Can I Beat A Pro Poker Player With 4 Days Of Training?
Summary
TLDRIn this thrilling episode, bestselling author and human guinea pig Tim Ferriss embarks on a high-stakes journey to master poker in just four days. Despite a self-confessed phobia of math and aversion to gambling, Tim is determined to transform poker from a game of chance to one of skill. Guided by World Poker Tour Champion Phil Gordon, Tim delves into the strategic depths of poker, learning to read patterns and make calculated bets. From foundational techniques to advanced strategies, Tim's journey culminates in a nail-biting showdown against accomplished poker players, putting his newfound skills and $1,500 of his own money on the line. This episode is a riveting tale of risk, learning, and the exhilarating challenge of making the impossible possible.
Takeaways
- π² Learning poker quickly involves putting personal stakes on the line to enhance focus and motivation.
- π Tim Ferriss, a bestselling author, embarks on a week-long challenge to learn poker from world-class teachers.
- π Poker is perceived differently by individuals - as a game, science, or even a religion, but Ferriss aims to turn it into a skill-based endeavor.
- π Understanding hand rankings and the structure of a game is fundamental to poker strategy, including the roles of the dealer button and blinds.
- π€ The key to winning in poker lies in making decisions based on the likelihood of positive outcomes rather than relying on luck.
- π Aggressive and selective play, coupled with strategic hand selection, are crucial elements of poker success.
- π§ Position at the table greatly influences betting behavior, with being last to act offering an informational advantage.
- π₯ Intimidation and bluffing are strategic components of the game, used to mislead opponents about the strength of one's hand.
- π Ferriss experiences a rollercoaster of wins and losses while learning, highlighting the volatile nature of poker.
- π With guidance from poker professional Phil Gordon, Ferriss manages to win three heads-up matches, demonstrating the effectiveness of strategic play.
- π The experiment underscores the potential of systematic learning and applying basic mathematical principles to turn perceived games of chance into games of skill.
Q & A
What is Tim Ferriss' approach to learning new skills?
-Tim Ferriss' approach to learning new skills involves putting himself in high-pressure situations, such as gambling or engaging in activities he's unfamiliar with, to accelerate the learning process.
What was Tim Ferriss' initial perception of poker?
-Initially, Tim Ferriss perceived poker as a game of chance and something he had tried to avoid his entire life due to his general phobia of math and dislike for gambling.
Who is Phil Gordon and what role does he play in the script?
-Phil Gordon is a World Poker Tour Champion who has won more than $3 million in tournament prize money and authored best-selling books on poker. In the script, he serves as Tim Ferriss' mentor, teaching him the strategies and skills needed to play poker competitively.
What is the main lesson Tim Ferriss learns about poker from Phil Gordon?
-The main lesson Tim Ferriss learns is that winning poker players view the game as a strategic investment rather than pure gambling. They make decisions based on patterns and probabilities, aiming to maximize their expected value.
What are the key elements of Texas Hold'em poker as described in the script?
-In Texas Hold'em, each player receives two private cards and shares five community cards. The goal is to make the best five-card hand. The game involves rounds of betting with options to fold, call, or raise, and strategic elements like hand selection, position strength, and intimidation.
How does Tim Ferriss apply the concept of selective aggression in poker?
-Selective aggression involves being very selective about the hands to play and then being aggressively with those hands. Tim Ferriss applies this by choosing to play only the best hands and then betting aggressively to maximize his chances of winning.
What were Tim Ferriss' main challenges in learning poker?
-Tim Ferriss' main challenges included overcoming his fear of gambling, understanding the complex strategies and probabilities involved in poker, controlling his tells, and learning to assess the strength of his hand and his opponents' possible hands.
What was the final challenge for Tim Ferriss after his poker training?
-The final challenge was to play heads-up matches against three accomplished poker players, including two professionals and one semi-pro, with $1500 of his own money at stake.
What was the outcome of Tim Ferriss' final poker challenge?
-Tim Ferriss won all three heads-up matches, defeating Ty King, Sarah, and Anders, and did not lose any of his $1500.
