands, regardless of position, stronger than normal because they have an emotional bond...like pocket 7s...this was the very first winning hand in my first NLHE tournament. I also shy away from pocket 8s because that is the hand that knocked me out of the wsop Colossus in 2019.

Sharpblack · Feb 17, 2020

Head over heart - but

The time spent practising, reading, watching is all aimed at fine tuning and adding focus to the brain. It has to be considered the best weapon in this game. That being said, I have noticed, come to recognize, the “feeling”.

It’s not something you can force or guess at. It has to just happen. The initial look at your hole cards and you get that feeling “I need to play this hand”. Tracking when I recognize it, my hand hits around 80% of the time. That doesn’t mean I win them all tho as my opponent can hit and be better a well.

Djon25 · Feb 17, 2020

There should be more brains.:rock::rock:

fernandovr · Feb 17, 2020

I prefer to follow the brain, but I confess that I have followed the heart a few times and it worked.

77ecos · Feb 17, 2020

I follow the brain, the heart does not believe that he is the best advisor in poker, you need to play without being influenced by feelings

heeyjean · Feb 17, 2020

I'm not sure if i can trust in my hearth to be lucrative on poker, but i also think that my brain sometimes ins't realible as well... so i just try to be disciplined/patient and usually it brings me good results.

Garfield52 · Feb 17, 2020

I follow my brain when I have crap cards, but that usually fails because I flop the winners if I had gone in. Then I get some really good cards so I follow my heart and go into the game only to beat be some donk that hits the flop with his 2 n 7 off suit. I sometimes think the computers that run the site do it on purpose HA HA

dopustim · Feb 17, 2020

Brains in poker it is a necessity

Arthur ZM · Feb 17, 2020

In poker, you need a cold calculation, the mathematical component in poker is very important because it is not in vain that so many books have been written about poker mathematics. So I prefer to trust my mind than my feelings.

ptracco · Sep 7, 2020

very dificult choice.
I try to follow my brain, but damn.. my emotions always speak louder..
have to learn to control them

the_bridge222 · Sep 7, 2020

It depends on the goal you have. In my opinion, I prefer my brain, emotions could play in favor, but also in opposition. Although if you reach a very high level, perhaps you can use both based on experience to get the maximum profit.

userme4321 · Sep 8, 2020

For me, my heart! Easier said then done, my brain always thinks it knows, ignores my hart and gives in to emotions. Working on it....

nghoffman · Sep 8, 2020

I say, follow your first instinct. That's usually the correct way of thinking and playing.

Scooopy · Sep 8, 2020

Looking at what moment. It all depends on the situation. If we talk about poker, then of course it is better to follow knowledge and experience, but in some cases "6th sense" will tell you how to do it correctly. Well, in life it is better to follow feelings, the brain is a separate creature)

Geyomobama · Sep 8, 2020

Lol their expressed in the brain. Lets you mean follow your rational or logic vs your emotions. Sorry for being technical.

Natta777 · Sep 8, 2020

It all depends on my mood. Sometimes I play correctly, follow the calculations of my brain. And sometimes I don’t give a damn and I’m not playing logically, the opponents start to swear.

byron42 · Sep 8, 2020

This is "the" conundrum...the terrible feeling of folding based on what logic tells you and then you see the full spread giving you the win from the bench. Even worse when you're close to the bubble folding the hand you dearly want to play flopping nuts after you fold. Stupid poker.

jdorganic · Sep 8, 2020

Brain what heart 😄

youri · Sep 8, 2020

Heart, gut feeling or instinct does play a role though its not that significant to me in life therefore its also somewhat important in poker and usually it gets stronger and more useful through vast and worldly experiences.

At the poker table I put mind first as in what the strengh of my hand, whats the range of the villain, am I getting good odds..etc and then on rare occasions if I'm facing a really difficult situation I'll rely on my gut. However I can't say its been spot on 100 percent.

mtmigmike · Sep 8, 2020

I listen to my intuition and my brain, it all depends on the game and on the opponents.

Hanosch · Sep 8, 2020

As long as it functions well the brain seems to be a good choice

It is a long time ago and I can t remember where it was coming from, whether it s been a book or an article on one of those online schools/pages, but I once read people quite often say something like:
I have/had a good/bad feeling. This is an attempt of justifying a bad play.

It really got to me. Like this is a commen phrase when people are overpaying their flushdraw or something and I tried deleting it out of my vocabulary while loving to hear opponents saying that.

hanski4 · Sep 8, 2020

i usualy use my brain until i get to a position like call or fold and i know that my chanses are 50/50 then i follow my hearth

thekid9500 · Sep 8, 2020

It depends on the situation

Follow the heart or the brain?

HectorTadeu

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TheDev

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SPANKYSN

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Sharpblack

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Djon25

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fernandovr

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77ecos

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heeyjean

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dopustim

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Arthur ZM

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ptracco

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