Toadi’s blog

Once a month I play a game of No limit Texas Hold em with some friends. In my first game ever I lost because I was “pot committed“. I only learned this term after reading some poker books. It means that I invested a lot in the pot and I wanted the follow through not based and what was the probability of winning the hand versus the possible gain.

In simple terms this meant that I thought my hand was more worth in my mind than in reality. When I was 12 my grand father wanted to learn me the basic principles of economy where he explained me the consumer theory and the indifference curve. These are very scientific and statistical measurable theories.

But they forgot the human aspect. Strange psychological behaviour kicks in and people are more committed to goods they already own and value them higher than a equal good not in their possession. They tried to prove this theory with psychological behavioural tests. This field is called Behavioural Economics.

Off course there are scientific researchers questioning this endowment effect. But in my personal opinion it explains being “pot committed” in Texas Hold em. Being informed you should recognize this behaviour in your game plan and avoid this at all costs. In a next post I will explaining hand odds and probabilities.

Disclaimer: I’m not a poker champion are even a reasonable good poker player.

Filed under: Texas Hold em, howto on December 14th, 2008