Tools and methods for the Zen Approach to poker.

Winning poker is all about making good decisions.  Good decisions require the processing of lot of data.  The only way to process all of this data is with the right brain (Zen Brain).  The left brain is great at analysis, but quickly becomes overloaded in a poker game.  As a result, the player becomes reactive at best.  The Zen Approach to poker enables a player to gain control of the table.  This is more profitable.  And since it is the right brain that feels joy, much more fun!

The Zen Approach:

1)  Break the game down into it's elements.  Each element can then be focused on, much like an athlete focuses on certain muscle groups.

2)  Execute left brain analytical decisions ahead of time, then clear the mind during play.  Choices such as the hat you wear.

3)  Practice analytical skills such as pot odds until they are intuitive.  This speeds up decisions, and frees the mind to process more information

4)  Practice intuitive skills by building experience memory, rather than train the left brain analytically first.

Why It Works:

The August 2006 Scientific American explains why this approach is the only way to become great at a complex contest such as poker.  Developing a Zen approach to poker enables a player to see familiar patterns at a high level and respond more quickly and effectively.  It is necessary to process "chunks" of data to do this.  To demonstrate the idea of chunks, try to memorize the following list of 27 letters in order:

a b o t i q x k s r u t w p m j s k i z e s w t k a w

Now try to memorize the following 27 letters:

Twas the night before Christmas,

These 27 letters were much easier to memorize, because we recognized a greater pattern.  In fact, you not only memorized the 27 letters, but also four spaces and a comma.  What is even more significant is that you know what comes next:  and all through the house, .....Imagine you knew what was coming next in a poker game!

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