What advice does Phil Gordon give to Tim Ferriss about bluffing?
-Phil Gordon advises that bluffing is important because if opponents believe you only bet when you have good hands, you become predictable. To keep them guessing, it's occasionally worthwhile to bet big even with a half-decent hand.
How does Tim Ferriss describe the process of condensing the extensive footage into a shorter TV show?
-Tim Ferriss describes the process of condensing the extensive footage into a shorter TV show as agonizing, as it involves cutting down hours of content into a much shorter format, which often results in the loss of valuable material.
Outlines
π² Embracing the Poker Challenge
Tim Ferriss, a bestselling author and human guinea pig, takes on the challenge of learning poker, a game he has avoided due to his aversion to math and gambling. He aims to transform a game of chance into a game of skill, guided by World Poker Tour Champion Phil Gordon. Tim's journey begins with understanding the basics of poker, including hand rankings and the structure of a game, as he prepares to face accomplished poker players.
π Strategic Decisions and Positional Strength
In his second day of training, Tim focuses on strategic investment in poker, learning to spot patterns and make informed bets. He understands that winning players have reasons for their bets and view poker as an investment rather than gambling. Tim learns about hand selection, positional strength, and the importance of being aggressive yet patient. He also grasps the concept of betting in poker, including folding, calling, and raising, and the significance of pre-flop aggression and good position.
π Real Opponents and Intimidation Tactics
Tim is thrown into the deep end, playing against real opponents while Phil provides invaluable coaching. He learns about the 1,326 possible starting hands in Texas Hold'em and the importance of not revealing your hand too early. Tim faces challenges in maintaining a poker face and avoiding tells, which can give away his hand's strength. He also realizes the power of intimidation and aggressive betting strategies, even with mediocre hands, to win pots.
π€ High Stakes Heads-Up Battles
As Tim's poker experiment nears its end, he faces high-stakes heads-up matches against two pros and one semi-pro, with $1,500 of his own money on the line. He focuses on hand selection and chip strategy, adjusting his tactics for one-on-one play. Despite the pressure, Tim applies what he's learned, including selective aggression and maintaining a tight image to bluff effectively. He manages to win against his opponents, demonstrating significant improvement in his poker skills.
π Triumph and the Power of a System
Tim's journey concludes with an unexpected 3-0 victory against formidable poker players, earning him $1,500. He reflects on the importance of trusting in a system and using basic guidelines and mathematics to succeed in a game of incomplete information. Despite the need to condense extensive footage into a short TV format, Tim is proud of his achievement and encourages viewers to explore extended scenes and podcasts for a deeper dive into the world of poker and other topics.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Learning
π‘Poker
π‘Strategy
π‘Risk
π‘Phil Gordon
π‘Bluffing
π‘Hand Ranking
π‘Position
π‘Aggression
π‘Tells
π‘Heads Up
Highlights
Tim Ferriss embarks on a week-long challenge to learn poker, aiming to convert it from a game of chance to a game of skill.
Despite a general phobia of math and dislike for gambling, Ferriss seeks to master poker with the help of Phil Gordon, a World Poker Tour Champion.
Gordon emphasizes strategic investing in poker, focusing on pattern recognition rather than luck.
Winning poker players approach the game with a reason for every bet, aiming for a positive outcome based on statistical likelihood.
Ferriss learns the importance of being selective and aggressive, folding most hands but playing strongly when the odds are favorable.
Poker is introduced as a game of extreme volatility and high variance, where making the right decision is more important than the immediate outcome.
Gordon teaches Ferriss the basics of Texas Hold'em, including hand rankings and the structure of a game.
Ferriss practices with real opponents, learning to balance patience with aggression and to exploit his position at the table.
Through practice, Ferriss improves his ability to assess hand strength and to bluff effectively, making him less predictable.
Ferriss competes in a final challenge against three accomplished poker players, using $500 of his own money in each match.
Despite only four days of training, Ferriss wins all three matches, demonstrating the effectiveness of Gordon's poker strategies.
