The Art of Poker - Chapter 6

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

Chapter 6 of The Art of War is "Weak Points and Strong", and is, strangely enough, an apt description of the chapter.

It starts by using a simple example. By being the first to the field of battle, you will be rested and unhurried. The army that arrives second will be tired from the march to the field, and be immediately faced with battle. In short, fight on your own terms.

By dictating terms, you can dictate your enemy. Bait them in, or attack areas that they will be forced to defend to stall their advance. If you are well-provisioned, you can simply starve out your enemy.

Attack the vunerable spots unexpectedly and swiftly to keep the enemy off-balance and defending instead of advancing.

If you march through undefended territory, you will march without distress. If you only attack undefended targets, you will be assured of success. If you defend unassailable places, you will be guaranteed success in defending them. A skilled general will keep his enemy in the dark about where he will attack, and likewise keep his enemy unknowing of where the enemy should attack.

Subtlety and secrecy are the keys to controlling your enemy.

If you attack a well-defended enemy, you can still defeat them by attacking places they must hurry to defend. For instance - a supply line, or instead of attacking the fort, attack the palace. If you are being attacked, you can halt the advance by simply doing the unexpected and unthinkable. An example in my readings is given of the city, which being attacked, threw open its gates. Revealed behind those gates were some men simply sweeping and watering the ground. The attacking army feared an ambush and retreated without attacking. Truly a brilliant strategem.

If we know the enemy's moves and positions, we can attack him with full force. If we keep our own information hidden, he must split his forces to defend from all sides. By forcing this division of forces, we in effect cause their numbers to be few (being divided into smaller groups) to our many (being unified). But of course, our intended target must be kept secret.

And opportunities will always present themselves - if the enemy increases their force in one area, than another becomes weaker, and if he balances all fronts, then all will be equally weak.

As well, precise timing can allow you to prepare from a great distance, having your armies meet at a designated time and place, becoming one great force at the most opportune location. Without this timing, you splinter your own forces and they can be picked off one by one without the bolstering of their allies.

If your enemy isn't giving much information, anger and annoy him to force him from his position and reveal himself. Compare the opposing army with your own to determine where you are strong, and where you are weak. Keep your plans as secretive as possible, for then even the best spies won't discover anything.

Anyone can see how a battle was fought, but few see the long planning that went into the battle beforehand.

Don't use the same method twice, but bend to the infinite circumstances and changes in each battle to create an infinite number of tactics. Much like water flows downhill, so should an army follow the conditions of battle, and adjust according the foe. Water has no constant shape, nor does warfare have constant conditions. Each element and season takes turns at dominance with the others

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I wonder if the repetitiveness of some of these chapters is done to underly that the key is variation of basic elements to create infinite combinations. Regardless, the first piece is easily connected to a basic poker concept - aggressive poker is winning poker, and perhaps more specifically, the gap concept. If you are first to make a move, you increase your chances, for when it is your opponent's turn to act, he now has to face a battle. Get your chips in and now he has to ask, "are my cards good enough to call?" or, "can I force him off his hand with a raise?" In other words, you're dictating the action and controlling the hand.

A strong hand can benefit from baiting an opponent in, while opponents can be held off from attacking by striking first at key points. Again, the gap concept comes into play.

And secrecy is key. Showing hands, talking about your play, and criticizing others gives away clues to your strategies and tactics. By revealing nothing, you keep your opponents off-balance.

If you attack weak players, you'll win. If you defend with the nuts, you'll win. And by choosing your targets wisely, you can defeat even seemingly strong foes. For instance, say there's a chipleader who is attacking the weak players. Every time you play at him, he bullies you. Bluffing him isn't possible, because he's not at risk. But if you can attack the other players at the table, you cut off his ability to take their chips, because they go to you. If he ramps up his attacks on them, and becomes looser, you can then take advantage of him, as his position weakens as he fights multiple battles. Drawing attention to his bullying, aggressive ways can also cause others to widen their ranges against him as they realize what his strategy is. As he defends from multiple opponents, he weakens.

