JV'S KILLER POKER:
ICTAFCOA

BY: John Vorhaus

In certain circles I am known as the King of the Acronym (inevitably, the KOTA). I have, for instance, distilled out of phraseology the incredibly useful acronym, LIGARA, which stands for Like I Give a Rat's Aspect, and with which I respond (in tones of stentorian sympathy) to any bad beat story. Because my contributions to the language of poker are as boundless as my tireless service to this cause, I now give you ICTAFCOA: Increasing Commitment to a Failing Course of Action.

ICTAFCOA is an immensely powerful concept in poker because it explains so well how we go so wrong.

You're playing Omaha/8, and you pick up a big drawing low like A-2-3-4. You raise - at this point a rising course of action. But when the flop comes T-9-8 in suits you don't own, your course of action turns. Sure you still have a chance of catching runner-runner to a low, but let's say there's only one other player in the hand. Your expectation is negative - your course of action is failing - and yet you call anyway! This, dear friends, is increasing commitment to a failing course of action. You keep trying the same thing over and over again, long past any reasonable hope of achieving your goal.

Say you're heads up against a calling station, a real LFOTCP (Last Float on the Clueless Parade). You have tried to bluff him off his hand for five straight hands now, and he's called you down every time. At some point you become convinced that he can't possibly call again. So you bet. And he calls. And he wins. ICTAFCOA. Boo-hoo you.

(And don't tell me you haven't done this, because I know you, and I know you have.)

You're in a game that's way too tough for you and you've already been pushed around on a bunch of hands. Instead of trading down to an easier game (or at least making a decent attempt to worsify this one) you stubbornly stick to your game plan (such as it is) of call and pray, call and pray, call and pray. In this instance, ICTAFCOA can only lead to chip oblivion, unless you come to your senses in time.

Alcoholics have an increasing commitment to a failing course of action. Flopheads do too.

People who stubbornly stay in toxic relationships with abusive partners have ICTAFCOA. People who call with pocket kings in the face of an ace on the flop and multi-way raises do too.

Compulsive gamblers who gamble on in the spent hope of getting well or getting even are caught in the worst throes of this affliction. Enough said.

No, not enough said! Because you're not a compulsive gambler - I know this about you too. You're a conscious, conscientious poker player who knows what you're doing and who tries to do your best. But there are holes in your game, and if you're not forever trying to plug those holes, then ICTAFCOA has you by the throat.

There is a way out. There is. Because it's a fascinating thing about ICTAFCOA. People trapped in this maelstrom will try the same solution over and over and over again until - happily, suddenly - they become convinced that the solution will not work. In this moment, they experience a revelation and then, almost miraculously, they see a solution that will work.

I'll give you a real-world example, and then bring it back to poker.

Poor Joe is trying to tighten a bolt. Simple thing, tightening a bolt, but Poor Joe doesn't happen to have the right wrench in his hand. No, he has that pair of pliers he grabbed from the tool drawer because it was there and available. So he tries and tries and tries to tighten the bolt, but the stubborn bolt won't tighten. The pliers just can't do the job. Finally Poor Joe gives up on the damn pliers, and in that instant he comes to his senses and suddenly remembers the set of socket wrenches he has out in the garage. Proper tool at last at hand, he completes his task and tightens the darn bolt.

Meanwhile back at poker, I hope you're starting to see that you can skip this frustrating step of doing the wrong thing first. You don't have to repeat the failing course of action.

You can stop trying to bluff the unbluffable.
You can stop trying to bully the bully-proof.
You can stop letting your errors bleed your bankroll.
You can recognize your natural commitment to failing courses of action and change course now!

More than anything, this means opening your eyes to the real reality of the way you play. Draw up a list of the fruitless habits you have that hurt your game. Now set about to strike items from the list. Do you find yourself folding when you should call because you're not sure if the odds justify a call? Then study the stupid odds so that next time you'll know. Do you call when you should raise because congenital timidity stunts your game? Then study your timidity, and discover its roots in your fear of losing lots of money. Recognize that quashing the fear of losing lots of money is the straight and well-lit path to winning lots of money instead.

I could go on and on. I could give you a dozen more examples of how your stubborn refusal to surrender a worthless paradigm keeps you from discovering the paradigm that actually works. Yeah, I could, but I won't. Because the flaws in your play that I point out to you won't be nearly so meaningful, nor so quickly fixed, as the flaws you point out to yourself.

So go to work! Tear yourself free from increasing commitments to failing courses of action. ICTAFCOA is a crippler of poker players, young and old alike. Don't let it be a crippler of you too.

(John Vorhaus is author of the KILLER POKER series and News Ambassador for UltimateBet.com.)