Donkey See Donkey Do

There's a phenomenon present when people play games that is quite common, yet rarely discussed. Have you ever played poker in a really stupid low limit game where everyone was playing poorly? And have you ever caught yourself playing substandardly as a consequence of this? I call this the 'Donkey See, Donkey Do' dilemma.

All of my life I've been aware of this. Growing up as part of what I suppose you could call the 'second wave' of the video game generation, we were the kids who first had 16-bit machines and relatively complex games, and we played a lot of them (the first wave could probably be described as the 'Asteroids' or 'Pacman' generation). I noted way back then that when I would play with a kid who was proficient and serious I would naturally raise my level of play to stay competitive. Looking at results and scores I would sometimes be surprised at how my abilities had somehow increased overnight. But really it's no secret that I was just taking it more seriously myself and likely molding my gameplay behaviors after the better players. Kinda sounds like poker right? But I wasn't really planning on chatting about raising your game in the face of tough opposition, that's not the 'Donkey See, Donkey Do' dilemma.

The DSDD dilemma is more about the bad players and how even a great player will lower their intensity level against them, especially in a relaxed cash game environment. I'd be willing to bet that the reason a good player lowers their level of play in this instance relates to some deep-seeded social practice among humans. We naturally pity the weak, and we also want to be courteous to people in general (well, some of us anyways). When we see that we have a good edge in a game I think it's a natural response to try and up the 'fun' level in the game, and if you're not careful this can easily come at the expense of your profit. I'd also be willing to bet that this phenomenon affects poker games at every stake, even the biggest games in the world.

How do we conquer this? Well, it's impossible to conquer it if you don't care enough about your results. If part of you feels you're in the game for fun and that you don't really need to win, you are doomed to go on repeating the DSDD pattern of varying your intensity level. If you're an always serious player who really cares about your bottom line like I am, here are a few tips:

1- Remember that this dilemma is real. Do you see a bunch of silly fish in your game? Think that you don't need to pay as much attention on the early streets maybe, because they 'play so bad' that you can always get a good read later in the hand when it matters? This is precisely when the biggest donkey in the game will probably surprise you with a well timed check raise that he never could have gotten away with had you been paying more attention.

2- Remind yourself that you have to stay on your A-game or quit the game. The profit in poker comes more from you playing well than your opponents playing poorly. A big-shot shark on tilt will have trouble pulling down the same profits a tilt-proof average pro will in a fish infested game. The shark is effectively wasting his time if he isn't being the shark he knows how to be. I like to think about poker this way. Whenever I get tired or for whatever reason I'm not at my best, I'm quite prone to quit the game. The game will always be there tomorrow (unless you've got Andy Beal on the hook or something, then you never know). This attitude has increased my rate. Back in the day I would play poorly in a shit game just because I couldn't think of anything better to do. Get a life and get back to that life if you're intensity level slips. Personally, I now sometimes quit a live session to go and play online or vice versa. This helps maintain a fresh winning perspective.

3- Treat your opponents with respect. I try not to characterize opponents as 'bad players' or think things like "this donkey limps so often and plays so weak, I'm gonna crush him". Instead, just treat all your opponents as equals and strive to accurately characterize their play. For example, instead of "this idiot limps with anything what a fish, I'm gonna kill him" think "this player is currently limping with a very wide range of hands". It's not "this player raises too many hands" that matters, it's that "this players raises X amount of hands". When you start to break things down into informational nuggets and forgo dwelling on results and skill levels, you're one step closer to always playing your best.