Poker Profiling with Gus Hansen, Captain Kirk, and Commander Spock

Poker game psychology will always lend itself to making logical decisions for turning long-term profit. Now for you Star Trek fans, Commander Spock would be an excellent poker player because he has an insane ability for mathematical and scientific calculations, and because of his very nature would not be susceptible to emotional mistakes at the table. But what about Captain Kirk?

While Captain Kirk appreciates Spock's logical disposition, he will often times trump Spock's knowledge simply because of intuition. As we know, Captain Kirk was the greatest Starfleet captain in the history of the world and has extraordinary leadership and decision skills. Okay then, back to reality. I liken Captain Kirk to Gus Hansen, who as a real life professional poker player seems to be able to combine Kirk's fearlessness and Spock's logic for his own strategy.

Let's face it, none of us are as good as Gus Hansen and will probably not attain those types of poker instincts ever, but you can look at your advancement in poker from a logical standpoint just like Spock would, and base your decisions on all of the available logic of the hand, the opponents, the game, and simply what is at stake. That is why many poker writers often recommend that you must remove your emotional connection at the poker table, which will allow you to make more profitable decisions long term.

On the other hand, Kirk, like Gus Hansen has acquired a unique ability to read opponents and to make judgments based on other factors outside of simple logic. That is why Captain James T. Kirk and Gus Hansen are superstars in their own right, and certainly to be looked upon to possibly emulate. However, the skills they possess which allow them to compete at the highest human level are, like mentioned before, not likely attainable by us mortals.

Instead, our strategy should be to look at a situation logically first, like Commander Spock would and then simply adding somewhat of a mathematical variance for the emotional errors and misjudgments your opponents may be committing. The real hard numbers, the facts that are actually calculable at the poker table, are far more reliable than abstract intuition, which by the way is usually a disguised, over confident version of anxious, hopeful thinking. This is far beyond basic holdem poker rules guys.

Ideally you will want to use Spock's style of logic first, as a way of learning the game and becoming competent to make correct decisions. The more that you do that, then Captain Kirk's intuition is naturally going to seep into your game as it should, and you may eventually be able to make a Gus Hansen-like decision that does requires learned intuition.