The challenge highlights the power of a systematic approach to poker, relying on basic mathematics and strategic guidelines.
Ferriss reflects on his journey, acknowledging his newfound skills and the impact of trusting in a well-defined system.
The experiment concludes with Ferriss overcoming his initial fears and reservations about poker, embracing it as a skill-based game.
Ferriss and Gordon celebrate the successful challenge, emphasizing the importance of selective aggression in poker success.
Transcripts
this week I'm going all
in nothing gets me learning faster than
putting money on the line I am a nervous
wreck check out my balls 4 days I've
never played a half no experience you're
to making me look very foolish here and
the world's best teachers this is when
my head
explodes I'm Tim feris everything going
bestselling author and human guinea pig
I'll show you how to make the impossible
possible by bending the
rules together I'll find the world's
best teachers and push myself to the
edge to deconstruct decode and demystify
some of the world's toughest challenges
in record
[Music]
time if I can do it so can
you
likes
action and and
gambling this is Las
[Music]
Vegas this week's experiment is
poker for some people it's a game for
others it's a science and for some it's
a
religion for me it's something I've
tried to avoid my entire life I have a
general phobia of math and I don't like
gambling but I want to see if it's
possible to take what I perceive as a
game of chance and turn it into game of
skill at the end of the week I'll go up
against three accomplished poker players
and I'll hopefully be able to beat at
least one hey Tim how are you nice to
meet finally to get me up to speed I'll
be working with World Poker Tour
Champion Phil Gordon who's taken home
more than $3 million in tournament prize
money and has written best-selling books
on how to learn poker I've never played
a hand all right well what we're going
to basically work on is being a
strategic investor I like that phrasing
right the point that he made was I can't
teach you to be lucky I can teach you
however to spot patterns which then
determines how you bet look at the games
around us right the slot machines the
blackjack tables the crabs table that's
gambling that's not the way that winning
players approach poker winning players
have a reason for putting chips into the
pot yeah and they know that when they
put that $100 in yeah they're going to
get more than $100 back out on average
he doesn't view it his gambling because
he's only investing when he has
likelihood of a positive outcome
statistically you have to be aggressive
and you have to be patient we want to be
very selective about the hands that we
choose to play but once we choose to
play that hand we're going to be very
aggressive with it in reality if you
play a 100 hands of poker you're going
to be folding probably 70 of them and
that's difficult for people to do poker
is a game of extreme volatility yeah and
high variance there are plenty of times
that you're going to be 80% to win but
that means that 20% of the time you're
going to lose so the question isn't did
I make money this hand the question is
did I make the right decision because
there are variables outside of your
control any questions for me that will
help you craft the approach that we take
I'd love to know if you're playing your
own money I want you to feel what it's
like to have something at risk sure I'll
play with my own money then I think it
will mean more to you according to Phil
the way you'll make decisions the way
you'll behave when there's real dollars
and cents on the line is very different
so once we get to the final challenge
I'll be betting $100 of my own
money all right starting from zero this
is the hand ranking guide every poker
hand is comprised of five cards and
those five cards determine if you win or
lose there are many different types of
Poker I'll be playing Texas holdom in
which each player receives two cards
that only he or she can see and then
five additional cards are dealt face up
and shared by everyone she bets eight
the best five cards out of the seven
available to each player comprise their
poker hand and the player with the best
hand or the best Bluff wins the ranking
system is based on probability with the
exception of having nothing the most
common hands are a pair two pair or
three of a kind after that comes a
straight which is having five cards in
numerical order five cards of the same
suit that's a flush a pair plus a three
of a kind together makes a full house
and four of a kind comes after that
finally you have the most valuable hand
which is a straight flush and this is
when my head explodes let's talk about
the structure of a game this is the
dealer button Whoever has this is
determined to be the dealer when you're
sitting at a real table there will be a
real dealer but this little dealer