Likewise, when facing an advanced player, an uncharacteristic, unexplainable, unexpected move can work wonders. If the board makes no sense, and he's attacking, making a move that confuses him (ie.- an all-in on an uncoordinated board of low cards) will often stop him in his tracks as he attempts to figure out what just happened. Many times your opponents will talk out the hand aloud, revealing tons of information about themselves, and will often talk themselves out of a call. Then they'll ask that always fun question - "You flop a set? Two pair? Pocket aces?" which tells YOU how weak they really were.

Knowing as much as you can about your opponent can let you plan a move far in advance. An orbit early you can think "the next time I've got position on him and he raises 4x the BB, I'm coming over the top", because you've seen that he always does this in MP or when the pot is unopened. You can float him with plans to take it down on a later street as he c-bets, but has bowed to pressure from others. You can plan and time your attack to do the most damage based on your observations and preparation.

And if your opponent is a rock, then don't underestimate the value of tabletalk or annoying betting. Do what you can to provoke a reaction, because if you can get a stone-faced killer to break, chances are you've permanently cracked the dam. Rocks tilt harder than anyone else when they tilt.

And always mix up your game. If your turn bluff worked one time, don't use it again and again, because people will see through it. Next time, adjust the size, the timing, or use it when you HAVE a hand. Keep 'em guessing. For anyone can see how a hand played out, but so very few pay attention to the dozens of hands that went into building to that move. Been a LAG all game? Then getting your aces paid off makes a lot more sense than if you were super-tight.

So, how does this all boil down? Don't blab about your plays or anything else that will give you away. Realize that every time your opponent focuses on one thing, it means another area of their game has weakened. Attack where they are weak, and defend where you are strong. Keep 'em guessing, and annoy them if necessary. Plan ahead, but be creative and mutable. Don't be afraid to be unorthodox in order to confuse them into losing. Take the path of least resistance, and victory will come naturally.

The Art of Poker - Chapter 5

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4


Chapter 5 of The Art of War is titled "Energy".

Sun Tzu opens by discussion how the control of a large force is no different than control of a small one. The control of a large force is achieved by breaking it into multiple small forces, and controlling those through officers, uniform signals, and experience.

He then speaks of using manoeuvres both "direct and indirect". There is some debate as to what is meant by this, but people seem to have settled on the "direct" meaning the standard, by-the-book methods, where the "indirect" are the unexpected, outside-the-box moves. The science of knowing where the weak and strong points of enemy are is key to being dominant.

The direct method is used to enter battle, but its the indirect attacks that will ensure victory. An experienced and smart general will have a limitless supply of indirect tactics at their disposal. Comparisons are drawn to the fact there are only five primary colours (red, green, blue, black, and white), but a spectrum of combinations. There are only 5 tastes, yet more flavours than we can ever experience. Similarly, there are only the 2 methods of attack, yet unending combinations of them.

12. The onset of troops is like the rush of a torrent which will even roll stones along in its course.

13. The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.

The good fighter will be quick to attack, and be able to instinctively time his changes in tactic. Energy is like a cocked bow, and decision the release of the arrow. Potential vs kinetic energy.

The appearance of disorder and fear may actually be evidence of the exact opposite.

17. Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline,
simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness
postulates strength.

Sound familiar? From here the text discusses how deception is key to manipulating your enemy. You can dictate their decisions and actions by showing what you want them to believe. A show of strength from a weak opponent can keep your enemy at bay. A show of weakness when you are superior can draw them in. Sacrificing something as bait to gain a greater victory is common.

Finally, a common practice is to use the greater of your force to achieve the bulk of the work, while utilizing specialized groups to put you over the top. Think of an advancing army with only a handful of well-placed snipers in proper position, taking out the right targets. Using the natural strengths and training of your men to support the force of your army will result in great energy being released. Even a stone, when dropped from a great height, can do much damage.

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So, the main problem with reconciling this chapter to poker is, once again, the definition of an "army" in poker terms. This ain't a team sport. I believe I've previously likened the army to the tools at your disposal. As a general grows in experience, so too does his ability to manage larger numbers. The same holds true for a poker player. As you become more experienced, you add more weapons to your arsenal, and your ability to manage this increasing number grows.

For example, I often tell my friends who are just starting out on the long, dark road of poker not to bluff. I tell them that once they're comfortable with ABC play, then one day they'll try hiding the strength of their hand. From there, they'll start reading others and eventually take a stab at pot with a mediocre hand. Full-on bluffing will eventually become natural for them, as will the timing of when to use it.

