Aggression, testosterone and self-confidence

Aggression opens up two winning opportunities:

1. You can force your opponent to fold better cards than yours;
2. You can win more when you hold better cards and your opponent is willing to pay.

With check and call, you only win with better cards, but you don't manage a bank. There are other reasons, confirmed by Caro himself, which are money-related but not directly related to the game. They are not related to the strategy of playing individual hands, but they belong to what Dan Harrington describes it as a "metagame". This is Elements of pokerthat characterise the game itself over a long period of time and too many players.

Aggression in Meta is very much linked to the hormone testosterone and its effect on our psyche and self-confidence. Experience also plays an important role here. Let me briefly talk about this from a medical perspective.

Testosterone is an anabolic steroid that, like other steroids, comes from cholesterol (you probably thought this substance did nothing but clog your arteries). Basically, this steroid is produced in the male sex organs and in very small quantities in the female sex.

It has a profound effect on internal body processes such as muscle growth, body building, sexual arousal and bone stability. In addition influences psychological processes, vigilance and of course aggression.

Relationship between testosterone levels and poker

Theory has long suggested that the direct link between testosterone levels and poker is aggression. However, I am not aware of a single scientific study that confirms this. If there is such a link, it is relatively complex, because we know that hormone levels depend on many factors. Let us look at one scientific study that is very useful for poker players.

The researchers selected a young female monkey that was relatively far removed from the tribal hierarchy and had low testosterone level. Let's call her Max. Poor Max was constantly harassed by other aggressive monkeys.

Then came education, and with it salvation. Scientists caught a monkey that was higher in the hierarchy than Max and calmed it down a little with medical drugs. Max then won his first battle and took his opponent's place in the hierarchy pyramid.

This was just the beginning of the experiment. After a series of such battles, the charges moved up the hierarchy. Max got better and better. As he moved up the hierarchy, Max's testosterone levels also increased. He gained weight, became stronger, more independent and acted with confidence. The monkeys that used to frighten him were now protecting themselves.

So the message is quite clear. Testosterone is not a biological constant. Its levels change with experience and can be manipulated.

Back to poker. Everyone knows that the better player wins more, just as it is true that you play better when you win. Win a couple of pots at a time and the hormone levels are already rising. We increase our chip stack and our confidence grows. We knock a couple of opponents off the table and we start to play more aggressively. We feel strong and confident - it's a crucial factor, and our opponents can feel it.

Self-confidence is a prerequisite for aggression, which immediately gives you the chance to win, but above all changes the balance of power in the Meta-game, as the example of Max shows. We feel confident, self-assured and positive.

There is another side to high testosterone levels. Too high testosterone levels can lead to excessive aggression. This is not too bad, as Mike Caro said: "too much aggression is rarely a mistake". The more aggressive the game, the bigger the swings and the more dramatic Variation. This becomes a problem only when unable to cope psychologically.