Brains and Balls

\’You gotta have two things to succeed kid – you gotta have brains and you gotta have balls. Now you got too much of one and not enough of the other\’ – Paul Newman to Tom Cruise in The Color of Money.

\”Being able to show players that you are willing to three barrel bluff, or call them down with a small pair, pays massive dividends in the long run as it makes your game much harder to exploit.\”

Although taken from a film about pool hustling, this comment really applies to poker very well. From how you approach the game hand by hand at the table, all the way to the obvious divide between the new generation of hyper aggressive online players and the wily old school pros, poker is a game where balancing courage and intelligence is critical to long term success.

Another good analogy for this concept is in military tactics. Just as the SAS or other elite army unit do not just go tearing in to every combat situation, but instead exercise controlled, well thought out aggression, good poker players tend to use their brain to work out where they stand, then use their courage to make the most of that position.

Intelligence is largely useless in poker without the courage to act upon it, as you will always just be regretting that you did not make a particular play, and courage without intellect is also just as doomed as your constant reckless plays will soon bust you. A classic example of when these two concepts become incredibly critical to be balanced is when making very thin calls or extremely risky bluffs.

At the high levels, or even at the low levels if playing with the same players constantly, you have to balance your actions in the very marginal spots. Being able to show players that you are willing to three barrel bluff, or call them down with a small pair, pays massive dividends in the long run as it makes your game much harder to exploit.

However, because these actions are so risky, you have to use both your brain to carefully pick the spots where you think these plays have the maximum chance of working, as well as have the courage to make a play that will sometimes make you look like an idiot and lose you a big pot.

Having courage in your convictions only means anything in poker if your convictions are usually correct. Use your brain to try and work out where you are, then use your heart to try and push any edge you feel you have as hard as you can…

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