How to Make a Bad Read
By: EDUARDO SOLANO

TEASER: The connection between our insecurities as individuals and our shortcomings as poker players is often made apparent by the masters of the game. Here we examine a famous hand between Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth from GSN’s High Stakes Poker and just how the all-time WSOP bracelet record holder preyed upon the man they call The Mouth.

START

Apparently, I am having an affair with 3 women in my office (two of which are married,) I don’t shower and I’m gay.

Gossip is a very human phenomenon. It is born of insecurity and reveals more about the gossiper than the subject of the gossip. That’s what makes it so incorrigibly human – its absurdity.

Gossip is never about the truth. After all, if you want to know the truth, you either ask or investigate – you don’t prattle on in corners in low voices connecting dots that don’t need connecting. Gossip is about filling a void in the gossiper, giving them something important to cluck about while they avoid their own feelings of being out of control. Gossip is about the saying, not about what is being said.

Likewise, when someone feels trapped or out of control in a poker hand they will tend towards a similar absurdity as well. Here’s a good example of what I am talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viAbXmPRu_M

In this famous hand from GSN’s High Stakes Poker, Mike Matusow feels out of control. And with good reason: he is up against 11 time WSOP winner, Phil Hellmuth. But when the flop came QD 6H JS, Matusow obviously should have bet or planned to trap with his pocket Kings. Instead, he began down that gossipy path of connecting dots that were not meant to be connected. By the time the river came, leaving the board at QD 6H JS 8D 6C, Matusow had already relinquished the lead in the hand and – more importantly for our discussion – he’d gone into that absurd human gossip space. Somehow, he gave Phil credit for a huge hand (which he mysteriously never bet until the river…come on, Mike, why would Phil Hellmuth do that?) and mucked his cowboys face up. Phil’s face was erupting with a smile as he turned over the off-suit 7-2.

Before the hand even started, Matusowfelt out of control against Hellmuth. We know this because he does not go over-the-top against Hellmuth pre-flop (nor does he plan to trap as we later find out.) Immediately, he is giving Phil credit for Aces – this is coming to false conclusions to avoid facing his own fear of the greatest tournament Hold’em player in the world (sorry everybody, Phil Hellmuth is indisputably the best tournament Hold’em player in the world.) He was connecting dots that weren’t connected, somehow crediting Phil with a giant hand without forcing him to call a substantive bet to confirm his suspicions. We all get ideas, but you have to test your ideas to make sure that they are right. Otherwise they are just gossip. Mike Matusow was gossiping with himself – so all Phil had to do was make a big bet and Matusow was so lost in his imagination that he figured Phil either had the Aces or a full house.

What separates this play from good old fashioned bad poker is the flipping of the cards face up. Mike turned his cowboys face up to try and re-establish some control, some sense of power that is absent in both the gossiper and the out-of-control poker player. By shoving the cards in Phil’s face with bravado and confidence, Mike over-compensates for his insecurity. It’s like Rush Limbaugh calling for the execution of drug addicts – he can’t confront himself so forces punishment on others.

And we all have a gossip inside of us because none of us are perfect. At some point, you will run into a situation or player at a poker table who makes you feel out of control. When that happens, you get a choice: either you avoid that person or you get introspective. Remember that your fears come from you not from the other person/situation. If you want to conquer your fear, you have to look in yourself. And for the love of God, don’t immediately credit someone with a monster hand without making them prove it to you through calling a big bet or re-raising or something tangible.

So if you find yourself groping for a read at a poker table, stop what you are doing and collect yourself. Because even if you don’t recognize it, you are out of control and getting ready to gossip. Don’t lose out on the 10 hands that you should win because you are freaked out about the 1 time that you are due to be up against a cold deck.

Because I am not having an affair with three women in my office nor do I have sex with men, and Phil Hellmuth has the 7-2 off-suit. Live in reality not in insecurity.

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