The same holds true for any other number of moves we use. Check-raises, re-raises, hollywood, angle-shooting, table-talk, false tells, level 3 thinking, etc.. As our experience grows, so too does our army. The truly great players can use all their tools at once to wage battle, controlling when each one gets used in a similar manner to sending out a strike force or positioning snipers.

But nobody uses strictly level 3 thinking or tries to dazzle everyone with their brilliant play. A consistently unorthodox game is exactly that - consistent. In the end, we all have an underlying ABC game that drives most of our decisions. The differences that come into play are when we apply the "indirect" attacks. If I've been showing a TAG style all night, and suddenly go through a period where my style changes dramatically, it causes confusion. If I haven't raised a hand preflop yet and all of sudden come in for 5x the BB, most people will fold. If I do it 3 hands in a row, people get suspicious. If I play 2nd pair like the nuts, people might think I have the nuts. Mixing it up is where the money is made.

Poker breaks down to 3 buttons on your screen - check/fold, bet/call, and raise, but there are limitless ways of combining these simple ideas. A pause before clicking could means something, a re-raise could be a squeeze or a hand that is afraid of draws, a call could mean anything, and sometimes a fold can pay massive dividends down the line.

Timing these moves is the key to victory. Been playing loose and aggressive all night? When you get the aces, it's time to use that image to extract value. Been weak-tight? Lure the LAG in. Unleashing your tactics at the wrong time can be disasterous... nobody likes bluffing into the nuts.

As for that fold - it's one of my favourite methods for extracting value down the line. If I can throw away a mediocre hand for minimal loss against a player who I put on nothing but aggression, it shows weakness on my part. I'm automatically tagged as either someone who folds to pressure, or someone who CAN fold less than the nuts. This controls their behaviour later on, when the chips matter more. I can often get that same player to once again try and scare me off a hand, allowing me to come back over the top. Regardless of my holdings, this player has already pegged me as either weak or smart, and will likely fold anything that isn't premium, assuming I have them beat. For if I am weak, then I'm not lying about my strength, but if I am smart, then I'm obviously going with strong-means-weak-means-strong. That small sacrifice earlier on ensured a victory later.

For one thing Sun Tzu keeps referring to is the directed ancestor of "weak means strong and strong means weak". Deception is the key to victory in his book. The trick is in convincingly achieving this deception.

Finally, using proper tactics can help even those in the weakest circumstance achieve victories. If you've been folding away your chips as the blinds grow, and people have noticed, then a sudden all-in at the RIGHT TIME can work very well. If it's with a strong hand, then you want it to appear weak, and vice versa. In fact, the full-steam-ahead method of short-stack play I often see usually ends in tears. However, if spots are chosen, and the right moves are made, a small stack can build up quickly and improve a table image tremendously.

In the end, the smarter, and more unpredictable your play is, the more likely your chance of success.

As an aside, while reading this chapter, an anecdote was relayed to illustrate the point of controlling your enemy through your appearance. I'll paraphrase:

Sun Pin is at war with P'ang Chuan. Pin, knowing that his country has a reputation for cowardice, devised a plan where the fires of his army would decrease each night, dropping from 100,000 to 50,000, to 20,000. Chuan, seeing this, assumed that the cowards of this army had already fled from his superior force. Chuan led an attack as Pin retreated. In a narrow defile, Pin had a tree felled across the pass, and he carved the message "Under this tree shall P`ang Chuan die." He then set up a series of archers and gave them orders to fire upon seeing a light. Chuan arrived in the defile that night and when he came up on the tree, noticed the writing. He struck a match to read it, and was struck down by the arrows of the archers.

I found this a fantastic piece that was obviously analogous to using table image to lure in and destroy an overconfident opponent.

The Art of Poker - Chapter 4

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

"Tactical Dispositions" is Sun Tzu's title for this chapter. This can be defined as the determination of the tactics and strategy of the enemy. The skilled general will alter tactics so as to hide the true strategy and condition of his army.

Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

We hold the ability to keep ourselves from being defeated, but the enemy provides the means of their defeat. So the good fighter can make sure they cannot be beaten, but cannot be certain of defeating their enemy. "One may KNOW how to conquer, without being able to DO it." Defense keeps us from being defeated, but offense is what allows us to defeat our enemy. But taking a defensive stance indicates weakness, while attacking shows a "superabundance" of strength.

