The Psychology Of Poker Players
The myth of luck is just one factor that many believe affects some poker games. A player with real aspirations never trusts to luck. No such thing! The relationship between personality and gambling play style has not been really investigated until recently. The best poker players never improvise and never make a move just for the sake of doing it unless they have already won a heap of money or perhaps aren’t that concerned about winning!
Empirical observation of playing styles vs personality is difficult if the subjects active in online poker for their gambling. Looking at on-table poker behaviour is the only viable alternative for psychologists. Studies have now been conducted in Australia which classified players’ traits using criteria such as play style; tight or loose and aggressive or passive. Superstitious beliefs were also part of a test to determine personality type. The results showed that players with superstitious beliefs were significantly higher in neuroticism and lower in conscientiousness and than those with no superstitious beliefs. Those with high superstitious beliefs tended to play online on site likes PKR Poker. Players adopting an aggressive style were more extravert than passive players and not remotely superstitious. Analysis of playing style according to the age showed that loose players were on average older than the tight players.
Impatience was much higher in those extravert players while the more passive players tended to hedge their options and were more likely to take up rakeback deals if playing online. Like many psychological surveys, there were also some glaringly obvious conclusions. It was demonstrated that, to play a good game of poker, you had to have a clear mind – duh. If a player was troubled or stressed, their performance suffered. Older more passive players tended to stop and only started again when they felt better. The unusual combination of extravert and superstitious players of any age tended to push on regardless, believing that their lucky streak would come, which of course it rarely did.
