Last week I watched the Netflix series Jessica Jones that takes place in the comic universe of the books of Marvel. The main character is a private investigator in Hell's Kitchen who possesses phenomenal strength (and a very bad temper).
The villain during the first season is a man known only as Kilgrave. Your superpower is your ability to completely control other people's actions just by telling them what to do.
In episode 6, we learn at least one of the ways Kilgrave gets money to fund his schemes – poker. He goes to an underground high-stakes game where a hold'em game appears to be taking place. As soon as the two cards are dealt to everyone, he tells the other players, "Let's all go in." They are unable to resist his command.
He asks the dealer how much is in the pot. A little over a million dollars, she says. Kilgrave says that's enough for what he plans to do.
Then, just before the flop cards come out, he tells the players, "Let's do something crazy." Everyone folds. They do. Kilgrave exclaims, "Oh, I guess that makes me the winner" -- and shows his 72nd. He collects the money from the pot and leaves.
Now, the real me—which probably shouldn’t be watching superhero TV shows in the first place—wonders why he bothers playing cards. Why not just walk in and say, “Give me your money”? But the poker player in me thinks, “That’s a power that could come in very handy in some tough hands.”
I suppose every player has, more than once, tried to pass a bluff and tried to mentally control an opponent's choice. We screamed in our minds, "Fold!" Or, conversely, when we had the best hand, "Call!"
Daniel Negreanu is very experienced in this subject
Daniel Negreanu isn't exactly Kilgrave, either in terms of mind control or evil. However, at times he is able to trick his opponents so well that he seems qualified to become Kilgrave's apprentice.
Here's a classic example that occurred at the 2010 European Poker Tour London Main Event. Negreanu, holding :Td :9d , called three bets from Angel Shlomi. Now he faces a river bet on the board as follows: :9s :5s :4c :Qh :8c
Surprisingly, Negreanu raises. Clearly not expecting this, Shlomi starts thinking about what to do. At this point Negreanu makes a Kilgrave-like play. He says to Shlomi, “I believe you have AA or KK… I think you have AA or KK.”
He is right. Shlomi had :Ks :Kc
As commentator James Hartigan says, “And Shlomi is now thinking, ‘If you put me in AA or KK, surely you beat AA or KK. I have to give up.’ And he did! This is the equivalent of saying Obi-Wan Kenobi, “These are not the robots you are looking for.”
So mind control in poker does occur, at least sometimes – more often for the great players than for us.
However, the mind that is most important to control at the poker table is not your opponent's, it is your own. If you are not in control of your mind, you cannot use it to do all the things it needs to do.
You must control your mind so that it doesn't focus on the bad beat that occurred an hour ago, or the NBA Finals that are on TV, or that annoying drunk guy who won't stop talking across the table, or how much you need to win today to break your losing streak.
When I start talking about the importance of your own mind while playing poker, I should just shut up and turn to Tommy Angelo, who has written more eloquently on the subject than anyone I know.
He once asked: What gets in the way of your attention? Your thoughts. Why do you get irritated? Because you think your thoughts are irritating you. Why do you lose focus at the poker table? Because your thoughts are wandering, taking you with them to the past and the future.”
“The action to take is to learn how to stop your unproductive thoughts whenever you want in order to make room for something better,” he continues. “If you want to be as good as you can be at poker, you need a mind that is so strong that it can stop itself.”
Angelo goes into more detail on this point in the last section of his book, Elements of Poker, and gives the reader techniques for doing this, particularly deliberately controlling your breathing:
“You can actually use your body to convince your mind that everything is okay. The mind, which was just a moment ago in disarray, can’t help but notice that suddenly the body’s signals are telling it that everything is okay. The lungs are slowly and calmly inflating and deflating. The mouth is closed. Whatever happened, well, it seems to be over. The mind says to itself, “I guess I can relax now, too.” And the mind calms down…
The primary cause of tilt is mental pain, such as anger, fear, regret, injustice, disappointment, and shame. The only place your mental pain lives is inside your mind. The only thing your mind does is think. When you pay attention to your breathing, you shift your focus away from thinking.
So that's a start to your practice of mind control while playing poker. This alone won't get you to Negreanu's level of mind tricks, or even Kilgrave's level of control over others. However, if you can learn to control your own mind, there's no limit to the level you can reach.
Article translated and adapted from the original: Is Mind Control in Poker Possible? Yes, It Is
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