What do you think about poker intuition, or intuition in general?

[reglardave]

I am a great believer in intuition, but it's really unpredictable in poker. You can make the right move at the right time, and still come a cropper, that's just part of the game.

 

[DowntownDan]

Intuition is an interesting concept. It's something that defies logic and mathematics and relies completely on gut feelings. I've always held logic in high regard and tend to be skeptical about things that aren't proven or tangible, but I'm wondering about intuition.

Let's take poker intuition. I'm not talking about having a read on a certain player and definitely not about pot odds or other good reasons to play a hand, or play it a certain way. Do you ever look down at that premium hand and get a gut feeling it's going to get you in trouble? Or see 8T offsuit and just "know" you should play it? Are you right about it when that happens? Are you right more than you're wrong?

Yesterday I played a tournament with a couple of friends, and one of them was at my table. He was a couple of seats to the right of me, we were at the final table and the blinds were big. It was pretty much push or fold time. I was in middle to late position and everyone folded to me and I looked down at AK. I pushed and took the pot. He turned to me and said, "Remember this hand. I want to talk with you about it later." Later he said that he'd had AJ, definitely a fine pushing hand when short stacked, but that he'd just had a feeling that I had a better hand. I hadn't looked at my cards yet, so he couldn't have gotten any kind of tell from me. It was just a feeling he had.

Do you believe intuition is real, or coincidence that seems real because when we're right it feels so much more significant than when we're wrong? Lately I've been wanting to follow my intuition, but deviating too far from logic doesn't seem like a smart plan. Do you use a combination of both?

Although I'm a follower of the measurable and the proven, I think there are lots of things in this world that we don't completely understand and/or don't use to our full capacities. Last year I saw into one of my husband's dreams, which we discovered the following morning. That was freaky....

"BELIEF IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR 'KNOWLEDGE'."

(THAE 'GUT FEELING' THAT YOUR FRIEND WAS HAVING WAS , MOST LIKELY, PARANOYA..... ) [:<)~

 

[thasauce7]

I definitely believe in intuition, though I've not been able to use it online for some reason. Seems I have to actually handle the cards to get a feel for 'em, and even then it's not dependable... it comes and goes as it pleases. But there are definitely nights when I can have you shuffle and cut a random deck and I can flip over every card in that deck telling you what it is before hand, and I'll be right!

I was playing in a brick n' mortar tourney in Nebraska a few years ago and I had one of those intuition things hit me. I didn't look at my cards and said to the table at large "you better get out of this hand because I'm going to win this one." and the guy across the table from me who was UTG says "Oh yeah, how do you know?" and I said "Because I know what you have in your hand." He kind of snickered and came back with "Ok then, tell me what I have". By this time the actions had come around to me. I said "Pocket Jacks, both red" and pushed all my chips in the middle.

His jaw kind of got slack and his face turned white and he folded his cards. I looked down in my hand to discover pocket 8's. I had two callers. The dealer turns over J-J-8 on the flop, another 8 on the turn and X on the river. This guy started banging his head on the table and quickly grabbed his folded cards from the muck pile to show me what I had folded. I calmly turned over my quad eights and took the huuuge pot.

That's not the only time either. There've been hands that I play entirely blind, raising and calling as I feel the action deserves it, only to have someone turn over a monster at the end, then I shrug and say "yep that's a great hand" and turn over the only two cards that could possibly beat their monster.

I don't know how often that's happened to me in real cash games... but it doesn't work that way for me online for some reason. I've just learned to trust my gut instinct on certain hands. It's like being semi-drunk. I get kind of buzzy in my head and I just KNOW it's one of those hands. Not once has it failed me, not yet.

Thank you for giving me one of the best laughs I have ever heard. I think my kindergarten teacher told me that story after she got through reading Jack and the Bean Stalk.

Your story has multiple flaws, one of which is the discussing of hole cards during a hand. Not to mention even if you did nail his hand why would he get scared, I would be pissed and think you rigged the deck, not scared. You live in Nebraska? I have got to go play cards there.