Poker Shrink

The Poker Shrink column by Tim Lavalli

• Poker Shrink Vol. 70: Interaction Effect

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  All fold to the small blind, who completes. The big blind raises, the small blind folds. Then two rounds...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 69: Recency and Primacy Effects

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  Both the Recency Effect and the Primacy Effect have fairly simple explanations but some not-so-simple applications....

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 68: Opponent Process Theory

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  OK, this one can get a bit tricky but opponent process theory has some strong applications to poker...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 67: The Hawthorne Effect

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  The Hawthorne Effect describes an actual mistake discovered by some researchers. The original study was attempting to discover...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 66: Illusory Correlation

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  A leads to B, and B leads to C, so A leads to C. We all have some sense of what is logical...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 65: Habituation

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  Human beings get used to things. New sights and sounds eventually become familiar. Even something that is initially very exciting can become routine. Habituation is this tendency we all have towards a decreased response to certain stimuli. A lot of...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 64: Eustress

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  One of my favorite concepts in all of psychology is eustress. When we think of stress, we usually...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 63: Confirmation Bias

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  Does this sound familiar? You have been working on your skills at reading players and you have improved...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 62: Agreeableness

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  There is good advice and there is bad advice. There is warm and fuzzy advice: “Be kind, be happy."...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 61: Conscientiousness

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  The personality trait that covers organization, discipline, deliberation, and carefulness is called conscientiousness. Often the simple comparison...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 60: Neuroticism

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  The most studied personality trait in psychology is neuroticism. Put every simply, if an individual scores very high...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 59: Extroversion

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  We have all heard of personality traits, which we usually think of in terms such as dominant or shy, weak or bitter, happy or joyless. But personality trait theory is a bit more complex...

   

• Poker Shrink Vol. 58: Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

  Dr. Tim Lavalli

  The foot-in-the-door phenomenon comes from the foot-in-the-door technique, which vaguely alludes to a salesman who literally puts his foot in the door so you can’t slam it in his face....