Hypnosis In Poker

A good poker player has developed the ability to quickly study how the minds of his opponents work. His experience allows him to easily scrutinize the psyche of the other players in the table. And, with careful experimentation, he may able to influence the responses and actions of his opponents by using hypnosis. In poker, hypnosis does not involve a round crystal being swayed to and fro in front of a person’s eyes and it does not result to taking a person into a trance. Hypnosis simply nudges an opponent to do an action which is desirable to the player doing the hypnosis.

However, not all poker players can be hypnotized. The ones that can be placed under hypnosis are players who are dull, emotional or mystical. A dull player never anticipates the moves of his opponents in the next rounds. An emotional player is not objective. And a mystical player has an irrational and unreasoned attitude. In other words, all three players don’t have strong minds.

The rationale of hypnosis is that some repeated sounds and motions can subconsciously instruct a player to make particular bets, calls, raises, or folds. A less than alert player is not aware of these sounds and motions.

Hypnotic stimuli may be psychological, sound, visual and motion. Staring deeply into the eyes of a player is providing a psychological hypnotic stimuli. This player becomes uncomfortable and his subconscious reaction surfaces. Perhaps his usual reaction when being stared at is to fold, even if he has a good hand.

Hypnotic stimuli that use sound can be breathing audibly during a tense, silent moment when everyone else is waiting for a player to decide, or it can be chanting in a barely audible sound the desired move, such as “fold … fold … fold”. The player may think that it was his reliable instinct or gut who is advising him to fold.

Tapping the fingers on the table is a combination of sound and motion hypnotic stimuli. The tapping may subconsciously impel the player to call when he should have chosen to fold.

A visual and motion hypnotic stimulus is to move ones fingers through the pot. A player who follows the movement will subconsciously register in his mind all that the money. His mind suggests that the money is his for the taking. This player either raises or calls a bet when he should have chosen to fold.

There are more hypnotic stimuli that a player may use. He can discover these by simply being observant. Hypnosis, however, should be done cautiously, especially if there is another good poker player on the table.