button is still important it moves
around the table clockwise one person at
a time clockwise from the person with
the dealer button sits the small blind
and then next to that person is the big
blind these players provide an an
initial bet before receiving their cards
essentially it's seeding the pot a
little bit and giving you something to
play for I see and now there's a round
of betting whoever is to the left of the
big blind is the first to bet you have
basically three options when you're
playing at poker table you can fold so
you can basically give up you're done
you're out you can call which means you
match what's on the table or you can
raise if all players fold except for one
then the round is over otherwise you
move on to the first three immunity
cards that's called The Flop after that
everyone has a chance to bet then the
dealer puts out a fourth card called the
turn and there's another round of
betting then comes the last card the
river and you guessed it another chance
to bet and so now you're going to make
your best five card hand from all seven
cards so what are your options right
now fold or well you would never fold
right now folding doesn't make any sense
I feel like my head is 3 ft underwater
in details about poker I have a feeling
that learning how to play poker in real
life will ruin my enjoyment of movie
poker the Flop the turn the river
minimum bets position on the table
that's a lot to cram into 4 days I can't
waste any of my
hours it's my second day at Caesar's
Palace in s City and poker Pro Phil
Gordon is cramming my brain with
strategy in advance of my first game
later tonight basically when you put
chips into the pot here's what you
should be thinking what are the chances
that I've got the best hand right now
because that's essentially what we're
doing we're putting chips in the pot
with the expectation that we have the
best hand yeah Phil is teaching me basic
principles of hand selection so pre flop
do I discard my two cards or do I play
them number two understanding positional
strength so at a table with multiple
players which positions relative to the
dealer allow me to be very aggressive
and which positions require me to be
somewhat defensive so let's say this is
the dealer and here are you so 1 2 3 4 5
6 7even eight players left to act behind
you so when you're in this seat you're
playing out of position and you know the
more information you have the better off
you are right watch this so small blind
big blind fold fold fold fold fold fold
now it's just you m and you're going to
be in position
for the entire hand this is what
professional poker players call the
office this is where you're going to do
all your work you want to be last to act
you want few people left that can Rea
you and you want to see what they're
going to do before you have to put chips
into the pot being in a good position
provides you with an informational
Advantage which allows you to be more
selectively aggressive I'll give you a
chart that shows you what hands to play
from each position and I can show you
what the best hands are I think if I
want to have a snowballs chance in hell
this week I need to focus on what
percentage of my hands will be playable
at specific positions around the table
and I have to get very good at the Art
and Science of
[Music]
intimidation now that I have the
fundamentals under my belt Phil decides
it's time to throw me into the fire with
real opponents 's first hand a poker
here we go
Jessica raises to
seven 10 folds this is very common
someone raises and everyone folds you
have to balance patience with aggression
meaning you wait you wait you fold fold
fold fold fold until you know you have a
hand worth betting on and then you go
for the jugular 10 folds I like that
that's suits me finally I find myself in
the prime spot at the table with a solid
hand make it
[Music]
six any
calls Daniel calls all coming after you
coming after me all right in the
pop being aggressive doesn't mean only
placing bets when you have your best
hand in this case I went from having a
decent before the Flop to a pretty
mediocre hand after the Flop Andy checks
Daniel checks but when players in front
of you check that often means that they
also have weak
hands 10 bets 10 if you capitalize on
dominant position and get them to fold
you can win through
intimidation and he
holds Daniel FS just won your first pot
all right thanks scared to you now
yeah hand after hand hour after hour I'm
winning a few and losing a lot but
playing right next to Phil gives me
invaluable coaching there are
1,326 possible starting hands in Texas
hold them and on one of my last hands of
the night I drop pocket aces this is
considered the best starting hand in
Texas hold him your first him all
right
raise the
[Music]
six that's a goof on my part pocket aces
no I shouldn't have
gone probably a small little tell here
yeah as it turns out my poker face needs
