A while back, I recall reading The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker. In one of the early chapters, there is a discussion on what is motivating you to play poker. I remember he also introduced this idea of 'having the right stuff' to be a winning player. In other words, a winning poker player will typically be able to control their impulses to play badly when they are tired or are just card dead over the course of a session, and look at poker like a business.
Of course, many people will be motivated to do something for multiple reasons. For instance, I enjoy playing competitive games in general, but I also like to win. I also enjoy the aspect of poker that requires you to interact on a human level with the other players (in live games). I also like all of the math and game theory applications of poker, and I feel motivated to improve my understanding of the math in the game.
I was playing a live game a few months ago, and noticed that one of the players seems to really hate the math aspects of the game, and seems to favor the 'outwit' aspect of the game. He really likes finding situations to take advantage of and capitalizes on other players weaknesses. I saw him run 'squeeze' plays in three different hands when it was obvious his opponents were weak over the course of about 4 hours of play.
In this thread, please answer this question:
What do you notice about either your own motivations to play, or things you've noticed in others as you play?
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