The skilled defensive general will hide his numbers and conceal everything. The skilled offensive general will attack without warning, not giving the enemy a chance to defend.

Sun Tzu returns to the concept of bloodless war here as the idea of ultimate victory. Seeing a victory after it happens is no great ability, you must see the victory before you attack - ie.- you must be prepared and plan. Nor is it a great victory if everyone says it is, for this means that your plans and motions were not secret, but blunt and visible to all.

To lift the lightest of weights (an "autumn hair") doesn't display strength. Seeing the sun and moon doesn't mean you have great eyesight. Hearing thunder says nothing about your ability to hear. The clever fighter is one who excels at winning with ease. His victories will bring him no great acclaim, for he wins simply by making no mistakes. In short - the great fighters are those who make it look so easy, that nobody gives them credit for their work. Making no mistakes ensures victory. Thus, the ideal strategist only fights after victory has already been achieved. The foolish one attacks first, and then seeks victory.

Since the great general controls moral law (see Ch 1), he controls the tools for success.

Here, Sun Tzu provides the military method:

1.- Measurement
2.- Estimation of quantity
3.- Calculation
4.- Balancing of chances
5.- Victory

These are then interconnected:

- Measurement owes its existence to Earth (see Ch 1)
- Estimation of quantity owes its existence to measurement
- Calculation owes its existence to estimation of quantity
- Balancing of chances owes its existence to calculation
- Victory owes its existence to balancing of chances

These need to be explained. Measurement is surveying the area, the enemy, those conditions you CAN measure and control. From measurement you can estimate the strength of your enemy and other factors that will come into play when you calculate and divine your chances, putting strength and strategy to bear where it will be most useful. This, of course, will lead to victory.

A victorious army becomes even stronger, and combined with the demoralization of a losing, opposing army, makes the victorious army nearly unstoppable. Like a dam bursting into a deep chasm.

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Again, there are very obvious parallels to poker strategy here. I imagine the great generals of history would be top-tier poker pros today if they wanted to be.

In poker, all we can really do is play our own game and minimize mistakes. In this way, we can defend ourselves from defeat, but at a table of similarly skilled opponents, we have to wait for our opportunities to secure victory. It's often said that winning is achieved by making less mistakes than your opponent.

But by simply trying not to lose, we show weakness. If we are to be truly defensive, we need to conceal our plans and our abilities. The appearance of weakness should be only that - an appearance. It should be used to draw the enemy in. If we are going to be aggressive and offensive, we need to strike quickly and decisively. In other words, BE AGGRESSIVE, not a minraising, blind-stealing pansy, but raining down on your opponent when they're off guard and ill-prepared to fight back. Resteal, fire multiple bullets, strike fear into them.

But make it seem effortless. Let people say things like "what a cardrack" or "guy's been catching all night long" when they don't even know what your cards are. It's easy to say "nice hand" after the board is laid out and your flopped boat is shown over your opponent's turned flush. It's not as easy for you to know you're going to win the next hand by representing a boat and forcing your opponent to fold their flush. Plan ahead, know your enemy's weaknesses and your strengths, and pit the two against each other. In the end, let people call you a luckbox as your string together a run of victories. Eventually, the right people will recognize your skill, subtle as it is.

Make no mistakes, and you'll win. Plan your victory before you battle, and you'll win. Decided to play a hand "just because" and getting trips over two pair isn't good poker, it's dumb luck.

You know your skills, and it is up to you to remain disciplined in their use. You, and you alone, hold the key to your victory.

Could Sun Tzu's military method be any better suited to poker?

MEASUREMENT of your opponents skills, position, stacks, tells, attitudes, and every other factor that comes into play allows you to ESTIMATE their ability to play in different situations. This allows you to CALCULATE when you can beat them, and how you can force mistakes on their part. Once you've BALANCED your chances, you will be able to find victory by appplying all you have learned.

And as we all know, winning begets winning. Keep trouncing your opponents by hiding your strength and attacking without remorse and they will become demoralized. Your image and strength will only grow, making victory that much easier. Imagine if you're on the third month of the worst losing streak of your life, and Phil Ivey sits down at the table across from you after he's just won his third straight WPT event and cleaned out a huge cash game. Would you even be ABLE to play a hand against him? Would you not just want to get up and walk away right then? By showing you know how to win, and more importantly, that you know how to make others lose, you can be viewed as unstoppable.

