Hi everyone, I am a professional poker player. Poker is a game of information and the more you can retain and recall the better the decisions you will make. So I’ve been thinking about this for a little while but couldn’t really find the right technique.
The most important information In poker I could probably narrow down to essentially 5 numbers, but these numbers will apply to each of the 8 other people at the table. The numbers for each person will also change with every hand that is dealt, so that means adjusting the numbers which could be will likely be 2 digits each, for 8 people in the space of minutes.
I have no idea if this is even possible. I know it’s possible to do this given more time but. I just can’t find a system in which you can remember all of the 5 numbers for the 8 other players at the table whilst doing it In a very short amount of time. Any suggestions or input would be gratefully received. Thank you.
I suspect your biggest challenge would be time management. If you need to memorise every person’s numbers at the start of every round it’ll be more difficult than memorising it at each individual’s turn. Either way that’s only eighty digits at most so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Apart from time management I think accuracy will be the most important thing to train as in my (limited) poker experience accuracy is vital, rather miss a number than remember it inaccurately.
That said, it’s a fairly simple problem, you’ll need a number system, some system that you want to use (do you encode each individual’s five numbers as a single ten digit number or individually). You’ll also need to keep in mind that clashes can occur. I think some people here call it “ghosting” or something. And you’ll need to decide whether to use the method of loci for the encoding or simply linking everything. So with the method of loci you would have a room for each person, and perhaps a separate location for each round. It depends on how you wish to go about it.
You can find almost all the things you need in the “start here” section (learn button at the top of the screen).
Just out of curiosity, what does each of the five numbers represent?
Hi Blakjak
I enjoy playing poker as well. What is the number system you are referring to as the technique should reflect what you are trying to achieve.
Is it opponents hands played or just what type of player they are?
Thank you egency, cheers for taking the time to write that response that’s really helpful. Althoigh accuracy would be ideal it’s not the end of the world if the numbers are off a little.
In answer to your questions the numbers would represent - sample size (amount of hands that person has played), the amount of times the player limps (puts money in without raising pre flop) and how much they raise pre flop. There are a couple other stats I could throw in but those 3 would probably be the most useful.
with regards to remembering the numbers you would have to update each of the players numbers at the start of the round after they have acted and you’ve gained that info, then remember this until the next round.
In that case time management becomes somewhat easier as, if I’m imagining the scene correctly, person A acts, person B considers their action giving you time to memorise person A’s action. You could then create a location for each round so that you don’t run into trouble with overlapping images. It’ll take a bit of upfront work but the theory should be fairly simple. You create a two digit PAO type number system (there are ones lying all over the place, I believe also there is a dedicated wiki page on it), then you create a palace with enough rooms for the theoretical maximum number of rounds. At this point all you have to do is practice to get proficient at it and reduce your time per player (remembering those three numbers). If you actually do want to remember all five numbers you can probably use the same PAO system and connect the second set of numbers to the first. Experimentation will probably be your best guide here.
I’m not sure how you would handle multiple games though. I’ve noticed there are a few people who experiment with reusing the same location for multiple things. Some set the place on fire or flood it for example to avoid overlap. You may have to experiment with that but your options for multiple games is either to create multiple palaces, or create a method for reliably reusing the same one.
I’m glad it was helpful, I wasn’t quite sure it would be as it was mostly based on my best guess of how a poker game functions. Haven’t played a lot of it, but it’s a pretty awesome game, one of my long standing “want to do” items that I haven’t gotten around to.
