auto pilot

[thelipkin]

In a game as mentally taxing as poker, the tendency is for a player to play on auto-pilot a large amount of the time. Do you think that the trick to being good is to improve your auto-pilot or is it to do as much actual thinking at the table as you can?

Also, which is the better way to improve auto-pilot, reading and discussing and analysing away from the game utilizing hindsight or playing with as many deliberate thoughts and in game analysis as possible?

I realize you must do both, but I find it a question worth asking.

[dutchfan]

for auto-pilot, do you mean, after a while they just start playing good hands and folding bad ones? Not reading people, just playing the basic game and trying to stay alive?

If so, i would say change it up,
Get a different drink every once in a while, change your position(seat, move it around or something), start up a new discussion, try something to get you interested in the game again, or not like you werent interested before, but something that will get you thinking again, like you are starting brand new.

[Iceman]

are you talkign abotu where you just let your brain take over and you go somewhere else in your mind? cause doing that at a poker table is no good.

I try to get into the game as much as possible so, like dutchfan said, do stuff to keep your head in the game.

[Fnord]

Fold junk, play good stuff. Sounds good to me. Don't worry about table image online. It's not worth playing crap hands when the bad players don't notice because they suck and the best players don't notice because they are running 2-6 tables at once.

[Krapp]

I like the auto-pilot concept:
(1) Very good in proving your playing strategy. If you can play your strategy within seconds of looking at the board (and winning) your good to go.
(2) Im under the impression that if you truely understand your strategy, you should be able to bet quickly. Hesitation is weak only when your not being deceptive.
(3) You can play more tables (meaning more profits)
(4) Better for rockish type play. I think targeted loose/aggression is better when you know who your playing against

Autopilot isnt sophisticated but it does test very well your basic playing strategy. To win profitably online, spending the extra time observing opponents might get to a point of diminishing rewards and might be better spent playing an additional board.

Now I do believe its very different at a live table game, where the frequency of hands are less and you need to optimize your individual hand wins/losses. Understanding your opponent is much more relevant and the use of tells become very important. However, theres only so much online you can do and your likely playing against both fishes and good players. With that amount of mix, churn, etc., reading opponents might be more hassle than its worth.