The Art of Poker - Chapter 3

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 3 of The Art of War is "Attack by Stratagem". This concerns using knowledge of the size of both your and your enemy's armies, and how to deal with the disparities. It also covers the mistakes that can be made by a leader and the essentials of victory.

Sun Tzu starts by offering that the greatest victory is to take a country whole, without shattering or destroying it. It follows from there that it is better to take an army whole, a regiment whole, a detachment, or a company whole instead of destroying and dividing them. In short - simply crushing your enemy is not "supreme excellence", but to defeat them without bloodshed, to bring them to your way without destroying them, is the best form of victory.

A descending ranking of general results follows this. From "balking" the enemy's plans (translated more accurately as foiling your enemy's plans via attack and counterattack instead of simply defending yourself), isolating your enemy, attacking the enemy in the field, and finally, worst of all, laying seige to a walled city.

Laying seige to a walled city involved months of preparation at the gates. Assembling and building engines and weapons of war, seeking weak spots in the walls, building mounds to the walls in order to attack them. It was a long and tiring method, best to be avoided. An impatient general would attack prematurely, losing a good part of his army in a futile attempt to breach the walls. This is likened to ants swarming.

Thus, the best solution is a leader who can conquer without fighting. Take cities without laying seige. If successful at this, he would have a complete victory and have undisputed mastery of the empire.

If your army outnumbers your enemy ten-to-one, surround him; if five-to-one, attack immediately; if two-to-one, flank; if matched, offer battle; if slightly outnumbered, avoid and observe for advantage; if greatly outmatched, flee. A small force can be a pain, but will ultimately be captured.

The general is the main defense of a country, and through him the strength of the state is determined. Sun Tzu lists how a general can lose:

1.- By ordering the army to do something it cannot. Something that would happen only if he was not involved with the battle itself. Ie.- attacking or retreating when such an action would be impossible.

2.- By treating the military as he would the civilian. Allowing a lack of discipline, not being hard with the troops. This would cause a restlessness among the soldiers. The army ain't the country.

3.- By ignorantly and haphazardly delegating his officers, not putting them where their strengths are best utilized.

Showing ignorance shakes the soldiers' confidence. This will lead to anarchy in the ranks and the army will tear itself apart. Your enemies will know this and assist in the destruction.

The chapter finishes with:

17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials
for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when
not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior
and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same
spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take
the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is
not interfered with by the sovereign.

18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy,
for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
succumb in every battle.

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This chapter should pretty much write itself. Although I was torn on the first section when relating it to our game. First, how does one define bloodshed in a poker game, when your goal is to take all the chips? I've settled on bloodshed in this instance being equivalent to a showdown. Ideally, you want to win without showing your cards. Aggressive, positional, situational play where you exploit your table image and the weaknesses of your opponents is ideal play in poker. After all, poker is a betting game of chicken, the cards just settle the debate when someone can't fold their losing hand. Would you not be impressed if someone won a tournament or walked away from a cash game with huge pile of chips and then turned to you and said, "I played the whole thing blind"?

After this comes constantly keeping your opponent off-base by being aggressive, and decisive when you react to his attacks. Isolating an opponent is always good practice, but in this instance, I believe this could be better compared to "playing the player, not the cards" -- isolating him from his weapons, his chips, his cards, making them unable to factor in his play. If you fail at these preferable methods, then you may, in fact, have to meet him in battle with your cards. The beautiful thing, though, is that due to your aggressive play to this point, when you DO have the nuts, your opponents won't know it, and won't believe you.

Finally, and least preferable, is battling a "walled city". I would tie this to the "rock". No matter how aggressive you are, how cagey, how great a "player" you are, if someone won't put chips in the middle, you can't beat them. Laying seige against a tight player, especially if they have some form of leverage (stack size, position, etc.), can be a frustrating, tiring, and LONG effort. If there's a full table, and one of the people is a nut-peddler, why would you focus on them when there's so much more money for the taking? Take your time and build your bulwarks, your catapults, your arsenal for a seige by taking them from your other enemies as they fall. Spend this time analyzing the play of the rock, looking for a tell, a leak, anything you can exploit. It may be that he's the last obstacle to total victory, but there's a better chance someone easier to beat will barrel into him and suckout on his aces for you.

