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29th Lecture - Do You Know When To Shift Gears In Poker?

Do You Know When To Shift Gears In Poker?
This lecture took place on April 13, 1999 and was the 29th in the series. The columns based on these lectures first appeared in Card Player Magazine.

Doyle Brunson, the twice world champion of poker and Hall of Fame member, talks a lot about "shifting gears." Of course, now that almost everybody drives a car with an automatic transmission, the concept of shifting gears may not have the impact it once did. So, pretend you're driving a big old truck or a small sports car without automatic. You need to shift to match driving conditions.

In poker, you can shift gears by changing from a very aggressive style of play to a more defensive one, from tight to loose, from bluff mode to non-bluff mode and back again. The object of shifting gears is to keep opponents off guard.

The nice thing about shifting gears in poker is that you always know right away that you've shifted, but your opponents may throw thousands of dollars your way before they figure it out. But, what if your opponents aren't paying any attention to you? Then, shifting gears is silly. You might as well just make your most profitable long-range decision on every play. There's no reason to sacrifice the top choice in an effort to throw your opponents off-guard, because they simply aren't reacting to you.

But that last type of opponent is more theoretical than actual. All opponents react to what you do to some extent, whether they realize it or not. Still, changing gears just for the sake of it doesn't accomplish much. You need to use the right gear at the right time. No sense cruising along the highway, making good time toward your destination, with no traffic, thinking, "Hey, I haven't shifted gears for a while, maybe I'll shift down to first gear and gradually rebuild my speed from there."

So, today we'll talk about shifting gears correctly. This material comes from the 29th in my serious of Tuesday Session classroom lectures at Mike Caro University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy. The lecture was held on April 13, 1999. The following is from the handout that accompanied the lecture and has been specially enhanced for Card Player. The title of my talk was…

Shifting Gears for the Right Reasons

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