some serious work hold yourself Ferris
if I hadn't given away my hand I could
have pushed the pot size up and taken a
lot home the majority of the hands you
won today what you had was pre- flop
aggression and good position and if you
can just keep those things in mind it
makes the game so much
easier it's already day three my final
challenge is tomorrow and I have a few
major problems with my game yesterday
when I drew a good hand I gave it away
right off the bat with a
tell also I look at my cards way too
often if the Flop comes out and I keep
checking my own cards they know that I
don't have a pair because that's easy to
remember and that is a bad habit
ands all right more of the same
four-handed no limit hold them yep
plugging some of those leaks that we've
been working on for the last couple of
days right one big change okay I'm going
to be playing today
fantastic playing next to Phil and
having him as an opponent he knows how I
will assess certain situations he knows
how I will respond in certain situations
and that's very intimidating remember
don't look at your hand until it's your
turn you would not want me to know if
you have a good hand or a bad hand right
now Phil is an aggressive player he's
made 90% of his money identifying the
weak players at a table and then picking
on them and of course tonight I'm
sitting with Phil to my right so that
makes me his
Target back and forth we go Phil raising
and me folding I should keep waiting for
a great hand but my impatience is
getting the better of me so I play a 73
suited that I'm sure Phil would tell me
to
fall the tricky thing about bad
decisions in poker is that sometimes
they pay off I had a whole lot of
nothing until the River card and that's
when I hit a flush oh
[Laughter]
checking my pulse not sure that's kosher
is oh boy all right hold did make a
flush on the river nice even though I
got a little lucky with that last hand
I've really seen my skills improve a lot
since yesterday I'm getting to the point
where I can assess the strength of the
two cards that I have in my
hand I'm doing that and I'm also
assessing what the best hands are that
my opponents could have Bill's Poker
Face is excellent but when he checks it
signals to me that he has a mediocre
hand then you determine based on all
these factors how much you're going to
bet bet
sizing in this case after the Flop I'm
raising about half the size of the pot
as a rule so that whether I have a crap
hand or a great hand my behavior is the
same my opponents can't read me that
way okay show them up I've got
nothing oh wow that's a top 5% hand when
I raise before the Flop you should
probably re ra that's a huge hand don't
be scared when you have that hand a pair
of queens is what Phil would call a hand
you bring to war in the future I have to
play it that way everyone at the table
right now thinks that your R ra is aces
kings queens Jacks tens and Ace Kings
but you know after you've established a
tight image in a game you can get away
with pretending like you have it
bluffing is important because if they
believe you're only betting when you
have good hands you're predictable they
can immediately fold whenever you bet so
occasionally it's worthwhile to bet big
when you only have a half decent hand
I'm deep in position and betting
aggressively the winner and that's
exactly what Phil taught me I love it
dude he's
[Applause]
man got him playing Power aggressive
poker I love
it it's the last day of my poker
experiment which means tonight I'll be
playing heads up or one-on-one against
two pros and one Semi-Pro with my own
cash 1500 large on the line fold playing
against just one person requires some
changes to
strategy the goal of heads up is to take
all of your opponent's chips so Hand
selection also depends on how many chips
you and your opponent have in front of
you fold you can call there it's close
yeah let's try that again the heads up
play is really tough for me and my brain
feels like an Etch A
Sketch
fold uh Ras
great it's been 4 intense days of Poker
training and now it's time for me to
head back to Caesar's Palace for my
final
challenge I've got three heads up
matches for you one Semi-Pro and two
Pros is not going to be easy but you are
well
prepared I have $500 of my own money at
stake for each of these matches so I
could lose as much as $1,500 you got it
selective aggression with only 4 days of
practice I'm not delusional enough to
think that I can beat all three of them
match number one the Gimme we'll see but
if they're going to take my money good
luck I at least hope to make them work
for it I am a nervous wreck but I'm just
going going to follow my game plan I'm
not going to try to deviate I'm not
going to improvise I'm not going to get
cute once again that means a lot of
folding as soon as the Flop comes down
that's where skill and experience will
kick my ass my job therefore is to make