Use your chips to your advantage. If you have a monster stack, abuse people with it, be fearless. If your stack is still the biggest, but not huge, fear not the bad beats as you attack with superior numbers and the ability to absorb losses. If you have but double the stack of your opponent, be strategic. If he calls your bluffs, crush him with a trap. If he avoids your traps, bluff him away. If even in chips, apply the pressure to him when you believe you have an advantage, he may back down. If slightly behind, look for advantages and pick your spots. If greatly outchipped, avoid confrontations if at all possible. For smallstacks can be a pain, but eventually will find their chips in the hands of the bigger stacks.

You can lose in various ways:

1.- By not being aware of the details of the hand. Deciding you have a flush when it's not possible based on the hand so far is deadly. Bluffing a calling station is foolish. Missing the fact the river gave you the nuts and folding will kill you. Be in the game, and be aware of what you can and cannot successfully do at all times.

2.- A real game of poker isn't your home game. Bill the drunk isn't going to berate you for chasing that inside straight draw, because he's drinking your beer. Bill the 40 year-old table captain tourist at the Venetian will. That guy with the trucker cap in Caesars could be a pro for all you know, not your dumb-ass friend with too much money and not enough brains. Do NOT lose discipline when playing "for real". Poker with your buddies is wargames, poker with strangers is war.

3.- Apply your skills and tools appropriately. Mix up your game. Bluff the rocks, trap the LAGs, fold to the TAGs, and tell stories to those who are able to fold when you make your "flush".

If you fail at these, you will lose, it will shake your confidence and interest. You'll grow restless. Your opponents will see this and take advantage of it. Eventually, you'll self-destruct at the table and walk home dejected and broke.

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:

(1) He will win who knows when to raise and when to fold.
(2) He will win who knows how to beat the bigstacks and smallstacks, the different player types, and how to leverage his advantages against all.
(3) He will win who is involved and disciplined and focused on the game.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has experience and knowledge and doesn't let outside factors overrule his good judgement. Alternately - he/she will win who doesn't let his wife/husband near him when he/she's at the table.

18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy,
for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
succumb in every battle.

The Art of Poker - Chapter 2

Sun Tzu's second chapter is entitled "Waging War", but is, in reality, about the economic costs of war, not the actual battles being fought.

Unlike the first chapter, this one can be summed up more succinctly - The longer the war, the greater the cost.

The initial cost is great for men, chariots, supplies, and sundries. Then the cost continues as they travel, and as time wears on, their weapons become dull, as does their ardor. Eventually, a long campaign can bankrupt the state that funds it. While a war waged too quickly can be full of stupidity, nobody gets rewarded in a long one.

As the war drags on, the economic costs to those at home increase. The budget of the army changes increasingly towards upkeep and maintenance of weapons and armour.

Only a seasoned General can truly understand the importance of rapidity. Experience leads to minimal resupplies, and not turning back for help once committed. Sun Tzu advocates foraging from your enemy, as "One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own...", and the cost equivalently so, for it costs more to send the supplies from afar than use what is at hand.

These spoils of war should be used to reward your soliders to spur them to continue fighting. Your flags should be substituted over the enemy's to raise morale and stir anger. But captured enemy soldiers should be treated with dignity and kindness.

In the end, your goal is victory, not a prolonged campaign. In the General's hands lies his nation's fate, both military and economic.

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It would be SO easy to tie this to the current economic-political situation in the US, but this series is about poker.

At first glance, there may be a problem fitting the message of this chapter to poker. After all, isn't poker all one long game? Perhaps, but there are breaks between the battles, and each hand is a skirmish unto itself.

No, there is much to be found in here. This is a chapter about bankroll management and keeping the game interesting over the long haul. A well-prepared, and experienced player will go to war with the proper bankroll for the levels they're playing. They will augment this bankroll with money won from their opponents instead of depleting their own savings. You shouldn't use rent money to finance your bankroll, and vice-versa.