it really expensive for them to see the
Flop I have to wait for the blinds to
get bigger which in this tournament
happens every 10 minutes that's when I
can shift to aggressive short stack
strategy and go all in before the Flop
which will give me better odds of
winning
[Music]
he's all
[Music]
in seeing some aggression right there
when I went all in and saw Tai's eyes
pop open then I knew I had a Fighting
Chance because it really threw him off
nice play
sir all
in just continued to pound and pound and
pound and pound soon Phil's strategy
starts to pay off he's all in and with a
lucky Ace draw I beat Ty King and claim
victory well played sir well played that
first win really gave me a tremendous
amount of confidence in Phil and his
system but I'm going to need a hell of a
lot more than confidence to beat Sarah
who's won hundreds of thousands of
dollars playing poker raised the
400 Sarah's really intense she does not
talk much and I found that
unnerving she just kind
of and looked down at cards for a
fraction of a second then make her
decision raise the 400 I found myself
going a little crazy in my own head with
internal dialogue because there's no
external
dialogue I keep getting crap hand after
crap hand and whenever I nail an ace or
a king Sarah folds but luckily the
blinds go up and Sarah puts it all on
the line raise all
[Music]
in turn them up please
I show Jack nine and coincidentally she
shows Jack eight nice
hand the Flop comes down giving both of
us a pair of Threes then on the turn we
each get a two pair with Jack's High
then the river comes out wow giving me a
pair of nines and the game good game I
never in my wildest dreams expected to
beat Sarah two out of three that's
ridiculous three out of three seems
overly ambitious but it won't stop me
from
trying raise the 400 according to Phil
Anders is the most dominant of the three
players that I'll face today he's razor
sharp and he has a lot of experience in
the first few rounds a couple of Lucky a
draws give me a slight lead in ship
count but then on the eighth hand he
makes a big move now 3,300
total end up making me look very foolish
here the turn comes out and it's a seven
of clubs if Anders has an ace in his
hand that pair will beat mine if he has
two clubs that'll also mean a dangerous
flush all
in balls
it something about the way he's been
betting and his muted reactions to my
raises gives me a little more confidence
in my Jack pair so I go for the kill oh
good hand good
hand thankfully he's only got a pair of
sevens but the river still hasn't landed
and there are 11 cards in the deck that
can help him win win those are called
outs any club n or sth will give him my
$500 taught you well I won and I
couldn't believe I won and then I saw
Phil jump up and down I was like oh I
won this thing you got to be kidding me
awesome awesome awesome job that is
awesome that's a hell of The Last Hand
yeah wow 3 and 0 that's amazing and
1,500 bucks
I think the moral of the story is Sir
trust in a system it's a game of
incomplete information and you can use a
system with basic guidelines very basic
mathematics you've just won three
matches in a row against three of the
best players in poker that was a good
him I'm no longer easy money and all I
had to do is follow the recipe selective
aggression right that's it name of the
game Let's selectively go get a drink
let's selectively go get a drink and
you're buying oh I'm buying all right
I'm buying
hey guys Tim Ferris here one of the
things that kills me about TV is that
you have to take all of this amazing
footage in our case we had 5 to six days
of 12 to 16 hours typically per day and
you have to chop it down to 21 or 22
minutes which is a 30-minute show with
the ads removed it just makes me want to
stab myself in the eyeballs with bicycle
spokes it's so agonizing the good news
is we have all that footage and so we've
taken huge extended scenes we've taken
interviews we've taken tutorials
everything imaginable that we could get
our hands on that we thought was really
world class that we wanted to put in and
you can find it at 4hourworkweek
tocom TV all spelled out fur Etc and we
really feel like we could have made the
best 2hour documentary imaginable on the
subject that you just saw or had five
different shows of equal quality all
different with the footage that we
captured so please check it out there's
some amazing stuff and you can also
check out the podcast where I do very
long in some cases two to three hour
interviews with a lot of the experts in
this show and that's the Tim Ferris show
which was nominated one of the best of
iTunes which I'm very very happy about
and uh you can check out both so find
everything at 4hourworkweek
tocom and if you think that's an
oxymoron by the way you're right if you
want a 4our work week do not work in
television thank you for watching
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