But the longer you play, the more your weapons and ardor are dulled. Fatigue sets in, boredom, and even disenfranchisement about the game as a whole over the long haul. This is why the pros have a dozen prop bets going during games and a dozen horses playing with their money. This is why Pauly and Otis go lime-tossing during the WSOP, because you can only watch so many blinds get passed around. Be sure to end your sessions. The pros often see playing as their job. Eight hours a day, then full stop until tomorrow. Two days off every week. Make sure you can walk away.

You must reward yourself to keep the interest going. Have a great night at the tables? Go buy yourself something frilly. Win ten buy-ins? Use the first one on a really great dinner. Win twenty? Go on vacation. Make sure you know there's a reason you do this other than your love of getting kicked in the junk. Be king shit for one night. When you next sit down, you'll be refreshed, and looking forward to the next time you can reward yourself.

And always, ALWAYS be nice to those whose money you take. Be they fish or sharp, you want them to stick around. If you mock their play, belittle their call, or just jump around like a bufoon after taking down the biggest pot of your life, you'll turn them off playing with you. You want them, and their money, to stay. You want them to walk away from the table broke, but not hating you for it. Plus, if you are gracious in victory, you not only keep them happy, but keep the rest of the table from wanting to bust your arrogant ass. Angering the opposing army and creating allies for them will cause your treasury to deplete its funds very quickly.

Underlying all of this, is that your goal isn't to deplete your bankroll by playing losing or break-even poker forever, but to achieve victory and profit. Don't play games you can't afford. Don't pull money from your savings to keep your bankroll steady. Instead, lower your limits to accomodate your roll, and maintain that roll with your winnings. Eventually, you will have won enough battles to afford waging larger ones, with even greater spoils to be found.

And of course, winning that money quickly is preferable to slogging it out for the same gain. $1000 today is worth more than $100 a week for ten weeks. Much like in war though, a rapid victory can often be peppered with mistakes and stupidity. It's easy to win a big pot when you suck out. If Moneymaker played for 6 years and won $2.5 million, he'd be worse off than he is now, after that one big win and not much else. If you played for 6 years and had only a small gain, then your other expenses and missed opportunities will have easily wiped that out, not to mention the mental and physical drain you've experienced.

No, the goal is victory. It's up to you to define what victory is.

Poker as War

Since I've still got over a week to go before I let myself play poker again (and I may choose to extend this depending how I feel), it might be a good time to explore something I've been meaning to for a while. If nothing else, it might get my head screwed on straight for this game again.

I'm sure it's been done before (if it hasn't I'd be surprised), but applying the words of Sun Tzu's Art of War (NOT the Wesley Snipes movie) to poker could be an interesting experience. There are 13 chapters, so perhaps there will be 13 posts. I'm reading as I go here, so there's a chance this could all dwindle off as a failed experiment, or that some chapters won't be applicable. I doubt this though.

If you want the full text of the classic work, it's very easy to find out on the interwebs.

Chapter 1.- Laying Plans

Sun Tzu saw war as vitally important to the state, and broke it down to five governing factors. These are:

1.- The Moral Law - A concept of harmony, not necessarily rules of morality. Think of the endless drills of soldiers so that they act as one unit and follow orders without question. An army cannot function if the brain doesn't have complete control of the body. One could see it as martial law, but that suggests a forced, instead of developed, harmony.

2.- Heaven - No, not clouds and angels, but the forces of nature and the unstoppable, inevitablities of life. Seasons, weather, night and day, temperature, etc.. In other words, those things controlled by the "gods".

3.- Earth - The Earth. The distances between places, the geography and dangers encountered, life and death.

4.- The Commander - "... the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness."

5.- Method and Discipline - Organization of the army, and development and upkeep of infrastructure such as roads and supply lines, in order to ensure efficiency.

Sun Tzu states that by being cognizant of these five factors, one can ensure victory. He further states that by examining how well two factions (with emphasis on their leader) follow these precepts, he can determine who will be victorious.

From there, he then states that while these are guiding principles, one must be flexible and able to adjust their strategies and plans as dictated by conditions. You can't walk into a war with a fixed battle plan, because you only control half the field, and without knowing your enemy's intentions, you cannot formulate a complete plan.

Then comes one of the most famous lines of the work: "All warfare is based on deception."

The rest works just fine verbatim:

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable;
when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we
are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away;
when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder,
and crush him.

21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him.
If he is in superior strength, evade him.

22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to
irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest.
If his forces are united, separate them.

24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where
you are not expected.

25. These military devices, leading to victory,
must not be divulged beforehand.

26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many
calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few
calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations
lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat:
how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention
to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

Thus ends chapter 1, and it should be obvious how well this connects with our little game.

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Poker is war. While we are technically playing against eight or more opponents at a full table, most of the battles are against one or two other players. Walking into a game without any strategy or plan is a good way to find yourself on the rail early. Let's look at the five factors under that dim poker room light.

1.- The Moral Law - Can be seen as practice, practice, practice. We are alone in this war. Our army is our instincts, studies, reads, hands, chips, tells, and the countless other aspects we have worked on over time to make our play seem natural no matter what the situation.

2.- Heaven - Those things we cannot control or avoid. In poker, the greatest of these is luck - in all its forms. Be it us catching that draw, or our opponent catching the two-outer, or another player unable to give up the second nuts to your stone-cold nuts. There are other things we can't control as well - the rake, the other players (moreso in tournaments where you can't change tables), the dealer, the environment of the room, etc..

3.- Earth - Those things we can control to some extent, or at least plan around. In cash games these include the players, the table, or the stakes. In tournaments these can be the structure, the buy-in, the tournament itself. For instance, an ongoing discussion is if The Venetian or Caesars offers a better structure for their deepstack tournaments. Both are similar, but the Venetian has autoshufflers, where Caeasars doesn't. This means you can see more hands per hour. But perhaps there are other factors at Caesars that appeal to one person over another. In both cash and tournament, things such as the type of players, our health, bankroll, or temperment would fall under this.

4.- The Commander - This is us. Wisdom - reads, knowledge, plans, attitude, everything we have learned so far. Sincerity - Honesty with ourselves. Are we playing our best? Are we on tilt? Are we beat? If there's no fish at the table, then are we the fish? Benevolence - There's no room for benevolence in poker, right? Well, not quite. We have to know not to beat ourselves up for a good play that went wrong. Sometimes your opponent won't let go of the flush draw no matter how hard you bet. It's not your fault. Courage - Bold, risky moves can bring great reward. The all-in with air can push the set off the flush board for instance. At the same time, it often takes great courage to lay down that set yourself. Strictness - Stick with your plans. Adjust as necessary, but don't start throwing away chips because you aren't seeing any strong hands and everyone is a calling station and catching anyway. You've worked too hard on your game to throw it away when things don't go how YOU want them to. Poker owes you nothing.

5.- Method and Discipline - This should be obvious. We constantly learn as we play. As our game advances, we need to make sure the road behind us doesn't collapse, causing us to forget the fundamentals that supply our strategies. We must not become overconfident and lazy, or we'll discover we're losing far too late. In many ways, this ties back the Moral Law of the first factor.

Now that these are in poker terms, it becomes easy to see how one could pick a winner based on these observations. Hellmuth vs Johnny from your home game? Hellmuth. Negreanu vs Ivey? Who has come better prepared? Who is more disciplined today? Who's got the luck?

And of course, as touched on in "strictness", we must adjust our game to the conditions presented to us. We're facing off against 8 opponents, and at any given time we will need to change our strategy accordingly. If we're against the LAGtard, we let them give us chips. If we're against the rock, we retreat to fight again later. The weak player can be pushed off when the calling station cannot. If our strategy has been discovered, we mix it up to confuse.

If any form of warfare is based on deception, it is, without a doubt, poker.

Hell, let's look at each one:

19. Weak means strong and strong means weak. If we're drawing, look like we've made our hand, if we've made our hand, look like we're drawing.

20. Sucker him with the nuts

21. If he's better than you, be ready for it. If you're beat, fold.

22. Table talk to tilt him. If he's aggressive, look weak and he'll hand you chips.

23. If he's weak, attack relentlessly. If he's got his shit together, divide it - mix it up, tilt him, lay a bad beat.

24. Find his weakness and exploit it. Stay under the radar and nail him with a hidden hand.

25. Don't give off tells or talk about your game. Keep your strategy to yourself.

26. The better prepared player will almost certainly defeat the less prepared. Be it through knowledge, instinct, reads, or awareness of how the "Heaven" and "Earth" of the game affects play.

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Yah, this could prove to be an interesting series. For me at least.